When designing your virtualization host framework for your Private Cloud, it's important to select platforms that use widely supported standards and provide cost-effective solutions for elastically scaling a resilient compute foundation. With this criteria in check, you'll be able to grow your compute foundation to support additional capacity as needed while taking advantage of the latest advancements in hypervisor technologies ... AND without risk of being locked in to a single-vendor solution. Virtualization and private cloud capabilities are expanding rapidly, and you definitely want to be sure that your ability to capitalize on new impactful features isn't being "boxed in".
For these reasons, a ton of IT Pros that I speak with are experiencing great success today by expanding their compute capacity with the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 product, regardless of their current "incumbent" hypervisor. As an enterprise-grade, bare-metal hypervisor solution, Hyper-V Server 2012 offers the same level of scale, clustering, live migration and DR-replication capabilities as the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2012, but at an unmatched feature/cost pricepoint in the industry - an enterprise hypervisor feature set for FREE. In terms of widely supported standards, Hyper-V uses the VHD virtual hard disk standard for broad industry compatibility - so there's no risk that your data will be locked inside a proprietary disk format. This provides unprecedented flexibility for growing your Private Cloud compute foundation via a hybrid mix of on-premise hypervisor hosts, public cloud fabric ( Windows Azure VMs also support VHDs ) and/or third-party service providers/hosting partners ... all of which empowers us to select the options which best support each of our individual application workloads.
In this article, I'll walk through the resources you'll need to get started with Hyper-V Server 2012, and I'll also include more advanced resources for building a scalable and highly-available clustered compute foundation for FREE!
UPDATE: At the end of this step-by-step article, I've also included a downloadable lab guide and a 130-line PowerShell script for initial provisioning. The PowerShell script helps to reduce the initial configuration time by automating the provisioning of a new Windows Azure Storage account, Virtual Network and Virtual Machines - after running the script, you'll just need to Remote Desktop into each VM to finish the OS and application-level configuration tasks. Hope you enjoy!
Now that SharePoint Server 2013 has been released, I frequently get asked about ways in which a SharePoint 2013 lab environment can be easily built for studying, testing, development, demos and/or performing a proof-of-concept. You could certainly build this lab environment on your own hardware, but due to the level of SharePoint 2013 hardware requirements, a lot of us may not have sufficient spare hardware to implement an on-premise lab environment.
This makes a great scenario for leveraging our Windows Azure FREE 90-day Trial Offer to build a free lab environment for SharePoint 2013 in the cloud. Using the process outlined in this article, you’ll be able to build a basic functional farm environment for SharePoint 2013 that will be accessible for approximately 105 hours of compute usage each month at no cost to you under the 90-day Trial Offer ...
Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Corporate Vice President Kirk Koenigsbauer announced the immediate availability of the Customer Preview of the NEW Office suite - Office 2013! This latest version of Office provides new support for Touch Input, Cloud services integration and Social collaboration, powering new usage scenarios around digital note-taking, document reading and markup, meetings and presentations. View full details and step-by-step installation instructions ...
Did you download Windows 8 Enterprise using your MSDN or TechNet subscription? As a the full-feature "business edition" of Windows 8, the Enterprise SKU defaults to using corporate Volume License activation on a business network. On a business network, this process provides a simplified end-user activation process, as Windows 8 Enterprise automatically determines which servers to activate against using DNS without you needing to manage individual activation keys for each PC. But how do you activate Windows 8 Enterprise if you're not connected to a business network, perhaps when you are testing Windows 8 in an isolated lab environment?
UPDATE: I'm updating this article to also include a new Step-by-Step video and migration guide that was recently released by our Cluster team to provide guidance for using the Migrate a Cluster Wizard to migrate CLUSTERS of Hyper-V Server hosts from 2008 R2 to 2012, in addition to the other migration scenarios previously included in this article below.
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Recently, I was involved in a project that was migrating from Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 to Hyper-V Server 2012. Due to architectural changes involved in implementing the new features in Hyper-V Server 2012, a direct in-place upgrade is not possible. However, the across-the-wire migration process we used below was straight-forward and worked very well. A ton of work has been done by the product team on improving the virtual machine export/import process, and we definitely saw this area shine during our project. Here's the migration steps we used ...
Leverage the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 to provide an Enterprise-ready Private Cloud Foundation!
Configuring our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 in a highly available cluster can be really easy. In this article, I’ll step through the configuration of a Hyper-V host cluster configuration that uses Hyper-V Server 2012 so that you'll have the details to step through this process in your own lab environment.
In Part 2 of this article series, I’ll finish up with the steps needed to provision and test a highly available virtual machine within your new cluster ...
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ( DHCP ) is a core network service in most IT shops for providing IP Address lease information to client devices, and potentially, to servers. In this article, we’ll step through the new DHCP Failover capability in Windows Server 2012 as a cost-effective option that can provide High Availability ( HA ) for this important service ...
One of the common questions on NIC teaming is whether special network switches and/or customized switch configurations are needed to fully support NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012. And, the answer is ... it depends! Read this article to find our when and how you may need to configure network switches to participate in a NIC team ...
