Dean attended our TechNet Event recently, and asked this question:

No.  A Server Core installation is really not meant to be an application platform for rich applications.  Many Windows applications require components that are not available in the current Windows Server 2008 R2 core installation.  And a core option is not supported in the list of Exchange 2010 supported Operating Systems.

However, while researching this I did fine a very well-done summary of an attempt to make it work.  Johan Delimon gave it a shot, and documented his attempt here.  (Nice work!)  In short – he was sooo close.  But it didn’t work. 

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Have any of you tried to run things on, or are currently supporting applications running on Windows Server Core installations?  Share your experience in the comments.

Bryan W. asked a big question at a TechNet Event a couple of weeks ago:

This question brings up a pretty big topic: Hyper-V performance.  And even more fundamentally it’s also a question of VHDs (Virtual Hard Disks) and how they perform based on their type or configuration. 

The quick answer to your question, Bryan, is YES.  Whenever you can get more spindles working on a problem you’re likely to get better performance.  When I’m using differencing disks, I like to keep a parent disk on a different disk than the child disk.  And this also applies if you’re deciding where you want to put virtual machine snapshots.  Personally I like to keep my machine hard disks along with the machine configuration, but if I really wanted to squeeze out the best performance, I’d do things differently.

“Are there any documents or pages out there that describe good performance practices for Hyper-V?”

Thankfully, yes.  The document “Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2” has a “Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers” section, and pages 86-89 of that section provide a great discussion on optimizing storage I/O; such as this gem:

Physical Disk Topology
VHDs that I/O-intensive VMs use generally should not be placed on the same physical disks because this can cause the disks to become a bottleneck. If possible, they should also not be placed on the same physical disks that the root partition uses.

A “Performance Tuning for the Storage Subsystem” section (page 24) also describes, in great detail, the options and their implications when configuring virtual machine storage.

And if you really want to know how to measure a virtual machines performance based on a number of factors (Disk, Memory, Network, and CPU), check out this “Measuring Performance on Hyper-V” article.

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What about you?  How are you wringing the most out of the performance of your Hyper-V installations and virtual machines?  Share your best practices in the comments.

Chris A asked this question at a recent TechNet Event:

Thanks for the question, Chris.  Hyper-V is actually available on all versions of Windows Server 2008 R2, and this will be true of foreseeable future versions of Windows Server as well.  There are a few differences in a couple of areas, however.  Here’s a slide that I’ve presented a couple of times that outlines the key differences.  (click to enlarge)

Notice, Chris, that you do have the ability to run Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 standard edition, but the main differences are that with Standard edition you don’t have as many “Use Rights” (only 1 additional VM license included), and we can’t support you running more than 192 VMs on a single host. 

“Is that really all?”

No.  Very important is the capability to create High Availability using Windows Failover Clustering, and to be able to support Live Migrations of running virtual machines between nodes in a cluster.  Standard Edition doesn’t have failover clustering available to it, and so therefore can’t support High Availability or Live Migration. 

“Bummer”

The news isn’t all bad.  You CAN actually do failover clustering, get High Availability and do Live Migrations using Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 w/SP1. 

“Seriously?  Isn’t that the free version of your hypervisor?”

Bingo. 

So, my advice to you is that if you’re thinking of buying or using a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition license for supporting virtualization, I’d encourage you to consider using Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 w/SP1 instead.

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Does that make sense?  Should we be giving so much virtualization power for free?  Are you using Hyper-V Server, or do you have any more questions about it?  Enter a comment and let’s start the conversation.

I don’t usually like to do this…

“..but you’re going to do it anyway.”

Shut up.  And get out of my head.  I usually don’t like to do a lot of copying and pasting of other people’s content (OPC™), but the text from this e-mail I received concerning the beta release of the next version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP 7.0) is so well written, I can’t improve upon it.

Here is the skinny on the MAP Toolkit 7.0 beta…

Accelerate your Migration to the Private Cloud with MAP 7.0 Beta!

The Solution Accelerators team is pleased to announce the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 7.0 Beta.

• Join the MAP 7.0 Beta

Get ready for the private cloud with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 7.0 Beta. This update adds several new private cloud planning scenarios that help you build for the future with agility and focus while lowering the cost of delivering IT. Download the MAP Toolkit 7.0 Beta and begin your cloud transformation today!

