Configure Custom Deduplication Jobs on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI

tl;dr – click here to jump to the bottom and get the script. Quick History on Deduplication The current version of Deduplication has been around since at least Server 2012/2012R2. Starting in Server 2016, Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) has had the ability to use dedup on CSVFS_NTFS (and CSVFS_ReFS in Server 2019). This same version […]

Configuring Parallel / Simultaneous Live Migration settings has changed in Server 2022 and Azure Stack HCI 21H2

tl;dr – As of August 9, 2022, you need to configure Simultaneous Live Migration settings from Get-Cluster and not local to each Hyper-V host. Read more about it here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/failover-clustering/new-cluster-wide-control-for-virtual-machine-live-migrations-in/ba-p/3709680 Deep Dive If you are running Server 2022 or HCI 21H2 and you recently updated to a KB released after August 9, 2022, you may […]

How to “Vertically Scale” AKS on Azure Stack HCI Node Pools… when you technically can’t

Introduction We been testing AKS on Azure Stack HCI since Private Preview last year and are now running production workloads in a few on-prem clusters. During this time, we have tested new features as each new release pumps them out (we’ve also fell prey to some bugs, but thankfully the awesome PG team has saved […]

Azure Virtual Desktops on Azure Stack HCI – First Impressions and Configuration Walkthru

Introduction In October 2021, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early release of the Azure Virtual Desktop Private Preview for Azure Stack HCI (AVD on ASHCI from hereon out). You can read about the announcement at Microsoft Ignite here. Like many of the hybrid offerings Microsoft has been pumping out since […]

Disabling Windows Server “Test Signing Mode” won’t remove the “For testing purposes only” wallpaper watermark

If you ever had to install private hotfixes from Microsoft, you most likely had to enable Test Signing (aka – Debug Mode) to install the binaries. Once done, you must uninstall the hotfix, reboot, then disable Test Signing and reboot again. But sometimes, the Windows desktop’s wallpaper will keep the watermark. What gives?! Let’s check […]

How to P2V a Windows XP machine, disable SATA boot drivers and enable IDE boot drivers

As I’m sure most people have experienced, there is always that one piece of software that cannot function on anything other than ancient hardware or an unsupported OS. In my example today, I am dealing with an ancient piece of physical hardware, sitting under someone’s desk, running Windows XP Pro. Before the spinning rust blew […]

Change Service Provider Foundation (SPF) port after installation without reinstall

One of my biggest pet peeves when installing software is when the installer outright says to you “you cannot change these values after otherwise you’ll need to reinstall”. It’s like the developer is speaking to their grandfather assisting them reset their WIFI – “unplug it and plug it back in”. With SPF, you’re prompted during […]