This week, Mitch Tulloch and the Windows Server team have released a new updated version of the FREE e-Book for IT professionals: Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition. This book is a great way to get quickly skilled up on all the new improvements in the latest Windows Server - one of the most impressive releases of Windows Server since Active Directory was released in Windows Server 2000! In this 256-page eBook, you'll find 5 chapters of detailed technical content covering the following key improvements to building a Private Cloud at your shop with Windows Server 2012 ...
Windows Server 2012 and our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 include a new network virtualization feature that permits the definition of "software-defined networking (SDN)" within the native Hyper-V hypervisor. Hyper-V Network Virtualization extends the virtualization benefits we've realized when virtualizing server workloads into the network layer to decouple our physical network infrastructure from logical layer-2 and layer-3 subnets. In this article, I'll explain how Hyper-V Network Virtualization works and provide a step-by-step example of implementing ...
UPDATE: The final copy of this eBook has been released and is now available for download at the links in this article!
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This week, we have released a new FREE preview e-Book for IT professionals: Introducing Windows 8 - An Overview for IT Professionals. Now that Windows 8 is generally available, this book is a great way to get quickly up-to-speed on all the new improvements in this latest Windows release. In addition to a re-imagined user interface that provides an immersive experience across touch, pen, keyboard and mouse inputs, Windows 8 also includes significant updates across hardware support, management, security, networking, storage, virtualization, deployment, and recovery - all areas that are critically important to IT Pros!
In this 147-page eBook, you'll find 11 chapters of detailed technical content covering the following key improvements for supporting PCs with Windows ...
UPDATE: New Resources Included for System Center 2012 SP1
This month, I spent a fair amount of time preparing for the new Microsoft Private Cloud Certification Exam 70-246, Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 and I saved links to all the study resources that I used to study and pass this exam as a step-by-step Exam Study Guide for anyone else who may be interested in targeting this exam. Download my FREE Study Guide for this Exam here ...
After I wrote my prior post on our new natively supported NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012 and our FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 product, there’s been a ton of questions around how VLANs work with NIC Teaming and Hyper-V. In this article, I’ll build upon my prior post and cover configuring VLAN traffic segregation for physical and virtualized workloads ...
Would you like to reduce your patch maintenance requirements by over 1/3rd?
Of course! Who wouldn't?
Server Core in Windows Server 2012 reduces the disk footprint of the operating system by approximately 4GB! When using the Server Core installation option, the features related to the Server Graphical Shell ( ie., Explorer, Start Screen, and Internet Explorer ) and Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure are not installed - GUI features that are usually not required on a dedicated server, because we tend to do most of our IT management work from our admin workstation anyway, as a "best practice". By not installing these features, we gain several advantages ...
Good news! Until September 30th, we are making available online over 100 of the most popular TechEd North America Hands-on Labs. Accessing the virtual environments and manuals is really easy ...
In the past, managing and sharing NTFS folders could be a real ordeal – there were different tools for managing NTFS permissions vs shared folders and most IT Pros generally used these tools on a server-by-server basis from each server’s console.
Server Manager to the rescue!
In Windows Server 2012, Server Manager provides a management facelift on top of the disconnected process that we’ve used in the past for sharing folders and setting NTFS permissions. In addition, Server Manager can easily manage these folders on a local server or any remote servers that you’ve previously added to the Server Manager dashboard. In this article, I step through the simplified process of using Server Manager to share and configure NTFS shared folders in Windows Server 2012 ...
Today, the Surface team announced pricing for Surface with Windows 8 Pro as follows:
Both versions will be offered with a ...
Have you recently downloaded Windows 8 RTM? In this article, we'll introduce you to the new options available for making Backup and Recovery in Windows 8 easier than ever, including Windows 8 File History, launching Windows System Backup and Windows 8 Refresh & Reset PC.
The new Microsoft certification exams for MCSA on Windows Server 2012 will be released over the upcoming weeks and to help you prepare early for certification on Windows Server 2012, we're launching a new "Early Experts" peer study group that is available online for FREE. By joining and participating in this study group, you'll gain access to a monthly set of structured step-by-step study materials that align with the exam objectives for each of the new certification exams for Windows Server 2012 ...
UPDATE: The recorded version of this training is now available at http://aka.ms/JS417
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Are you already certified as an MCSA on Windows Server 2008 and looking to upgrade your certs to Windows Server 2012? This week, we've released a new Jumpstart online training course that specifically targets the certification objectives in Exam 70-417, Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA on Windows Server 2012. This course will be broadcast live online as a 2-day accelerated version of the normal 5-day instructor-led course for experienced IT Pros. Here's the course details ...
Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 include support for over 350 new group policy settings. This brings the total number of manageable system policies via Active Directory group policy to over 3,600 policy settings! Below, I've summarized the new categories of group policy settings that I'm most excited about and I've also provided a link to a downloadable reference workbook ...
Extending an on-premise Windows Server Active Directory ( AD ) infrastructure into the cloud is an important topic to consider when planning the migration or implementation of cloud-based applications. Many existing applications require Active Directory for authentication and identity management. When migrating applications to the cloud, having a locally accessible Active Directory is an important factor to ensuring that AD authentication is fast and reliable.
In this article, we’ll be stepping through the components involved with extending an on-premise Active Directory infrastructure into the Cloud using Windows Server Active Directory on Windows Azure VMs.