IT Evangelist Brian Lewis's Blog

20 Days of 20 Ways - Get Started with Migrating and Deploying Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure VMs

br549- — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 01:33:00 GMT

As IT Pros, we absolutely love building with new technology! This month, my fellow IT Pro Technical Evangelists and I have been working together on an article series for Migration and Deployment of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and System Center 2012 SP1 to help get you started. Here is the team listed by geographic region.

Eastern United States

Dan Stolts
@itproguru

Tommy Patterson
@tommy_patterson

Bob Hunt
@BobHms

Yung Chou
@yungchou

Blain Barton
@blainbar

Central United States

Kevin Remde
@KevinRemde

Keith Mayer
@keithmayer

Brian Lewis
@BrianLewis_

Matt Hester
@matthewhester

Western United States

Harold Wong
@HaroldWong

Chris Avis
@ChrisAvis

On behalf of my team and I, we hope you find the information in this series valuable.

Series Introduction

Introduction to the Migration and Deployment Series by Kevin Remde

Deploying and Migrating to Windows 8

Harold Wong	Requirements for a Fresh Install of Windows 8
Kevin Remde	Free Tools for Windows 8 Deployment ( Light Touch )
Keith Mayer	5 Steps to Deploying Windows 8 with System Center 2012 SP1 ( Zero Touch )
Dan Stolts	How to Migrate or Transfer Files ad Settings to Windows 8 from Windows 7, Vista or XP

Deploying and Migrating to Windows Server 2012

Bob Hunt	Requirements for a Fresh Windows Server 2012 Installation
Blain Barton	Upgrade Implications for Windows Server 2012 Active Directory
Matt Hester	Installing the Windows Server 2012 Migration Tools
Bob Hunt	Windows Server 2012 File Server Deployment Considerations with SMB 3.0
Tommy Patterson	Migrating Hyper-V Virtual Machines from Windows Server 2008 R2 to 2012

Deploying and Migrating to Windows Azure

Harold Wong	Windows Azure as Platform as a Service ( PaaS )
Tommy Patterson	How Windows Azure can be leveraged as part of your Migration
Yung Chou	Manage and Migrate On-Premise and Off-Premise VMs with System Center 2012 SP1
Yung Chou	Deploying On-premise and Off-Premise VMs with System Center 2012 SP1
Brian Lewis	Deploying Hands-on Lab environments for free in Windows Azure

Deploying and Managing Windows 8 Apps

Keith Mayer	Step-by-Step: Deploying Windows 8 Apps with System Center 2012 SP1
Tommy Patterson	Step-by-Step: Deploying Windows 8 Apps with Group Policy ad PowerShell
Chris Avis	Upgrading and Updating Windows 8 Apps
Matt Hester	Managing Windows 8 Apps with AppLocker

Recover lost Files even after a format! Free with PhotoRec tool

br549- — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:38:00 GMT

This past weekend my son came up to me and asked me to help him find his homework on his USB flash drive. He had copied his XBOX profile to the USB stick and that worked just fine but now he can’t find his homework.

When I looked all that was on the drive was a folder called xbox360 and 4 files inside that folder. When I asked him if he formatted the drive he stated that he just accepted whatever the XBOX told him he needed to do. I informed him that he just lost all of the data he had on the drive. He was more than a little upset.

I told him I would take a look at it and see if I could undelete the files. My wife tried to convince me not to get into a 3 hour endeavor of wasted time as he formatted the disk and didn’t just delete the files. This only encouraged me more…

It took me less than 10 minutes to recover my son’s lost files on his USB flash drive using PhotoRec. My wife was impressed, my son was impressed, and I was impressed with the software that I used.

PhotoRec is awesome!!! It ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted. Oh and it is free under the GPL and runs on just about anything Windows, Mac, Linux, Sun, BSD. Oh and the number here is a list of the file systems it will fix…

PhotoRec is bundled with another program called TestDisk,. TestDisk is an application for recovering lost partitions on a wide variety of file systems and making non-bootable disks bootable again. TestDisk can find lost partitions for all of these file systems:

BeFS ( BeOS )
BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )
CramFS, Compressed File System
DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
XBox FATX
Windows exFAT
HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
Linux btrfs
Linux ext2, ext3 and ext4
Linux GFS2
Linux LUKS encrypted partition
Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2
RAID 1: mirroring
RAID 4: striped array with parity device
RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information
Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
Mac partition map
Novell Storage Services NSS
NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 )
ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
XFS, SGI's Journaled File System
Wii WBFS
Sun ZFS

Luckily I haven’t needed to use this program yet, but if it works as good as PhotoRec then Wow!

Neither program has a GUI as can be seen by clicking on the screenshot above. It does have an intuitive menu system on the screen. You should add this to your toolkit! I have added it to mine.

TestDisk & PhotoRec documentation can be found online:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Cloud, Server, Hyper-V Trivia Game Launched! Win Prizes, Have Fun!

br549- — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:14:00 GMT

Microsoft recently launched a new trivia game where you can play for prizes:

DOWNLOAD, PLAY, WIN

Download free software evaluations of the Cloud OS, the more you try the more you can win Play trivia, the more you play the better chances you have to win Win a chance for some excellent prizes (Microsoft Surface, Windows 8, Windows 2012 Datacenter, or a Trip to MMS 2013 in Vegas!)
In fact, if you take action now, you might even score an exclusive Microsoft T-shirt for being one of the first 500 contestants! (That’s just for being fast. Imagine how you’ll do with the trivia!)

Vanquish the trivia questions and you could win one of the following: Windows 8 Professional, Windows Server 2012 Datacenter, a Cisco Linksys E1200 Wireless-N Router or a Microsoft Surface Tablet. Plus, you’ll be in the running for the Grand Prize of a trip to the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas!

Enter now here: http://aka.ms/sxjnk1

New RDS / Terminal Server Client for Windows 7

br549- — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:23:00 GMT

RDP 8 the new protocol for Remote Desktops in Server 2012 has been released for Windows 7. This is not your typical just install a new client – so make sure you would benefit from updating to the new RDP8. To understand if this would help you ask yourself are you Remoting into a Windows 8, Windows 2012, or Windows 7 with RDP 8 installed machine? If the answer is yes, then it makes sense to do the upgrade.

Remote Desktop Protocol 8.0 update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592687

There are a host of new features in the new RDP 8 protocol. These features are available when you use a client and host that is compatible with RDP 8.0.

This means that a computer that is running Windows 8, Server 2012, or Windows 7 SP1 with the RDP 8.0 update installed can connect to another computer that is running Windows 8, Server 2012, or Windows 7 SP1 with the RDP 8.0 update installed.

RemoteFX for WAN – The RemoteFX for WAN feature enables users on WAN networks to have a fast and fluid experience by using advanced techniques such as intelligent and adaptive UDP transports, network loss tolerance, and recovery. For more information, go to the following Microsoft website:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/08/23/remotefx-for-wan-overview-of-intelligent-and-adaptive-transports-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx
RemoteFX Network Auto Detect
The RemoteFX Network Auto Detect feature automatically detects network characteristics and optimizes user experience accordingly. For more information, go to the following Microsoft website:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/08/23/remotefx-for-wan-overview-of-intelligent-and-adaptive-transports-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx
RemoteFX Adaptive Graphics
The RemoteFX Adaptive Graphics feature delivers a rich graphics experience that dynamically adapts to the server load, the client access device load, and network characteristics. For more information, go to the following Microsoft website:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/08/06/remotefx-adaptive-graphics-in-windows-server-2012-and-windows-8.aspx
RemoteFX Media Streaming
The RemoteFX Media Streaming feature lets users experience a smooth media experience on WAN networks for all media content formats. For more information:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/08/16/enabling-a-seamless-multimedia-experience-with-remotefx-media-streaming-in-windows-server-2012-and-windows-8.aspx
RemoteFX USB Redirection for non-RemoteFX vGPU virtual desktops
The RemoteFX USB Redirection feature enables users to use USB devices with RemoteApp applications and remote desktops, even if the remote desktop computer does not have RemoteFX vGPU installed. For more information:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/09/11/remotefx-usb-redirection-in-windows-server-2012-and-windows-8.aspx
Support for Nested Sessions
RDP 8.0 supports running a Remote Desktop Connection session within another Remote Desktop Connection session for specific scenarios. For more information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2754550/
Performance counters for monitoring the user experience
Performance counters (RemoteFX Graphics and RemoteFX Network counter groups) let administrators monitor and troubleshoot user experience issues.

