Learn Something New!

2012-01-23T22:15:00.001-06:00

Change the Default Font in Word 2010 by Creating a Word Template

The default format for Word 2010 is 11 point Calibri font, line spacing of 1.15 and paragraph spacing of 10 points after. For years, the standard document format was Times New Roman font size 12 with single line spacing and no paragraph spacing. I really like the new format but many times students in Word classes want their newly created documents to look the same as their historical documents. The default formatting instructions live in Word's default template called Normal.dotx. If you want to use a more standard format occasionally, you can create a template with different formatting instructions to use for those documents. That way you can determine which formatting instructions will be a document's default based on whichever template you use.

To understand how the default font affects a document, one must know a little bit about Word Styles. When a new document is created and text is added to the page, the default style being used is called Normal. If you change the way the text looks by highlighting the text and changing font size or color or font face, that text is still Normal style, even though it looks different. On the far right end of the Home tab in Word 2010, there is a gallery of text styles.

The only way text stops being Normal in a document is when you change the way the text looks by using a Style from the Styles gallery. If you want the default text in a template to be a font different than the new Calibri default, then you have to redefine the Normal style.

Below are steps for creating a template in which you have customized the default font face and paragraph line spacing.

Create a new blank document
On the Home tab, right-click the Normal style on the Styles gallery and choose Modify. The resulting dialog box displays below.

Change the font from Calibri to your font choice
In the lower left corner, click "Format" and choose Paragraph
1. Change line spacing from 1.15 to 1.0
2. Change paragraph spacing from 10pt after to 0 after
Click OK to close the Modify Style dialog
That creates style instructions that affect that entire document
Click File Button and choose Save As/ Template. It creates a file with a .dotx extension
1. Give the template a descriptive name
2. On the left of the Save dialog box, click Trusted Templates
  1. That way the document lives in the Templates folder
When you want to use the template, click File/New/My Templates
Choose the template you made. Word 2010 creates a copy of the template. You are not editing the original since you placed it in that Templates folder. Instead, you have created a document which uses your chosen default font and customized line and paragraph spacing.

2012-01-16T15:23:00.002-06:00

LRS Education is pleased to announce the 1st Quarter January-March 31, 2012 public schedule is now available on our website!

We have some great new classes added to our portfolio:

MS50400 Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2008

MS629293 Installing, Configuring and Supporting Windows 7 in the Enterprise

Authorized Cisco High Definition Instructor Led Training Courses

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding these classes, or any of our other courses, such as, our LRS Education Featured Courses on our site.

Thanks!

Karen

MS50028E: Installing and Configuring System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

2012-01-13T15:46:00.004-06:00

I am THRILLED to announce that the LRS authored MS50028E: Installing and Configuring System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 has been approved to be published to Microsoft Learning Courseware Library!

This course is the recommended classroom Microsoft Official Class for Exam 70-400: TS: Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Configuring.

The MS50028E: Installing and Configuring System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 course has been updated to include SQL 2008 and Windows Server 2008!

While this has been a longer process than we expected, here are some of the comments from the courseware test report provided to LRS Education Services prior to publishing:

This course is a content rich, well structured, hands-on course tailored to network engineers with Active Directory and Network Services expertise that are interested in Operations Management infrastructure.

This course demonstrates the Installation and Configuration of the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 tool suite.

The instructional approach enables students to build and leverage a controlled environment for a rich learning experience.

The hands-on lab exercises provided sufficient practice for the seasoned network engineer who understands Active Directory and Network Services concepts and practices.

The next course scheduled at the LRS Education Services Springfield Education Facility will be using this new revision. Join us March 5 - 9, 2012 to find out how to utilize Operations Manager 2007 R2 to benefit your enterprise!

Call or email me with any questions you may have regarding this updated offering or if you would like to know more about the author!

Margaret

margaret.teague@lrs.com

2011-12-21T10:24:00.003-06:00

NEW Microsoft SQL 2008 Class Offering at LRS!

Are you an experienced IT professional who designs and maintains SQL Server databases? If so, the following course is designed to help you gain more knowledge and skills to effectively design, optimize, and maintain a database administrative solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

MS50400: Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Following are the skills that you will learn in the class:

* Implement an administrative solution for SQL Server 2008.
* Deploy SQL Server 2008.
* Design the physical structure for SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for maintaining SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for managing SQL Server 2008.
* Automate the database managing strategy for SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for securing databases in SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for monitoring SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for content distribution in SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for replication in SQL Server 2008.
* Design a high availability solution for SQL Server 2008.
* Design a strategy for backup and recovery in SQL Server 2008.

Due to the technical level of this course, we recommend that you have the following experience prior to attending this class:

* Administering databases
* Designing logical database schema solutions
* Defining high-availability solutions
*Automating administrative tasks
* Defining security solutions
*Monitoring and troubleshooting the database server
* Designing and executing deployments
*Defining the infrastructure (storage, hardware, and number of servers or instances, etc.)

Attend the MS50400:Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 at the LRS Bloomington Education Facility January 9-13, 2012!

The course is Microsoft SATV, LRS Diamond Day Eligible, and can be available using our LRS Virtual Training Platform.

View a Demo of our Virtual Training Method here!

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!
Karen

THE ADVANTAGES OF ONSITE TECHNICAL TRAINING

2011-12-12T11:36:00.002-06:00

While most of our clients find our public schedule, including utilizing the LRS virtual training platform, flexible enough for their technical training initiatives, there are many who take advantage of courses held at their facilities.

Offered at your location and at your convenience, LRS Education Services will bring any of our courses to your team for customized onsite technical training, or we can work with you to develop a program to address the issues most critical to your company.

· As few as 6, or as many as 16, of your employees can participate in a customized onsite technical training course simultaneously.

· For a single fee, that is probably much less than you imagine, we provide you with one-to-one access to a teaching team of top professionals in the technology field you require. Our expert onsite technical training team is at your disposal for the duration of the course.

· Savings on costly hotel and travel expenses for employees; the only expense is the instructor fee and the courseware for each student.

· There is opportunity to tailor the standard program to your company’s specific problems and interests. Or, utilizing the experience of our technical staff, a new onsite technical training course may be developed to satisfy your specific needs.

· The uniquely hands on structure of LRS Education Service’s training courses ensures that participants have ample opportunity to discuss problems in an informal atmosphere and get the answers and solutions they are seeking.

· LRS Mobile classroom is available if you do not have a computer lab within your environment.

LRS Education Services offers 300+ individual courses in various technical specialties such as Adobe, ASP.NET Development, BizTalk Server, Business Intelligence with MS SQL, Business Skills, C#.NET, Cisco Authorized Training, CompTIA Certification, Crystal Reports, Desktop Publishing, DreamWeaver, Flash, Fireworks, Exchange Server, Internet Development, ITIL, Java/WebSphere, Linux, Novell, Microsoft Office, Project Courses, Security Courses, SharePoint, SQL, System Center, VB.NET, Visual Studio, VMWare, Windows Server, and Windows 7, . Onsite training courses may be adapted from existing courses. Or, if you do not see a course that fits your requirements, we may be able to develop a new onsite technical training course specifically tailored to address the issues most crucial to your company.

If you are looking for real value in training, consider LRS Education Services Onsite Technical Training Program. Train more people while saving on travel expenses and time away from the office. You will realize the value of our training courses immediately, and the payoff will extend over time.

For more information on LRS Education Services Onsite Program, please contact Gina Canfield at gina.canfield@lrs.com or 309-664-7670 x6302.

LRS Custom Course MS629293 Installing, Configuring and Supporting Windows 7 in the Enterprise

2011-11-29T14:33:00.003-06:00

Are you a short on time but still want to learn all there is to know about how to support the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system within your environment?

LRS Education Services now offers an accelerated class which combines the six-days of Microsoft Official courses MS6292: Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client and MS6293: Troubleshooting and Supporting Windows 7 in the Enterprise into one five-day offering. Less time out of the office with one 5-day class!

This LRS custom course, MS629293 Installing, Configuring and Supporting Windows 7 in the Enterprise, is intended for IT professionals who are interested in expanding their knowledge base and technical skills about Windows 7 Client and enable these individuals to support the Windows 7 operating system and solve technical troubleshooting problems in a Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 networking environment. Students learn how to install, upgrade, and migrate to Windows 7 client. Students then configure Windows 7 client for network connectivity, security, maintenance, and mobile computing.

Come visit LRS January 30 - February 3, 2012 at the Springfield Education Center or March 19 – 23, 2012 at the Bloomington Education Center to attend this accelerated course!

The course is Microsoft SATV, LRS Diamond Day Eligible, and is available using our LRS Virtual Training Platform.

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!
Karen

LRS Education Services to offer Advanced Cisco Certification Courses

2011-11-28T15:28:00.000-06:00

SPRINGFIELD, IL—LRS Education Services is excited to announce its new partnership with Sunset Learning Institute to offer Authorized Cisco Training utilizing High Definition Instructor Led Training (HD-ILT™) at its Bloomington, Illinois Training Facility, the only facility in Illinois south of Chicago.

LRS is now able to offer full Authorized Cisco Certification programs with addition of this new technology.

HD-ILT, from Sunset Learning, is the world's first distance training system utilizing state-of-the-art, life-size, high definition video and audio combined with patented remote labs. This unique combination provides students with live, interactive training and the same experience as if they were actually in the classroom with the instructor no matter where they are located.

“This is an exciting addition to our IT educational offerings at LRS,” states Margaret Teague, Manager of LRS Education Services. “Now our customers have access to the full complement of Authorized Cisco training and certifications through us. We remain focused on being a leader in providing the best training and delivery methods available in the industry through partnerships such as this one with Sunset Learning Institute.”

Sunset Learning Institute (SLI) has been delivering and developing Authorized Cisco Training since 1996. SLI is a Cisco Learning Partner Specialized, which is the highest level of training partner that Cisco authorizes to provide and deliver Authorized Cisco Training Courses. As a Learning Partner Specialized, Sunset Learning Institute works closely with Cisco Partner Development and Education teams, and has access to Cisco intellectual property allowing us to be especially qualified to create, customize, and deliver custom training.

Cisco training is a core focus, and LRS Education Services’ partnership with Sunset Learning will help organizations understand and leverage their IT infrastructure for maximum return on investment by providing first-rate advanced network training. SLI training allows your employees to meet their professional and Cisco career certification goals by offering all of the recommended Cisco certified courses, and tailoring certification tracks to their specifications.

About LRS Education Services
LRS Education Services is the premier provider of Information Technology Education Solutions in Central Illinois. Established in 1994, LRS Education Services maintains training centers in Springfield and Bloomington Illinois. LRS Education Services is dedicated to providing customized information technology solutions that offer clients the means to make the most of their computing environment. LRS Education Services is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions, offers CompTIA and Cisco Certification training, and is a certified EC-Council Training Partner.

Creating an Analysis Services Project

2011-11-14T13:59:00.000-06:00

This video demonstrates how to create an Analysis Services project, define a data source, and define a data source view. You will also learn how to change the value of the FriendlyName property for objects in the data source view to increase the user-friendliness of their names.

To learn more great tips and tricks like this one, join LRS Education Services for MS6234 - Implement and Maintain SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services on December 19th – 21st, 2011 at our Springfield facility or attend using our virtual instructor-led delivery method.

Active Directory Domain Services in Server 2008

2011-11-03T15:58:00.003-05:00

Are you interested in learning about Active Directory Domain Services in Server 2008?

According to one of our Microsoft Certified Trainers your should be looking at the MS6425: Configuring & Troubleshooting Server 2008 AD Domain Services course.

According to Michelle Ingram:

"Excellent course for in-depth AD DS information. The course contains a lot of hands on exercises including: Installing AD in a new forest, Installing AD in a new domain in an existing forest, Installing AD in an existing domain, properly decommissioning a domain controller, troubleshooting replication, scheduling replication, planning\installing\configuring Sites, Understand\Install\Configure\Troubleshoot Group Policies in AD.

This class goes through normally troubleshooting skills necessary to maintain AD and it also covers recovering AD in situations that all Network Administrators fear."

The MS6425: Configuring & Troubleshooting Server 2008 AD Domain Services course is scheduled at our Springfield Education Facility November 14 - 18, 2011. This course is also available utilizing LRS Virtual Training.

Let me know if you would like more information about this class!

Margaret

2011-10-24T16:54:00.000-05:00

Hackers are here. Where are you?

Are you interested in learning how to best protect your network from the many hackers out there?

The EC-Council Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures v7.1 training course will show you how to scan, test, hack and secure your own systems.

*Come learn how intruders escalate privileges and what steps can be taken to secure a system.
*Learn about Intrusion Detection, Policy Creation, Social Engineering, DDoS Attacks, Buffer Overflows and Virus Creation.

This course also prepares you for EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker exam 312-50.

To learn more about EC-Council Ethical Hacking, attend the EC-Council Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures v7.1 course scheduled at the LRS Education Facility November 28-December 2, 2011!

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!
Karen

Rich Internet Application Delivery

2011-10-18T09:34:00.001-05:00

Would you like to create and deliver rich Internet applications and media experiences on the Web? How great would it be to have a full suite of powerful features, bringing innovative platform capabilities to browser-based experiences?

Our students have found the answer! Silverlight 4 not only provides all of these conveniences, but provides an ideal platform for developing and deploying modern business applications for both internal and end-user applications on both sides of the firewall.

What does Silverlight 4 do for application developers?

· Comprehensive printing support now enables the creation of a virtual print view, enabling applications to deliver print-friendly documents.
· A full set of controls with more than 60 customizable, skinnable components makes it easy to build forms that can be sorted, resized and validated. New controls include RichTextArea with hyperlinks, images and editing.
· Localization enhancements with bidirectional text, right-to-left support and complex scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew and Thai and 30 new languages.
· The Microsoft .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR) now enables the same compiled code to be run both on the server and the client, reducing development time and testing resources.
· Enhanced databinding support reduces the amount of code needed to work with customized data for display.
· Managed Extensibility Framework supports building completely modular applications, allowing for fast startup and download, efficient development and testing, as well as agile customization and servicing.
· Windows Communication Foundation RIA Services introduces enterprise class networking and data access, allowing applications to work with any source of data and any server.
· Extensive tooling support for Silverlight, new in Visual Studio 2010:
· Fully editable design surface for drawing out controls and layouts
· Rich property grid and new editors for values
· Drag and drop support for databinding and automatically creating bound controls such as listbox and datagrid
· New datasources window and picker
· Easy-to-pick styles and resources to make a good-looking application based on designer resources built in Expression Blend
· Built-in project support for Silverlight applications
· Editor with full IntelliSense for XAML and C# and Visual Basic languages

How does Silverlight 4 empower richer experiences?

· Enhanced animation capabilities allow for more dynamic, interactive presentation of data in lists.
· Webcam and microphone support allow sharing of video and audio in applications such as chat and customer service.
· Audio and video local recording capabilities capture RAW video without requiring server interaction, allowing new scenarios such as capturing voice or video to send in e-mail, or allowing the recording to be edited locally before saving.
· Copy/paste and drag-and-drop make it easy to bring photos, text and other data into your application.
· New features such as right-click and mouse wheel scrolling enable developers to add conventional desktop interaction models.
· Silverlight 4 runs across all platforms and major browsers.
· Silverlight 4 applications start quicker and run 200 percent faster than the equivalent Silverlight 3 applications with performance optimizations.
· Multitouch support enables a range of gestures and touch interactions to be integrated into user experiences.
· Multicast networking enables enterprises to lower the cost of streaming broadcast events such as company meetings and training, with seamless interoperability with existing Windows Media Services streaming infrastructure.
· Content protection now available for H.264 media through Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady.
· Output protection for audio/video streams allowing content owners or distributors to ensure protected content is only viewed through a secure video connection.
· Official support of the Google Chrome browser
· Hardware acceleration for Deep Zoom
· XAP signing and verification to ensure application integrity

Would you like to join those developers who have already started creating and delivering rich Internet applications and media experiences on the Web? Join LRS Education Services for MS10554: Developing Rich Internet Applications using Silverlight 4 on October 31st, 2011 at our Bloomington, IL facility or attend virtually from anywhere!

SharePoint 2010 Health Analyzer

2011-10-18T08:49:00.013-05:00

The SharePoint Health Analyzer monitors farm health and can automatically fix many common configuration and performance problems. View the following video regarding SharePoint Health Analyzer to find out how you can quickly find and fix potential problems across all of the servers in your farm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PsUySIMlno

To learn more about configuring and managing SharePoint 2010 in your business environment, attend the MS10174: Configuring and Managing SharePoint 2010 course scheduled at the LRS Education Facility! This class is also available using LRS Virtual Training.

Cheers,

Margaret

Fundamentals of XAML and Expression Blend

2011-10-11T13:07:00.002-05:00

Are you an experienced developer who wants to learn the foundational skills required to develop professional Silverlight 4 and WPF applications for the Web, Windows desktops, and Windows Phone 7 devices?

The MS10553 - Fundamentals of XAML and Expression Blend course scheduled at LRS Education Services includes hands-on labs that comprise approximately 50% of the classroom time and enable the student to learn the essential XAML programming tasks that are the building blocks of real-world applications.

LRS Education Services will be offering the MS10533: Fundamentals of XAML and Expression Blend course at our Bloomington Education Facility October 19 - 21, 2011.

The course is Microsoft SATV, LRS Diamond Day Eligible, and is available using our LRS Virtual Training Platform.

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!

Margaret

Take the Microsoft Virtualization Challenge!

2011-10-04T15:41:00.003-05:00

Take the Microsoft Virtualization Challenge with LRS Education Services!

The Virtualization Challenge means that for a limited time, you can take Exam 70-659: MCTS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization, at no cost, from LRS Education Services.

If you pass, you’ve earned your Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification.

If you don’t pass, you may enroll in MS10215: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization class offered by LRS Education Services to acquire additional virtualization skills.

Then retake the exam, free of charge. What do you have to lose? Email us at getsmart@lrs.com and ask to take the Virtualization Challenge!

For more information, visit the LRS Education Services website!

Microsoft Server Virtualization Jump Start!

2011-09-26T13:03:00.003-05:00

In the past 3 years, Hyper-V share has grown over 16% according to IDC WW Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker, March 2011. We’re also seeing upward trending for Hyper-V certification, particularly in the past 6 months as more and more IT Professionals move towards a private cloud solution. It’s easy to see that those IT Professionals who invest in gaining and validating their Private Cloud skills will be a step ahead of their peers in this ever-changing Cloud world.

Sign up today for online class 70-659: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization Jump Start, which will be held on October 6, 2011 from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time.

This accelerated Jump Start training provides fast-paced coverage of the skills domain, including live demos that help you augment the skills and confidence to become a MCTS: Windows Server 2008, R2, Server Virtualization. Taught by highly respected technologists, Symon Perriman and Philip Helsel, the training is designed for experienced IT professionals who already work with Microsoft Hyper-V Server, Virtual Machine Manager, and Remote Desktop Role Services. You’ll also receive the opportunity to register for a weekly Virtualization coaching newsletter and exam voucher activation instructions during the training.

Cost for the online training is $99 and includes the online class and an exam voucher for exam 70-659.

