PAL v2.3.3 Now with Forefront UAG 2010 Support

Recently the Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) tool was updated and now includes a threshold file for Forefront UAG 2010. PAL is an essential utility that can make troubleshooting performance issues or capacity planning dramatically easier. I’ve written about using PAL on Forefront TMG 2010 in the past, and using PAL with Forefront UAG 2010 will be very similar. You can download the latest release of PAL at pal.codeplex.com.

Windows Server 2012 Unified Remote Access Book Coming Soon

My good friends Ben Ben-Ari and Bala Natarajan are putting the finishing touches on their latest book entitled Windows Server 2012 Unified Remote Access Planning and Deployment. This book will cover in detail how to plan and deploy remote access solutions using Windows Server 2012 including VPN (remote access and site-to-site) as well as DirectAccess. The authors are both highly qualified to write about this subject, as Ben has been supporting Forefront UAG 2010 and DirectAccess for many years, and Bala is the Program Manager for the Windows Core Networking team. The book is due to be released in January 2013 and it is sure to be an essential reference for all things remote access in Windows Server 2012. Pre-order your copy of Windows Server 2012 Remote Access today!

Windows Server 2012 Unified Remote Access Planning and Deployment

Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant 2.0 Now Available

Recently Microsoft announced the availability of the DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA) v2.0. DCA v2.0 is required to be installed on Windows 7 DirectAccess clients when they are connecting to a DirectAccess Server running Windows Server 2012. It is important to note that DCA v2.0 is not required (and should not be installed) on Windows 8 DirectAccess clients. In addition, DCA v2.0 should not be installed on Windows 7 DirectAccess clients when they are connecting to a Windows Server 2008 R2/Forefront UAG 2010 DirectAccess server. For Windows 7 DirectAccess clients accessing corporate network resources over Windows Server 2008 R2/Forefront UAG 2010, install DCA v1.5. DCA v1.5 can be found on the Forefront UAG server at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway\common\bin\da\dca.

The DCA provides DirectAccess users with connectivity status information, detailed diagnostics and troubleshooting, and is required to support One-Time Password (OTP) authentication. You can download DCA v2.0 here.