The IT Pro Exchange

Windows Azure IaaS online and in-person event series resources

2013-05-20T07:22:33Z

As I write this blog post, the current set of upcoming events is focused on the features in Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). These events contain both presentation and hands-on components where attendees are encouraged to bring their own computer to participate in the hands-on exercises where we walk through setup and configuration of Windows Azure IaaS including but not limited to Windows Server 2012 Virtual Machines, Active Directory, PowerShell management of Windows Azure IaaS resources, virtual networking and much, much more.

You can sign up for the Windows Azure IaaS in person events from the links here.

These events utilize a number of resources to fully leverage your learning experience with Windows Azure including a number of setup and configuration articles, PowerShell scripts, and other resources. The list of these resources are linked below.

Get Started with Windows Azure Cmdlets

Importscript.ps1

Importscript2.ps1

Exportscript.ps1

Removescript.ps1

Preparing Your Datacenter for the Cloud presentation

Windows Azure Virtual Machines Detailed Overview

You can always return directly to this blog post by going to http://aka.ms/IaaSSetup.

Enjoy!

Windows Azure Online Event Series, Session 2 begins Monday 5/20 – sign up today!

2013-05-17T16:55:26Z

Join me for this three-part Webcast series focused on Windows Azure designed to help you understand the true ROI for ‘on-demand’ infrastructure scenarios and walk away with real-world proof of concepts that you can implement in your production environment. This scenario focuses on using Windows Azure PowerShell for remote Administration of your newly created environment. This three part series will take place over the course of a 10 day period highlighted by three online events which are outlined below.

You must have a paid subscription to Windows Azure before attending these webcasts. Get one here: http://aka.ms/azurebootcamp .

Please NOTE: Windows Azure service fees will be charged to your account during the ~10 day period these VMs will be active. This gives you the advantage of quickly analyzing the real costs associated with the scenarios, and enables you take with you the work you complete during this exercise. We estimate the fees incurred to be within $50-$75 total.

Part 1: Create Virtual Machines and use PowerShell for remote administration
In Part 1, we will create two new virtual machines in Windows Azure, add the Active Directory feature set to one of them, setup networking, and enable the PowerShell capabilities to enable remote administration of this newly created environment. We will also demonstrate the steps of uploading a virtual machine Windows Azure via PowerShell to give attendees an overview of what will take place in part 2.

Part 2: Configuration and Troubleshooting Support with Q&A
In Part 2, we will leverage the feature set of Windows Azure PowerShell and have attendees walk through the steps of uploading either a virtual machine or image to Windows Azure via PowerShell. We will discuss these features in detail, share PowerShell scripts, clarify pricing, and learn many of the new ways that you can utilize Windows Azure to become more productive.

Part 3: De-provisioning the Virtual Machines and Reviewing Cost Analysis
In Part 3, we will de-provision the virtual machines created in Windows Azure and review the cost analysis so that you walk away with a clear understanding on the costs and ROI of the various scenarios and live, ‘production’ proof of concepts.

REGISTRATION: http://www.microsoft.com/click/services/Redirect2.ashx?CR_CC=200226731&CR_EAC=300095220

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Enjoy!

Windows Azure Hybrid Networking with IaaS Whitepaper

2013-05-15T04:58:27Z

My colleague Jim Priestley recently helped author an incredible whitepaper on Windows Azure Hybrid networking that is an absolutely must read. This whitepaper gives you detailed insight into leveraging many of the features of Windows Azure IaaS including most notably the hybrid networking functionality which extends your existing infrastructure to Windows Azure. Highlights of the document includes step-by-step guidance on setting up a hybrid network, leveraging PowerShell to manage Windows Azure, and much, much more. The whitepaper also includes a number of detailed checklist on running various workshops on Windows Azure. You can download the document here.

More Windows Azure Resources
Get your Windows Azure account here.
Learn more about the Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service features at http://aka.ms/IaaSSeries
Feel free to share this post or come back anytime by using http://aka.ms/AzureHybridCloudWP

Enjoy!

New Windows Azure IaaS In-Person Hands-on events announced

2013-05-09T12:53:54Z

Windows Azure events focused on the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) features of Windows Azure have just been announced, with two events scheduled to be held in the Microsoft NYC office in the coming weeks. See the schedule below for details and a link to the registration site.

These events will include both presentation and demo on Windows Azure as well as hands-on-labs covering a number of scenarios for IT Pros. Planned scenarios include creating VMs in Windows Azure, virtual networking, using PowerShell to manage and maintain Windows Azure, uploading VMs and/or images to Windows Azure, PowerShell deployments with Windows Azure, a cost analysis of the VMs we’ll create, and much more. We will be bringing up a number of VMs in Windows Azure in a pay-as-you-go account and run them for ~10 days which will give attendees an idea of the costs associated with running the VMs in the cloud.