Click on the following link from Microsoft Learning for more information:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/virtualization-campaign.aspx?WT.mc_id=Virt_MSL_HP2_091311

Margaret

Visual Studio 2010- Developing Web Applications

2011-09-26T11:44:00.002-05:00

Interested in developing Web applications within Visual Studio 2010?

Are you an advanced developer looking to get beyond the basics? If so, then the MS10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010 class may be for you. The MS10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010 class is designed for developers who are responsible for creating advanced ASP.NET MVC and Web Forms applications using .NET Framework 4 tools and technologies. Come learn the comparison between ASP.NET MVC and web forms and when each should/could be used. This course also provides additional support for the Web Developer Technology Specialist certification exam 70-515.

LRS Education Services will be offering the MS10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010 class
December 19-22, 2011 at our Bloomington Education Facility. Join others who are advancing their skills in this class!

The course is Microsoft SATV, LRS Diamond Day Eligible, and is available using our LRS Virtual Training Platform.

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!
Karen

Microsoft Virtualization...the new black!

2011-09-22T14:09:00.004-05:00

Are you responsible for virtualizing your current servers using Microsoft technologies? Have you been requested, or have been directed by your management, to research and/or implement server virtualization in your existing environment?

If so, you need to read what the product planner for the MS10215: Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization course has to say!

http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/spotlight/b/weblog/archive/2011/03/07/10215a-a-great-lab-experience.aspx

I love that the focus was to "provide an excellent and real world lab experience" for the student!

Cheers!
Margaret

Implement a High Availability Solution using Windows Server 2008 Clustering

2011-09-20T11:13:00.001-05:00

Do you put a lot of value on mission-critical servers and rely on them heavily to run your business? Server downtime can be costly! A down Exchange or SQL Server can easily cost thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars in lost productivity.

Achieving the degree of reliability and availability demanded by mission-critical business requirements is expensive to create and support. We have found that the challenge for our clients is to learn what level of IT service availability is justified by their own price of downtime.

“High availability” refers to the characteristics and redundancies of IT infrastructures that make them available to users even in the event of a disruption. Many of our clients choose clustering to achieve high availability.

Simply defined, a cluster is a group of computers working together to run a common set of applications and to present a single logical system to the client and application. The computers in the cluster are physically connected by local-area network (LAN) or wide-area network (WAN) and programmatically connected by cluster software. These connections allow workloads to fail over to another computer in the cluster in the case of network failure of scheduled maintenance, for example. This is an option not available to stand-alone computers.

Join LRS Education Services for “Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Clustering” October 11 – 13, 2011 at our Springfield facility, or attend VILT, to learn more about setting up a clustering environment within your organization to avoid downtime!

Update your existing Exchange skills to 2010!

2011-09-13T14:09:00.002-05:00

Are you an experienced Exchange Server Administrator looking for an accelerated path to update your skills to Exchange Server 2010? If so, the MS10165: Update Your Skills from Exchange Server 2003/2007 to 2010 course is designed for you! This course also provides additional support for the two Exchange Server 2010 exams: Exam 70-662: TS: Exchange Server 2010, Configuring, Exam 70-663: PRO: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

This class is currently scheduled at our Bloomington Education Facility September 26 - 30, 2011 AND is available using our virtual training platform.

Let me know if you would like additional information regarding this class, or if you would like to enroll!

Margaret

2011-09-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Would your business decisions be more accurate if you had access to collaborative reporting?

At LRS Education Services, we accelerate report creation and ease collaboration and management with Reporting Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, the complete platform that helps deliver information enterprise-wide.

Key Capabilities

· Accelerate insight with intuitive and flexible authoring capabilities.
· Access and combine data from virtually any data source.
· Securely view and share reports directly from the web.
· Streamline collaboration and management by using integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server.
· Scale as needed.

To learn more about providing information enterprise-wide using collaborative reporting, join us for MS6236 - Implement and Maintain MS SQL Srv 2008 Reporting Services on Sept 19th – 21st at our Springfield location or VILT .

CY11 4th Quarter Schedule

2011-08-29T10:55:00.003-05:00

I am thrilled to let you know that our 4th quarter public schedule is now available on our website! We have some great new classes added to our portfolio:

MS6433:Planning and Implementing Windows Server 2008
http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-MS6433---Planning-and-Implementing-Windows-Server-2008.aspx

HTML 5
http://http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-INHTML5---HTML-5.aspx

VMware 5
http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-VMWARE5---VMware-vSphere-Configuration-and-Management-5.0.aspx

EC Council Certified Ethical Hacking v7.1
http://http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-ATCEH71---EC-Council-Ethical-Hacking-and-Countermeasures-v7.1.aspx

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding these classes, or any other course on our site.

Thanks!

Margaret

Do you Bing?

2011-08-18T11:29:00.003-05:00

We have been spending time reviewing SEO within LRS Education Services to gain a better understanding of how our clients are looking for training and what training in particular. This has led us to do research on the top 3 search engines (Bing, Google, Yahoo). I found this article interesting, and timely, and hope you do to! Let me know your thoughts!

http://http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197916/20110815/bing-yahoo-more-successful-than-google-search.htm

Margaret

2011-08-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

Interested in developing Windows Applications within Visual Studio 2010?

I have been working with many developers that have basic Windows forms skills but need to know what the strengths of WinForms and WPF programming models are, and when to use each technology.

Are you also an experienced developer who knows the basics of Windows Forms development but are wanting to gain more advanced Windows Client design and development skills? If so, the MS10262 Developing Windows Applications with Visual Studio 2010 course may be of benefit to you as well!

LRS Education Services will be offering the MS10262 Developing Windows Applications with Visual Studio 2010 class September 26th-30th, 2011. Join others who are advancing their skills in this class!

The course is Microsoft SATV and LRS Diamond Day Eligible.

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!

Karen

Microsft Virtual Instructor Led Training

2011-07-31T09:55:00.002-05:00

According to a new whitepaper published by Microsoft, learning environments are changing rapidly. Virtual learning brings tremendous flexibility and cost advantages to professional organizations. Bersin & Associates trends show that VILT will increase to 22% of the market by 2021 up from 13% in 2010. Click on the following link to see how LRS is helping those organizations now!

http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/TrainingMethods/VirtualTraining.aspx

2011 Microsoft World Partner Conference

2011-07-21T13:01:00.001-05:00

Just back from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Los Angeles with 15,000 other partners! WPC is an annual gathering for Microsoft partners to learn about Microsoft’s roadmap for the upcoming year, network and build connections, experience the latest product innovations, and learn new skills and techniques. Ask me why LRS earned a gold star on the WPC 2011 Hollywood Partner Walk of Fame!

Margaret

2011-07-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

ITIL Implementation for the Rest of Us: Using ITIL Best Practices

(http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/tip/ITIL-implementation-for-the-rest-of-us-Using-ITIL-best-practices)

The IT Information Library (ITIL) -- a series of structured IT management guidelines originally produced by the Office of Government Commerce in the U.K. -- is a framework that has gained popularity, especially since the release of ITIL Version 3 in 2007. It found its success by answering management needs to improve IT and service quality.

Even though there is more public documentation and IT personnel are becoming more knowledgeable on the framework, ITIL technology is still misunderstood. ITIL implementation in organizations of all sizes can be quite a challenge.

The following are tips to help you view ITIL technology in a friendlier light:

1. Present ITIL in real-world situations. ITIL is certainly an extended framework that can be overwhelming. Don't worry about integrating ITIL into every aspect of your company -- use it as a tool that will answer specific needs. Not all ITIL processes are beneficial in real-world situations. The general perception of the ITIL framework is something akin to "more documentation, more processes and, therefore, more work." Instead, organize an IT lunch workshop as an ITIL overview, showing how ITIL can be beneficial in day-to-day work using the ITIL V3 Service Transition and ITIL V3 Service Operation books. You can start by demonstrating that integrating ITIL will address sustainment issues: When project staff members leave the organization, the new team members struggle with application support with no documentation and the absence of a support-level agreement. ITIL supports a warranty period for new services or applications and an emphasis on knowledge transfer.

2. Take the ITIL V3 Introduction certification program. More and more companies have registered their service desk and other IT groups for the ITIL V3 Foundation certification training courses. This ITIL training course gives everyone in your organization the chance to share the same knowledge and create a standard glossary when referring to ITIL terms. Be careful of the course type -- the condensed ITIL training course can be challenging due to the significant amount of information covered in a short period of time.

3. ITIL is not just for IT! Let's face it: IT is now everyone’s business. Seek the participation of other departments -- finance, for example -- when you integrate ITIL. Most users will benefit from a solidified incident management process and a very basic ITIL overview.

4. Keep it simple, students. If your company doesn't follow a formal ITIL process, aim for a successful ITIL implementation by keeping it simple and building strong best practices. A good place to start is with your help desk -- your Service Catalogue will consist of every application and service your help desk touches. Then start thinking of ITIL Incident Management in your help desk processes. For example, create an Incident Escalation policy matrix by prioritizing types of incidents, and then use that matrix to assign a service-level agreement or an organizational-level agreement to each priority. This will improve your incident response and will manage customer expectations. A significant win in the implementation of ITIL best practices in my company has been in the area of change management: All changes to production are traceable, making sure they are communicated to customers beforehand and ensuring that changes are reduced during peak business periods. The result is that we now know exactly what is happening in our infrastructure. This also allows us to limit conflict: For example, when the server team deploys Windows patches, we are able to ensure that the network team is not rebooting core network devices at the same time.

There are several ways to promote ITIL in your organization without getting completely overwhelmed and lost. It is crucial that you allow plenty of time since this isn't a small project that can be done on the side of a coffee table. The key to ITIL best practices and success is to make sure that you understand where you are going.

To learn the foundations of ITIL v3, visit us for ITILv3 Foundation on August 8th – 10th at our Bloomington Education Facility. Our session includes the ITIL v3 Foundation class in addition to exam preparation. This class is a perfect introduction to the ITIL concepts and practices for all employees of an organization implementing ITIL v3.

2011-06-29T08:32:00.002-05:00

CISSP - Why Certify?

(https://www.isc2.org/cissp/default.aspx)

People are the key to a secure organization. Technological solutions alone cannot protect an organization's critical information assets. Employers demanding qualified information security staff give their organizations a leading edge by providing the highest standard of security for their customers', employees', stakeholders' and organizational information assets. (ISC)², the only not-for-profit body charged with maintaining, administering and certifying information security professionals via the compendium of industry best practices, the (ISC)² CBK®, is the premier resource for information security professionals worldwide.

Benefits of Certification to the Professional:

-Demonstrates a working knowledge of information security
-Confirms commitment to profession
-Offers a career differentiator, with enhanced credibility and marketability
-Provides access to valuable resources, such as peer networking and idea exchange

Benefits of Certification to the Enterprise:

-Establishes a standard of best practices
-Offers a solutions-orientation, not specialization, based on the broader understanding of the (ISC)² CBK
-Allows access to a network of global industry and subject matter/domain experts
-Makes broad-based security information resources readily available
-Adds to credibility with the rigor and regimen of the certification examinations
-Provides a business and technology orientation to risk management

Join LRS Education Services on July 18th – 22nd at our Bloomington facility for CISSP training!

Fully revised for the latest exam release, our CISSP course offers thorough coverage of all the material on the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam. Written by a renowned security expert and CISSP, this course features complete details on all 10 exam domains developed by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2). This CISSP course will provide you with exam tips, practice questions, and in-depth explanations that will not only help you pass the test, but also be your essential on-the-job reference.

2011-06-20T10:38:00.003-05:00

Microsoft Training…Take a class and keep the Kindle!!!

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/offers/kindle.aspx

When you purchase a select Microsoft Official Course and certification exam from LRS Education Services, as part of your training kit, you will receive the new generation Kindle Wi-Fi, preinstalled with digital course content and the certification exam voucher*.

Take your learning content with you on a new Kindle, an ideal delivery tool for digital content. When you attend classroom training on the courses listed below, you will receive your Kindle pre-installed with the digital version of Microsoft Official Courseware plus a certification voucher to drive immediate exam delivery.

The following courses will help you prepare to earn your next certification. With digital Microsoft Official Courses, you have the flexibility to consume course materials wherever you are. And by earning a Microsoft Certification, you gain relevant skills that employers respect and you get the opportunity to connect with a global community of other certified professionals.

*This offer is available for participating companies on the Microsoft courses listed below beginning in July, 2011.

Applicable courses:

MS6294 Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments – July 11 – 15, 2011

MS6416 Updating Your Network Infrastructure and Active Directory Technology Skills to Windows Server 2008 July 18 – 22, 2011

MS10135 Configuring, Managing, and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 July 18 – 22, 2011

MS10174 Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010 August 22 – 26, 2011

Don’t miss out on the latest Microsoft Promotion - This offer is good while supplies last!

Visit us at our website: http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

The 6 Hottest New IT Jobs!

2011-06-16T10:52:00.001-05:00

IT job seekers have real reason to hope. No fewer than 10,000 IT jobs were added to payrolls in May alone, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, reflecting a steady month-over-month increase since January. And in a June survey by the IT jobs site Dice.com, 65 percent of hiring managers and recruiters said they will hire more tech professionals in the second half of 2011 than in the previous six months.

But which jobs have the greatest growth potential -- click on the link below to view the six hottest new jobs in IT according to InfoWorld!

http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=577167965&ids=0SdP0QejwVdPkIcj8MczkNc3wRb3kSejsScjsTdiMUc34NejAVdPkIe3cQe34QejsR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod-b-ttle-96

Why You Need to Plan Your IPv6 Implementation Now!

2011-06-14T16:01:00.000-05:00

4,294,967,296. Just thought I’d start this post with a fairly big number. That number is more elegantly written 2³². The more geeky among you also know that 2³²represents the total number of addresses in the IPv4 address space. When the ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet) configuration was worked out in the 1970s it was an experiment, and for the purposes of experimentation 4.3 billion addresses seemed like more than enough. According to Vint Cerf, the ‘Father’ of the Internet the difficulty resulted from the fact that ‘the experiment never ended’.

Now we find ourselves in 2011 and the last of the IPv4 addresses were distributed to the regional registries by the IANA back in February. At that point predictions allowed for less than a year until the supply to the carriers ran out. Then anyone needing IP connectivity to the Internet will be employing translation technologies from IPv4 to IPv6 or switching to IPv6.

Why does this matter to you? Well, first of all, if you are a consumer with no responsibility for managing a network of computers connected to the Internet then you can most likely relax and ignore it. Oh, by ‘network of computers’ I don’t mean your home network that runs through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as your cable company or DSL provider. In that case the IPv4 depletion is their issue, not yours. J

Next, if you do run a network of computers connected to the Internet but you already have all of the Internet IP addresses you will EVER need, then you can also ignore the issue, albeit only temporarily.

For the rest of us we have a looming situation. I’m not defining it as a problem because it’s not. In the great scheme of technology this necessary step has the potential to make the communications and connectivity faster and more secure. So, what do you need to do?

1) Learn about IPv6. Online resources abound. In addition LRS Education Services offers courses (MS6416, MS6421) covering this crucial topic.

2) Get your budgets ready. Although Microsoft has built IPv6 capability into Windows the transition is not a ‘software only’ change. It’s likely you will be replacing some physical pieces of your network infrastructure.

3) Put together a team and make transition plans. Once your people are educated and the hardware issues are worked out then set a date to start supporting IPv6. Keep in mind there will be a period of time (years) when both IPv4 and IPv6 will be running on the Internet.

4) Do it! All the plans in the world are useless without action.

A couple of final notes. The move to IPv6 is not destructive, it is constructive. We are building on the success of the Internet and allowing for growth. In case you are wondering the IPv6 address space is 2¹²⁸. In raw numbers 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. That should hold us for a while. Finally don’t panic. This transition can be smoother than you might think.

Windows 8!

2011-06-08T13:25:00.002-05:00

Check out the sneak peek of the next version of Windows - code named Windows 8 - from a news conference at Computex in Taipai!

http://advice.cio.com/shane_oneill/16208/windows_8_revealed_new_features_of_microsofts_next_os?source=cwartcio

2011 Spring EduCATE

2011-05-16T14:29:00.001-05:00

Troy Stoneking from LRS Education Services will be presenting on Windows 7 at the 2011 Spring EduCATE in Bloomington, Illinois on Thursday, May 19, 2011.

If you are in the area check out this event. It promises direct learning and tactics in technology, human resources and customer service that can be used every day for personal and professional growth!

http://www.mcleancochamber.org/online-registration/2011-spring-educate/79/

Central Illinois Technology Conference

2011-05-10T14:32:00.002-05:00

LRS Education Services will be at the Central Illinois Technology Conference, hosted by the Capitol Chapter of AITP, on May 12-13, 2011 at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel & Conference Center in Springfield, IL. This event promises to be one tremendous educational opportunity for IT professionals from all disciplines!

Margaret Teague will be speaking on the Evolution of Virtual Training and how you can benefit from this platform today!

Find out more about the event: http://www.aitpcapitol.org/

We look forward to seeing you there!

2011-05-09T16:39:00.002-05:00

Troubleshoot and Support Windows 7 in the Enterprise

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Course.aspx?ID=6293A&Locale=en-us

You have Installed and Configured Windows 7, as well as, Planned and Managed Windows 7 Desktop Deployments & Environments. Now it is time to learn how to Troubleshoot and Support Windows 7 in the Enterprise!

Join us at LRS Education Services for the new Microsoft hands on class MS 6293 Troubleshoot and Support Windows 7 in the Enterprise

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the processes of establishing and using a troubleshooting methodology, and define the EDST job role and responsibilities.
• Troubleshoot startup issues on a Windows 7 computer.
• Troubleshoot client-configuration failures and Group Policy object (GPO) application issues.
• Troubleshoot hardware device, device driver, and performance issues.
• Troubleshoot network connectivity issues.
• Troubleshoot remote connectivity issues.
• Troubleshoot logon and resource access issues.
• Troubleshoot security system issues, such as Encrypting File Systems (EFS) BitLocker Drive Encryption, and file permissions.
• Troubleshoot operating system and applications issues.

The class is scheduled June 20 – 22, 2011 at the Springfield LRS Education Center.

Reserve your seat today!

Karen Gill LRS Education Services – Education Consultant
Don't forget to visit us at our website: www.LRS.Com/Education

2011-05-02T13:45:00.006-05:00

“A” List of PowerShell Commands

Get-Acl		Get permissions settings for a file or registry key
Set-Acl		Set permissions
Active Directory		Account, Computer, Group and User cmdlets
Get-Alias gal	gal	Return alias names for Cmdlets
Import-Alias ipal	ipal	Import-Alias ipal Import an alias list from a file
New-Alias nal	nal	Create a new alias
Set-Alias sal	sal	Create or change an alias
Get-AuthenticodeSignature		Get the signature object associated with a file
Set-AuthenticodeSignature		Place a signature in a .ps1 script or other file

To learn PowerShell 2.0 and “B” – “Z” Commands, join us on May 9th for Automating Administration with Windows PowerShell 2.0.