Windows Server 2012 RDS / Terminal Services - What's New?

br549- — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:20:00 GMT

Consumerization of IT and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are two trends that are moving forward in some organizations at full speed. How does IT handle getting critical workloads done in this type of environment? One way is to use Windows Remote Desktops (RDS). RDS is the workload within Windows Server that enables users to connect to virtual desktops, session-based desktops (VDI) and RemoteApp programs. The key value that RDS provides is the ability to centralize and control the applications and data that employees need to perform their job from the variety of devices that the employee uses. This provides “work anywhere from any device” while ensuring that your organization’s control and compliance needs are met.

In Server 2012 we have updated several areas in RDS. I will break that down into three main buckets of changes.

Management of Remote Desktop Services
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
The RDP protocol

1. Management of RDS
RDS consists of a large group of services that can be a little complex to configure. With our new tools in Server Manager we have made the management of RDS easier to deploy and easier to keep configured correctly. Specific Changes in management include:

RDS Management Interface integrated into Server Manager. RDS now includes a single management interface through which you can deploy RDS end to end, monitor the deployment, configure options, and manage all your RDS components and servers. This management interface is built into the new Server Manager, taking advantage of many new Windows Server 2012 management capabilities such as multi-server deployments, remote configuration, and orchestrated configuration workflows. This interface replaces older tools such as Remote Desktop Services Manager, RemoteApp Manager, and RD Session Host Configuration. The management tools for RD Gateway and RD Licensing are still provided separately since these roles are often deployed independently.
Scenario-Focused Deployment. The new Server Manager provides a scenario-focused wizard that dramatically simplifies the task of bringing up a complete RDS deployment. This wizard sets up all the roles needed for an RDS deployment, configures each server role correctly to communicate with the other roles, and walks you through creating your first virtual desktop or session collection as well.
Active/Active RD Connection Broker.In previous releases the RD Connection Broker role service has supported an active/passive clustering model. This provided high availability in the case of component failure, but it did not address high scale requirements. In this release, we have eliminated the need for clustering and switched to an active/active model. With this model, two or more RD Connection Brokers can be combined as a farm to provide both fault tolerance and load balancing. This prevents the broker from being a single point of failure and also allows ‘scale out’ as load demands. Sweet!
PowerShell support. All platform functions and capabilities can be controlled through a comprehensive and rich PowerShell layer. IT administrators can use this layer to build sophisticated automation that helps fit RDS into their IT infrastructure and workflows.

2. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
In the VDI or session-based desktops arena we have added a lot of functionality to make it easier to control and manage your hosted desktop environment. For more on setting up VDI see my previous post: http://mythoughtsonit.com/2012/10/simplified-vdi-configuration-and-management-in-server-2012/

Robust Pooled Virtual Desktop Collection model. “Pooled virtual desktop collection” model refers to the idea that a large number of virtual machines can be managed as a single entity by using a single virtual desktop template. This model is very attractive in VDI because it allows IT admins to provide a work desktop to multiple users without having to maintain a full OS for each user. In Windows Server 2012 we fully support this deployment model. Wow! Virtual machines can be created in batch from a virtual desktop template, patched by only modifying that virtual desktop template, and refreshed automatically the next time the user logs in. This dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of managing a large number of desktops.
User Profile Disk.A major blocker for the “pooled virtual desktop collection” model has been lack of personalization: Since the pooled virtual desktop collection is based on a common virtual desktop template, the user’s personal documents, settings, and configurations would normally not be present. User Profile Desk was added to solve this problem for either virtual machine-based or session based desktop deployments. As the user logs on to different virtual machines within the pool or different RD Session Hosts within the session collection, his/her User Profile Disk gets mounted, providing access to the user’s complete profile.
Fairshare of resources in RD Session Host. In Windows Server 2012, RD Session Host server allocates CPU, Disk I/O, and Network I/O such that a single user cannot consume resources that would negatively impact other users on the same host. Each user will get a “fair share”. This is done with minimum overhead so the CPU, disk, and network resources are used to maximum capacity.
GPU Optional. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 we had a requirement on a physical GPU for RemoteFX. In Windows Server 2012 the physical GPU is optional for VDI where it provides value if you are running applications that could benefit from hardware offload such as a video or CAD/CAM type applications.

3. The RDP protocol
At the lowest level of Remote Desktops is remote desktop protocol, RDP. This has been updated to RDP 8.0 and makes a lot of changes for remote control. This protocol has been updated in several ways. Specific improvements include:

Adaptive Graphics. We support a mix and match approach, determining and using the right codec for the right content instead of one size fits all. We included codecs optimized for multimedia, images, and text. We improved caching as well as added progressive rendering. Progressive rendering allows RemoteFX to provide a responsive experience over a highly constrained network.
Intelligent Transports. We support UDP as well as TCP. UDP provides a better experience over a lossy WAN network but, is not always possible dependent on the routers, and firewalls involved. RDP will automatically use TCP when UDP cannot be used to ensure connectivity and the best possible experience.
Optimized Media Streaming. We utilize a new codec to reduce bandwidth consumption for media content (in some cases a 90% bandwidth reduction) while also providing a great end user media experience.
Adaptive Network Auto Detect. In this release, the end user no longer has to set the network in the Remote Desktop Connection client: the client auto-detects the network type and, also adapts as the network changes.
Single Sign-On. In Windows Server 2008 R2, it was possible to configure an RDS deployment so that users will need to enter their credentials only once when connecting to RemoteApps and hosted desktops. However, this configuration was very cumbersome. In Windows Server 2012 we dramatically simplified this by eliminating the need to use multiple certificates. We also made it possible to use locally logged on domain credentials so that users connecting from managed devices can connect seamlessly without any credential prompts.
Multi Touch. We support full remoting of gestures (e.g. pinch and zoom) between the client and host with up to 256 touch points. This provides for a consistent experience when using a touch enabled device locally or, over RemoteFX. As more apps are written supporting touch as the primary interface, this will become more important.
USB Redirection. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 we supported USB isochronous remoting only for vGPU enabled virtual machines. We have added support when using sessions and physical hosts which provides a consistent experience independent of physical, session, or virtual machine based host.

Summary:
Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 provides a single infrastructure, and consistently great remoting experience now even over WAN connections. It offers three main services of: traditional terminal services / RDS, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), and Remote App publishing. These tools support multiple scenarios including BYOD’s idea of “work anywhere from any device” while ensuring that your organization’s control and compliance needs are met.

Password Insecurity...

br549- — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:06:00 GMT

Security is one of my focus areas and is one area that often falls short but more often than not it is not due to poor policy and not poor programing. That’s right I said it. Yes, I do work for a software company… Yes I often blame hardware manufactures drivers for the blue screen of death and not Microsoft. Yes, I do admit that people get infected with viruses due to poor browser coding and poor coding of plugins.

BUT, poor security practice makes you a lot more insecure than most coding problems. For example if I can call your helpdesk, say I am you, and your helpdesk will help me get connected to your network then you have a huge security problem. You need to have some policy in place to make sure that you can identify you are who you say you are. The larger the organization the more susceptible they are to this social engineering attack.