New capabilities allow you to:

• Understand your readiness to deploy Windows in your environment with hardware and device readiness assessment
• Determine Windows Server 2012 Beta readiness
• Investigate how Windows Server and System Center can manage your heterogeneous environment through VMware migration and Linux server virtualization assessments
• Size your desktop virtualization needs for both Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and session-based virtualization using Remote Desktop Services
• Ready your information platform for the cloud with the SQL Server 2012 discovery and migration assessment
• Evaluate your licensing needs with usage tracking for Lync 2010, active users and devices, SQL Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012

For a comprehensive list of features and benefits, click here.

Key Features and Benefits

Determine Windows desktop readiness

MAP 7.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT environment for your Windows desktop deployment. This feature evaluates your existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows. It provides recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which machines may require hardware upgrades. 

Key benefits include:

• Assessment report and summary proposal to help you to understand the scope and benefits of a Windows desktop deployment.
• Inventory of desktop computers, deployed operating systems, and applications.

Assess Windows Server 2012 Beta readiness

MAP 7.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2012 Beta deployment. This feature includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating the machines that meet Windows Server 2012 Beta system requirements and which may require hardware updates. A comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles is included to help in your planning efforts.

Virtualize your Linux servers on Hyper-V

MAP 7.0 Beta extends its server virtualization scenario to include Linux operating systems. Now, MAP enables you to gather performance data for Linux-based physical and virtual machines and use that information to perform virtualization and private cloud planning analysis for both Windows and Linux-based machines within the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track scenario.

Key features allow you to:

• Incorporate non-Windows machines into your virtualization planning.
• View consolidation guidance and validated configurations with preconfigured Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track infrastructures, including computing power, network, and storage architectures.
• Get a quick analysis of server consolidation on Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track infrastructures to help accelerate your planning of physical to virtual (P2V) migration to Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.
• Review recommended guidance and next steps using Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.

Click here to see more features and benefits.

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“Where do you suppose that phrase ‘here’s the skinny on..’ comes from?”

I don’t know.  But if one of you readers knows the answer, please put it in the comments.  And let us know if you’re trying out the MAP 7.0 beta, too!

Great question!

For those of you who are not familiar with these things called Managed Service Accounts, let’s first talk about the problem that the solve.  But let’s first set the stage with a couple of assumptions:

1. You have some domain accounts being used as the identity for some services.
2. For the sake of good security, you change the passwords for those domain accounts on a regular basis.

Right?

“Um.. Kevin.. Yes to the first one.. but definitely not the second one.”

Why not?

“Because then the services won’t start.”

Bingo.  And even worse, it doesn’t show up as a problem until days or weeks later when for some reason (an update, perhaps?) you have to restart a server.  Suddenly things are broken, and you’re not sure why… until you find that the service that Exchange or IIS was depending on didn’t start.  So unless you’re really good at also going to each and every server and each and every service definition to reset the passwords there, you’re going to have problems.

Managed Service Accounts take the concerns of having to set/reset passwords out of your hands.  They are special Active Directory accounts that manage their passwords automatically for you; by default having 120 character complex passwords that reset themselves every 30-days, and having no rights to log-on locally. 

Currently (and I say that because I don’t know if this is going to be different in Windows Server 2012) you 1) create the account, and then 2) install the account to a server using PowerShell. 

For complete details on Managed Service Accounts, see these pages:

• Introducing: Managed Service Accounts
• Service Accounts Step-by-Step Guide

So, back to Casy’s question: Can you use Managed Service Accounts on Server 2003 or Server 2003 R2?

No. 

Well… I should probably clarify something here.  Managed Service Accounts require the Active Directory schema to be updated to the Server 2008 R2 version, but they don’t strictly require the domain functional level to be raised – meaning that you can use them even if you’re still running domain controllers that are Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 SP2.  (You will need to do adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep.  See AdPrep for details.)  Plus, the Active Directory Management Gateway Service would have to be installed on those older Domain Controllers to allow them to manage Managed Service Accounts.

“Okay.. so they can exist in a domain that has older domain controllers.  But can I install them and use them on older servers or workstations?”

No.  Sorry.  “To use managed service accounts and virtual accounts, the client computer on which the application or service is installed must be running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7.”  (From the Service Accounts Step-by-Step Guide, “Requirements for using managed service accounts and virtual accounts” section.)

I hope that clarifies things for you.

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Are you using Managed Service Accounts?  Have they been useful to you?  Please share your thoughts in the comments.