Get-Acl

Get permission settings for a file or registry key2

Microsoft Certification Exams

2011-04-25T09:27:00.002-05:00

Effective July 1, 2011, the retail price of certain Microsoft Certification exams will increase*. The price increase was announced on April 22, 2011. This change reflects the significant value that Microsoft certifications provide to our customers and our continual investment in new and enhanced Microsoft Certifications and other program improvements.

• For more information about this increase, visit the FAQ page: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-pricing-FAQ.aspx

Microsoft Learning does not anticipate that this price change will impact Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA), and Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification exams.

All prepaid vouchers issued prior to July 1, 2011 to take a Microsoft Certification exam will remain valid until their date of expiration.

Please let us know if we can assist you with your certification registrations through our Prometric Testing Center: 877.832-0688 Ext. 1493.

Thanks!

Margaret

Project 2010

2011-04-21T15:53:00.005-05:00

Getting to Know Project 2010

What is Project 2010?
Project 2010 builds on the Project 2007 foundation to provide an end-to-end work management platform. The key investment areas are targeted at letting you choose the right tools that can evolve with you:
• Enhance user experience and appeal
o Fluent user interface
o User controlled scheduling
o Powerful new views
o Web-based project editing

• Improve execution with effective collaboration
o Integration with SharePoint Server 2010
o Richer workgroup collaboration
o Enhanced time/status tracking

• Unify project and portfolio management
o Common user experience through full PPM lifecycle
o Improved demand management
o Better reporting and BI

• Simplify deployment and extend interoperability
o Microsoft Exchange integration
o 64-bit compatibility of client and server
o No ActiveX dependency

In this article:
• What’s new
• What’s changed
• What’s removed

What’s new
This section highlights new features in Project 2010.

Fluent UI
The Project 2010 user interface is redesigned and now uses the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface (UI). Introduced in the 2007 Microsoft Office system, the Fluent UI makes it easier for people to find and use the full range of features that Office applications provide, and to preserve an uncluttered workspace. For more information about the Fluent UI, see the resources in Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface Resource Center (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111045).

Backstage view
The Microsoft Office Backstage view is part of the Fluent UI and a companion feature to the ribbon. The Backstage view, which can be accessed from the File tab, helps you find frequently used features for managing your Microsoft Project files. (The File tab replaces the Microsoft Office Button and File menu that were used in earlier releases of Microsoft Office.) The Backstage view is used to manage Microsoft Project Server connections, and to check out and publish projects.

Team Planner
Project 2010 Professional contains the Team Planner, a resource scheduling view that lets users see at a glance what their team members are working on and move tasks from one person to another. Users can also view and assign unassigned work, view over-allocations, and see task names and resource names.

Synchronization with SharePoint lists
In Project 2010 Professional, users can export project files to a list in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. This provides a quick and easy way for a project manager to share status or create reports that can be viewed across the organization. Project Web Access (PWA) is not required to synchronize with a SharePoint list.

For more information, see the following:
• Project 2010: Introducing Sync to SharePoint (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=212030)
• Microsoft Project 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=212031)
• Use Project with SharePoint (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=212033)
• SharePoint Foundation 2010 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=126317)

Manual scheduling
Project 2010 changes how projects are scheduled. Factors such as task dependencies and the project calendar no longer automatically adjust task dates when a task is manually scheduled. This feature can be especially useful for early planning when the duration of a task might not yet be known. Users can place a manually scheduled task anywhere in their schedules, and Project 2010 will not move it. Project managers who are accustomed to automatic scheduling with past versions of Project can turn off the new manual scheduling feature, either for specific tasks or for the whole project. Some projects may require the powerful scheduling engine of Project to handle scheduling.

Placeholder tasks
Placeholder tasks let users create a plan by using task names only. Users can enter any combination of start date, finish date, and duration and fill in the rest later.

Inactive tasks
Users can make tasks inactive and still keep them in their projects. The main value of this feature is that custom field information, resource assignments, and all other data stays in the task. (Note that these factors do not contribute to roll-ups.)Inactive tasks often have important information (such as cost information) that can be valuable for archival purposes and what-if planning.

Top-down summary
Creating subtasks and then rolling them up into summary tasks is no longer restricted. In Project 2010, users can create summary tasks first, and the summary tasks can have dates that do not exactly match the roll-up dates of the subtasks. At the beginning of the planning phase, users might only have some high-level information about key deliverables and major milestones of their projects. In Project 2010, users can divide projects into high-level phases based on the overall timeline and budget. This means that it is not necessary for dates of individual work items to line up exactly with dates of the high-level phases.

Compare projects
The compare projects feature in Project 2010 now includes Gantt bars to help users see more clearly how one version of a project differs from another version.

Timeline
Project 2010 now includes a timeline view. For new files, the timeline view is automatically displayed above most other views. This shows a concise overview of the whole schedule. Otherwise, users can turn on the timeline view manually. Users can add tasks to the timeline, print it, or paste it into an e-mail message for an easy-to-view project summary.

Enhanced copy and paste
This feature lets users copy and paste content between Microsoft Office programs and Project 2010, and keep formatting, outline levels, and column headers.

Excel-like features
Features similar to those in Microsoft Excel are available in Project 2010. These include the following:
• Simplified adding of new columns. When in sheet view, a user can click the Add New Column heading, and then type or select the name of a new or existing column. An existing column can also be quickly renamed by clicking its title and typing a different column name.
• Enhanced filter UI makes it easier for users to find tasks and resources.
• 32-bit color support and text wrapping enable users to create views that resemble Excel reports.

Find frequently used commands quickly
The most frequently used commands can now be found easily. By right-clicking any item in a view, such as bar, table cell, or chart, a mini-toolbar with a quick list of frequently used commands is displayed.

The view slider
In Project 2010, users can quickly zoom in and out of the time phased section of a view by using a slider in the status bar. Move the view slider to the right to zoom in a schedule and move the slider to the left to zoom out. The view slider works in the Gantt chart, network diagram, calendar, and all graph views.

Backwards compatibility
Project 2010 is compatible with previous versions of Microsoft Project.
Users can create files in Office Project 2007 or earlier and then open and edit them in Project 2010, although certain features of Project 2010 are not enabled. If you save the earlier version files in the Project 2010 format, all Project 2010 is available.

In addition, you can create files in Project 2010 and then convert them to the Office Project 2007, Project 2000, and Project 2003 file formats.

What’s changed
The following dialog boxes contain features that are changed:
• Spelling options
• Customize
• Service options
• Options

What’s removed
This section provides information about removed features in Project 2010.

Custom forms
The ability to create and use custom forms through the user interface (Tools Customize Forms) is removed in Project 2010. If users previously created custom forms in their application, the forms can no longer be accessed.
This is an outdated and rarely used feature. The amount of effort required to maintain the feature (for example, updating the controls to be compatible with Project 2010) is not feasible. Use Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to create custom forms that replace the previously created forms. Customers usually use VBA, Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), or other methods to perform the same task.

OWC resource availability graphs
Because OWC is removed in Microsoft Office 2010, resource availability graphs have changed in Project 2010, and users can no longer see proposed availability on the selected task without temporarily assigning a resource to the task. In addition, users lose the split when they select to see the graph, can no longer graph multiple resources together (you must do this one at a time), and do not see numbers next to the graph saying how high the bars are. The team builder experience is also different from the assign resource experience. Team builder starts PWA, and the assigned resource uses resource graphs in Project 2010. The new graphs are customizable and are now printable.
Add-ins, sample macros, and project guide
Add-ins, sample macros, and sample project guide are not included with Project 2010.
The following add-ins are incorporated into Project 2010:
• Compare Project Versions
• Adjust Dates

The following add-ins are removed:
• Pert Analysis
• Copy picture (no longer automatically creates an Office document and cannot export to the JPG format)
• Format_Duration
• ResMgmt_TaskEntry
• Rollup_Formatting
• Toggle_Read_only
• Update_File

Save as Excel Pivot Table
Save as Excel Pivot Table is replaced by Desktop Reports in Project 2010, Professional and Standard.
The ability to save directly into a pivot table is removed.
The File Save As menu previously included the following:
• Save as XLS
• Save as XLS Pivot Table
The File Save As menu now includes the following:
• Save as XLS
• Save as XLSX
• Save as XLSB
Project 2010 now supports the new file formats in Microsoft Excel 2010. Users should use desktop reports to generate a normalized version of their tasks in Excel 2010.
(Information provided by http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178965.aspx and
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2009/07/13/announcing-microsoft-project-2010-technical-preview.aspx)

To receive hands-on experience and learn more about Project 2010, check out the link below to our upcoming schedule for course APPROJ10 – Microsoft Project 2010! http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-APPROJ10---Microsoft-Project-2010.aspx

Virtual Training Demonstation!

2011-04-18T11:19:00.004-05:00

Check out how easy it is to use our Virtual Training method to participate in a traditional instructor-led training course without actually sitting in a classroom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRmQiSaAgb0

Virtual training offers all of the benefits of being in an LRS Education Services training facility classroom, but allows a student to be anywhere in the world where there is a computer and an internet connection. There can be significant cost savings in terms of transportation and lodging when students don’t have to travel for training.

Contact us today at getsmart@lrs.com to find out how you can begin using our Virtual Training method within your information technology department!

Cheers!

Margaret

2011-04-12T11:17:00.005-05:00

MS Lync Server is Here.

http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/Overview/Pages/new-features.aspx

Microsoft® Lync™ Server 2010 now delivers complete presence, instant messaging, conferencing and enterprise voice capabilities through a single, easy-to-use interface that is consistent across PC, browser, and mobile device. Administrators benefit from a single, consistent management infrastructure, new capabilities to increase availability, and interoperability with existing systems.

New Features and Functionality

Unified Experience

• Get easy access to presence, instant messaging, voice, and audio, video, and Web conferencing—all from the new Microsoft Lync 2010 client.

• Use one set of contacts across Lync 2010 and Office applications.

• Communicate with context from within the applications you use most, including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint.

• Deliver access to presence, instant messaging, and other capabilities for workers on the go via PCs, browsers, and mobile phones.

Connect and Collaborate

• Find the right people, make connections, and communicate more effectively with new rich presence features including pictures and location.

• Leverage internal expertise more effectively with Microsoft SharePoint-based Skill Search.

Simple, Essential, Reliable Conferencing

• Collaborate more effectively with built-in desktop and application sharing, PowerPoint upload, and rich white boarding, including the ability to copy and paste images and other content.

• Schedule and join meetings with a single click in Microsoft Outlook or the meeting reminder.

• Place attendees in a virtual lobby for greater security and control over who can attend.

Complete Enterprise Voice Features

• Delight your users with the features they need, a wide range of IP and USB devices, and the ability to work in the office, at home, or on the road.

• Architect your deployment for high availability using data center resiliency and survivable branch appliances.

• Manage bandwidth utilization and increase Quality of Experience with Call Admission Control, QoS markings, and an adaptive media stack that works well even on unmanaged networks like the Internet.

• Meet North American regulatory requirements with flexible Enhanced 9-1-1 capability.

Powerful Deployment and Management Tools

• Work with a PowerShell-based foundation for administration consistent with Exchange Server, Active Directory, and other Microsoft server products.

• Get consolidated management tasks in one location with dramatically improved navigation through the new Silverlight-based, scenario -driven unified graphical management tool.

• Improve security and administrative productivity with Role-based Access Control (RBAC) with built-in and customer-defined roles.

• Get support for server virtualization of most OCS roles.

Extensibility

• Easily embed Communicator UI elements in your applications, build your own client experience in .NET with open and documented APIs, and enhance contextual collaboration by launching applications right from Communicator.

• Get platform support for sophisticated contact center and help desk scenarios, enable access to all UC-enabled services from any phone, and deliver state-of-the-art speech technology in 26 languages.

• Significantly simplify deployment, operations, and interoperability with added features that improve provisioning, load-balancing, fail-over, and draining.

Our Clients at LRS Education Services will not have to wait any longer for training classes on Lync Server. We currently have the MS10533 Deploying, Configuring, and Administering Lync Server 2010 class posted to our public schedule June 13-17, 2011. And the MS10534 Planning and Designing a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Solution scheduled June27- July 1, 2011.

Reserve your seat today!

Karen Gill LRS Education Services – Education Consultant

Don't forget to visit us at our website: www.lrs.com/education

Windows 7 SP1

2011-04-04T10:22:00.017-05:00

Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 and Windows PE 3.1(http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/)

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 SP1 is released and can be downloaded from the following location: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0aee2b4b-494b-4adc-b174-33bc62f02c5d

You don't have to upgrade to Windows PE 3.1 to deploy Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. But if you want to upgrade to Windows PE 3.1, this post provides information about how you can do this with your existing Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 site. We also list some known issues that you might encounter when you use Configuration Manager operating system deployment with Windows PE 3.1.

To learn more about Configuration Manager 2007, join LRS Education Services for Plan, Depl & Manage System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

Upgrade Steps:

Use the following instructions to upgrade to Windows PE 3.1: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkld=139690.
Add a boot image based on Windows PE 3.1:
1. In the Configruation Manager console, navigate to Computer Management -> Operating System Deployment -> Boot Image -> Add Boot Images.
2. Specify the UNC path for the Windows PE 3.1 .wim file and select the image from the WIMfile.
3. Use the wizard to create the x86 and x64 boot images.
Update the souce of the default boot image to Windows PE 3.1 by running the ExportDefaultBootImage() WMI method:
1. WMI Namespace is root\sms\site_
2. WMI Object is SMS_BootImagePackage
3. WMI Method is ExportDefaultBootImage
4. Parameters:
  -Architecture (x86 or x64)
  -ExportImagePath (\\\sms_\OSD\boot\i386 or \\site_server>\sms_\OSD\boot\x64
  - ImageIndex(1)
Update the distribution points for the default boot images.

Known Issues:

Configuration manager does not support using Windows PE 3.0 as a boot image after Windows PE 3.1 is upgraded. This means any boot images, including the default boot images, that are based on Windows PE 3.0 cannot be updated in Admin UI anymore. In this scenario, you will see the following error because the Windows PE 3.0 images are not compatible with the optional componenet (OC) and language packs from Windows PE 3.1 :

To resolve this problem, update all the boot images to use Windows PE 3.1.
Task sequence fails when trying to apply drivers. You might see the following errors logged if task sequence fails to apply drivers.

Failed to find the certificate context.. Cannot find object or property. (Error: 80092004; Source: Windows) Failed to initialize the online driver catlog. Code 0x80092004 Failed to auto provision drivers Code 0x80092004 Failed to run the action: Apply Device Drivers. Cannot find object or property. (Error: 80092004; Source: Windows)

This problem is caused by the Configuration Manager 2007 client generating an embedded NULL character into the friendly name for the certificate that is related to the driver apply. To resolve this issue, see KB977203 and run CCMCertFix.exe either before you run the tack sequence or add it as a step in the task sequence.

Learn more about CompTIA CTP+!

2011-03-31T09:34:00.002-05:00

Join James Stanger, Ph.D., President of Certification Partners and CIW Chief Certification Architect as he talks about the practical steps IT professionals should know when preparing a network for a convergence solution. Is your network ready for convergence? In this Webcast, we'll discuss the steps necessary to get a network ready for today's voice, video and data solutions. Learn how to create the right foundation for your network with CTP+. About CTP+ (Certified Technologies Professional) CTP+ is a certification that validates skills and standards-based knowledge in today's rapidly changing landscape of network convergence products and solutions. Convergence typically refers to technology solutions that allow the distribution of data, voice and video over a single network. Convergence technology solutions offer adopters greater flexibility to manage and administer networks; heightened efficiency; and cost savings through reduced network management expenses and local access and long distance phone charges The CompTIA CTP+ certification exam covers requirements for analysis, implementation and management of basic data components and voice and multimedia applications, as well as basic problem analysis and resolution for convergent technologies. Webinar Registration Information Date: April 13, 2001 Time: 8:00 AM (PDT) / 4:00 PM (GMT) Registration Code: CP983 Register Now! https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/126657272

2011 Business Connections!

2011-03-28T11:06:00.003-05:00

Join LRS Education Services at The Greater Chamber of Commerce 2011 Business Connections at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, IL!

The event is scheduled for Thursday, March 31, 2011 from 1:00 pm - 7:00 pm.

LRS Education Services representatives will be at Booth 325 to answer any questions you may have regarding our education solutions in addition to providing demonstations of our virtual technology platform!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Margaret

Join EC-Council to learn more about Computer Hacking Forensics!

2011-03-23T08:48:00.002-05:00

EC-Council Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator(CHFI) First Look

Join this live online training led by EC-Council lead trainer Kevin Cardwell, as he shares with you some of the interesting topics from EC-Council Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI) program.

In this session, Kevin will be covering the following modules:

Module 26: Network Forensics & Investigating Logs
Module 27: Investigating Network Traffic
Module 28: Router Forensics

In this 3 hours online training session, you will be introduced to network forensics, you will learn how normal network traffic patterns look during protocol analysis, and you will get to see indications of attack attempts that are typically encountered when analyzing network traffic from a cybercrime event.

This training session will conclude with an introduction to router forensics, an area that is often overlooked as a potential source of evidence, and Kevin will share and show why forensics investigation should take a look at the router and the potential evidence it may contain.

Session Details and Registration
DateTuesday, March 29, 2011
Time10am to 1pm EST
TrainerKevin Cardwell, EC-Council Lead Trainer

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/207096730

2011-03-15T08:42:00.005-05:00

Get a complimentary TechNet subscription with your Career Package

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/career/en/us/career-offer.aspx#classroom

Get trained. Get certified. Get access to more than 70 software products.

Take control of your career with these classroom training offers at LRS Education.
Attend any of the following Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, or Microsoft SQL 2008 classes and receive a free 12 month TechNet Professional subscription and a certification exam voucher with a free retake.

Levi Ray and Shoup Education Center can help you learn a new technology or prepare for a new job role with comprehensive, interactive training options. Our instructor-led classroom training courses are delivered by Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs)—industry-recognized experts.

• When you purchase select classroom training from LRS Education Services, you receive a complimentary 12-month not-for-resale TechNet Professional subscription and a certification exam voucher with a free retake.

The subscription includes:
o Access to more than 70 full-version Microsoft software products
(for evaluation purposes only), without any time or feature limits.
o Access to upcoming beta releases prior to public availability
o Continuous priority support through Live Chat and TechNet forums.

• A Microsoft Certification exam voucher that applies to exams that have a "70" prefix along with a free retake if you do not pass the first time.

Available Courses and Dates Scheduled at LRS Education Services:

Product: Windows 7

MS 6292A: Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client (three days)
Scheduled: May 2-4 and June 27-29

MS 6294A: Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments (five days)
Scheduled: March 28-April 1 and May 9 - May 13

Product: Microsoft SharePoint 2010

MS10174: Configuring and Administering Microsoft Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (five days)
Scheduled: April 11-15 and June 6-10

Product: Windows Server 2008

MS6425: Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services (five days)
Scheduled: April 18-22 and June 6-10

MS6421A: Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure (five days)
Scheduled: March 21-25 and June 20-24

MS 6419: Configuring, Managing, and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Servers (five days)
Scheduled: April 4-8 and June 6-10

Product: Microsofot SQL Server 2008

MS 6231: Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database (five days)
Scheduled: April 11-15

MS6232: Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database (five days)
Scheduled: May 9-13

Timing: The Career Package offer is valid through June 30, 2011, or while supplies last. You may use your exam voucher until December 31, 2011.