What I believe is one of the biggest issues in security practice today is the password. It would be great if we could get to another security solution that uses something other than passwords like smart-cards. This way someone can’t login as me unless they have the smart-card and my pin. This is what we use at Microsoft in addition to Direct Access. Another bad security practice is telling people how you secure your network that just helps them know where to start looking for holes in the armor.

Passwords are insecure often because users have to remember them so they choose easy passwords or reuse them. I have written about this before:

Even if you use a unique secure password for each site / login you should pay close attention to the length of the password. Currently for a bruit force password attack against a local password hash here are the times to try all combinations of possible passwords. I know this is a bit simplistic but the idea is the important part. Look at how quickly the time to crack a password changes with the length. With only lowercase letters you need to have at least 10 characters to have it even remotely secure. And if the hacker uses GPUs and multiple machines that may even change this table up a few characters.

Password Length	All Characters	Only Lowercase
3 characters	0.86 seconds	0.02 seconds
4 characters	1.36 minutes	.046 seconds
5 characters	2.15 hours	11.9 seconds
6 characters	8.51 days	5.15 minutes
7 characters	2.21 years	2.23 hours
8 characters	2.10 centuries	2.42 days
9 characters	20 millennia	2.07 months
10 characters	1,899 millennia	4.48 years
11 characters	180,365 millennia	1.16 centuries
12 characters	17,184,705 millennia	3.03 millennia
13 characters	1,627,797,068 millennia	78.7 millennia
14 characters	154,640,721,434 millennia	2,046 millennia

Until we can replace the password with a better more secure system; my recommendation is to use a password manager. Then for each of your many logins use unique passwords consisting of both upper and lower characters as well as other characters (!@#$%^&). Lastly use a long password – over 12 characters. Since your using a password manager make it as long as the system will let you. Oh, and those security questions for resetting your password. – Don’t use real answers! Use fake answers and keep them in your password managers notes section. Lastly keep a backup of your password manager.

My password manager runs on Windows, Mac, Windows Phone, IOS, Android. So in addition to my backup of the database I have the program running on a Windows Phone, Windows 7 laptop, Windows 8, laptop,iPod Touch, Galaxy Tab8.9, Mac Air, and iPad gen 1. They all stay in sync via a dropbox account.

What NICs should I use in Server 2012?

br549- — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:04:00 GMT

To NIC or not to NIC – that really isn’t the question. The real question is what NICs do I use? The answer is classic – it depends…

In Windows Server 2012 there are new features to increase network bandwidth, lower CPU utilization, and give fault tolerance to networks. The biggest difficulty is that there are several technologies here and you need to decide which one you want to use for your server.

Here is a good 75 page whitepaper on Networking in Windows Server 2012. It may not help you decide which NICs to put in your server but it is a great paper to understand networking in Server 2012. Networking white paper

If you are using InfiniBand or something else capable of Remote Direct Memory Access then multiple RDMA NICs is likely the way to go. Currently at about $800 for a Mellanox InfiniBand NIC it may not be an option for those of us with a more frugal budget. To stay within a tight budget teaming RSS NICs is the way to go. Teaming these network cards gives aggregated bandwidth for all traffic and path fault tolerance.

See the table below.

See Choosing a Networks adapter for more info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj574168

Teaming is the way to go:
In previous versions of Windows NIC teaming was only available through third-party solutions and required specific network adapter hardware. In Windows Server 2012 NIC teaming, now built into the OS, is vendor, hardware, and line-speed agnostic. You can configure up to 32 adapters in one team and up to 32 teams per server. You can only team Ethernet adapters. You can not create a team using other NIC teams as team members.

NIC teaming is not compatible with Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), remote direct memory access (RDMA), or TCP Chimney offloading.

For information on NIC Teaming Load Balancing/Failover (LBFO) Deployment see this documet: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30160

As the document details there are two ways to setup NIC teaming. Use Server Manager or PowerShell. Here are screen shots of how to add NIC teaming with Server Manager.

Click to enlarge image

Here are the PowerShell cmdlets for NIC teaming:

Objects to be managed	Supported operations on the object
1. NetLbfoTeam	Get, New, Remove, Rename, Set
2. NetLbfoTeamMember	Add, Get, Remove, Set
3. NetLbfoTeamNic	Get, New, Remove, Set

Summary:
There are a lot of factors in choosing your NICs. First you decide on the hardware and then you need to decide on how you wish to configure those NICs. My conclusion is that the configuration that will fit the most scenarios is to team your RSS enabled NICs. This will give good performance and fault tolerance.

Virtual Desktop configuration and managment in Windows Server 2012

br549- — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:01:00 GMT

It is very exciting to see that in Windows Server 2012 Microsoft has greatly improved the ease of management of Remote Desktop Services (RDS) including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

Have you read about our new tool, Server Manager? Server Manager is our new tool which makes it substantially easier to manage Windows Servers.

Server Manager enables administrators to deploy, configure, and manage personal and pooled virtual desktops. The 2012 release includes enhancements that make it easier to create pooled environments, which are less costly to deploy and maintain than personal desktops. These tools provide automated deployment and management of pooled desktops with virtual desktop templates, preserve user personalization for pooled virtual desktop deployments by using User Profile Disks, and support multiple storage options; including local disk and file shares for virtual machine storage.

Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 takes ease of management a big step forward and introduces Scenario Based Deployment. Using Scenario Based Deployment, you’re able to perform a full VDI/RDS deployment from the single Server Manager console. Prior to Server 2012, you had to install all the RDS roles separately, but more importantly after installing those roles, a huge amount of manual configuration had to be done.

Click image for full size view

One of the very cool aspect of the wizard based deployment is that you literally can run through this wizard in less than 10 mouse clicks! Once the wizard finishes you’ll have a fully working environment up and running. With the “Quick Start” selection all roles are installed and configured on a single server, which of course makes it less appropriate for (large) production environments. Choose a Standard Deployment if you need to setup a more complex deployment. Either way, Server Manager makes it easier to manage your deployment.

In general, a good portion of the improvement areas in Windows Server 2012 focus on infrastructure simplification and cost reduction. Cost and complexity is a major roadblock for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and hosted desktop deployments of all sizes.

Below is a more granular level of specific improvements. I’m sure you’ll see, as did I, that the best improvements to Windows Server 2012 are well thought out and very impactful.

Robust Pooled Virtual Desktop Collection model. “Pooled virtual desktop collection” model refers to the idea that a large number of virtual machines can be managed as a single entity by using a single virtual desktop template. This model is very attractive in VDI because it allows IT admins to provide a work desktop to multiple users without having to maintain a full OS for each user. In Windows Server 2012 we fully support this deployment model. Virtual machines can be created in batch from a virtual desktop template, patched by only modifying that virtual desktop template, and recreated/refreshed automatically by the RD Connection Broker. This dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of supporting a large number of users.
User Profile Disk. A major blocker for the “pooled virtual desktop collection” model has been lack of personalization: Since the pooled virtual desktop collection is based on a common virtual desktop template, the user’s personal documents, settings, and configurations would normally not be present. User Profile Desk was added to solve this problem for either virtual machine-based or session based desktop deployments. As the user logs on to different virtual machines within the pool or different RD Session Hosts within the session collection, his/her User Profile Disk gets mounted, providing access to the user’s complete profile. Since User Profile Disk operates at a lower layer, it works seamlessly with existing user state technologies such as Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection.