These in-person events will also include two additional follow up events that will take place online. In these follow up online events, the first one will take place shortly after the in-person event to check-in on the VMs we created in Windows Azure the day of the in-person event. The second and final follow-up online event will take place ~10 days after the date of the in-person event to de-provision the VMs and cap the cost in the ~$50-$75 range.

Prerequisites: You must have a subscription to Windows Azure before arriving to the event. Get one here: http://aka.ms/azurebootcamp

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Enjoy!

Venue City	Date	Start Time	End Time	Venue Name & Registration
New York City	5/21/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft NYC Office
Reston	5/22/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft Reston Office
Tampa	5/30/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft Tampa Office
Malvern	5/30/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft Malvern Office
Atlanta	5/30/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft Atlanta Office
New York City	6/5/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft NYC Office
Cambridge	6/6/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft Cambridge Office
Charlotte	6/11/2013	9:00 AM	3:00 PM	Microsoft Charlotte Office

Azure IaaS Online Event Series Announced, first event Wednesday 5/8

2013-05-06T21:54:22Z

The latest round of IT Pro Events has been officially announced and these events will focus on Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) functionality and include both online and in-person events in the coming weeks. These sessions will get IT Pros up to speed on Windows Azure IaaS functionality and the online events will include four Series on different topics.

The first online event is taking place this coming Wednesday, May 8th, details of the event are below:

Windows Azure Infrastructure Services (IaaS) for IT Professionals

Join us for Four Series of interactive weekly Webcasts designed to help you understand the true ROI for ‘on-demand’ infrastructure scenarios and walk away with real-world proof of concepts that you can implement in your production environment.

Series 1: Building Virtual Machines in the New Microsoft Cloud: From Deployment to Cost Analysis

In Series 1, you will walk through building networked servers on the Windows Azure™ platform. No physical servers or licenses are required, just a PC with a web browser. Through this online hands-on series we will create a “Pay-As-You-Go” account, three virtual machines, and the networking required to link the two machines together. We will network a web server with a file server, authenticate through an AD controller, and configure the three servers in a working scenario. We will discuss each area of the portal, clarify pricing, and learn many of the new ways that you can utilize Windows Azure to become more productive. You will walk away with a clear understanding on the costs and ROI of the various scenarios and live, ‘production’ proof of concepts.

Part 1: Creating the Virtual Machines and Active Directory - Wed, May 8th, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Eastern Time – Webcast Link: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=JC92SP&role=attend&pw=C%29%7E%7E_m%2C%3C6

Prerequisites: You must have a subscription to Windows Azure before arriving to the event. Get one here: http://aka.ms/azurebootcamp

Please NOTE: Windows Azure service fees will be charged to your account during your proof of concept experience. This gives you the advantage of quickly analyzing the real costs associated with the scenarios, and enables you take with you the live proof of concepts. We estimate the fees incurred to be within $50-$75 dollars total.

Recommended: It is recommended that participants have 2 monitors available. One for viewing the live walk-through, and one for configuring your own Azure experience.

My first Windows 8 app, Squish-a-Fruit arrives in the Windows 8 Store

2013-05-03T18:40:41Z

After several hours of coming up with a concept, working with my colleague Maria Naggaga, and using templates created by my colleague Jim O’Neil for Scirra’s Construct 2, my first Windows 8 App is now available in the Windows 8 Store. Squish-a-Fruit is a family game for all ages where the goal is to squish as many pieces of fruit as you can. Now be careful, the game’s over once you miss three pieces of fruit, and I’ve also found it to be a bit addictive… Feel free to download it here, its FREE.

There’s lots to share about this entire process, beginning with the fact that most of you know I’m an IT Pro, not a developer. Sure, I could write bad code on some antiquated and obsolete programming languages I used years ago, but they wouldn’t get me very far to developing a modern HTML5 game like Squish-a-Fruit. Scirra’s Construct 2 is a fantastic tool to do just that and my colleague Jim O’Neil had created a number of templates and starter kits to help us non-developer types put together a game in just a few short hours. You can find a blog post he did with a link to those templates here. After I discovered this, I approached my colleague in New York, Maria Naggaga to help me with some pointers on Construct 2, understand what I needed to modify in the template, and how to submit the app, once created, to the Windows 8 store. After several hours of going through coming up with the concept and modifying the template, the app was done. I then created a Windows 8 Developer account on http://dev.windows.com, setup the account and the release of the app, and then submitted to the store. This was a lot of fun and I wouldn’t be surprised if I did another one soon.

Enjoy!