Don't forget to visit us at our website: http://www.lrs.com/education/default.aspx

2011-03-07T10:30:00.001-06:00

Cisco Administration 101: Learn the Difference Between PIX and ASA

(http://www.techrepublic.com/article/cisco-administration-101-learn-the-difference-between-pix-and-asa/6155407)

For many years, the Cisco PIX has been the established Cisco firewall. But in May 2005, Cisco introduced a new offering—the Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA). However, the PIX is still available. I've often heard people ask about the differences between these two product lines. Let's take a look.

What is a Cisco PIX?

A Cisco PIX is a dedicated hardware firewall appliance. All Cisco PIX versions have model numbers in the 500s. The most popular model for home offices and small networks is the PIX 501; many midsize companies use the PIX 515 as a corporate firewall.

PIX firewalls run the PIX operating system. While the PIX OS is quite similar to the Cisco IOS, there are enough differences to cause some frustration for users more familiar with IOS.

The firewall sports the PIX Device Manager (PDM) for a graphical interface. This GUI is a Java application downloaded through a Web browser.

Typically, a PIX firewall has an outside interface that connects to the inside of an Internet router and goes to the public Internet. It also has an inside interface that connects to a LAN switch, going to the private internal network.

What is a Cisco ASA?

A Cisco ASA is a new firewall and anti-malware security appliance from Cisco Systems. (Don't confuse this product with what a PIX uses for stateful packet filtering—the adaptive security algorithm, or ASA.)
ASA models are all in the 5500 series. The Enterprise Editions include four versions: Firewall, IPS, Anti-X, and VPN. There's also a Business Edition for small to midsize companies.

In total, there are five models of the Cisco ASA. All run the ASA version 7.2.2 software, and the interface is much like the Cisco PIX. Both the Cisco PIX and ASA models vary in performance, but the ASA's lowest model offers much more performance than the base PIX.

Like the PIX, the ASA can also serve as an intrusion prevention system (IPS) and VPN concentrator. In fact, the ASA could take the place of three separate devices—a Cisco PIX firewall, a Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrator, and a Cisco IPS 4000 Series Sensor.

Now that we've covered the basics of each security appliance, let's see how they compare.

PIX vs. ASA

While the PIX is an excellent firewall, the landscape of security has changed over the years. It's no longer sufficient to protect your network with a stateful packet filtering firewall. There are so many new threats to a network—including viruses, worms, unwanted applications (e.g., P2P, games, instant messaging), phishing, and application-layer attacks.
When a device does protect against this variety of threats, we say it offers "anti-X" capability or "multi-threat" protection. But the PIX just hasn't been able to offer this level of protection.

Most organizations don't want to have a PIX performing stateful firewall filtering and some other appliance protecting you from other threats. Instead, they want an "all-in-one" device—or a unified threat management (UTM) device.

The ASA does offer protection from these different types of attacks. It can even be more of a UTM device—however, it needs a Content Security and Control Security Service Module (CSC-SSM) to be a real UTM. This is the module in an ASA that performs the anti-X functions. Without the CSC-SSM, the ASA functions more like a PIX.

So which one is right for your organization? As always, the answer lies with your organization's unique needs. However, I would choose the ASA over the PIX any day. First of all, an ASA typically costs less than similarly featured PIX. Besides the cost incentive, it just seems like a logical choice to choose the newer and faster technology.

For those who already use the Cisco PIX, Cisco has produced a Migration Guide (PDF) that addresses how to migrate from a Cisco PIX to an ASA. In my opinion, this offering foreshadows Cisco's impending discontinuation of the PIX. While the company has made no announcements to this effect, I think it's only a matter of time.

Remember, we can no longer rely solely on a firewall to protect our organizations from the varied threats of the Internet; a multifaceted approach is now necessary for complete protection. While the ASA is a good choice, it isn't your only option. Many vendors offer products to compare the ASA against before making that choice.

Do you use a PIX or ASA in your organization? Share your experiences in this article's discussion.

To learn more about PIX and ASA, join LRS Education Services for Cisco Securing Networks with Pix and ASA.

Facebook!

2011-03-02T10:03:00.001-06:00

We have moved the LRS Education Services Facebook page to make it easier for you to connect with us. Be the 100th Fan to "LIKE" our page to receive a NFR copy of Windows 7 Ultimate!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LRS-Education-Services/120432244693926#!/pages/LRS-Education-Services/120432244693926?v=wall

SharePoint 2010

2011-02-14T15:25:00.002-06:00

Having an understanding of the vision of the SharePoint site within your organization is critical before getting started.

To fully understand the scope of SharePoint 2010, the below guide is an excellent tool to assist you with your overall plan for SharePoint design.

The following links take you to documents prepared by Microsoft that you can download in the format of your choice, (i.e., PDF, XPS) that can initiate conversations to help you determine the scope of SharePoint 2010 in addition to recommended best practices.

The following link is for The Microsoft SharePoint 2010 IT Professional Evaluation Guide. This evaluation guide is designed to give the IT professional an introduction and overview of the SharePoint Server 2010 features that are most pertinent to installing, managing, and configuring the SharePoint farm.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=110318EC-0238-4811-8FC7-EC4399D3C100

The following link is for the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Walkthrough Guide. This walkthrough guide is designed to provide a step-by-step overview of Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=8c619bef-008b-4af2-9687-8a05848fea97&displaylang=en

Once your SharePoint Design is in place LRS Education Services offers the following classes to help with your SharePoint implementation and Development.

MS10174 Configuring and Managing Microsoft SharePoint 2010

MS10231 Designing and Deploying Microsoft SharePoint 2010

MS10175 Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development

MS10232 Designing and Developing SharePoint 2010 Applications

MS50429---SharePoint-2010-Business-Intelligence.aspx

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!

Karen

2011-01-31T12:30:00.002-06:00

Are you an experienced developer who already has programming experience in C, C++, Visual Basic, or Java and understand the concepts of object-oriented programming who wants to learn more about the new enhancements in the C# 4.0 language by using Visual Studio 2010?

The MS10266: Programming in C# with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 course from Microsoft Learning provides topics for intermediate level programmers to gain the knowledge and skills they need to develop C# applications for the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0. The course highlights the structure of C# 4.0 programs, language syntax, and implementation details.

This class is scheduled at our Bloomington Education facility February 7 - 11, 2011 and is Microsoft SATV and LRS Diamond Day Eligible! Here is a link to the complete course syllabus: http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-MS10266---Programming-with-C%23-using-.NET-Framework-4.aspx

Please let me know if you would like additional information or if you would like to enroll!

Thanks!

Margaret

2011-01-18T11:14:00.002-06:00

CompTIA Linux+ Certification

Several of our clients at LRS Education Services have recently asked for Linux training. Because we rely on CompTIA, you will be happy to know that the CompTIA Linux+ course provides the training necessary for its high-stakes, vendor-neutral certification that validates the fundamental knowledge and skills required of Linux administrators.

CompTIA Linux+ Powered by LPI consists of two exams, LX0-101 and LX0-102. The exams cover system architecture; Linux installation and package management; GNU and Unix commands; devices, Linux filesystems, and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Professionals who pass the exam can work at the Linux command line, perform maintenance tasks, assist users, and install and configure workstations.

Earning the certification is a stepping stone to vendor-specific training, such as Oracle Certified Associate and Novell SUSE Linux programs.

A new benefit for CompTIA Linux+ Powered by LPI candidates is that they may choose, at the time they take the exams, to have their exam record forwarded to the Linux Professional Institute. Certification in CompTIA Linux+ Powered by LPI enables candidates to become certified in LPIC-1 as well, enabling further participation in the LPI program if the candidate chooses. Please note that CompTIA maintains candidate-confidential records for all exam takers, for their own access and use for employment or educational purposes. Any choice to forward an exam record to LPI is made only by the candidate.

http://www.comptia.org/certifications/listed/linux.aspx

We currently have this class posted to our public schedule January 31 – February 4, 2011. Here is a link to the complete course syllabus: AT606 Linux+ Certification . Reserve your seat today!

Karen Gill
LRS Education Services – Education Consultant

Don't forget to visit us at our website: www.lrs.com/education/

2011-01-11T16:55:00.000-06:00

SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services
(http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/wp-sql-2008-analysis-services.aspx)

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services builds on the value delivered with the significant investments in Analysis Services 2005 around scalability, advanced analytics, and Microsoft Office interoperability. Through substantially improved performance, scalability, and developer productivity, you can build enterprise-scale Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) solutions. The Unified Dimensional Model consolidates data access and provides a wide range of analytical capabilities, while deep integration with the Microsoft Office system and an open, embeddable architecture allows you to reach every user with familiar tools and drives actionable insight to users across the enterprise.

To learn more about SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services, visit us for Implement and Maintain SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services on January 24th, 2011.

Return on Investment of Virtual Instructor Led Training

2011-01-06T08:37:00.006-06:00

According to TrainingIndustry, Inc., members of the training profession often debate the hard and soft performance gains from employee training in todays workplace, but on one subject there is no argument. As much as 40 cents of every dollar spent on in-person training goes to travel and lodging costs, studies show. Avoiding that expense should be the primary goal of any learning organization.

LRS Education Services can help you cut out those expenses as you prepare your 2011 training goals by considering our Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) courses.

Here is a breakdown of savings of a standard LRS 5-day Microsoft(infrastructure or develpment) VILT course. This is based upon standard rates plus estimated travel during the training session:

LRS Training $2,095.00
Hotel $400.00
Food $125.00
Car $250.00
Total: $2,870.00
Your Savings: $775.00

Contact me today to find out more about our Virtual Training technology and how I can help you eliminate travel dollars when attending VILT training from one of our facilities!

Margaret

margaret.teague@lrs.com

2011-01-05T16:45:00.000-06:00

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159106.aspx)

With Reporting Services, you can create interactive, tabular, graphical, or free-form reports from relational, multidimensional, or XML-based data sources. You can publish reports, schedule report processing, or access reports on-demand. Reporting Services also enables you to create ad hoc reports based on predefined models, and to interactively explore data within the model. You can select from a variety of viewing formats, export reports to other applications, and subscribe to published reports. The reports that you create can be viewed over a Web-based connection or as part of a Microsoft Windows application or SharePoint site. Reporting Services provides the key to your business data.

To develop your own reports using SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, visit us for Implement and Maintain MS SQL Srv 2008 Reporting Services on January 17th, 2011.

Delegate Control or Let Someone Else Do Something for a Change!

2010-12-28T08:13:00.005-06:00

Have you ever been in the situation where you have WAY too much work? As IT professionals we have the internal drive to get everything done and done correctly. We have responsibilities and are motivated to take care of them ourselves because you and I both know that NO ONE can do it better than you! So you get stuck with everything even remotely related to technology. Tell the truth, I'll bet you even get to troubleshoot the Caffeine Output Focal Flavor Enhancer (C.O.F.F.E.) system.

I used to have the same problem. Then I discovered the solution! It's called delegation. Ah, simple, but who can I trust with the keys to the kingdom? Who else has the subtle combination of technical skills and problem solving ability to manage a network? To whom can I grant such great power?

Uhhh. No one.

That's right . Don't grant anyone full power of the domain. But what you CAN do is grant the ability for other folks to have control over their specific area. Microsoft created a feature, way back with the release of Active Directory in Windows 2000 called Delegation of Control. In the example below you will see how easy it is to grant minor powers to people in order to make YOUR job easier and them happier!

Step 1: To begin the process of delegating control we open Active Directory Users and Computers.

Step 2: We then right-click on the Organizational Unit which will be managed by our group. In this example we will right-click on the Production OU. After right-clicking on the Production OU we click Delegate Control.


Step 3: Click Next on the Welcome page.

Step 4: Click Add and select the group to which you wish to delegate control. We will choose the IT group.

Step 5: After entering the group name click Ok then click Next.

Step 6: At this point we have two options:

A) Delegate a common task: This is frequently how the Delegation of Control Wizard is utilized. Resetting passwords and working with groups are examples.

B) Create a custom task to delegate: This option allows us to go into much more detail and granularity to grant rights to very specific properties. Examples would include changing users address and phone information.

Note that custom tasks require more time and testing, but offer higher flexibility in granting rights.

We will check the box to delegate the common task of resetting user passwords and forcing password changes and then click Next.

Step 7: We now click Finish and the delegation is complete!

Not too shabby! Keep in mind the people to whom you grant control will need to have the tools installed on their management system. For Windows XP and older that would be the Adminpak.msi. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 you install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT). Both can be downloaded from Microsoft.

Watch out! In the next blog from Troy I'll show you how to create a specialized tool so your new Junior Admins can complete the task at hand, but only see what you want them to see!

2010-12-23T09:43:00.002-06:00

LEARN SOMETHING NEW AT LRS EDUCATION SERVICES!

Special Offers on Training and Certifications from Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/career/en/us/career-offer.aspx#classroom

LRS Education Services in conjunction with Microsoft can help you become a key contributor within your organization by providing some of the best training available. Take advantage of these great offers that can help you turn your job into a career.

GET A COMPLIMENTARY TECHNET SUBSCRIPTION WITH YOUR CAREER PACKAGE

Get trained. Get certified. Get access to more than 70 software products.

When you enroll in select classroom training from, LRS Education Services, a participating Microsoft Learning Partner, you receive a complimentary 12-month Microsoft TechNet Professional subscription and a certification exam voucher with a free retake.

This Career Package offer includes:

• One three- or five-day training course on Windows 7, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Windows Server 2008, or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (see "Available courses" listed later on this page).

• A 12-month not-for-resale TechNet Professional subscription

The subscription includes:

o Access to more than 70 full-version Microsoft software products (for evaluation purposes only), without any time or feature limits.

o Access to upcoming beta releases prior to public availability

o Continuous priority support through Live Chat and TechNet forums.

• A Microsoft Certification exam voucher that applies to exams that have a "70" prefix along with a free retake if you do not pass the first time.

Availability:
The Career Package offer is valid through June 30, 2011, or while supplies last. You may use your exam voucher until December 31, 2011.

Register today for the following Microsoft classes at LRS Education Services and receive your subscription card for the not-for-resale TechNet Professional subscription as well as your free Microsoft Certification exam voucher.

Participating MOC

4 products, 8 courses:

6292 Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client

6294 Planning and Managing Windows 7

6425B Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services

6421 Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure

6419 Configuring, Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Servers

10174 Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010

6231 Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database

6232 Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database

2010-12-13T10:47:00.001-06:00

CISSP® - Certified Information Systems Security Professional

The Certification That Inspires Utmost Confidence
(https://www.isc2.org/cissp/default.aspx)

If you plan to build a career in information security – one of today’s most visible professions – and if you have at least five full years of experience in information security, then the CISSP® credential should be your next career goal. It’s the credential for professionals who develop policies and procedures in information security.

The CISSP was the first credential in the field of information security, accredited by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) to ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Standard 17024:2003. CISSP certification is not only an objective measure of excellence, but a globally recognized standard of achievement.

For your CISSP credential, your professional experience has to be in two or more of these 10 (ISC)² CISSP domains:

· Access Control
· Application Development Security
· Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
· Cryptography
· Information Security Governance and Risk Management
· Legal, Regulations, Investigations and Compliance
· Operations Security
· Physical (Environmental) Security
· Security Architecture and Design
· Telecommunications and Network Security

For a CISSP course that offers thorough coverage of all the material on the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam, join us for AT_CISSP . This course is written by a renowned security expert and CISSP, and features complete details on all 10 exam domains developed by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISCAndsup2;). The CISSP course will provide you with exam tips, practice questions, and in-depth explanations that will not only help you pass the test, but also be your essential on-the-job reference.

Celebrate with us!

2010-12-06T09:16:00.000-06:00

YOU'RE INVITED
We're ready to cut the ribbon; please join us!
LRS Education Services is celebrating the opening of our brand new Bloomington/Normal Training Facility with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on December 7 at 4:15 p.m.

I hope you can celebrate with us during our open house immediately following the ribbon cutting at our new facility located at 1709 Tullamore Avenue Suite C in Bloomington. Tour the new training facility, meet the instructors, and enjoy some light hors d'oeuvres and drinks. If you can't be with us at the ribbon cutting ceremony, we'll be there until 7 p.m. to meet you and show you around the new facility.

Have you heard about Virtual Training? We'd love to show you how you can save time and money with this new way of learning. Ask me for more information during the Open House.
See our Virtual Training Demo!

We look forward to seeing you there and can't wait to show you our new facility. Please let us know you'll be joining us on the 7th by clicking here to RSVP or call us at 877-832-0688 x1493.

RSVP View Map View Demo

I look forward to seeing you there!

Margaret

2010-11-24T14:40:00.004-06:00

Deploying Windows 7?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd939988(WS.10).aspx

Windows 7 Desktop Deployment Overview

Building on the technologies introduced in the Windows Vista® operating system, Windows® 7 streamlines desktop deployment. Technologies within Windows 7 improve application compatibility, and new tools in Windows 7 help you reduce the evaluation and readiness cycle. Other improvements in Windows 7 include the following:

• Providing more options for engineering and deploying images, which helps you service images throughout the operating-system lifecycle by using a single, consolidated toolset.

• Optimizing deployment with improved driver handling through the Dynamic Driver Provisioning, which reduces image sizes by dynamically matching drivers to Plug-and-Play IDs or BIOS properties during deployment, and then pulls them from a central store.

• Improving delivery with Windows Deployment Services, reducing bandwidth consumption, and improving speed and flexibility by using Multicast with Multiple Stream Transfer.

• Improving the installation experience with faster and more consistent setup, powerful installation task-sequencing tools, and faster transfer of user files and settings.

Are you a desktop administrator who wants to specialize in desktop deployment, configuration, and management? The MS6294 Plan and Manage Windows 7 Desktop Deployments & Environments course can help you learn how to plan and deploy Windows 7 desktops in large organizations. You will also learn how to design, configure, and manage the Windows 7 client environment.

To learn more about the MS6294 Plan and Manage Windows 7 Desktop Deployments & Environments Windows 7 course visit us at LRS Education Services.

Don't forget to visit us at our website: http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

2010-11-11T08:40:00.001-06:00

The top three benefits of SharePoint 2010 for IT professionals
(http://www.microsoft.com/canada/smb/articles/the-top-three-benefits-of-sharepoint-2010-benefits-for-it-professionals.mspx)

SharePoint 2010 is the business collaboration platform that enables you to connect and empower people through formal and informal business communities, within the enterprise and beyond, and to manage content throughout the information lifecycle.

For IT professionals, SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. Learn more about how to cut IT costs with SharePoint 2010:

1. Increased Productivity: SharePoint 2010 can help to increase IT professionals' productivity by improving the administrative experience and giving administrators deeper operational insight. Features include a new streamlined Central Administration Web site, new capabilities to manage and monitor the SharePoint farm, and Windows PowerShell support.