RDS Management Interface integrated into Server Manager.RDS now includes a single management interface through which you can deploy RDS end to end, monitor the deployment, configure options, and manage all your RDS components and servers. This management interface is built into the new Server Manager, taking advantage of many new Windows Server 2012 management capabilities such as multi-server deployments, remote configuration, and orchestrated configuration workflows. This interface replaces older tools such as Remote Desktop Services Manager, RemoteApp Manager, and RD Session Host Configuration. The management tools for RD Gateway and RD Licensing are still provided separately since these roles are often deployed independently.
Scenario-Focused Deployment. The new Server Manager provides a scenario-focused wizard that dramatically simplifies the task of bringing up a complete RDS deployment. This wizard sets up all the roles needed for an RDS deployment, configures each server role correctly to communicate with the other roles, and walks you through creating your first virtual desktop or session collection as well. The wizard comes in two flavors:
- Quick Start is optimized for deploying Remote Desktop Services on one server, and creates a collection and publishes RemoteApp programs.
- Standard Deployment allows you to deploy Remote Desktop Services across multiple servers, allowing for a more customized deployment.
Active/Active RD Connection Broker.In previous releases the RD Connection Broker role service has supported an active/passive clustering model. This provided high availability in the case of component failure, but it did not address high scale requirements. In this release, we have eliminated the need for clustering and switched to an active/active model. With this model, two or more RD Connection Brokers can be combined as a farm to provide both fault tolerance and load balancing. This prevents the broker from being a single point of failure and also allows ‘scale out’ as load demands.
PowerShell support. All platform functions and capabilities can be controlled through a comprehensive and rich PowerShell layer. IT administrators can use this layer to build sophisticated automation that helps fit RDS into their IT infrastructure and workflows. We also anticipate third-party vendors to use this new extensibility layer to address unique new scenarios and integrate Windows Server 2012 RDS into management tools.

BranchCache in Microsoft Windowws Server 2012

br549- — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:58:00 GMT

What is BranchCache?
BranchCache is a WAN optimization technology that is built into Server 2012. It enables remote offices to access centralized file-shares over the wide area network at faster speeds and using less bandwidth. This type of solution to remote office WAN optimization are collectivity known as “wide area files services” or WAFS solutions. They are traditionally expensive so it is a great to have a solution included in the box with Windows Server.

To optimize WAN bandwidth when users access content on remote servers, BranchCache copies content from your main office servers and caches the content at branch office locations, allowing client computers at branch offices to access the content locally rather than over the WAN. Further BranchCache de-duplicates the data that it transfers across the wire saving bandwidth.

Microsoft BranchCache works for the following types of WAN traffic

MS IIS Servers w/ BranchCache feature installed
MS File Servers w/ BranchCache feature installed
Application servers that utilizes BITS, Background Intelligent Transfer Service

BranchCache operates in one of two modes:

Distributed cache mode. In this mode, branch office client computers download content from the content servers in the main office and then cache the content for other computers in the same branch office. Distributed cache mode does not require a server computer in the branch office.
Hosted cache mode. In this mode, branch office client computers download content from the content servers in the main office, and a hosted cache server retrieves the content from the clients. The hosted cache server then caches the content for other client computers.

BranchCache Improvements in Windows Server 2012 & Windows 8

There have been a significant number of improvements as we move to BranchCache in Server 2012 that substantially increase performance, manageability, scalability, and availability. Here is a short list of improvements:

Office sizes and the number of branch offices are not limited. BranchCache supports any number of offices of any size when you deploy hosted cache mode with multiple hosted cache servers.
There is no requirement for a Group Policy Object (GPO) for each office location, streamlining deployment. A single GPO that contains a small group of settings is all that is required to deploy BranchCache in any size organization, from a large enterprise to a small business.
Client computer configuration is automatic. Clients can be configured through Group Policy as distributed cache mode clients by default, however they will search for a hosted cache server – and if one is discovered, clients automatically self-configure as hosted cache mode clients.
BranchCache uses Windows file server’s file de-duplication technology to divide files into small pieces and eliminate duplicates. This greatly increases the chance of finding duplicate pieces in independent files, resulting in greater bandwidth savings. BranchCache is also more tolerant of small changes in large files. In addition, file division calculations are performed only one time. When a client computer that is running Windows 8 downloads content from a file server or web server that is running Windows Server 2012 and is using new Data Deduplication technology, there is no need for BranchCache to spend CPU cycles calculating how to divide the content – because the file server and web server have already made these calculations.
Offline creation of content information. When you deploy a BranchCache enabled file server or Web server as a content server, content information is calculated offline, well before a BranchCache client requests a file. This provides faster performance and more bandwidth savings, because content information is ready for the first client that requests the content and calculations have already been performed.
Cache Encryption. Cached data is now stored encrypted by default. This allows you to ensure data security without using drive encryption technologies.
Cache preloading. New tools are available that allow you to load cacheable content onto hosted cache servers before the content is requested by client computers. You can preload content from media, such as DVDs or hard disks, or you can transfer the content over the network to the hosted cache server.
BranchCache is now manageable with PowerShell and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This enables scripting and remote management of BranchCache content servers, hosted cache servers, and client computers.

How to Setup and use BranchCache
While there are several ways to accomplish setting up a BranchCache, below I will detail how to configure a file share Using BranchCache.

Setup your File Server for BranchCache
First you need to install the BranchCache feature on your file server. You can do this from Server Manager or from PowerShell.

Click image for full size view

PowerShell Commands:

Install-WindowsFeature BrancheCache –IncludeManagementTools
Install-WindowsFeature FS-BranchCache –IncludeManagementTools
Install-WindowsFeature FS-Data-Deduplication -IncludeManagementTools
Restart-Computer

Next we create a file share that is BranchCache Enabled. (It will create the fie hashes)

Click image for full size view

Verify the Status of your File Share Server by typing the following command at the Windows PowerShell prompt, and then press ENTER.

Get-BCStatus

Click image for full size view

Deploy a Hosted Cache Server
On the computer that you want to configure as a hosted cache server, run the following command at a Windows PowerShell prompt to install the BranchCache feature.

Install-WindowsFeature BranchCache -IncludeManagementTools

Configure a domain joined computer as a hosted cache server, and to register a service connection point in Active Directory for automatic hosted cache server discovery by client computers, type the following command at the Windows PowerShell prompt, and then press ENTER.

Enable-BCHostedServer -RegisterSCP

Verify the correct configuration of the hosted cache server, type the following command at the Windows PowerShell prompt, and then press ENTER.

Get-BCStatus

Lastly you need to configure the Windows 8 Client to use BranchCache

To configure the client computer for BranchCache hosted cache mode, type the following PowerShell command, and then press ENTER.

Enable-BCHostedClient

Verify the configuration of the client by typing the following command at the Windows PowerShell prompt, and then press ENTER.

Get-BCStatus

That is it – hope you enjoy your WAFS solution with BranchCache!

-Brian

How to info on Windows 8

br549- — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:00:00 GMT

There are lots of new things to explore in Microsoft Windows 8.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

Start screen: Your favorite things

Pin apps, websites, and people to Start to easily get to what you use most. Tiles and notifications show what’s new so you can get important info and updates at a glance.
From Start, you can just start typing to search for what you want. You can also see a list of all apps on your PC when you swipe up or right-click, and then tap or click All apps.
You can get to the Start screen by swiping in from the right edge of your screen and tapping the Start charm or by pointing your mouse to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving down, and then clicking the Start charm. You can also use the Windows key
on your keyboard to go to Start.

Apps and the Windows Store: Discover great apps
Browse, search, see staff picks, or view lists of popular apps to find exactly what you want.
Tap or click Store on the Start screen to open the Windows Store.

Connected to the cloud
When you sign in with a Microsoft account, your PC is connected to the cloud and:

Your friends’ contact info and status automatically stay up to date from services like Hotmail, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn without signing in to each one.
You can get to and share your photos, docs, and other files from services like SkyDrive, Facebook, and Flickr.
Your personal settings can be synced to any PC running Windows 8 or Windows RT that you sign in to, including your themes, language preferences, browser favorites, and apps.
You can get apps in the Windows Store and use them on any PC running Windows 8 or Windows RT that you sign in to.

