WindowsNetworking.com - Monthly Newsletter - April 2016

Welcome to the WindowsNetworking.com newsletter by Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MVP. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on the world of Windows Networking. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: dshinder@windowsnetworking.com

 

1. The other kind of networking – for network admins

So you have a LinkedIn account and you think that should be enough to give you a professional presence online, showcase your extensive experience and stupendous skill set, get invitations to speak at conferences and contribute to the next bestselling tech book, and keep the headhunters calling? And now you’re wondering why all of that isn’t happening?

No matter how awesome you are at the type of networking that involves designing data centers, setting up servers and maintaining a myriad of routers, switches, gateways and all of the hardware and software that goes into getting computers to communicate with one another swiftly and securely, if you want to take your career to the next level, now you need to master the other kind of networking. You know, the kind that involves making people notice, like and remember you.

There are a few problems with that. A hefty percentage – although certainly not all – of the folks who go into IT are of a personality type that isn’t naturally outgoing. The image of the geek as an introverted loner who enjoys fiddling with electronic devices more than making small talk (or even big talk) and shaking hands is a stereotype for a reason; many of us fit the description. Some of us don’t, and others do but can hide it well when we have to. And there are some of us who were born that way but have actually learned to like socializing (in person!), at least in limited doses.

Whether or not it comes naturally, the social sort of networking can be invaluable if you want to advance beyond “grunt work” in the tech (or any other) industry. With the advent of the “agile movement,” even notoriously anti-social programmer types are being forced to interact more with others and develop more “team spirit” (with varying results).

But whether you spend your days in an “open office” environment (not to be confused with the productivity suite of the same name) or lock yourself up in your basement home office to get your work done, it pays to come out of your (power) shell from time to time and get to know your peers and superiors better.

That doesn’t mean you have to become “besties” with them, invite them to your house for dinner or reveal your intimate secrets to them on Facebook. It means using venues such as social media and IT conferences, events and functions in a strategic way to promote yourself as a highly regarded expert in your field, or even a thought leader. That’s what gets you those lucrative (or, at first, not so lucrative monetarily but reputation-building) speaking engagements, book contracts and article assignments, which in turn can lead to offers for better jobs.

Doing this right requires some planning. Your goal is to create a public persona that smacks of professionalism, helpfulness and self-confidence (but not arrogance). Recall what I said up above: notice, like and remember. Your first goal is to make an impression – but it has to be the right impression. You can get noticed by jumping up and down the middle of the room while spewing profanities, but that’s hardly going to accomplish the second goal: making people like you. Both in person and online, the right way to get noticed is by stepping forward, mingling, and introducing yourself to the right people – those who are in a position or might be in a position in the future to help further your career.

This is where many novice networkers make a big mistake. In attempting to follow the advice above, they assume that only higher level managers and execs, industry rock stars or hiring authorities are important enough to merit their attention. They spend all their time sucking up to the bosses. They ignore their peers – who next year might have been promoted into a higher level job at a new and better company where they have the authority to bring their former colleagues on board – and their own subordinates, who might well be some of the first people asked for their opinions when your current management considers promoting you. They also ignore the “peripheral people” – such as hiring authorities’ secretaries – who often function as the “power behind the throne” and control who does and doesn’t get an audience with the big bosses.

In IT networking terms, think of those assistants and secretaries as the gateway devices that guard the perimeters surrounding the people you want to get to know. They can allow or deny whatever packets (people) try to get through so it pays to present yourself to them as desirable traffic.

How do you do that? It’s simple (although that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy). Rule number one: Be nice. Don’t get into heated arguments, online or off. Don’t mix business and pleasure; i.e., create separate profiles on social sites for personal friends vs. business friends – or learn to manage the per-post permissions settings and before you post, ask yourself: Who is going to see this and would I say it to that person in person? If it does need to be said, consider that how you say it makes a big difference.

No matter how horrendous your working conditions or how obnoxious your bosses and colleagues might be (c’mon, are they really all that bad?), don’t speak ill of them in “public,” and remember that the Internet is a public place. Be careful even in private chats and email messages; anything that’s put in digital format and sent across the public network has the potential to come back to haunt just when you least need that kind of “help.”

How much to share is a delicate balancing act, and it involves too aspects: how frequently you post or attend events (hint: you want to stay in people’s minds, but too much social activity will cause them to wonder whether you ever work) and how much personal information you should reveal (you want people to see you as a “real person” but oversharing can lead to embarrassment and defeat your purposes. Remember what Warren Buffet said: “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to lose it.”

If you think this whole thing sounds like more work than fun, it is work. Just because it’s called “socializing” doesn’t mean you’re “off duty,” not if your goal is building a business rep. And if you’re a dedicated introvert, pushing yourself to be social can be more exhausting than pulling a code-writing or server-troubleshooting all-nighter.

And if you’re think all of this is just common sense, you’re right – but that’s something that’s not so common these days. And even those who are usually circumspect may find themselves losing their inhibitions and saying things they’ll later regret when under the influence of alcohol. So even though at some functions it might be expected that you’ll have at least a glass of wine or an aperitif, a good rule of thumb is “don’t drink and network.” That’s actually good advice when it comes to the other kind of networking, too.