2. Scalable Unified Infrastructure: SharePoint 2010 provides a scalable unified infrastructure. It offers better control over server resources, which can improve processes such as performance and management of large lists and data management and protection using high availability. A scalable services architecture allows you to effectively manage and centralize services like Search, My Sites, and Taxonomy. These service applications can be managed through Central Administration and also can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell. Because the architecture is extensible, third-party companies can build and add services to platform.

3. Flexible Deployment: With a quick and simple installation and configuration process, SharePoint 2010 provides a flexible deployment experience. The upgrade from SharePoint 2007 is smooth and predictable. New functionality allows you to manage how others use SharePoint. For example, you can safely allow site administrators to upload custom user code with Sandboxed Solutions. You also have more governance controls: If you want to maintain a centralized SharePoint deployment instead of taking a more decentralized approach, you can block those deployments through Group Policy or track them with AD marker support.

To learn more about SharePoint 2010, join us for one of the following classes:

Configuring and Managing Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
Designing and Deploying Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Designing and Developing SharePoint 2010 Applications

2010-10-25T16:47:00.001-05:00

Get Certified!
Earn the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) on Windows 7 certification today!

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-windowsclient.aspx#tab2

The Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification is for professionals who want to demonstrate in-depth knowledge and expertise in their specialized technologies. Earn multiple MCTS certifications to help show your breadth of expertise across different products, or pursue just one certification. As the foundation of Windows certification, the MCTS certification (abbreviated as TS in exam titles) is a prerequisite for earning the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certification.
Windows 7
Be among the first to prove your proficiency in the latest Microsoft operating system. Project leads and hiring managers can recognize your commitment to stay current on client technologies and your ability to optimize the performance improvements and rich feature set of Windows 7.

MCTS certification Required exams
MCTS: Windows 7, Configuration
Helps validate your ability to understand the functions and features of Windows 7 and to troubleshoot network connectivity and applications issues. Exam 70-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring

Join us at LRS Education Services for 6292A: Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client course to help prepare for the Exam 70-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring Exam

Don't leave training dollars on the table!

2010-10-19T10:24:00.003-05:00

Has your organization purchased a Microsoft software volume licensing agreement? If so, you may be eligible to redeem Microsoft Software Assurance Training Vouchers and get FREE training for select Microsoft training courses. If your organization doesn't redeem its SATVs, you could be leaving training dollars on the table!

General Questions

Q. What is the Software Assurance Training Voucher (SATV) Program?

A. Qualifying organizations that purchase Software Assurance from Microsoft receive a specific allotment of training days to be used for technical classroom training. Customers can convert these days to Training Vouchers to be used for select courses taught by Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions. The Training Vouchers are electronic and can be used at any participating Learning Solutions partner location worldwide.

Q. How will customers benefit from using their SA Training Vouchers?

A. The benefits include:
• No need for additional training budget: The cost of the training is already included under the Software Assurance coverage; therefore, no additional budget will be required to send employees to technical training.
• Increased employee skill level: Employees will have the opportunity to take eligible technical courses to increase their overall skill level and help boost their overall productivity.
• Guidance from a Learning Solution Partner: Our Learning Solution Partners have the knowledge to create the perfect training plan for your organization that will ensure the maximum utilization of your Training Vouchers.
• Guaranteed pricing: Microsoft has already set the pricing for the training with the Learning Solutions partners, therefore customers only need to know that one Training Voucher day equates to one classroom training day.

Q. How long does my company have access to the SA Training days given to us under our agreement?

A. The training days given to your organization last for the length of the agreement. Therefore, if you have a three year agreement, you will have three years to consume your training days.

Q. Once a voucher is created from the available training days, how long does it last?

A. Training Vouchers live for 180 days from their creation date. Therefore if the voucher is not used by the designated employee before 180 days, the voucher will automatically be revoked and the days will go back into the company pool of days to be used by someone else.

Q. How does Microsoft decide the number of training days to give to my organization?

A. The number of training days received by your organization was dependent on the number and type of product licenses purchased from Microsoft with Software Assurance coverage.

How It Works

Q. What is needed to get started?

A. A few things will be helpful when getting started. First, ensure you have a list of employees for whom you wish to create Training Vouchers. Second, know the length of the courses for which you want to create Training Vouchers. Finally, go onto the following site: licensing.microsoft.com to create the vouchers. Please note that you will not be required to enter the name of the course, only the length.

Q. What if I created the Training Voucher for fewer days than the class duration, what do I do?

A. The training voucher must be created for the length of the course. If the voucher was created for fewer days than the length of the course because your organization has no additional days to add, then the difference in days must be paid directly to the Learning Solutions partner.

Q. What if I created the Training Voucher for more days than needed for the class, what do I do?

A. If the designated employee uses a voucher with a value greater than the course duration, the Learning Solutions partner will only be reimbursed for the actual length of the course. Unused Training Voucher days will be automatically credited back to your organization once the voucher is paid to the Learning Solutions partner.

Q. I created a Training Voucher accidentally. How do I get the days back into the eligible pool of days?

A. To change the status of a Training Voucher from Assigned back to the eligible pool of days, you must revoke it in the system. Please go to https://licensing.microsoft.com/ to revoke the voucher.

Q. What does the employee need to provide to the Learning Solutions partner when reserving a course?

A. The trainee must provide the Training Voucher number and the email address used when creating the voucher. If one of these items is incorrect, the Learning Solutions partner will not be able to validate the voucher.

Q. What if I, as the Benefits Manager, used my e-mail address when creating the Training Voucher?

A. The designated employee will need to provide your e-mail address when reserving the voucher along with the voucher number. They will also be required to provide their own unique work e-mail address to the Learning Solutions partner to be entered into the system.

Q. Will the employee receive a hard copy Training Voucher from Microsoft?

A. No, the vouchers used for the SA Training Voucher Program are in electronic format only. A designated employee could print out the reservation confirmation page and submit it to the Learning Solutions partner for verification if requested. The reservation confirmation page is sent automatically to the employee when a voucher is created for them at the following site: https://licensing.microsoft.com/.

Eligible Courses

Q. Can Training Vouchers be used for all Official Microsoft Learning Product courses?

A. Training Vouchers can be used for IT Professional and Developer audience training only. A few exceptions apply. They cannot be used for First look Clinics, Hands on Labs, or on Beta courses.

Q. Are Microsoft Dynamics courses eligible for SA Training Vouchers?

A. Some. Dynamics CRM courses are eligible for SATV. Otherwise, Microsoft Dynamics courses are not Official Microsoft Learning Products, and therefore are not eligible for use with SA Training Vouchers.

Q. What if a designated employee wants to attend a class that is not on the eligible SA course list?

A. Training Vouchers obtained through the SA Training Voucher Program may be used only for courses on the eligible SA course list. Please inform the designated employee that he or she may select from the eligible SA course list only.

Training Voucher Redemption

Q. Where do I go to redeem my Training Vouchers?

A. Training vouchers can only be redeemed at participating Learning Solutions partner locations. To find a participating Learning Solutions partner in your area, please go to: http://www.microsoft.com/Learning/classlocator/. Please make sure to click on the box that states "Software Assurance Vouchers Only".

Q. Can Learning Solutions partners not participating in the SA Training Voucher Program accept SA Training Vouchers?

A. No, only Learning Solutions partners participating in the SA Training Voucher Program under a signed SA agreement may accept Training Vouchers.

Q. Should each designated employee receive a hard copy of the instructor-led Official Microsoft Learning Products student kit?

A. Yes, each designated employee must receive a complete instructor-led student kit from the chosen Learning Solutions partner.

Q. Are Learning Solutions partners required to use a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) to deliver an eligible SA course?

A: Yes, all courses taught by our Learning Solutions partners must be led by a MCT.

Q. Can Training Vouchers be redeemed for training at an IT Academy partner?

A. No, the SA Training Voucher Program is an exclusive benefit for Learning Solutions partners only. Therefore, Training Vouchers may be redeemed only at participating Learning Solutions partner locations.

Q. Can the Learning Solutions partner cash in SATV to keep training days "on account" for customers?

A. No. Learning Solutions partners are not allowed to invoice MSFT prior to delivery of services. Where this happens, Learning Solutions partners will immediately be removed from the program, and we may pursue reimbursement and/or legal action.

Training Voucher Value

Q. What is the value of each SATV?

A. One Training Voucher day equates to one classroom day of training. Therefore, if a course is 5 days long, a 5 day voucher will be needed.

Q. Does the value vary by course type?

A. No, the value is the same for all eligible courses. Therefore, there is no difference in voucher value between a Developer course or an IT professional course. They should both require the same number of voucher days if the course length is the same.

Class Cancellation

Q. How does the trainee cancel a class reservation?

A. The trainee contacts the Learning Solutions partner to indicate that s/he is no longer taking the class. Local cancellation policies apply.

Q. What if a trainee wants to cancel the reservation after the course cancellation date?

A. Your organization will be responsible for the costs associated with a late cancellation.

Please contact us today at getsmart@lrs.com to find out how we can assist you with your Microsoft Software Assurance training benefits!

2010-10-13T09:56:00.002-05:00

System Management Tools for key IT areas using SCCM
(www.microsoft.com)

System Center Configuration Manager provides system management tools for key IT areas:

Asset Intelligence

Configuration Manager 2007 gives organizations better control over their IT infrastructure and assets through asset intelligence technologies that provide IT administrators continuous visibility into what hardware and software assets they have, who is using them, and where they are.

Software Update Management

Configuration Manager 2007 Software Update Management simplifies the complex task of delivering and managing updated to IT systems across the enterprise. IT administrators can deliver updates of Microsoft products, third-party applications, custom in-house line-of-business applications, hardware drivers, and system BIOS to a variety of devices – including desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices.

Desired Configuration Management

With Configuration Manager 2007, Desired Configuration Management, organizations can ensure that IT systems comply with desired configuration states to improve systems availability, security, and performance network-wide.

Software Distribution

Microsoft system Center Configuration Manager 2007 Software Distribution simplifies the complex task of distributing applications and updates to desktops, servers, laptops, and mobile devices across enterprise networks.

Operating System Deployment

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Operating System Deployment is a highly flexible, automated solution that allows IT administrators to fully deploy and configure servers and desktops from any previous state, including bare-metal deployments.

To learn more about System Center Configuration Manager and how to use it in your environment, visit us for MS6451 - Plan, Depl & Manage System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

Windows Recovery Environment

2010-09-28T11:58:00.004-05:00

Windows Recovery Environment (WRE) is a new tool available in Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2. It is replacement utility for older options such as Startup Disks, Recover Console, and Repair Disks. WRE includes a valuable set of utilities that could you help troubleshoot a machine and help you recover a non-booting system.

The three methods of booting into WRE are:
1. Pressing F8 after restarting your computer and selecting “Repair your
Computer” from the Advanced Boot Options menu
2. Boot from the Operating DVD and select to "Repair Your System"
3. Create a bootable Windows Recovery Environment CD\DVD

To create a WRE boot CD\DVD on a machine with a burner, complete the following:
From the run or search box in the Start Menu, on a matching architecture machine (meaning the corresponding Operating System and Bit level - 32 or 64), search for “Create System Repair Disk”. The wizard will walk you through the rest. The Windows Recovery Environment CD\DVD can be used on any machine with the matching architecture.

Once booted into WRE, you will be presented with the options in the figure below -

In this blog post, I will give a brief overview of the options in WRE. The options in WRE are fully discussed in the 6292 - Installing and Configuring the Windows Client http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-MS6292---Installing-and-Configuring-Windows-7.aspx and several of our Server 2008\Server 2008 R2 courses.

• Fixing boot-level startup problems (Startup Repair)

• Returning your system to a previous configuration (System Restore)

• Recovering your computer with a previously-created system image (System Image Recovery)

• Checking for defective memory (Windows Memory Diagnostic)

• Running command-prompt programs (Command Prompt)

2010-09-22T11:37:00.002-05:00

Come to LRS Education and Learn Something New about Visual Studio 2010 with MVC

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/course.aspx?ID=10264A&locale=en-us

Microsoft is now offering training on the ASP.Net MVC technology. The MS10264 course teaches the ASP.Net MVC technology for Visual Studio 2010.

M=Model
V= View
C=Controller

The C (ie. controller) is the "orchestra director". Its job is to determine which chunks of functionality to use to build a page. The M (ie. model) is the data store, usually a database like SQL Server. The controller reads and writes data from the model. Finally, the V (ie. view) is a generic web page template. The controller tells each chunk in which section of the page template they belong, thus assembling the page for the user.

In the MS 10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010 students will learn to develop advanced ASP.NET MVC and Web Forms applications using .NET Framework 4 tools and technologies. The focus will be on coding activities that enhance the performance and scalability of the Web site application. ASP.NET MVC will be introduced and compared with Web Forms so that students know when each should/could be used. This will also prepare the student for exam 70-515.

Join us at LRS Education November 29th- December 3 for MS 10264 Developing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2010

2010-09-14T09:15:00.002-05:00

The Top Three Benefits of SharePoint 2010 for IT Professionals

(http://www.microsoft.com/canada/smb/articles/the-top-three-benefits-of-sharepoint-2010-benefits-for-it-professionals.mspx)

SharePoint 2010 is the business collaboration platform that enables you to connect and empower people through formal and informal business communities, within the enterprise and beyond, and to manage content throughout the information lifecycle.

For IT professionals, SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. Learn more about how to cut IT costs with SharePoint 2010:

1. Increased Productivity: SharePoint 2010 can help to increase IT professionals' productivity by improving the administrative experience and giving administrators deeper operational insight. Features include a new streamlined Central Administration Web site, new capabilities to manage and monitor the SharePoint farm, and Windows PowerShell support.

2. Scalable Unified Infrastructure: SharePoint 2010 provides a scalable unified infrastructure. It offers better control over server resources, which can improve processes such as performance and management of large lists and data management and protection using high availability. A scalable services architecture allows you to effectively manage and centralize services like Search, My Sites, and Taxonomy. These service applications can be managed through Central Administration and also can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell. Because the architecture is extensible, third-party companies can build and add services to platform.

3. Flexible Deployment: With a quick and simple installation and configuration process, SharePoint 2010 provides a flexible deployment experience. The upgrade from SharePoint 2007 is smooth and predictable. New functionality allows you to manage how others use SharePoint. For example, you can safely allow site administrators to upload custom user code with Sandboxed Solutions. You also have more governance controls: If you want to maintain a centralized SharePoint deployment instead of taking a more decentralized approach, you can block those deployments through Group Policy or track them with AD marker support.

To learn more about SharePoint 2010, join us for one of these great new classes:

Configuring and Managing Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Designing and Deploying Microsoft SharePoint 2010
Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
Designing and Developing SharePoint 2010 Applications

2010-09-07T15:27:00.004-05:00

Exchange Server 2010 SP1

The anticipated release of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 has finally arrived! Microsoft recently announced that SP1 is now available for download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=50b32685-4356-49cc-8b37-d9c9d4ea3f5b) . This article will provide you with an overview of some of the enhancements and functionality provided by this service pack.

While SP1 provides enhancements and new functionality in many areas, this article will focus on just a few key features in the following areas: new deployment functionality, CAS improvements, improvements in Transport functionality, permissions functionality, changes to the Exchange store and mailbox database functionality, mailbox and recipients features, high availability, policy and compliance.

During the install of Exchange 2010 SP1, you now have the ability to also choose to install required operating system roles and features for each selected Exchange server role. If any of the installations require a system reboot, you must restart the server and then run setup again (setup will resume from the point where it left off).

Improvements and new features in the Client Access role are found in several key areas:

Federation certificates
You can now allow the use of self signed certificates (rather than certificates generated by a 3rd party certificate provider) to establish a federated trust with a Microsoft Federated Gateway.

Mobile Device Support
SP1 will provide better management capabilities of ActiveSync devices using the Exchange Control Panel. Also, ActiveSync policies now contain support for IRM functionality, allowing non-windows mobile devices to receive and view protected emails. SMS Sync is another new feature providing the ability to sync messages between mobile phones or devices and the user’s 2010 Inbox.

OWA improvements:
There are now 27 themes available with new administrative options, such as the ability to specify a default theme or customize your themes.

Client throttling policies
Throttling policies are used to manage performance of CAS by allowing Exchange to track the resources each user consumes and enforce connection bandwidth limits as necessary. This helps to ensure users aren’t intentionally or unintentionally taxing the system, and are sharing resources proportionally. With SP1, all client policies are now enabled by default and can be disabled as necessary.

Transport functionality
SP1 provides better monitoring and troubleshooting of MailTips, such as allowing more control over how MailTips are shared across organizational relationships, what types of MailTips will be used and even the ability to designate specific groups of users for which to return MailTips

There have also been enhancements to message throttling on the transport server. Transport servers now maintain a running average delivery cost of messages sent by individual senders. If a user continues to send costly messages, such as those with large attachments, Transport servers start to give priority to other messages with lower cost before processing messages from that sender.

Transport servers also monitor RPC utilization of mailbox servers. When a Hub server detects RPC resource pressure on a Mailbox server, it scales back the RPC sessions it opens to that mailbox server, allowing client connections to the mailbox server to take precedence over message delivery.

SP1 incorporates better message tracking features. Along with improved error messages for delivery reports, you will have enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities, such as better event log entries, alerts, and performance monitor counters. There have also been improvements in load balancing and failover in SMTP. In Exchange 2010 RTM, Microsoft introduced shadow redundancy to minimize the loss of any message during delivery after it enters the exchange organization. However, when Exchange receives messages from hosts that don’t support shadow redundancy, Transport servers delay sending acknowledgement to incoming messages until they verify final delivery within the organization. When a specific threshold was reached, the Transport server issued an acknowledgement even if final delivery wasn't verified. This presented a scenario where messages received from hosts that don't support shadow redundancy could be lost in transit.

To address this issue, a new feature called shadow redundancy promotion is introduced in Exchange 2010 SP1. Now, instead of issuing an acknowledgment without delivery confirmation, a Transport server now routes the message to any other Transport server within the site so that the message is protected by shadow redundancy.

Permissions
Database scope support now provides control over which database mailboxes can be created and/or managed for given set of administrators. Active Directory split permissions now completely separate the administrative capabilities of Exchange administrators from the Active Directory administrator. You can also now create and manage management role groups and management role assignment policies in the Exchange Control Panel. You can also now use the Exchange Management Console to configure client permissions for public folders.

Mailbox and Recipient Functionality
In Exchange 2010 RTM, upon completion of a mailbox move, the mailbox on the source database was deleted and was therefore not recoverable. If a mailbox server failover on the target database occurred, the mailbox move was interrupted and data loss for the mailbox being moved could occur.

Exchange 2010 SP1 now performs a soft-delete for the mailbox on the source database. This allows you to recover the mailbox in the event failover or data loss. The soft-deleted mailboxes will be retained in the source database until either the deleted mailbox retention period expires or the mailbox is purged. As a result of this change, if you're performing mailbox moves to reduce the amount of space being used in a database, you must also perform the additional step of purging the soft-deleted mailbox. Soft-deleted mailboxes can't be reconnected, but using the MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlets set, you can restore a soft-deleted mailbox.