If you didn’t sign in with a Microsoft account when you set up your PC, you still can. Open the Settings charm, tap or click Change PC settings, go to Users, and then tap or click Connect your Microsoft account.

The charms: Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings
Here’s a glimpse of what each charm does—but they can do a lot more, so explore what they can do for you. Especially check out how the options change depending on if you’re on Start or using an app.

The charms
The charms appear on the right side of your screen. Swipe in from the right edge or move your pointer into the upper-right corner and then down to see them, and then choose the one you want.

The Search charm is a powerful new way to find what you’re looking for. Enter a search term once, and you can quickly get results from the app you’re using, other apps, the web, or your PC—all from the same place.
The Share charm lets you send links, photos, and more to your friends and social networks without leaving the app you’re in.
The Start charm takes you to Start or, if you’re already on the Start screen, returns you to your last app.
The Devices charm is a handy way to do things like send files and stream movies to TVs, printers, and other devices around your home.
The Settings charm is how you do basic tasks like shutting down your PC and changing the volume. It’s also used by apps to configure things like account and privacy settings.

App commands: New, Refresh, and other commands
Commands themselves aren’t new, but they now stay out of sight until you need them so you can use the whole screen for what you’re doing.

App commands
The app commands appear at the top and bottom of your screen. Swipe up or down from either edge or right-click to see them, and then choose the one you want. Commands might also appear when you select or right-click an item like a tile or photo.

Switch between apps:
Sometimes you want to return to an app you were just using or quickly switch through your recent apps.

Switching apps

Swipe in from the left edge, or move your pointer to the upper-left corner and then click the corner, to switch to the next app.
To see your recently used apps when using touch, swipe in from the left edge without lifting your finger, and then push the app back toward the left edge.
To see your recently used apps when using a mouse, move your pointer into the upper-left corner and then move it down the left edge.

Snap an app: Use two apps side by side
Do two things at once by snapping an app to the right or left side of your screen. Keep the app in one-third of the screen, or expand it to two-thirds or full screen with one motion. Experiment with different layouts to find out what works best for you.

Snapping apps

Slide your finger in from the left edge or move your pointer to the upper-left corner until the second app appears. Drag that second app until an opening appears behind. You can also snap apps straight from the list of recently used apps.

Note:
Your screen resolution must be at least 1366 x 768 to snap apps. To check this setting:

Open Screen Resolution by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering Display in the search box, tapping or clicking Settings, and then tapping or clicking Display.

Dynamic Access Control in Server 2012

br549- — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:45:00 GMT

Data continues to grow at an exponential pace in our businesses and our analysis show that over 80% of this data still resides on file servers. Often it is challenging to take your business needs and match them up to Windows security and authorization to set the access to this data. Windows Server 2012 tries to help address these challenges by introducing a new feature called Dynamic Access Control. This feature was originally named “claim-based access control,” but was renamed to Dynamic Access Control because the new access control system does much more than just claims.

In Windows Server 2012, you can apply data governance across your file servers to control who can access information and to audit who has accessed information. Dynamic Access Control lets you:

Identify data by using automatic and manual classification of files. For example, you can add tags to your data in file servers.
Control access to files by applying automatic policies that use central access policies. For example, you could define who can access health information within the organization.
Audit access to files by using central audit policies for compliance reporting and forensic analysis. For example, you could identify who accessed highly sensitive information.
Apply Rights Management Services (RMS) protection by using automatic RMS encryption for sensitive Microsoft Office documents. For example, you could configure RMS to encrypt all documents that contain credit card numbers.
Access Denied Assistance. For example, when a user receives an access denied dialog it provides a way to request access from a data owner. See the dialogs below.

Click to Enlarge

Setting conditional access to files and folders. This is immediately available on a Windows Server 2012 File Server and enables you to setup access to files based on then need to belong to a list of AD groups or have an AD attribute such as Department or Country for access.

Click to Enlarge

There are several Windows components that make this high-level capability work. AD was updated to comprehend claims. NTFS was updated to be able to use regular expressions in the file system ACLs in addition to security principals such as users and groups. File Server Resource Manager automates setting classifications on files. ADAC was updated to give administrators a nice GUI to manage their file access policies.

For a good solid hands on understanding of Dynamic Access Control try the hands on Virtual Lab on the Microsoft web site. In just 20 minutes you can have the hands on experience you need!

Technet Windows Server 2012 Virtual Labs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/hh968267.aspx
The lab at the bottom of this list is:
Using Dynamic Access Control to Automatically and Centrally Secure Data
In this lab, you will explore Dynamic Access Control in Windows Server 2012. You will learn how to create Central Access Policies, explore the new Access Denied Remediation features, as well as learn how to use the audit capabilities built into Dynamic Access Control.

PowerShell 3.0 Download

br549- — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:41:05 GMT

It is hard to find the PowerShell 3.0 download. That is
because the only way to get it is to download the Windows Management Framework
3.0. PowerShell 3.0 is part of that.

Windows Management Framework 3.0
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595

Ok, now that you know where to get it what value does it bring? You can
install the download on Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2. It gives you
the speed improvements in PowerShell as well as the new command-lets.

One of the things I like about it is that I can use the new Server Manager tool to manage Server 2008, 2008R2, and 2012
boxes. You do need to load this on your 2008 and 2008R2 boxes to get that to
work.

-Enjoy

31 Days of our Favorite Things: Windows Server 2012 Blog Series

br549- — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:21:00 GMT

***Day1 of 31***

Hello October!!!

31 Days of our Favorite Things in Windows Server 2012 Blog Series starts
today. This means that the four Microsoft Central Region IT Pro Evangelists will
be taking turns blogging about 31 of the coolest things in Windows Server 2012.
That’s right a new post every day!

Specifically that is Matt Hester, Keith Mayer, Kevin Remde, and me (Brian Lewis).

I will update this post with the links to the posts to make it easier to
follow. Let us know what you think and if you are enjoying the “Blog Roll”!

-Brian

Day	Author	Blog Post Link
1	Kevin	The Cloud Platform (Part 1 of 31)
2	Brian	Windows server manager-2012 (Part 2 of 31)
3	Matt	PowerShell 3.0 (Part 3 of 31)
4	Keith	Hyper-V Live Migration (Part 4 of 31)
5	Kevin	Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V Replica (Part 5 of 31)
6	Keith	Storage spaces in windows server 2012 - (Part 6 of 31)
7	Kevin	Yes there is an I in NIC - Windows Server 2012 (Part 7 of 31)
8	Keith	Getting started with Hyper-V network virtualization
9	Matt	Get happy over the free Hyper-V Server 2012 (part-9-of-31)
10	Brian	31 days of our favorite things: Simplified BrancheCache Part 10
11	Matt	Getting Snippy with PowerShell 3.0 (Part 11 of 31)
12	Veeam	How to get unbelievable deduplication results with Windows Server 2012 and Veeam backup replication
13	Brian	Simplified VDI Configuration and Management in Server 2012 Part 13
14	Keith	Task mastering the new task manager (part 14 of 31)
15	Keith	Improve File Server Data Resiliency with ReFS (Part 15 of 31)
16	Sumeeth	Simplified DirectAccess (Part 16 of 31)
17	Matt	SMB 3.0 The Glue in Windows Server 2012 (part-17-of-31)
18	Steve	Server 2012 Continuously Available File Shares (Part 18 of 31)
19	Keith	Improved Taste Less Filling More Uptime - Server Core in Windows Server 2012 (19-of-31)
20	Kevin	Extend Your Hyper-V Virtual Switch in Server 2012 (Part 20 of 31)
21	Brian	To NIC or to Not NIC hardware requirements (Part 21 of 31)
22	Kevin	Windows Server 2012 Versions (Part 22-of-31)
23	Kevin	31 Days of our Favorite Things: Windows Server 2012 - I think, therefore IPAM. (Part 23 of 31)
24	Kevin	31 Days of our Favorite Things: Windows Server 2012 and the RSATs (Part 24 of 31)
25	Kevin	Top 3 New Tricks with Active Directory Admin Center – 31 Days of Favorite Features in #WinServ 2012 ( Part 25 of 31 )
26	Brian	31 Days of Our Favorite Things: Dynamic Access Control (Part 26 of 31)
27	Matt	31 Days of Our Favorite Things: Get the Gremlin Out of Your Active Directory Virtualization Infrastructure with Windows Server 2012 (Part 27 of 31)
28	Keith	Step-by-Step: Scoping out the NEW DHCP Failover in Windows Server 2012 - 31 Days of Favorite Features ( Part 28 of 31 )
29	Matt	31 Days of Our Favorite Things: Gone in 8 Seconds chkdsk in Windows Server 2012 (Part 29 of 31)
30	Brian	Server 2012 RDS What’s New? (Part 30 of 31)
31	Matt