‘Til next time,
Deb

dshinder@windowsnetworking.com

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Quotes of the Month

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. – Jeff Bezos

There is no advertisement as powerful as a positive reputation traveling fast – Brian Koslow

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. – Henry Ford

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2. Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond – Order Today!

Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond By Thomas Shinder, Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Yuri Diogenes From architecture to deployment, this book takes you through the steps for securing a Windows Server 2012-based enterprise network in today’s highly mobile, BYOD, cloud-centric computing world. Includes test lab guides for trying out solutions in a non-production environment. Order your copy of Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond. You'll be glad you did

Click here to Order your copy today

 

3. WindowsNetworking.com Articles of Interest

This month on WindowsNetworking.com, we introduce a brand new article, begin a new multi-part series, and continue with new installments for three other popular article series.

Finding Network Settings in Windows 10

Microsoft has made many major changes to the GUI of Windows in the past couple of releases. This includes the network settings and connection details as well. You’ll find them mixed between the good old Network and Sharing Center and the new Settings app. In this new standalone article, Eric Geier will share how to access many of the common network settings and features in Windows 10.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-10/finding-network-settings-windows10.html

Containerization Proliferation: The Docker Effect (Part 1)

Earlier this month, the IEEE CS announced their picks for the top 9 tech trends in 2016, and it comes as no surprise to anyone who’s been following the industry news that one of those is containers. You might remember the editorial I wrote a few months ago about containers for this newsletter. The containerization phenomenon isn’t really new, but it’s hot right now, and many IT pros are scrambling to get on top of the trend. I’ll be exploring many different aspects of containerization in this multi-part series over the next few months.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/cloud-computing/containerization-proliferation-docker-effect-part1.html

Migrating DNS servers from Linux to Windows (Part 2)

In this article series that he started last month, Mitch Tulloch has taken on the topic of how to switch to Windows Servers for hosting your DNS servers. In this second installment, he tells us about some of the important aspects of such a migration, including secure dynamic updates using TSIG (Transaction Signature), pros and cons to staying on BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) and some additional resources for migrating BIND to Windows DNS.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-server-2012/migrating-dns-servers-linux-windows-part2.html

Brien Posey has been focusing a lot on PowerShell recently, and this month brings us new installments for two of his series on different areas of PowerShell use and mastery:

Building a PowerShell GUI (Part 4)

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/netgeneral/building-powershell-gui-part4.html

PowerShell for Storage and File System Management (Part 10)

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/netgeneral/powershell-storage-and-file-system-management-part10.html

4. Administrator KB Tip of the Month

Upgrading a forest

A tip on performing forest upgrades in Active Directory environments.

After upgrading your schema, you might want to raise your forest and domain functional levels. As a best practice, follow these practices:

• Before changing your forest functional level, take at least one domain controller offline from each domain in your forest.
• Before changing the domain functional level of any domain, take at least one domain controller offline from the domain.
• In both cases, you should make sure that the domain controllers you take offline do not hold any flexible single master operations (FSMO) roles in the forest or domains.
• Keep the domain controllers offline for 48 to 72 hours after changing functional levels; if no issues are found, you can return the offline domain controllers to service. If issues are discovered, however, you can use your offline domain controllers as the source for rebuilding servers if a rollback to a previous functional level is required.

The above tip was previously published in an issue of WServerNews, a weekly newsletter from TechGenix that focuses on the administration, management and security of the Windows Server platform in particular and cloud solutions in general. Subscribe to WServerNews today by going to http://www.wservernews.com/subscribe.htm and join almost 100,000 other IT professionals around the world who read our newsletter!

5. Windows Networking Links of the Month

• Ten best cloud SLA practices
• Startup uses math to show whether your network is safe
• Server software poses soft target for ransomware
• 7 keys to better enterprise wi-fi
• The future of SDN: from Management to Automation
• Two paths forward to enterprise networking

6. Ask Sgt. Deb

Putting a VM in a VM

QUESTION:

Hi, Deb. I was really excited when I read that Server 2016 was going to support nested virtualization. This is something that I have wanted to do so many times – put a VM inside of a VM. I guess it has something to do with my fascination with those little wooden Russian dolls that fit inside of each other going from large to tiny. Anyway, we’re still stuck on Server 2012 (not R2) here and I don’t get to do much pre-release testing so I haven’t gotten a chance to try it out. Can you tell me anything about how it works? Thanks! - Royce K.

ANSWER:

Hi, Royce. Default nested virtualization functionality is one of the cool improvements to Hyper-V in Server 2016 and it does indeed allow you to run a virtual machine in another VM – and even another VM inside that, but I don’t think you can keep on stacking them 20 deep as you can with the Matryoshka dolls.  

Microsoft released a preview of nested virtualization last year. Nested Virtualization exposes the virtualization of some of the hardware features, which was hidden previously (thus preventing the installation of hypervisors in guest VMs). Here is a good article that explains what goes on “under the hood” with nested VMs:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/virtualization/2015/10/13/windows-insider-preview-nested-virtualization/

To use this new feature, you have to be running Server 2016 or Windows 10 as the guest operating system, but it’s actually possibly run a Hyper-V role inside of a VM on earlier server versions if you wanted to do some tweaking.

Here is a very good video over on the TechNet blogs site that takes you on a walk-through of the nested virtualization feature.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/keithmayer/2016/02/26/building-your-hybrid-cloud-nested-virtualization-in-windows-server-2016/