Windows Azure IaaS reaches General Availability

2013-04-17T01:15:11Z

Today marks the next major release of Windows Azure, the General Availability (GA) of the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering where customers can host virtual machines in the Windows Azure Cloud. Also included in today’s GA is the Virtual Networking component of Windows Azure that lets you extend your existing network to Windows Azure.

For the many of you who have recently attended one of my IT Camp or IT Lab events and chose to run the Windows Azure IaaS Lab, you are now ahead of the game and ready for what this dynamic cloud service has to offer.

Not familiar with Windows Azure? (or thought it was only for developers…) Check out the Windows Azure IaaS Series at http://aka.ms/IaaSSeries. This 31-day series was written by myself and my peer IT Pro Evangelists and gives the reader a wealth of information on the many capabilities of Windows Azure IaaS.

Interested in trying out Windows Azure? Sign up for a FREE 90-Day Trial today!

The full details of today’s announcements can be found on Scott Guthrie’s Blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2013/04/16/windows-azure-general-availability-of-infrastructure-as-a-service-iaas.aspx

For those of you who haven’t seen the email to those of us who are already Windows Azure customers, the contents of the email can be found below.

Enjoy!

Dear Customer,

Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Network now are generally available. We have new prices for Virtual Machines, Virtual Network, and Cloud Services.

Today is a major milestone for Windows Azure and all of our customers and partners. We are excited to announce that Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Windows Azure Virtual Network now are generally available. We also want to update you on new prices for Virtual Machines, Virtual Network, and Cloud Services.
Virtual Machines and Virtual Network help you meet changing business needs by providing on-demand, scalable infrastructure. These infrastructure services enable you to extend your data centers and workloads into the cloud while using your existing skills and investments. With these services, you can:

•	Provision Microsoft SharePoint farms in minutes without up-front hardware investments. Integrate full-trust code to run rich apps and provide Internet-facing collaboration sites.
•	Prototype your newest app or extend data marts into the cloud using Virtual Machines as a robust infrastructure for Microsoft SQL Server software. Scale on demand and connect to your on-premises infrastructure using Virtual Network.
•	Embrace rapid innovation using the cloud for development and test scenarios. You can spin up any test lab or sandbox quickly, and be agile in your learning, development, and prototyping.

Let’s take a closer look at the news that we are announcing today with general availability.
New high-memory instances for Virtual Machines
When your apps need more memory, new 28-gigabyte (GB) and 56-GB instances deliver.
Updated SLA
When you deploy multiple instances of Virtual Machines, Microsoft provides a financially backed 99.95 percent monthly service level agreement (SLA).
Customer support
Our customer support team is ready and available to help you troubleshoot 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have several support plans tailored to meet your needs—from basic developer support to Premier Support. When you work with Microsoft, you have a single vendor to call for cloud and on-premises needs.
Validated workloads
The best of Microsoft server products are validated to run on Virtual Machines, including Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, BizTalk Server 2013, and more. We also offer prebuilt virtual machine images—such as BizTalk Server and SQL Server—through the Windows Azure Virtual Machines Image Gallery with hourly pricing. Prebuilt Linux images—such as CentOS, Ubuntu, and Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)—are available in the Image Gallery from commercial distributors. In addition, a wide variety of the most popular open source applications are available as prebuilt images in VM Depot, a self-service community portal.
Price reductions for Virtual Machines and Cloud Services
Tremendous business growth globally gives us the ability to pass along benefits of scale to you, and provide competitive pricing across all geographies. We’re offering the following new prices and added value:

•	Windows Virtual Machines general availability prices reduced by 21% for standard instances. New general availability prices will be effective June 1, 2013. For a small instance, the new price will be $0.09 per hour. Windows Virtual Machines will remain at discounted preview prices until May 31 for standard instances.
•	Linux Virtual Machines prices reduced by 25 percent for standard instances. Effective April 16, 2013, prices reduced by 25 percent for small, medium, large, and extra-large instances. For example, the price for a Linux small instance will drop from $0.08 per hour to $0.06 per hour in all geographies.
•	Virtual Network pricing of $0.05 per hour effective June 1, 2013. Until June 1, customers can use Virtual Network free of charge.
•	Cloud Services web and worker role prices reduced by 33 percent for standard instances. Effective April 16, 2013, price drops by 33 percent for small, medium, large, and extra-large instances. For example, the price for a small worker role will drop from $0.12 per hour to $0.08 per hour in all geographies.
•	Increased value of 90-day free trial, MSDN and Microsoft Partner Network offers. These offers now include additional 50 hours of usage per month of our new high-memory instances. This special offer ends June 1, 2013.