Download Windows Server 2012 Today!

br549- — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:23:41 GMT

Windows Server® 2012 this past Wednesday!!! Thats right today marks the General Availability of Windows Server 2012! Windows Server 2012 is a cornerstone of the Cloud OS, providing our customers and partners with a modern platform for their applications. Microsoft has put its unparalleled cloud experience into Windows Server 2012, making it the world’s first server that is “built from the cloud up”.

Windows Server 2012 expands the definition of a server operating system from the single server up to the datacenter and out to the cloud, while also incorporating breakthroughs across advanced storage, software-defined networking, virtualization and automation. Windows Server 2012 delivers hundreds of new features that will help customers achieve a transformational leap in the speed, scale and power of their datacenters. In combination with Windows Azure and System Center 2012, Windows Server 2012 empowers techs to manage and deliver applications and services across private, hosted and public clouds.

You can download a copy today and start testing all the new features. There are a ton of them! This is by far the best Server Operating System that Microsoft has ever released.

Clicking on the graphic below will take you to the download Server 2012 download page where you can get both an install ISO and a pre-configured Virtual Machine in the .VHD format. Download and have fun!

Want more information on Server 2012? You can get a free eBook. Available in several formats.

Free eBook “Introducing Windows Server® 2012″

AMAZON - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0084HJB06/ref=docs-os-doi_0

PDF - Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition - PDF ebook

EPUB – Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition – ePub format

MOBI – Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition – MOBI format (for Kindle)

Hard Copy Book - $14.99 - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0790145372536.do

We are in the middle of a "Transformational Shift in Technology"

br549- — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 22:55:31 GMT

Technology is continually evolving but there are certain times when there is an important change that hits the market. For example Apple shipped the iPhone in the US on June29, 2007. Now look at the smartphone market today! A huge transformational shift has occurred in the market. The iPad first shipped on April 3, 2010 and look at the tablet market today. It is growing and a huge rate and has been a very disruptive technology to the computer market. As a matter of fact I see the majority of features in Microsoft’s Windows 8 are direct response to these two disruptive devices.

On October 26th with the general availability of Windows 8, Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs) are going to be shipping all sorts of new hardware devices that will be running the new operating system. There will be “all in one” devices that look like a TV and have a touch screen. Some of these will be able to tilt like a table and then you have a touch table PC. A very cool multil use device. Multiple laptops will ship that convert in some fashion to a tablet form factor. Some will have the display separate from the base, some will fold over, some will swivel the screen and fold over the keyboard. These devices will all start fast – under 30 seconds. These devices will have long battery lives – 6 hours at a minimum. These devices will have a standby mode that starts in under 3 seconds with weeks of standby time.

The technology devices we use are evolving rapidly and we are at the pivotal point where things are about to get really interesting. Some companies will succeed and others will fail but there will be a lot of activity and the true winners in all of this will be us, the consumers.

In the future we consumers will buy very cool devices and the backend services will be run on servers in large datacenters. That will be the majority of the market. There will be niche markets that will do very well but I expect the mass market will follow this paradigm. The companies that will be the major winners in this world will be the device companies and the backend service companies. There are great opportunities here you just need to find them. When you do let me know so I can get rich too.

Free eBook on Introducing Windows Server 2012

br549- — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:59:00 GMT

I came across this free eBook on Server 2012 that you
might find interesting. It is written for a higher level understanding of Server
2012.

-Enjoy

Introducing Windows Server 2012
(Based on Beta)

Chapter 1 The business need for Windows Server 2012
The
rationale behind cloud computing Making the transition
Technical
requirements for successful cloud computing
Four ways Windows Server 2012
delivers value for cloud computing Foundation for building your private cloud

Chapter 2 Foundation for building your private cloud
A
complete virtualization platform
Increase scalability and performance
Business continuity for virtualized workloads

Chapter 3 Highly available, easy-to-manage multi-server
platform
Continuous availability
Cost efficiency
Management
efficiency
Chapter 4 Deploy web applications on premises and in the
cloud
Scalable and elastic web platform
Support for open
standards
Chapter 5 Enabling the modern workstyle

Access virtually anywhere, from any device
Full Windows
experience
Enhanced security and compliance

Find you free eBook Here: (Lots of formats too - PDF,EPUB,
MOBI)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/06/04/free-ebook-introducing-windows-server-2012.aspx

Free eBook on SQL Server 2012

br549- — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:57:34 GMT

I stumbled across another free eBook. It is free eBook week
at MyThoughtsOnIT.com :) Download your free copy of the Microsoft Press eBook
Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012. Written by Stacia Misner and
Ross Mistry, this book explores enhancements and new capabilities, including
improvements in operation, reporting, and management.

PART I DATABASE ADMINISTRATION (by Ross Mistry)

1. SQL Server 2012 Editions and Engine Enhancements
2. High-Availability and Disaster-Recovery Enhancements
3. Performance and Scalability
4. Security Enhancements
5. Programmability and Beyond-Relational Enhancements

PART II BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT (by Stacia Misner)

6. Integration Services
7. Data Quality Services
8. Master Data Services
9. Analysis Services and PowerPivot
10. Reporting Services

Free SQL 2012 eBook Available Here

Microsoft Consulting is Hiring in the Midwest

br549- — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:49:42 GMT

Microsoft Services is Hiring!
Recruiting Open House – Chicago AON office
2^nd Floor
June 7^th – 6:00pm – 8:30pm

Microsoft Consulting Services is searching for experienced people to join MCS
in the Midwest. We invite you to attend an evening to meet, socialize and most
importantly network with other technology and business professionals. This open
house will give you the opportunity to ask questions about Microsoft, MCS and
the day in the life as a member of the elite Microsoft Consulting Services team.

Microsoft is hiring Project Managers and Engagement
Managers in addition to Technical Consultants. We are
interested in Technical Consultants who have a consulting and
technology background in the following areas:

- Active Directory
- Windows Server
- SharePoint – development and infrastructure
- System Center
- Desktop Deployment
- SQL/BI
- Exchange
- Lync

To attend this event you must to do two things:

Send your resume to esjobs@microsoft.com
Register http://mcschicago.eventbrite.com/

Feel free to put me down as the person who referred you. Let me know if you
have any questions.
–Brian

Students need your Vote!!!

br549- — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:44:57 GMT

Imagine a world where technology helps solve the
toughest problems. . .

We asked students from all over the world to come up with innovative uses of
technology that would make the world a better place. They stepped up to the
challenge, and the Imagine Cup US 2012 competition was on!