Internet calendar publishing
This feature allows users in the Exchange organization to share Outlook calendars with an Internet audience. Prior to Exchange Server 2010 SP1, sharing user calendar information required a federation trust and an organization relationship or sharing policy with another federated organization. Now users in your Exchange organization can share their calendars with anyone that has access to the Internet.

The Calendar Repair Assistant (CRA)
CRA, which was introduced in Exchange 2010 RTM, detects and corrects inconsistencies that occur for single and recurring meeting items. The Calendar Repair Assistant now checks for and detects the following new scenarios:
• The attendee's calendar is missing an occurrence or an exception of a meeting.
• The attendee's start/end time doesn't match the organizer's start/end time, including time zone inconsistencies.
• The attendee's meeting location is different than the organizer's meeting location.
• The meeting organizer's calendar is missing an item.
• The attendee's recurrence pattern of a meeting series is different than the organizer's recurrence pattern.

High Availability
Exchange 2010 RTM includes a configuration mode for DAG site resilience support called datacenter activation coordination (DAC) mode. In DAC mode, Exchange cmdlets can be used to perform a data center switchover. Prior to SP1, DAC mode has been limited to DAGs with at least three members with at least two or more members in the primary data center.

In Exchange 2010 SP1, DAC mode has been extended to support two-member DAGs with each having members in a separate data center. Support for two-member DAGs uses the witness server to provide additional arbitration. In addition, DAC mode has been extended to support DAGs that have all members deployed in a single Active Directory site, including single Active Directory sites that have been extended to multiple locations.

Microsoft has also added and/or enhanced several scripts for easier management and monitoring of high availability services. The EMC also now provides an interface to configure the IP address and alternate witness server settings for DAGs.

Message Policy/Compliance
SP1 now provides the ability to provision personal archive on different mailbox database than the one that hosts the primary mailbox, as well as the ability to delegate access to personal archive, import/export mailbox data to/ from .pst files directly to archive or primary mailbox using new-mailboximportrequest.
There are also new retention policy management features (wizards) in the EMC. You can also now create and/or use retention policy tags for calendar and tasks default folders, default retention and archive policy, opt-in personal tags (allowing users with a retention policy assigned to use ECP to select and use personal tags not included in their policy).

Enhancements have been made to the multi-mailbox search feature. A preview of search results is now available, providing an estimate of number items returned by search before items copied to discovery mailbox. This will allow administrators of the search to make decisions regarding changing search criteria before rendering results that are not desired. Administrators can also now add annotations to search results and request to use data de-duplication, which will provide only a single instance of a message returned across multiple folders within the same mailbox or across different mailboxes.

WebReady document viewing of IRM content now allows users to view protected content without having to download protected messages in OWA.

The list of new features and enhancements provided by SP1 includes more than just the few topics mentioned here! You can find references to this information, as well as more details at the following locations:
www.msexchangeteam.com
www.technet.com

You can also learn more about Exchange Server 2010 in Microsoft course 10135: Configure, Manage and Troubleshoot Exchange Server 2010

VMware 4 Advanced!

2010-08-31T15:54:00.002-05:00

You asked for a class that goes beyond the installation and configuration of VMware 4 - we deliver!

This 5-day class will provide students with CLI experience and tools that will help them “get under the hood” of ESX and troubleshoot more effectively. The class uses both CLI and GUI tools to troubleshoot and learn about the ESX environment. This class is approximately 50% lab and 50% lecture. The class ends on the 4th day, with the 5th day as a full lab. This lab will include an advanced Scripted Installation that takes advantage of the commands used in class, additional advanced CLI troubleshooting exercises, as well as a “hands on lab test”. Students who successfully pass the lab test will be awarded a certificate for completion of the lab.

http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-VMWAR42---VMware-4-Advanced.aspx

Please let me know if you would like additional information regarding this course.

Looking forward to seeing you in class soon!

Margaret

All About Delegates

2010-08-27T09:50:00.014-05:00

Delegates are crucial to understand some of the basic functionality in .Net. Delegates form the basis for events and event handling, LINQ, and many other parts of the system. However, delegates can be a tough thing to understand. There are several problems understanding what delegates are and how they work. So, before we get into the nitty gritty, let's start with things we already DO understand so we have something to which to relate delegates.

In order to understand how I am going to explain delegates, you need to understand the difference between a class and an object. If you are not sure about that difference, what I am about to explain probably isn't going to make much sense. Come and take a good object-oriented class from us, such as MS6367 and I'll be glad to teach these concepts to you.

Assuming you are comfortable with the difference between a class and an object, let's press on. Here's some definitions that Microsoft has for delegates:

Delegate: A delegate is a type that references a method.; A data structure that refers to a static method or to a class instance and an instance method of that class.; A delegate declaration defines a reference type that can be used to encapsulate a method with a specific signature. A delegate instance encapsulates a static or an instance method. Delegates are roughly similar to function pointers in C++; however, delegates are type-safe and secure.

Are you clear now? Hmm, thought not. That's why you have people like me to cut through the jargon.

When we do object-oriented programming, we understand the difference between a class and an object. A class is what defines the fields, properties, methods, and events that an object will have once the class is instantiated (Note: I am ignoring Shared (VB)/static (C#) declarations for now). In order to use the fields/properties/methods/events we define in a class, we need to instantiate the class into an object using the New (VB)/new (C#) operator. When we do so, we understand that we declare a variable to hold the memory address of the object that is going to be created. In the example below, the first line declares the variable, called "acct", that is going to hold the memory reference to the created object. The second line instantiates the class into an object, and stores the memory reference to that object in the variable "acct".

Example 1 - VB

Example 1 - C#

One of the difficulties with delegates is that there are two parts to a delegate: the delegate definition, and the delegate instance. In the object-oriented world, we use the word class to refer to the definition, and object to refer to the instance. When using delegates, we use the same term delegate to refer to both the definition and the instance. In this article, I will try to maintain the distinction between the delegate definition and the delegate instance.

In Example 2, I am going to write a simple program that iterates over a collection of integers and turn each integer into a string, placing each converted item into a second collection.

Example 2 - VB

Example 2 - C#

Note: I know I could have written this example with one loop instead of two. Be patient, my young Padawan. Also, note that there are absolutely NO DELEGATES in this example. This is the basis from which we start our journey to understanding delegates.

The first thing we are going to do in our example program is to write a delegate definition. When we write a delegate definition, the important thing is that the number and types of parameters (the method's signature), as well as the return type, are the same in the delegate definition as the method which is going to be delegated. We are going to create a delegate for the Transform method, so our delegate definition is going to have to accept a single parameter of datatype Integer/int, and return a String/string. The first line in the next example defines a delegate definition, which I have conveniently named DelegateDef. Other than the first line, the example is exactly the same as the previous example.

Example 3 - VB

Example 3 - C#

Next, we are going to create a delegate instance. In the following example, I instantiate the delegate and use it instead of calling the Transform method directly. Notice first the definition of the variable del, assigned the datatype DelegateDef. Notice also the way I call the Transform method in the first For/for loop - I am calling it using the del variable, not calling Transform directly.

Example 4 - VB

Example 4 - C#

Effectively, delegates are a variable which holds a memory address of a method. We can execute that method by invoking the memory reference to that method, passing the same parameters and getting the same return type as if we had run the method directly. It's a little like having a garage door opener. Instead of being in the garage and pushing the button on the wall (invoking the method directly), we push the button on the remote control unit (invoke the delegate). In either case, the garage door opens (the method executes).

At this point my students usually stop me and inform me in no uncertain terms that this is stupid, that I have just written a bunch of extra lines of code that just make things harder to read. Surprisingly enough, I completely agree. In my defense I must say that these examples are put together to explain what delegates are, not how we typically use them. We don't use them in this way. You'll see an example of the power of delegates a bit later. Be patient, my young Padawan.

Using the Invoke method on a delegate instance is not the only way to run the delegated method. You can invoke the delegate by treating it just as if it were the method itself, as shown. If you can't spot the difference between this example and the last, examine the first For/for loop.

Example 5 - VB

Example 5 - C#

To wind up our discussion, now that you know what delegates are, I need to show you how to use them. To do so, I am going to use a pre-defined delegate definition that has been supplied to us in the .Net class library. It is called Converter<T, U>, and it is used to create a delegate instance to a method that converts from one datatype to another. Notice that in Example 6 below, we have removed our delegate definition named DelegateDef because we are using the built-in Converter<T, U> delegate definition.

Example 6 - VB

Example 6 - C#

Finally, we get to the power of delegates. Now that we have a delegate instance of datatype Converter<T, U>, we can pass the delegate as a parameter. In the following example, we have eliminated the first For/for loop. Instead, we call the ConvertAll Shared/static method from the Array class. Notice we are passing del, our delegate instance, as the second parameter to the ConvertAll method.

What happens is that the ConvertAll method has its own internal For/for loop to loop over all the elements of the numbers() array. What it does internally is invoke the Transform method, via the delegate instance named del, to change each member of the array from an integer to a string. In essence, it is running the Transform method by remote control. Take awhile to look at this example and get used to the idea of passing a delegate instance as a parameter.

Example 7 - VB

Example 7 - C#

You've seen in this article that understanding what delegates are is not terribly challenging. Once we understand the difference between a delegate definition and a delegate instance, understanding what delegates is easy enough. What is challenging is understanding what we can do with delegates once we have them instantiated. Once we have a delegate instance, we can pass that delegate instance as a parameter, allowing other parts of our program to run methods defined in this code file.

This ability to pass delegates around in our programs allows for many unique abilities. Example 7 is just a simple example of the power of delegates. Hopefully this article gives you a better idea of what delegates are and how to use them. In particular, the LINQ technology (which we teach in our C# New Technology 2008, Data Access in Visual Studio 2010, and ADO.Net courses) makes extensive use of delegates to perform its awesome capability.

2010-08-24T15:15:00.002-05:00

Microsoft
System Center
Configuration Manager

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/configuration-manager.aspx

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 comprehensively assesses, deploys, and updates servers, client computers, and devices-across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments. Optimized for Windows, it is the best choice for gaining enhanced insight into and control over IT systems. With up to 70% of a system’s total cost being incurred in the form of maintenance, effectively managing a company's IT infrastructure is one of the best ways to help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO).

System Center Configuration Manager, optimized for Windows and tightly integrated with Windows 7, maximizes infrastructure investments and drives greater efficiency. Used globally for configuration management by more enterprises than any other solution – System Center Configuration Manager is the solution to ensure confidence whether your organization is large or small. System Center Configuration Manager intelligently automates IT systems management to reduce costs and to help organizations manage their global infrastructures more quickly and more precisely to improve visibility and control.

To learn more about System Center Configuration Manager please join us for
Plan, Depl & Manage System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Visit our web site at http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

2010-08-17T13:41:00.011-05:00

Don’t Come Here for Training!

One of the hooks advertisers use to lure in potential customers is a shocking tagline or title. Here at LRS Education Services we can play that game as well. Seriously, traveling to a training center is SOOOO 2009. In order to help YOUR bottom line LRS Education Services will begin offering virtual training in our public classes in Q4 2010. Think of it, no need to get up early, drive or fly to one of our (admittedly fantastic) training centers in order to get the high quality training you need to improve your job skills. Your accounting folks will appreciate the savings on travel expenses and you won’t miss time with your family. Train from your office or even your home. It’s a win-win!

How does it work?

LRS will offer classes with various options as follows:

Traditional instructor-led format: Completely physical, all attendees either coming to our location or LRS sending one of our certified trainers to you.

Physical and Virtual: Features of the P&V format include some students sitting in a classroom while others are scattered around the globe! Remote students will be able to see and hear what is going on in the classroom, complete hands-on labs on a powerful system within the LRS classroom, view the instructor’s computer… and have full voice participation to interact and ask questions.

Virtual: All virtual baby! No students in the room and everyone join the class via a remote connection. Same quality as P&V but with no physical bodies sitting in our classroom.

Things to keep in mind:

You’ll need to make sure you have good, consistent broadband connectivity.
We will send you a USB headset with microphone and instructions to connect to your LRS training class.

More to come on virtual training! Keep your eyes on our site at http://www.lrs.com/education/ and make sure you are following us on Facebook.

2010-08-09T11:16:00.001-05:00

What is ITIL?
(http://www.itil-officialsite.com/AboutITIL/WhatisITIL.asp)

ITIL® is the most widely adopted approach for IT Service Management in the world. It provides a practical, no-nonsense framework for identifying, planning, delivering and supporting IT services to the business.

ITIL: Overview and Benefits

ITIL advocates that IT services must be aligned to the needs of the business and underpin the core business processes. It provides guidance to organisations on how to use IT as a tool to facilitate business change, transformation and growth.

The ITIL best practices are currently detailed within five core publications which provide a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT services, enabling organisations to deliver appropriate services and continually ensure they are meeting business goals and delivering benefits.

The five core guides map the entire ITIL Service Lifecycle, beginning with the identification of customer needs and drivers of IT requirements, through to the design and implementation of the service into operation and finally, on to the monitoring and improvement phase of the service.

Adopting ITIL can offer users a huge range of benefits that include:

-improved IT services
-reduced costs
-improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery
-improved productivity
-improved use of skills and experience
-improved delivery of third party service

To prepare for the ITIL v3 Certification exam, please visit us for http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-ATITIL3---ITILv3-Foundation.aspx

We've Moved our Bloomington Facility!

2010-07-27T13:24:00.004-05:00

We moved into our new Bloomington Education Facility last week! Thanks to all of our packers, movers, technical folks and patient students!

Our first class, MS6232: Implementing a SQL Server 2008 Database, is running smoothly! We look forward to scheduling an open house once we are completely settled and inviting clients and vendors to attend a tour!

As a reminder, our new address and phone number is posted below:

1709 Tullamore Avenue, Suite C
Bloomington, IL 61704

Office: 309-433-9240
Fax: 309-662-7282

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at our new facility!

Margaret

What employers are looking for as the recovery continues

2010-06-30T13:50:00.003-05:00

I found an interesting article that included data from a survey of 2,700 hiring and HR professionals, conducted by CareerBuilder and USA Today, that indicates thirty two percent of those employers are worried about their top employees leaving as the job market picks up. To prevent this, 14 percent are providing more training as part of their retention program!

Here is a link to the complete article:
https://www.hrtools.com/news/alerts/job_market_showing_gradual_improvement_according_to_quarterly_job_forecast_from_careerbuilder_and_usa_today.aspx

Contact one of our LRS Education Consultants at 877.832.0688 Ext. 1493 to discuss how we can assist your organization with an education solution to assist with your retention program!

Margaret

SQL 2008 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

2010-06-25T08:26:00.003-05:00

The need to protect data from unauthorized viewing and use has been an issue for decades. We protect data in transit using IPSEC. We have the ability to protect a directory and associated files through the use of the Encrypting File System (EFS). The release of Windows Vista and Windows 7 allows for the use of BitLocker Drive Encryption. SQL 2005 introduced the capability to encrypt individual columns of data; the arrival of SQL 2008 Enterprise Edition however; now allows for the encryption of an entire database within the scope of a SQL instance.

Various regulatory standards bodies require differing types of data to be handled securely. Examples of these bodies include Sarbanes-Oxley, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, (PCI DSS) among others. As mentioned earlier, SQL 2005 allows for encrypting columns of data, but this requires a change to the underlying schema of the database, a change to the applications that access the data and the loss of the capability to sort or query the data while it is encrypted. This is where SQL 2008 TDE shines.

TDE allows for the encryption of data at rest. This means that the database is always encrypted and this capability does not require changes to applications nor do you lose the ability to query or sort the data. It is invoked on a database by database level and is totally transparent to the end user. When SQL Server is installed a Service Master Key is created for that instance of SQL. This is a symmetric key that can be seen by starting:

SQL Server Management Studio, (SSMS) >> opening Object Explorer, drill into the instance of SQL Server >> Databases >> System Databases >> Master >> Security >> Symmetric Keys.

You will see an object labeled ##MS_ServiceMasterKey##, this is the symmetric key created automatically when SQL Server was installed. This is the key which is used to create the database master key used by TDE for the encryption of the database. You can also view this key by connection to the master database and querying a system catalog view:

SELECT * FROM sys.symmetric_keys

You will then create the database master key and the associated certificate. The database master key does not create an object in Object Explorer.

Examples of the syntax to create the key and certificate are:

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘Password’
GO
CREATE CERTIFICATE GetDataCert
AUTHORIZATION Somebody
WITH SUBJECT ‘Data Certificate’
GO
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY GetDataKey
AUTHORIZATION Somebody
WITH ALGORITHM = TRIPLE_DES
ENCRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE GetDataCert
GO

After creation, the presence of this key can be viewed in Object Explorer

SQL Server Management Studio, (SSMS) >> opening Object Explorer, drill into the instance of SQL Server >> Databases >> System Databases >> Name of Database >> Security >> Symmetric Keys.

Or by connecting to the user database and running this query:

SELECT * FROM sys.symmetric_keys

You can determine if a database is protected with TDE through the use of the following query:

SELECT db_name(database_id), encryption_state FROM sys.dm_database_encryption_keys

When accessing data which is typically done through a stored procedure, you would start it in the following way:

EXECUTE AS USER = ‘Somebody’
OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY GetDataKey DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE GetDataCert

REVERT

The wonderful thing about TDE is that the data is always encrypted while at rest, this includes any backups that are made of the database. Other than invoking TDE, there are no required changes to existing applications, stored procedures, views, user defined functions, etc. Many in IT expect that encryption of data at rest will become a regulatory requirement in the days ahead. SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition Transparent Data Encryption positions you squarely to meet these upcoming requirements. LRS offers courses, MS6158 and MS6231 which provide in-depth coverage of this topic.

A+ Certification

2010-06-21T16:27:00.001-05:00

A+ Certification
http://www.comptia.org/certifications/listed/a.aspx

The CompTIA A+ certification is the industry standard for computer support technicians. The international, vendor-neutral certification proves competence in areas such as installation, preventative maintenance, networking, security and troubleshooting. CompTIA A+ certified technicians also have excellent customer service and communication skills to work with clients.

CompTIA A+ is part of the certification track for corporations such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Novell. Other technology companies, including CompuCom and Ricoh, have made CompTIA A+ certification mandatory for their service technicians. More than 700,000 people worldwide have become CompTIA A+ certified since the program’s inception in 1993.

The latest version of CompTIA A+ is CompTIA A+ 2009 Edition. Two exams are necessary to be certified: CompTIA A+ Essentials, exam code 220-701; and CompTIA A+ Practical Application, exam code 220-702. CompTIA A+ Essentials measures the necessary competencies of an entry-level IT professional with a recommended 500 hours of hands-on experience in the lab or field. It tests for technical understanding of computer technology, networking and security, as well as the communication skills and professionalism now required of all entry-level IT professionals. CompTIA A+ Practical Application is an extension of the knowledge and skills identified in CompTIA A+ Essentials, with more of a "hands-on" orientation focused on scenarios in which troubleshooting and tools must be applied to resolve problems.

Visit us for A+ 2009 CompTIA® A+® Certification: 2009 Comprehensive Objectives at our Springfield Education Center July 19th, 2010!

Don't forget to visit us at our website: http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

New Bloomington Training Center Opens in July!

