Give us a call at 1.877.eGROUP.1 or e-mail sales@eGroup-us.com to learn more about eGroup Support Agreements, and how we can help you with preparation assistance prior to the storm.  Our Support Agreement customers have priority on our time before, during, and after a storm. 

The e-mail below was sent out to our support agreement customers earlier this morning: 

“As a Valued Support Agreement Customer, we wanted to touch base with you to let you know that we’re keeping a close eye on Irene.

If things intensify and projections put the storm on a collision course with our area, and specifically if the National Weather Service (NWS) begins to issue Hurricane “watch” or “warning” alerts for our area, eGroup will begin to invoke the necessary disaster preparedness plans we’ve developed internally. We expect that you will be doing the same. Please note that the NWS defines a “watch” condition as “storm possible within 36 hours”, and a “warning” condition as “storm expected within 24 hours.”

This email is especially important if you include eGroup Support Services as part of your Disaster Preparedness or Recovery plan. Read more >>

You would think that SharePoint would have a simple Database Server type setting that you could change at anytime, but it doesn’t work like that. As unfortunate as this is, there is a fairly simple way of moving all of your databases to a different server or instance using a SQL Client Alias.

The SQL Client Alias basically just tells the SQL Connection String to go somewhere else. For instance, if I have a connection string pointing to “SQLServer01SP” and I setup a SQL Client Alias to point to “SQLServer02SP”, then all SQL traffic from that server will be re-directed if it specifies “SQLServer01SP” in the connection string.

This allows us to keep SharePoint thinking that it’s going to one SQL Server, when in fact it is going to another SQL Server entirely. However, there is a catch for SharePoint 2007. You will need to backup and restore any SSPs (2007 only) that you have configured.

Here are the steps I took…

1. Backup all DBs on the old SQL server
2. Backup all SSPs in Central Admin
3. Delete all SSPs in Central Admin
4. Stop all SharePoint services in the SharePoint Farm and stop IIS.
5. Restore all DBs to the new SQL server
6. Setup a SQL Client Alias on all WFEs in the SharePoint farm to point the ServerInstance of the old SQL Server to the new SQL server.
7. Start IIS, then start all SharePoint services in the SharePoint Farm.
8. Restore the SSPs using the New Configuration option

Move all databases (SharePoint Server 2010)

Move all databases (Office SharePoint Server 2007)

How to setup and use a SQL Server alias

Delete an SSP using STSADM
stsadm -o deletessp -title -deletedatabases -force

Delete the SSP content DB
stsadm -o -deletecontentdb -url -databasename

Where URL is the URL of the Web application from which the content database will be detached and database name is the name of the content database to be detached.

2010 is expected to be a very active hurricane season, and eGroup customers who have a Support Agreement with us will be among the best prepared, and those who will have priority on our time during and after a storm.

If projections put a storm on a collision course with our area this season (officially June 1st-November 30th), and specifically if the National Weather Service (NWS) begins to issue Hurricane “watch” or “warning” alerts for our area, eGroup will begin to invoke the necessary disaster preparedness plans we’ve developed internally. We expect that you will be doing the same.

eGroup Support Agreement customers will have priority on our available time before, during, and after a storm.

Read more >>

With EMC PowerPath/VE, you can now deliver advanced PowerPath features to streamline and automate I/O performance of VMware vSphere (ESX server 4) virtual environments.

With EMC PowerPath/VE, you can standardize path management across heterogeneous physical and virtual environments and automate and optimize virtual server, storage, and path utilization in a dynamic virtual environment. This eliminates the need to manually load-balance virtual machines and I/O-intensive applications in hyper-consolidated environments.

The trial software may be downloaded on Powerlink or off of EMC Community Network (ECN), see appropriate path and URL below:

Powerlink: Home > Support > Software Downloads and Licensing > Downloads P-R > PowerPath for VMware

http://powerlink.emc.com/km/appmanager/km/secureDesktop?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=servicesDownloadsTemplatePg&internalId=0b014066804211df&_irrt=true

ECN: PowerPath/VE Community on EMC Community Network (ECN)

http://community.emc.com/go/powerpath-ve

You may also contact your eGroup account manager with any questions!

Charleston, SC – May 18, 2009 – eGroup today announces the release of eGroup eCloud: Hosted Solutions from eGroup including virtual infrastructure hosting, co-location, disaster recovery, and application and service delivery. 

Why do you store and maintain IT systems that carry high operating costs, require constant care, are at risk from countless threats, and are inefficient to grow to your business’ needs?  eCloud is the solution for cost-effective IT. 

What is eCloud?

The eGroup eCloud is a hosted, high-performance computing infrastructure, purpose-built to efficiently maintain, protect & deliver IT securely to your business. Read more >>

Before starting down the path to VMware vSphere, it is worth taking some time to determine what your current VMware Infrastructure deployment scenario looks like with respect to the setup of VMware vCenter and how it is configured to support VI3 Clusters with Resource Pools, VMware HA and VMware DRS. An eGroup Virtualization Healthcheck will help identify the state of your VI3 environment.

How Do I Upgrade?
Phase 1: Complete the upgrade of the VMware vCenter Server along with VMware Update Manager. VMware Converter Enterprise and VMware Guided Consolidation are two additional components that can be installed along with their respective VMware vCenter Client plug-in.

Phase 2: Choose from three VMware ESX migration methods. The three options are: VMware Update Manager, Host Update Utility or Clean Install of VMware ESX 4.

Phase 3: Complete the upgrade of your Virtual Machines by first upgrading VMware Tools, followed by the upgrade of the Virtual Hardware from version 4 to version 7.

Click here to access eGroup’s VMware vSphere 4 Upgrade Center and to access step-by-step migration videos

Simplify recovery by eliminating complex manual recovery steps and centralizing management of recovery plans
Simplify and centralize the process of creating, updating and managing recovery plans.

Take the Disaster Out of Disaster Recovery by trying VMware SRM for free for 60 days.

Easily manage and implement your recovery plan with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. Watch our new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager video on YouTube below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hap4VsC9a1k&fmt=18]

Read more >>