Imagine Cup is a global technology competition, enabling students worldwide
to use technology to transform the world we live in. Every year, Imagine Cup
inspires eager students to shine, developing skills that will power their
futures, and applying what they have learned to make a positive impact in the
world and build a brighter future.

Last year, over 325,000 students participated in Imagine Cup. Today, 22 teams
from across the country have made it to the Imagine Cup US finals, developing
solutions and providing awareness to issues that address environmental
stewardship, the worldwide obesity epidemic, and the plight of children in
war-torn Africa.

Now it’s up to you: These teams need your votes to win the Imagine Cup
People’s Choice award. The team with the most votes by May 19, 2012 will
travel to the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia this July. Vote
now!

And of course there’s something in it for you, too. Every time you vote, you
qualify to win prizes like a laptop, an Xbox, or a Windows Phone!

Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftTechStudent/app_170672609717521?app_data=%7B%27mtag%27%3A%27blewis%27%7D

Microsoft Private Cloud Summit - Chicago

br549- — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:45:02 GMT

If you can’t make Vegas this year (or can’t wait), don’t worry. The Best of
Microsoft Management Summit is coming to Chicago! Microsoft is bringing Vegas to
you with the Microsoft Private Cloud Summit & Best of Microsoft Management
Summit 2012 Replay!

Microsoft Private Cloud Summit, Chicago
Thursday, May 17,
2012
8:30 AM – 5:15 PM

Downtown Hilton
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
60605

Join us at this special one-day event to learn how the new System Center
2012 can help you manage nearly everything in your infrastructure.

Hear directly from our Redmond-based System Center product team as they share
the best from MMS 2012. Bring your laptop and get hands-on experience installing
and configuring the trial with Microsoft technology evangelists. Engage our
panel of experts to get your questions answered. And get a sneak peak at Windows
Server “8”. This is your chance to build your skillset by learning how to
simplify management of your devices and infrastructure, monitor and remediate
application issues, automate routine tasks, and take control of across clouds!

On the agenda:

The lab session of the Hands-On: IT Camp has special system requirements that
you can find on the registration site.

“Being What’s Next in I.T.” - IT Camp Resources

br549- — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:47:53 GMT

Here is the online version of the event resources I’ll be handing out to my
central U.S. IT Camp
Eventattendees for the next several months.

“Being What’s Next in I.T.” - IT Camp Resources

March-June, 2012

Follow Me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/BrianLewis_

Follow Me (Brian Lewis) on my Blog: http://MyThoughtsOnIT.com

IMPORTANT Software Evaluations – Get ‘em here: http://aka.ms/downloads

Future Live, In-Person TechNet Events (for IT Pros): http://www.TechNetEvents.com

Gearing Up for the Future

Microsoft Virtual Academy - Microsoft
Virtual Academy (MVA)

TechNet Edge Video - Inside the new Server Migration Portal: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/Video/ff710737

Migrate Server Roles to Windows Server 2008 R2 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd365353.aspx

Active Directory Domain Services and DNS Server Migration Guide - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd379558(WS.10).aspx

Migrate Server roles to Windows 2008 R2 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd365353(WS.10).aspx

What’s New in AD in Windows
Server 2008 R2 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378796(WS.10).aspx

What’s New in Windows Server Manager in Windows 2008 R2 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378896(WS.10).aspx

What’s New in Server 2008 R2 AD DCs - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff679947.aspx

Active Directory Recycle Bin – Step by Step - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392261(WS.10).aspx

AD Fine Grained Password and Lockout Policy Step by Step - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770842(WS.10).aspx

Ask the Directory Services Team Blog (Ned Pyle – you’re my hero) - http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds

Active Directory Recycle Bin (Joey Snow on Edge) - http://edge.technet.com/Media/Active-Directory-Recycle-Bin/

The Future Is Sooner Than You Think

System Center 2012 Evaluation Download Center – http://aka.ms/PvtCld

Screencasts: System Center 2012 Unified Installer – http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinremde/archive/2012/03/09/system-center-2012-unified-installer-the-screencasts.aspx

Windows Virtualization Home - http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization

Hyper-V getting Started Guide - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732470(WS.10).aspx

Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started with Hyper-V (download)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BCAA9707-0228-4860-B088-DD261CA0C80D&displaylang=en

The Private Cloud Home Page - http://www.microsoft.com/privatecloud

Microsoft Cloud Home Page – http://www.microsoft.com/cloud

Online Services - http://www.microsoft.com/online/

Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services (The Datacenter People) - http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/

Hyper-V Cloud Deployment Guides - http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/en/us/private-cloud-get-started.aspx

System Center Team Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/

System Center on TechNet Edge - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/system-center.aspx

System Center Central - http://www.systemcentercentral.com

SCVMM Team Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm

DPM Team Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/

Windows Server “8” Beta Download Center – http://aka.ms/server8cp

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Download – http://aka.ms/Win8Client

IT Pro Private Cloud Offer - http://aka.ms/msprivatecloudoffer

Windows Server "8" Beta

br549- — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:20:16 GMT

The Windows “8” client wasn’t the only piece of excitement in the Windows 8
world this week!

The official Windows Server “8” beta release also landed this week and there
is so much cool stuff to learn about and share from storage management
enhancements to web server improvements to a version of Hyper-V that’s going to
blow your mind in what it can do. Here’s all the info you need to be in the
know:

Window Server “8” Beta
We are very excited for the Windows Server
“8” beta release this week and the wave of customer, partner, and IT Pro
engagement that is kicking off as a result! Windows Server “8” is quite possibly
the most significant release of Windows Server ever. See what’s GREAT
about “8” for yourself. View the video today
to see for yourself.

Windows Server "8" delivers hundreds of new features and enhancements for
transforming virtualization and cloud computing:

Beyond Virtualization: Offers a dynamic, multitenant infrastructure
to help you scale and secure workloads to build a private cloud.
Power of Many Servers, Simplicity of One: Delivers a highly available
and easy-to-manage multi-server platform.
Every App, Any Cloud: Offers a broad, scalable, and elastic server
platform that gives you the flexibility to build and deploy applications and
websites on-premises, in the cloud, or across both.
Modern Workstyle Enabled: Provides users with flexible access to data
and applications while simplifying management and maintaining security, control,
and compliance.

Helpful Content

Technical Whitepaper - http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/2/D/D2D41CC5-89DE-4458-AF39-31605FEADD18/WS8%20Beta%20Product%20White%20Paper.pdf
Evaluation Guide - http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/E/6/1E69F2EF-F6CA-4470-8029-BFFFBF972EC8/WS8%20Beta%20Evaluation%20Guide.pdf

Where to Get It
The beta is available from a variety of different
places so I’ll list a few here if you or your customers are interested in taking
it for a spin:

TechNet Windows Server “8” Beta – http://aka.ms/server8cp(I suggest this link)
MSDN Evaluation Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh708764.aspx?ocid=&wt.mc_id=MEC_110_1_33
MSDN Subscriber Downloads - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/
TechNet Subscriber Downloads – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/

Get $20 MSFT Coupon, maybe win Laptop, for Downloading and Learning????

br549- — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:01:26 GMT

Microsoft just launced this program – “Explore Microsoft’s Private Cloud”. In
this program we are offering $20 to our customers to learn about our “Private
Cloud”. The first 5,000 people to follow these steps get a $20 voucher to spend
at the Microsoft Online Store and everyone who completes this learning gets
entered in a drawing to win one of three Lenovo W520 laptops with 32 Gig of
memory.

I have a Lenovo W520 with 16 Gig of ram and the thing rocks. I use our “boot
to VHD” technology to dual boot it so it is both my desktop with Windows 7 and
my Hyper-V server with Server 2008R2.