2010-06-15T14:37:00.003-05:00

For those who attend training at our Bloomington Education facility, we're moving!

Later this summer we will be opening our brand new facility located at 1709 Tullamore Avenue in Bloomington, Illinois. Our new location is approximately 3 miles southeast of our current facility. Here is a map link to our new facility:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Tullamore+Avenue,+Bloomington,+IL&sll=40.484203,-88.993687&sspn=0.100142,0.153637&g=Bloomington,+IL&ie=UTF8&hq=Tullamore+Avenue,&hnear=Bloomington,+McLean,+Illinois&ll=40.47111,-88.954067&spn=0.100161,0.153637&z=13

Our all new facility is larger and equipped with the latest technology training amenities to better serve the needs of our students.

Classes scheduled AFTER July 19, 2010 will be scheduled at our new location! We look forward to seeing you there!

Margaret

Get Certified!: Linux+

2010-06-02T15:37:00.002-05:00

(http://www.comptia.org/certifications/listed/linux.aspx)

CompTIA Linux+, Powered by LPI, is a high-stakes, vendor-neutral certification that validates the fundamental knowledge and skills required of junior Linux administrators.

CompTIA Linux+, Powered by LPI, consists of two exams, LX0-101 and LX0-102. The exams cover system architecture; Linux installation and package management; GNU and Unix commands; devices, Linux filesystems, and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Professionals who pass the CompTIA Linux+ exam can work at the Linux command line, perform maintenance tasks, assist users, and install and configure workstations.

Earning CompTIA Linux+ is a stepping stone to vendor-specific training, such as Oracle Certified Associate and Novell SUSE Linux programs.

A new benefit for CompTIA Linux+ candidates is that they may choose, at the time they take the exams, to have their exam record forwarded to the Linux Professional Institute. Certification in CompTIA Linux+, Powered by LPI, enables candidates to become certified in LPIC-1 as well, enabling further participation in the LPI program if the candidate chooses. Please note that CompTIA maintains candidate-confidential records for all exam takers, for their own access and use for employment or educational purposes. Any choice to forward a CompTIA Linux+ exam record to LPI is made only by the candidate.

Visit us for Linux+ Certification at our Bloomington facility on June 14th, 2010!

Deployment of Desktop and Server Operating Systems using WDS

2010-05-25T13:13:00.022-05:00

Over the years, I have used many deployment and imaging methods including but not limited to: OS Installation Answer files, Ghost, Power Quest PQDI and ZENworks. Each of these methods had pros and cons as a complete deployment choice. Most of the cons center around the following: cost of the product, inflexible methods of creating and updating boot images to connect to your deployment server, and inefficient methods of managing existing images (such as adding updates, patches and drivers). Let me introduce you to a Microsoft Product that can eliminate most, if not all, of these cons.

Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is a free server role and it is the replacement for RIS (Remote Installation Service). WDS allows you to deploy both Windows workstation and server operating systems using manual, Lite Touch, or fully automated methods.

I prefer WDS over other imaging solutions because it supports Offline Image Services. Offline Image Servicing means that I can add patches, updates, drivers, files and folders to the image without having to drop the image on a target machine – edit the image – then save it. With MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit), I can also attach an MSI application to an image to automatically be installed. For example, I could have Office 2007 installed automatically with the Image Deployment.

Windows Deployment Services provides the following benefits:

• Allows network-based installation of Windows operating systems, which reduces the complexity and cost when compared to manual installations.
• Supports mixed environments including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 through Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Uses standard Windows Setup technologies including Windows Pre-Installation Environment (Windows PE), .wim files, and image-based setup.
• Uses PXE Boot to eliminate the creation of Boot CDs or DVDs.
• Supports transmissions of data and images by using multicast functionality.
• Allows the creation of images of a reference computer using the GUI based Image Capture Wizard, which is an alternative to the ImageX tool.
• Allows you to add driver packages to the server and configure them to be deployed to client computers along with the install image. In addition, you can add driver packages (such as network adapter drivers, mass storage drivers, and bus drivers) to your Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 boot images.
• Allows you to deploy virtual hard disk (.vhd) images as part of an automated deployment.
• And remember it is FREE!

WDS Console
The WDS Console is the main tool to manage your images. The WDS Console can be accessed directly from the server, or from a MMC, at your administration workstation.

Using the WDS Console, you can configure the following:

• Install Images folder contains the images you have placed on your WDS Server.

• Boot Images folder contains the boot images that WDS will use when your machine uses PXE. You could have a few boot images, depending upon which operating system you will be deploying, and if some hardware supports 64-bit technology and others only support 32-bit.

• Pending Devices and Multicast Transmissions folders allow you to configure multicast sessions and control the computers in the multicast group.

• Drivers folder allows you to slip stream drivers to be delivered with your image. This is a great method to have a basic image and add drivers for a wide variety of your hardware.

Overview of major WDS tasks

After you have configured your images, patches, drivers and updates in the WDS Console, you are ready to deploy an image.

1. PXE boot the target machine by pressing [F12]. Your WDS Server is automatically located.

2. Select the desired Boot Image from WDS.

3. Wait while boot image loads.

4. Select the correct Locale and Keyboard or Input Method language.

5. Logon as your domain account.

6. Select your Image.

7. Select the Hard Drive and Partition you would like to use.

8. A progress screen will display the image being applied as well as the drivers, patches, and updates.

9. Once the machine has received an image, it will automatically reboot.

LRS offers 2 courses which fully explain the Deployment process including WDS and MDT:

MS6294: Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments*

MS6418: Deploying Windows Server 2008
*Deploying XP is also discussed in the MS6294 course.

What's Happening to the Microsoft Certification Application Specialist (MCAS) credential?

2010-05-24T15:49:00.002-05:00

Back in 2007, the Microsoft Certification Application Specialist (MCAS) credential was introduced to support Microsoft Office Suite 2007. In less than three years, hundreds of thousands of students, professionals, and home users have become MCAS-certified on Office products.
While this certification is recognized worldwide as the official credential for Word 2007, Excel 2007, and other Office 2007 applications, it is often confused with the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification, which is used to validate individuals’ skills using previous versions of Office, including Office 2000, Office XP or Office 2003.
To simplify the Microsoft Office certification program, starting on June 1, 2010, MCAS will be formally renamed MOS 2007. If you earned an MCAS certification, your certification is still relevant and valued in the marketplace! The program’s name change does not change program requirements or exam content, nor does it affect your credential. And don’t worry, you don’t have to go get recertified. Starting June 2nd, you will be able to view and print your updated transcript as well as update your virtual business cards here. You will also be able to print out or order an updated certificate and proudly display the new MOS logo from here.

http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2010/05/18/what-s-happening-to-mcas.aspx

2010-05-17T14:26:00.002-05:00

What's new in Windows 7: Faster & easier

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/windows-7/whats-new.aspx

Improved taskbar and full-screen previews
The taskbar at the bottom of your screen is what you use to launch programs and switch between them when they're open. In Windows 7 you can pin any program to the taskbar so it’s always just a click away, and you can rearrange the icons on the taskbar just by clicking and dragging. We’ve made the icons considerably bigger, too, so they’re easier to use. Hover over the icons and you’ll see thumbnails of every file or window that open in that program, and if you hover over the thumbnail, you’ll see a full-screen preview of that window. Move the cursor off the thumbnail and the full-screen preview disappears.

Faster, more responsive performance

Nobody likes to wait, so we all want our PCs to perform well. We looked at a number of ways to improve performance on PCs running Windows 7. We designed the operating system to be more responsive and simpler to use.

To improve performance, Windows 7 is designed to make PCs start up, shut down, resume from standby, and respond faster. To help you zip through your day, we’ve added new features to simplify the number of steps required to do common things. Some of the features that’ll help you save time include:
§ Windows Taskbar simplifies working with your applications and files
§ Jump Lists put the documents you want handy and the ones you’ve used recently a couple clicks away

We’ve also focused on making it more convenient to work with the operating system. For example, the Action Center gives you more control over how the operating system notifies you about system changes. You can recover more quickly from problems when they do occur because when you’re ready to address issues, Windows 7 will help you fix them.

To learn more about Windows 7 visit us at LRS Education Services for:

MS6292 Installing and Configuring Windows 7

MS6294 Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments-

Don't forget to visit us at our website: http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

2010-05-10T11:34:00.001-05:00

Windows Server 2008 High Availability Strategy

(http://www.petri.co.il/windows-server-2008-scenarios.htm)

Windows Server 2008 provides increased system availability to maximize system uptime and increase productivity. By actively monitoring the state of installed roles and displaying proactive data about potential failures, it helps IT Professionals reduce potential downtime. Failover Clustering as part of Windows Server 2008 provides new features that an organization can use to implement a High Availability strategy, making cluster servers a smart business choice for the enterprise. A new cluster creation wizard and management interface provides the IT professional with a simple interface to create, manage, and use clustered servers. New tools reduce cluster configuration setup and maintenance issues. By using the new Validate Tool in failover clusters, you can perform tests to determine whether your system, storage, and network configuration is suitable for a cluster. New functionality allows implementation in geographically dispersed environments, allowing the technology to adapt to the customer’s environment.

To learn more about Clustering as a part of Windows Server 2008, join us for Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Clustering

High Availability for Exchange 2010

2010-05-04T14:41:00.003-05:00

How much do you rely on your email system? What would happen to productivity within your organization if your email system failed even for just a short period of time? These concerns bring about the topic of high availability.

A highly available system is typically one defined as having only a few hours of acceptable downtime in a given timeframe. For example, a system with 99.999% availability is considered to be unavailable for about only 5 minutes in a given year. With email being a major communication component of most organizations today, availability of these systems and their services has become a true focus. Exchange Server 2010 has introduced new concepts and many needed improvements for mailbox availability.

Let's first take a quick look at how mailbox availability was addressed in previous Exchange server versions.

Exchange 2003 and 2007 both utilized the services of Windows Failover Clustering. While 2003 offered what we may call traditional active/active or active/passive windows clustering, 2007 introduced the concepts of SCC (single copy cluster), an active/passive only multi-node failover cluster, LCR (local continuous replication), a single server solution offering database availability but no server failover, CCR (cluster continuous replication), a two node active/passive failover cluster, and SCR (standby continuous replication), offered with SP1, this solution provided an offline copy of the mailbox databases which could be kept in an offsite datacenter.

In these implementations, the clustering solutions needed to be configured from the beginning of your deployment (prior to installing and configuring the Mailbox server role), making it somewhat difficult to later add additional servers. Also, the failover of a failed node occurred at the server level, causing potentially unnecessary service disruption to those users with mailboxes on still functioning databases. Another potential drawback was that in Exchange 2007, a CCR environment supported only the role of the Mailbox server. The Hub and Client Access server roles needed to be deployed separately and apart from the Mailbox server. Now, even though the Mailbox server was highly available, the Hub and CAS still provided a single point of failure. If considering the availability of these roles, additional hardware and configurations were still necessary. So, in all, you may have been looking at a minimum four server solution for availability, but still no true disaster recovery solution was in place. While the addition of SCR provided the necessary option for offsite disaster recover, this process, however, required some effort and technical expertise.

Exchange Server 2010 takes the best of all of these previous options and brings about what we now know as Database Availability Groups (DAG). With DAG, we now have the option of performing incremental deployments allowing for additional servers to be added at any time with minimal effort. Meaning, the DAG can be created anytime after installing the Mailbox server role, and members can be added to the DAG group with minimal effort at any later time. We also are no longer required to separate the Hub/CAS roles from the Mailbox role as this deployment will now support the combination of these roles on a single server. Not only does this increase and simplify your high availability environment, but you could also experience a reduction in costs of licensing and hardware!

A DAG allows up to 16 servers as its members for replication and up to 16 copies of any single database across these servers (with only one copy allowed per server). A new feature of Exchange 2010 called the "Active Manager" runs on all Mailbox servers that are DAG members. This component has replaced the previous failover management features of earlier Exchange versions. The Active Manager now determines which copies of the database will be active or passive, handles notifications of changes to the replication topology and detects failures to the local database and local Information Store.

DAGs also provide average database failover time around 30 seconds (compared to 2 minutes with CCR). Notice that was "database" failover. A big benefit of DAG is that failovers no longer occur at the server level, but now occur at the individual database level. So, we can now failover a single failed database and not cause disruption to users unnecessarily.

DAGs do still utilize the functionality of failover clustering as our previous versions did, but administrators no longer have to go through the painstaking motions of installing and configuring windows clusters for the DAG to function. All management of the DAG is done right within the Exchange environment, which makes life here much simpler. Oh, and for those of you previously left out of the cluster environment because you weren't running the Enterprise edition - welcome back! Exchange 2010 Standard now allows for up to 5 DAG databases (compared to the 100 databases allowed now in Enterprise).

All in all, it is now much more simple to deploy both a highly available and fault tolerant Exchange environment. It may also be worth noting that according to Microsoft, Exchange 2010 has a 90% reduction in IOPS from Exchange 2003, so cheaper storage options may also be in your future. To make matters even better, if deploying three or more database copies, Microsoft even recommends leaving your RAID 5 or RAID 10 disks configurations and instead move to a single SATA disk per database and transaction log files.

While a DAG is one of the most noted new features of Exchange 2010, it most certainly is not the only feature making administrators take a closer look at this product. More information on these features can be found in Microsoft Course 10135: Configuring, Managing and Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2010.

References:
www.technet.microsoft.com
www.msexchange.org
www.swinc.com
www.msexchangegeek.com

Student Feedback!

2010-04-26T11:02:00.000-05:00

We worked with LRS to customize the course, which added a level of benifit that we wouldn't normally have seen. The class was also limited to "just" our employees from the effected dept. Give the customization and Troy's flexibility during class, we were able to spend a great deal
more time applying the concepts and tools to our company's situation - this proved invaluable to the learning experience. I know that this is not a "normal" scenario for these classes, but if anyone has the opportunity to recreate these circumstance, I would HIGHLY recommend it...

2010-04-20T09:05:00.003-05:00

FREE SOFTWARE AND CERTIFICATION EXAM VOUCHERS

Information provided by: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/Career/en/us/career-offer.aspx#classroom

Take control of your career with these classroom training offers
Attend any of the following Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008 classes and receive a free licensed copy of the software and a free certification exam voucher

Levi Ray and Shoup Education Center can help you learn a new technology or prepare for a new job role with comprehensive, interactive training options. Our instructor-led classroom training courses are delivered by Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs)—industry-recognized experts

Technology & Exam Titles

Windows 7
Course 6292: Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client (maps to Exam 70-680)
Course 6294: Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments (maps to Exam 70-686)

Windows Server 2008
Course 6419: Configuring, Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Servers (maps to Exams 70-640*, 70-642*, and 70-646*)
Course 6421: Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure (maps to Exam 70-642)
Course 6430: Planning and Administering Windows Server 2008 Servers (maps to Exam 70-646)

Windows Server 2008 R2
Course 10159: What’s New in Windows Server 2008 R2
Coming soon: Classes start May 2010

SQL Server 2008
Course 6158: Updating Your SQL Server 2005 Skills to SQL Server 2008 (maps to Exam 70-453*) Coming soon: Classes start May 2010
Course 6231: Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database (maps to Exam 70-432*) Coming soon: Classes start May 2010
Course 6232: Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database (maps to Exam 70-433*) Coming soon: Classes start May 2010

Timing: The Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 packages are available until June 30, 2010, and the SQL Server 2008 R2 packages are available until August 31, 2010, while supplies last. The certification exam vouchers in these packages are valid until December 31, 2010, and can only be used with an exam associated with that specific technology

Don't forget to visit us at our website: http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

Hyper-V R2 vs. VMWare: Feature Comparison

2010-04-13T09:16:00.007-05:00

To learn more about Hyper-V and VMWare, join us for Implement and Manage Win Srv 2008 Hyper-V on April 26th or Virtualization with VMware ESX4 and vCenter 4 on May 3rd.

2010-04-05T10:47:00.002-05:00

Citrix XenApp 5.0

Plan for Desktop Flexibility Using Virtualization

(http://biztechmagazine.com/article.asp?item_id=532)

Desktop Virtualization is a hot trend these days because it adds great flexibility to desktop deployments. Each desktop can be brought into a virtual session and can be streamed to any desktop in your company. An accurate snapshot of each user’s desktop can be made without reinventing the wheel.

Remote users can access their virtual desktop as easily as they did while sitting in the office. Also, with virtualization, dealing with roaming profiles is a thing of the past — the entire virtual image is what roams. Users will definitely appreciate the ability to access their unique PC from anywhere.
From an administrative standpoint, Windows Roaming Profiles can be a challenge. When you log into a workstation and you use Outlook, you need to set up Outlook so it has the same settings that you had on your other workstation. In a Citrix environment, all of the settings are saved on the server. When a user logs in, the profile appears on the desktop. The settings are made once and are not workstation dependent. If you log in from the office, from home, from a notebook, a PDA, or even a kiosk, you get the same settings and same desktop without needing to reconfigure any preferences or settings.

Desktop virtualization improves desktop backup dramatically. If an image fails, it is easy to roll back to a previous snapshot of the virtual desktop image and deploy it in a matter of minutes. This is a huge time saver over Ghost and other methods that get stalled users back in business.
'Although you will need a bit more hard-disk space in order to save all of these desktop images, you will likely need less space overall than you think. Citrix XenDesktop provides a centralized image upon which all other images are built. For example: Windows XP or Vista will take a gigabyte of space and Microsoft Office suite another half a gigabyte. This 1.5GB can be utilized by all users, cutting down the amount of required server disk space significantly. It creates a Delta Base, resulting in as few disk writes as possible while consolidating files companywide.

To learn more about Citrix XenApp 5.0, join us for Citrix XenApp 5.0 Implement & Administration on April 26th at our Springfield facility.

What's Hot - Security Certifications

2010-03-30T17:17:00.003-05:00

“Hacker alert!” “Our information is contaminated!” “File corrupted!” “A virus has infected our system!...”

As an IT professional who works with cyber security, these are normal statements. You hear them, and deal with them, on a regular basis. But – do you have the certifications to show that you know your salt? My name is Jon Bernardy, and I am the LRS Education Services account representative for corporate accounts in the Springfield, IL and nearby surrounding areas. I came across a very informative, and quick to read, article on current Security Certifications. Check it out, and make sure you have these certifications to show that your skills meet industry benchmarks!

What's Hot: Security Certifications
It's widely known that the demand for IT Security professionals is one of the largest growing sectors in the IT field overall. As a result, employers are using certifications more and more as their baseline for evaluating job applicants. Let's take a look at some of the most common IT Security certifications and how they can be applied.

CompTIA Security+
-- This, for lack of a better term, is the introductory course into the IT Security field. This class is not highly technical; it is more geared towards learning the terminology used by Security professionals. Obtaining a Security+ cert lets employers know that you "speak the language" and understand the concepts and frameworks essential to becoming an IT Professional.

-- Common job functions might include verifying implementation of security measures for a company's IT systems and also, documenting and presenting your findings to the IT managers.

-- Recommended background is at least 1 year of experience in the field and/or A+ and Network+ certifications. If you possess both, even better.

-- This training is available at LRS! Please contact your LRS Education Services account representative for more information on AT303 – Security+.

EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
-- CEH is a hands-on application course and certification. It is much more technical than the Security+ certification. The focus of this training is to learn and identify the common methods that hackers might use to attack networks and applications. CEH's are positioned within an organization as a means to prevent attacks and shore up existing vulnerabilities in their network.

-- Common job functions will include testing the network and applications for misconfigurations and security risks. It is also likely that a company will have it's CEH professionals handle the tasks of installing and configuring security devices such as firewalls and intrusion prevention/detection systems.

-- Recommended background is certifications in CCNA and MCITP as well as some knowledge of computer programming.

-- This training is available at LRS! Please contact your LRS Education Services account representative for more information on ATCEH6 – Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures v6.0.

EC-Council Certified Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI)
-- CHFI is another fairly technical course and certification. Much like the CEH, the CHFI focuses on learning the ways in which hackers can maliciously attack networks and applications. However, CHFI goes further and teaches how to gather and analyze evidence once an attack has occurred, i.e. forensic data or "fingerprints".

-- Common job functions could include analyzing hard drives of compromised systems, or analyzing the data security devices such as the firewalls and other preventative security systems. Also, CHFI's could be called upon to give expert testimony in court cases involving hacking, fraud, etc.

-- Recommended background is certifications in A+/Net+ and MCITP as well as some knowledge of computer programming.

-- This training is available at LRS! Please contact your local LRS Education Services account representative for more information on ATCHFI – Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator.

Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP)
-- Although this is the highest of the four certifications listed here, it is NOT the most technical. It is a Security concepts course with focus more on upper management security issues, communication, and overall security team management. Common job titles for IT professionals with CISSP will be Information Assurance Manager or Information Systems Security Manager.

-- Common job functions include articulating security issues to upper management and interfacing with the employees who manage the IT Security systems. Professionals with the CISSP certification are highly revered and sought after by organizations looking for qualified personnel to manage their security infrastructure and security teams.

-- It is recommended that those individuals seeking CISSP have the three certifications listed above (Security+, CEH, and CHFI). In addition to those certifications, a minimum of 5 years work experience in the IT Security field is highly recommended.

-- This training is available at LRS! Please contact your LRS Education Services account representative for more information on AT_CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

These days, you can never be too secure. Do some research on the internet and contact your local LRS Education Services account representative to ensure that you are taking the most efficient and cost effective route towards your security certifications for your career path.

Cheers,
Jon

Generating Excel Files Programmatically

2010-03-30T16:30:00.002-05:00

What is the most widely used database in the world? Microsoft Excel! Of course, everyone knows that Excel is a spreadsheet application and not a database, but it sure is convenient to organize information.

As developers, our users often request copies of data in spreadsheet format. There are some nice tools that I am going to share with you in this article to help us generate native Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files for our users.

Business Case

In my particular case, I wanted to generate a large number of files to pull into SharePoint. I was going to use these files to demonstrate SharePoint’s search and index capabilities for a course which I was teaching. I decided to generate formatted spreadsheet files, pulling data from Microsoft’s sample AdventureWorks database to generate the files I needed.

It is possible, of course, to format data in a text-based format such as Comma Separated Value (CSV). Excel will open files formatted this way just fine. There are a couple of problems with this approach. First, you can only embed raw data, no formulas or other features. Second, you can only have one sheet’s worth of data at a time, not multiple sheets. The libraries discussed below overcome those limitations.

The Evolution of the Spreadsheet

The original Excel spreadsheet format was a binary format with an *.xls extension. This format was used as the preferred file format up through Excel 2003. Excel 2007, along with many other changes, also changed the default spreadsheet format. The preferred file format now has an *.xlsx extension. These two formats are quite different.

The *.xlsx format is really just a zip file with a bunch of *.xml files arranged inside. For proof, find or generate a spreadsheet with an *.xlsx extension. Change the file extension from *.xlsx to *.zip, and Windows Explorer will allow you to browse inside the file. You will see there is a number of different *.xml files that make up the contents of the spreadsheet. You can open up any of the *.xml files inside the spreadsheet and use a tool like Notepad to view the contents.

You could use the native .Net Xml capabilities to generate the correct data. You will ultimately find this approach quite challenging, as the Xml formats are quite intricate. The specification is known as Open Office XML. You can find out some general information about this file format at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML.

As an aside, Microsoft now allows spreadsheets to be run on a server farm and served to clients through a browser. The clients do not need a copy of Excel to view and interact with the spreadsheet. The enterprise version of Microsoft’s SharePoint product has a feature called Excel Services that performs all spreadsheet calculations and renders the spreadsheet in a browser window. This capability is part of Microsoft’s business intelligence capabilities, which also includes key performance indicators and dashboard capability. You can find out more at http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-ATSP-BI---SharePoint-2007---Business-Intelligence-Features-using-Excel.aspx.

Microsoft Tools to Generate Office Open XML

Microsoft has provided some tools to help us generate the newer *.xlsx format files. The part of the Office Open XML specification that deals specifically with the format for spreadsheets is called SpreadsheetML. Their toolset to create these files can be found at http://openxmldeveloper.org/articles/8242.aspx.

Now, I cannot speak for the newer version 2.0 API, but I personally tried the version 1.0 API and found it difficult. I spent over a day’s worth of effort trying to figure out the intricacies of the API, then decided that there must be an easier way. And indeed, there is.

Open Source Tools

Microsoft runs a site at http://www.codeplex.com/ that allows members of the development community to contribute code and samples for various projects. One of those projects turned out to be just what I needed. It is called ExcelPackage, and it can be found at http://excelpackage.codeplex.com/. You will need to have .Net 3.0 in order to use this library. It is usable from either Visual Studio 2005 (with the appropriate .Net 3.0 extensions for Visual Studio 2005) or Visual Studio 2008.

The library is now several years old – it was last updated in 2007. It has a couple of known bugs. However, it is quite capable and so easy to use that I highly recommend that you begin with this particular library. With this library, I was able to write a program to generate my spreadsheet files in less than 2 hours. Once I had my program written, it generated 35,000+ files in less than 15 minutes. I was able to use an sample template that ships with Excel 2007 (the Sales Order template) and fill in the various cells that produced the resulting spreadsheets. The combination of ease of use and speed is unbeatable in my book. In addition, as with most libraries in the .Net system, it can be used from either VB.Net or C#.

One of the best parts of this library is that you do not need a copy of Microsoft Excel. So it is very appropriate to use on a web server, for example, to generate the files and send them to the clients via ASP.Net. The impact to the server is minimal – it will probably take the server longer to pull the data together than it will to put the data into the spreadsheet with this library.

There are two downsides to this library. First, it can only generate files with an *.xlsx format, not the older *.xls format. Second, the license is GPL, so it cannot be legally embedded into software that you are going to distribute commercially without divulging the source code.

If you need to generate the earlier *.xls file format programmatically, check out the NPOI project at http://npoi.codeplex.com. This project was originally written as the POI project in Java (which can be found at http://poi.apache.org). It was translated into .Net and made available on the CodePlex site. It can write files in either the *.xls or *.xlsx formats, as well as write Microsoft Word or PowerPoint files. The license for this library is the Apache 2.0 license, which is generally regarded as less restrictive than the GPL license. Of course, check with your own counsel to determine appropriate usage.

Both of these libraries are quite easy to use and flexible enough to meet most needs. I think you will find that your users will appreciate having data available in a familiar format, easily manipulated with a favorite tool, Microsoft Excel.

Resources

AdventureWorks database files for SQL Server: http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/

ExcelPackage: http://excelpackage.codeplex.com/

NPOI: http://npoi.codeplex.com/

POI: http://poi.apache.org/

OpenXML Developer Site: http://openxmldeveloper.org/

SharePoint Business Intelligence: http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-ATSP-BI---SharePoint-2007---Business-Intelligence-Features-using-Excel.aspx

Citrix XenApp 5.0 Implementing & Administration

2010-03-29T15:51:00.003-05:00

Here is feedback from the most recent Citrix XenApp 5.0 Implementing & Administration course that was held at LRS Education Services:

Instructor: Very knowledgable concerning real world examples

Courseware: The lab practical at the end was great. More classes need a practical at the end.

Register today for the upcoming class scheduled April 26 - 30, 2010 at our Springfield Education Center if you want to gain to gain a solid foundation in each aspect of the Citrix XenApp environment!

CTXXen5 - Citrix XenApp 5.0 Implement & Administration: http://www.lrs.com/education/learn/courses/key-CTXXen5---Citrix-XenApp-5.0-Implement---Administration.aspx

2010-03-15T09:53:00.004-05:00

March 15, 2010

DirectAccess

(Information provided by: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/directaccess.aspx )

What is DirectAccess?

DirectAccess is a new feature in the Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems that gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network any time they have Internet access. With DirectAccess, users are able to access corporate resources (such as e-mail servers, shared folders, or intranet Web sites) following common security standards, anytime they have an internet connection.
· Improve Productivity of Mobile Workforce. DirectAccess provides increased productivity for your mobile workforce by offering the same connectivity experience both in and outside of the office. DirectAccess is on whenever the user has an Internet connection, giving users access to intranet resources whether they are traveling, at the local coffee shop, or at home.
· Improved Manageability of Remote Users. Without DirectAccess, mobile computers can only be managed when users connect to a VPN or physically enter the office. With DirectAccess, mobile computers can be managed any time the mobile computer has Internet connectivity, even if the user is not logged on. This allows remote computers to be managed regularly and helps ensure mobile users stay up-to-date with security and system health policies. DirectAccess helps ensure that organizations can meet regulatory and privacy mandates for security and data protection for assets that must roam beyond the corporate network.
· Improved security. DirectAccess uses Internet Protocol security (IPsec) for authentication and encryption. Optionally, you can require smart cards for user authentication. DirectAccess integrates with Network Access Protection (NAP) to require that DirectAccess clients must be compliant with system health requirements before allowing a connection to the DirectAccess server. IT administrators can also configure the DirectAccess server to restrict the servers that users and individual applications can access.

Learn MS Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 at LRS Education Services

MS10159 Updating your Server 2008 TS Skills to R2 This three-day instructor-led course teaches IT Professionals experienced with Windows Server 2008 Technology Specialist skills the new features of Windows Server 2008 R2. The course facilitates accelerated learning of Windows Server 2008 R2 features and features enabled in Windows Server 2008 R2 for Windows 7.

MS6294 Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments This five-day instructor-led course is intended for desktop administrators who want to specialize in desktop deployment, configuration, and management . In this course, students will learn how to plan and deploy Windows 7 desktops in large organizations . They will also learn how to design, configure, and manage the Windows 7 client environment. This course helps students prepare for the Exam 70-686, Pro: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator

Don't forget to visit us at our website: http://www.lrseducationservices.com/

2010-03-08T13:32:00.001-06:00

BitLocker
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/bitlocker.aspx)

How can you help protect your data from loss, theft, or hackers? The answer: BitLocker. If you’ve got information on your PC that you need to protect, you can help prevent theft or loss by using BitLocker data encryption to put a virtual lock on your files.

Improved for Windows 7 and available in the Ultimate edition, BitLocker helps keep everything from documents to passwords safer by encrypting the entire drive that Windows and your data reside on. Once BitLocker is turned on, any file you save on that drive is encrypted automatically.
BitLocker To Go – a new feature of Windows 7 – gives the lockdown treatment to easily-misplaced portable storage devices like USB flash drives and external hard drives.

For more information on BitLocker and other Windows 7 Features, enroll in MS6292: Installing and Configuring Windows 7.

2010-03-02T10:56:00.008-06:00

Exchange 2010 Overview

(Information provided by: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/overview.aspx)

Now, more than ever, your organization requires cost-effective and flexible communication tools. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 you can achieve new levels of reliability and performance with features that simplify your administration, help protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater mobility.

Microsoft Exchange Server, the cornerstone of Microsoft’s Unified Communications solution, is a flexible and reliable messaging platform that can help you lower your messaging costs by 50-80%, increase productivity with anywhere access to business communications, and safeguard your business with protection and compliance capabilities that help you manage risk.

Lower IT costs with a flexible and reliable platform

Pressure to optimize your IT infrastructure for ever-changing business conditions requires you to be agile, so investing in solutions that provide reliability and choice is critical. Exchange Server 2010 gives you the flexibility to tailor your deployment to your unique needs and provides a simplified way to help keep e-mail continuously available for your users.

This flexibility and simplified availability comes from innovations to the core platform that Exchange is built on. These innovations deliver numerous advances in performance, scalability, and reliability advancements, while lowering the total cost of ownership 50-80%.
A new, unified approach to high availability and disaster recovery helps achieve new levels of reliability as it reduces the complexity and cost of delivering business continuity up to 80%. With new features, such as Database Availability Groups and online mailbox moves, you can more easily and confidently implement mailbox resiliency with database-level replication and failover, all with familiar Exchange management tools.

Greater choice of storage hardware options, allows you to tailor your Exchange infrastructure to your organization’s specific business or technology needs while lowering the overall storage costs 50-70%. Storage options range from support for traditional Storage Area Networks (SAN) to low-cost, desktop class Direct Attached Storage (DAS). Larger mailbox size ensures that employees can access the information they need to do their jobs in a quick and efficient manner, without spending time deleting messages and managing their inbox to stay under the imposed limit.
Learn more about mailbox resiliency.
Administrative advances in Exchange 2010 can help you save time and lower operational costs 15-20% by reducing the burden on your IT staff. A new role-based security model, self-service capabilities, and the Web-based Exchange Control Panel, allow you to delegate common or specialized tasks to your users without providing them full administrative rights or increasing help desk call volume.
Learn more about management tools.

Delight users with anywhere access to communications

Your business success relies on technology solutions that make your users more productive. With Exchange Server 2010 you can cost effectively provide your users the freedom to securely access all of their communications—e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more—from virtually any platform, Web-browser, or device to get more done wherever they are.

Your users live their business lives in their inboxes, but the ever-growing flow of information through those inboxes affects productivity and profitability.

With Exchange Server 2010 enhancements, your users can increase their productivity and more easily collaborate with each other and their business partners with these advanced features:

Time-saving inbox management tools that help your users more easily organize and prioritize the communications they receive each day. Exchange 2010 includes an enhanced conversation view that automatically arranges messages into threads, regardless of their location in the inbox, and MailTips that inform users about details that could result in unnecessary or undeliverable e-mail messages, before they click send. New integrated support for instant messaging (powered by Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2) and SMS text messaging in Outlook Web App means your users can have a range of communication tools at their disposal, anywhere they can log into the Web client.
Learn more about Outlook Web App.
A transformed voicemail experience with Exchange-powered voice mail enhancements like speech-to-text previews of received voice messages, and the flexibility for your users to create customized voice mail menus and call handling rules to ensure callers are given the right priority. Replace your legacy systems with the enhanced capabilities of Exchange voice mail and reduce your voice mail costs by 50%.
Learn more about voicemail with Unified Messaging.
The best three-screen user experience available through Outlook on the desktop, Outlook Web App in the Web browser, and Exchange ActiveSync, the de facto industry standard for mobile devices. With the built in capabilities of Exchange Active Synch, you can reduce costs for secure mobile messaging while supporting users on virtually any smart phone, including iPhones, Windows Mobile or Blackberry.
Learn more about mobility.

Manage risk with protection and compliance capabilities

A growing number of applications and devices access your e-mail infrastructure, so it is more important than ever that you consider the protection of your mission critical e-mail data when you choose an e-mail solution. Your organization has many reasons to protect and archive e-mail, from regulatory concerns to internal organizational governance. Exchange 2010 delivers integrated information protection, control, and compliance tools focused on helping you simplify and automate this process:

New integrated, out-of-the-box e-mail archiving gives you tools to preserve e-mail data without changing the experience for your users or IT staff. Combined with the flexibility provided by the Exchange storage architecture, you can take control of your corporate e-mail data with a personal archive that seamlessly surfaces in both Outlook and Outlook Web App.
A new retention policy framework allows your IT staff to define, deploy, and automate the expiry and archiving of e-mail data. In addition to default policies set by your IT staff, your users can select and apply retention policies to individual messages or folders. And Exchange 2010 adds a new legal hold policy that retains and places on hold any edits or deletions of e-mail data that users make. A simplified e-Discovery process with a new Web-based multi-mailbox search feature. This easy-to-use capability can be delegated to specialist users, like a compliance officer, without providing the users full administrative privileges.
Learn more about archiving, retention, and discovery.
New Transport Protection Rules help you safeguard sensitive business information. You can automatically apply Information Rights Management (IRM) policies to both e-mail and voice mail messages, after they have been sent, based on a range of message content criteria.
Learn more about information protection and control.

Optimized for Software-plus-Services

Exchange Server 2010 was designed, developed, and tested with the Microsoft Software-plus-Services strategy at its core. Choose from on-premise deployment with Exchange 2010, a Microsoft-hosted service with Exchange Online, or a seamless mix of both. You can decide when and how you take advantage of on-premise, hosted, cloud-based, and hybrid solutions without interrupting or changing the experience for your users.

Learn Exchange 2010 at LRS Education Services

MS10135 – Configure, Manage and Troubleshoot Exchange 2010: This five-day, instructor-led course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to configure and manage a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 messaging environment. This course does not require previous Exchange Server experience, but does require that students have significant experience in managing Windows Server and Active Directory services or Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). This course will teach you how to configure Exchange Server 2010, as well as provide guidelines, best practices, and considerations that will help you optimize your Exchange server deployment.

Welcome!

2010-02-25T10:22:00.004-06:00

Welcome to the Blog site for LRS Education Services! I am Manager of the Education Services division within Levi, Ray and Shoup, Inc. and am thrilled that you are visiting our website to find out how you can "Learn Something New" to enhance your employability, advance your career, and boost your efficiency!

It is my hope that you will utilize our site to gain useful information from our experienced Instructor's and Education Consultants to assist you in your education path!

For those of you who have attended training classes with us...thank you...please visit our site to find helpful tips and research that our instructors will be posting that relate to topics that they teach.

For those of you who are new to our site...welcome...please look to our experts to gain insight on how you can achieve your training goals in addition to information related to upcoming classes, feedback from our clients and upcoming promotions!

Please let me know if I can assist you in any way...and let me know how we are doing!

Margaret

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar in Office 2007

2010-02-24T15:35:00.000-06:00

Hi! My name is Krista Steller, an application instructor at LRS. To make using Office 2007 applications easy, customize the Quick Access Toolbar to make your frequently-used tools easily accessible. The Quick Access Toolbar is located in the upper left corner of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook messages, contacts and appointments. Customize it for each application using the suggested tools in the drop-down menu next to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Additional tools can be added using the Customize dialogue box found in the applications Options at the bottom of the Office button menu. Another way to add tools is to right-click wherever you find them on the ribbon and use the options menu to add them to the Quick Access Toolbar. When you no longer need a tool, right click it on the Quick Access Toolbar to remove it.

The Quick Access Toolbar displays regardless of which ribbon tab is currently being used. Those tools are also accessible using the Office 2007 keyboard shortcuts. Press the key on your keyboard to see letters on each ribbon tab and numbers on each Quick Access Toolbar. Press the appropriate letter or number to use the tool.