Visit our Pricing Details page for a comprehensive look at all the pricing changes.
We have great guidance on scenarios in which you can take advantage of Windows Azure infrastructure services. Learn more at our Infrastructure Services page and get going by visiting the Windows Azure Management Portal today.
Thank you,
Windows Azure Team

System Center 2012 SP1 download now available

2013-04-03T19:17:29Z

The System Center 2012 SP1 Suite is now available to download at the short URL http://aka.ms/BHSysCtr. For those of you interested in familiarizing yourself with the many awesome components of System Center 2012 SP1 that I have discussed at numerous events (App Controller, Virtual Machine Manager, Orchestrator, Operations Manager, etc.), this link will give you the opportunity to download an evaluation copy of this software and try out the full feature set of System Center 2012 SP1 for FREE.

System Center 2012 SP1 is the center of your foray into cloud computing as it helps you manage, deploy and implement both Private, Hybrid and Public cloud computing environments. This indispensable solution is a prominent building block in the foundation of many IT careers, today and in the future.

Recently many of you have attended my IT Camps and/or IT Labs or my NYC IT Architects meetup and have been unsuccessful in downloading the System Center 2012 SP1 Suite. GOOD NEWS! The issue with my download link has been resolved, and you can now download the System Center 2012 SP1 Suite at your convenience.

CLICK HERE to Download System Center 2012 SP1 now!

Enjoy!

TechNet Radio: Windows Server 2012 File Server and SMB 3.0 – Simpler By Design

2013-04-02T19:33:43Z

Just how easy is it to use SMB 3.0? That’s the topic for today’s show as Jose Barreto and I discuss the ins and outs of Windows Server 2012 File Storage for Virtualization. Tune in as we chat about SMB Transparent Failover, Scale-Out, SMB Multichannel, SMB Direct, SMB Encryption and much, much more! Also, keep in mind the entire SMB 3.0 series can be found at http://aka.ms/SMB3Series.

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Step #1 – Download Windows Server 2012
Step #2 – Download Your FREE Copy of Hyper-V Server 2012
Step #3 – Start Your Free 90 Day Trial of Windows Azure

Catch up on the other episodes of the Windows Server 2012 SMB series by going to http://aka.ms/SMB3Series!

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Resources:

Websites & Blogs:

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TechNet Virtual Labs: System Center 2012

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Virtualization Storage–SMB (20+ Days of Server Virtualization - Part 6 of 20)

2013-03-27T15:37:22Z

As we move through the 20+Days of Server Virtualization Series, the next topic we’re covering is Virtualization Storage – SMB. Server Message Block or “SMB” is the protocol used by Windows Clients and Windows Servers to communicate as this protocol is embedded in a TCP/IP packet by Windows machines. Server Message Block (SMB) has gone through a number of revisions in the earlier editions of Windows on the server and client side but the version 3.0 of SMB included in Windows Server 2012 has gone through a significant update which adds many features and architectural design options for an IT infrastructure that may come as a surprise. I’ve been outlining many of these features with Jose Barreto on the Windows Server team in a TechNet Radio series named the SMB3 Series. You can find the entire SMB3 series at http://aka.ms/SMB3Series.

Among the many feature updates in Windows Server 2012 SMB 3.0, the Virtualization Storage option for SMB comes from the use of a remote file share located on a second Windows Server 2012 File Server to provide an “SMB File share” where remote workloads such as Hyper-V over SMB or SQL Server over SMB can be hosted like they were a local workload. When creating a Hyper-V virtual machine, the storage location of the Virtual Hard Disk or .VHD files would be placed on the SMB File share which appears local to the Hyper-V host, but is actually stored across the network on the remote file server.

The above diagram shows a basic configuration of leveraging Hyper-V over SMB which would be an option for a small business or in a test lab to begin to understand how to use this new feature set included with Windows Server 2012. For customers requiring a more highly available, fault tolerant configuration, virtualization storage could be configured in conjunction with Windows Server 2012 failover clustering and clustered storage spaces to create an extremely low cost and redundant solution.

Now I know what you may be thinking, placing virtualization storage over an SMB file share is going to introduce a performance bottleneck and latency that will make virtualization storage over SMB unsavory. Well, think again. We commissioned a study to document the performance characteristics of Windows Server 2012 Storage and Networking which included comparing the performance between a Hyper-V workload hosted locally on a Hyper-V host versus a Hyper-V workload hosted over SMB File share. The performance of the two solutions were nearly identical, even at scale with several thousand users. The TechNet Radio episode discussing these findings can be found here and the results of the study can be found here.

To further document what a typical enterprise deployment of a highly redundant and high performance virtualization storage workload may look like, see the below diagram.

This configuration leverages a number of hardware and software options to make a complete virtualization storage solution with no single point of failure. Keep in mind that this solution is showing the physical storage of SAS JBOD to show an extremely fast, yet low cost storage platform, but you could substitute any number of storage platforms at that point of the solution (iSCSI, Direct Attached, Fiber Channel, etc.)

Enjoy!