All it takes is to download Microsoft’s Private Cloud evaluation software,
Explore its features in a Virtual Lab, and get Rewarded with a $20 Microsoft
Online Store Promo Code and registered to win a Laptop! You can enter for the
laptop drawing until June 30, 2012. Winners will be notified in July. (Notice:
the downloads are large. Several Gig)

It’s free and easy to get started today!

http://aka.ms/msprivatecloudoffer

Breaking News: Free IT Camps – “Being What’s Next In IT” - Registration Opens!

br549- — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:09:00 GMT

Our next set of IT Pro events (“IT Camps”) in the US Central Region have been scheduled and are now officially open for registration! The events are free, go from 9:00am to 3:00pm, and include some light breakfast and lunch. But most importantly, they are full of new and useful information that all IT Pros will benefit from. (And it never hurts that we might give out a few prizes at the end of the day, too.)

Here is our theme and information, followed by the event dates and registration links:

Being What’s Next in IT
2012 is an exciting year for I.T. because it’s an exciting year for Microsoft. Not only are there exciting new products and solutions on the near horizon such as System Center 2012 and Windows Server “8”, but also in the ways we can help you manage your infrastructure today.

Gearing up for the Future (Camp Part 1)
You may have heard Microsoft’s recent slogan: “Be What's Next”. But sometimes in IT, for whatever the reason, it’s hard enough even just to be “what’s now” or “what’s current”. You’re running older versions of server operating systems and technologies you would like to replace, but maybe don’t know exactly how to make the move without causing one of the main things that keeps us up at night: service disruption.

In this camp session we are going to introduce you to, and give you a chance to play with, the migration technologies that will help you transition to the most current versions of our solutions, and help you to take full advantage of Windows Server 2008 R2. Making the transition to the most current products isn’t always easy, but we have ways to help you get there and to get you ready for the future of I.T. and business productivity.

The Future is Sooner Than You Think (Camp Part 2)
Now that you are ready for what’s next, don’t you want to know a little more about what that is? There is a new wave of transition happening among IT organizations and IT workers to embrace more and more the concept of Cloud Computing. Yet many of us are still wondering how it will really fit into our own environment, or how it will benefit our businesses.

In this camp session we are going to introduce to you to the future of the cloud. Together we’re going to walk through what our next System Center version - System Center 2012 - will bring to your IT organizations; both in overall manageability and in supporting private, public, and hybrid clouds. And we’ll introduce to you (and demonstrate for you) what is coming in the next version of Windows Server - currently known as codename Windows Server “8”.

Preparation:
This is not just a presentation! We will try not to kill you with PowerPoint! Our IT Camp format requires interaction, participation, and fun! And in order for you to get the most out of our day, we ask that you do a few optional-but-highly-encouraged things before coming to camp:

1. We ask that you download the evaluation software - Windows Server 2008 R2 w/SP1 and System Center 2012 Release Candidate.
2. Bring a laptop. In venues where we can support it, we will provide networking and power so that you can follow along and perhaps even participate in labs and examples.
3. And for the truly ambitious among you - Bring a Windows Server 2008 R2-capable machine. If you already have Server 2008 R2 installed, that’s great. But as long as you have a capable machine, we will provide you a .VHD file and instructions for how configure your computer to “dual-boot” into an already installed copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 – all without requiring you to remove your existing Windows installation. Here is the recommended minimum configuration:

4GB or more RAM

20 GB or more free disk space

x64 compatible processor with Intel VT or AMD-V technology

Registration
(The Camps I’m leading are highlighted, and the others are being facilitated by my buddies Kevin Remde and John Weston)

“Hey Brian... Why are some cities done twice?”

We filled up so many venues so quickly last semester that we thought that rather than trying to get (and afford) larger venues, we’d opt for the smaller venues and just do the same event two times in the same city. Plus, the format of the IT Camp lends itself better to a smaller group, anyway. And we can save on some travel expense by doing these over two consecutive days.

But don’t worry if your city is only listed once. That just means that we have found a sufficiently large venue that is less likely to be filled and have registration closed.

Clicking on the city for the date that you want to attend will bring you to the registration page. Do it now! Due to the excitement surrounding System Center 2012 and Windows Server “8” news, we expect these events to fill up fast!

City, State	Date
Des Moines, IA	March 21, 2012
Des Moines, IA	March 22, 2012 (repeat)
Madison, WI	March 28, 2012
Milwaukee, WI	April 4, 2012
Milwaukee, WI	April 5, 2012 (repeat)
Detroit, MI	April 12, 2012
Downers Grove, IL	April 17, 2012
Omaha, NE	April 19, 2012
Minneapolis, MN	April 23, 2012
Columbus, OH	April 24, 2012
Minneapolis, MN	April 30, 2012 (repeat)
Houston, TX	May 3, 2012
Houston, TX	May 4, 2012 (repeat)
Dallas, TX	May 7, 2012
Dallas, TX	May 8, 2012 (repeat)
Kansas City, MO	May 8, 2012
Kansas City, MO	May 9, 2012 (repeat)
Austin, TX	May 10, 2012
Austin, TX	May 11, 2012 (repeat)
Saint Louis, MO	May 10, 2012
Saint Louis, MO	May 11, 2012 (repeat)
Indianapolis, IN	May 10, 2012
Cincinnati, OH	May 17, 2012
Chicago, IL	May 18, 2012

Will we see you there? Do you have any questions about what we’re covering? Is there anything you’d specifically like to see in our events? Let us know in the comments.

TechNet Webcast: Hyper-V: The Base of a Private Cloud

br549- — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:12:52 GMT

I am hosting a Live webcast where I will overview and demo Hyper-V in Server 2008R2. This knowledge will transfer to the new version of Hyper-V coming in Windows Server 8. So, if you are unfamiliar with how to use Hyper-V today – come join me and I will show you how to turn it and and work within the product. Everything I will show is included in Windows Server 2008R2 with SP1 at no additional Charge.

-Brian

TechNet Webcast: Hyper-V: The Base of a Private Cloud (Level 300)
EventID:1032504314

Starts:Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:00 AM
Time zone: (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)
Duration: 1 hour(s) 15 minute(s)

Product: Hyper-V.

Audience(s): IT Decision Maker and IT Generalist.

The term “cloud” refers to a new paradigm in the evolution of computing. It often entails running your servers, either internal or hosted, on virtual machines. In an IT career, the one constant is that you need to continually learn the new technologies to stay current. In this webcast, we cover the fundamentals of Microsoft’s technologies that support the private cloud. We overview Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology and then dive deeper into the features of this hypervisor-based server virtualization technology. This webcast is heavily focused on demonstrations and has a Q&A session at the end.

Presenter: Brian Lewis, Senior IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
Audio call in information: Listen to the audio from your computer

Link to sign-up for the webcast:
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastRegistrationConfirmation.aspx?culture=en-US&RegistrationID=1310891940&Validate=false

IT Evangelist Brian Lewis's Blog

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Deploying and Managing Windows 8 Apps

Recover lost Files even after a format! Free with PhotoRec tool

Cloud, Server, Hyper-V Trivia Game Launched! Win Prizes, Have Fun!

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What NICs should I use in Server 2012?

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PowerShell 3.0 Download

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Download Windows Server 2012 Today!

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Table of Contents

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Students need your Vote!!!

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“Being What’s Next in I.T.” - IT Camp Resources

March-June, 2012

Windows Server "8" Beta

Get $20 MSFT Coupon, maybe win Laptop, for Downloading and Learning????

Breaking News: Free IT Camps – “Being What’s Next In IT” - Registration Opens!

TechNet Webcast: Hyper-V: The Base of a Private Cloud

-Brian

TechNet Webcast: Hyper-V: The Base of a Private Cloud (Level 300)EventID:1032504314

TechNet Webcast: Hyper-V: The Base of a Private Cloud (Level 300)
EventID:1032504314