I have another question related to the DJOIN command:

For those of you who don’t know what an “Offline Domain Join” is or what the DJOIN.EXE command does, please refer to my blog post from the other week on the subject.  In a nutshell, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 contain a tool (djoin.exe) that allows you pre-populate AD with a computer account, and then at a later time connect that computer to the domain without having to have the domain actually available at the time. 

Which leads to this pretty good question that Mark asks: Why not just use the NETDOM JOIN command?

The answer really has to do with the key benefit that an Offline Domain Join provides: The ability to do it OFFLINE.  For the NETDOM JOIN command to work, your machine has to be able to communicate with a domain controller.  Not so with DJOIN.EXE.

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What do you think? 

For my 30th posting in this series, I thought I’d tackle a couple of really tough questions posed by John at our Columbus, Ohio TechNet Event:

Well, John… this of course would require me to enter an opinion here on my blog.  And I don’t think I’m allowed to give my opinion of Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 just yet.

“Oh c’mon you coward..”

Hey now.. be nice.  Alright, since you dared me, I will mention one feature from each that I’m really excited about.

For Windows 8, my favorite feature right now has got to be having Hyper-V available to me.  On my work laptop, which I use for presentations, I run several demo virtual machines (you saw them the morning of our TechNet Event) using Hyper-V.  It runs great!  And I also take advantage of new Hyper-V PowerShell commandlets for quickly resetting my machines to the starting place (snapshot) for my demos.

For Windows Server 2012 (formerly codename Windows Server “8”) the feature-set I’m most excited about are the improvements in Hyper-V and in Storage.  More specifically, to actually configure and witness a running virtual machine move between two virtualization hosts with no cluster, no shared storage.. no shared NOTHIN’… That’s amazing.  And it’s a game-changer. 

And John also decided to have a little fun with my request for written questions:

Sorry we couldn’t fit those in that day, John.  Maybe next time.

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What features are your favorites?  What have you had a chance to try out and really like in Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012?

At our Columbus, Ohio TechNet Event, Karl asked:

Great question, Karl.  And I have seen two ways to do this well.

Way #1 – Treat your test network as a subnet that requires routing.

Although this method is more complex, I personally prefer it.  It treats the “Internal” network as a separate subnet, which is more real-world to me.  You can set up your own mini-company inside of the subnet, and have control over DHCP or other subnet-bound broadcast protocols.  Basically for this method you are going to treat your physical Hyper-V host as a router which does NAT (Network Address Translation) for you. 

The steps are:

1. Add the Network-Policy and Access Services – Routing and Remote Access on the physical host machine.  All you need is love NAT. 

2. Create a new Hyper-V Network switch of type “Internal”.  I just name mine “Internal”. 

3. For the adapter that appears in your Network Connections associated with that new Hyper-V network, set the addressing to something you’ll remember.  The address used here will be used as the “gateway address” for the machines connecting to it to give them Internet access, so common convention would recommend setting it to xxx.xxx.xxx.1 (192.168.10.1 or 10.0.0.1.  Whatever you want.  Since it’s unlikely you’ll be using more than 254 addresses for this test subnet, you could go with a 24-bit mask (255.255.255.0) for this subnet, too.)  If you plan to have a Domain Controller and/or a DNS server in your subnet, you can add that address as the preferred DNS server.

4. Now in the configuration of Routing and Remote Access,  you’ll set up NAT by right-clicking on NAT, choosing “New Interface…”, selecting the interfaces, and setting their Interface Type correctly.  The important one is the Wireless Network Connection, which you set as Public, and enable NAT on the interface.

And the other network adapters (including “Internal” will be defined as Internal. (duh).  Eventually the configuration will look something like this.

Now, as long as the virtual machines are connected to my “Internal” switch, and have their networking and default gateway set correctly, they’ll be able to get to the Internet.

Way #2 – Use a Network Adapter Bridge

Though not as real-world (my opinion) as using routing, this is definitely the easier way to do it.  In your Network Connections, CTRL+CLICK to select both the wireless and wired adapter.  Then right-click either one and you should see a “Bridge Connections” option.  Pick it.  Now whatever virtual network switch you’ve bridged with the wireless adapter should be able to get out to the outside world.

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Is this useful?  Do you have other tricks that have worked that you want to share with us?  Let us know in the comments.

Josh is asking what I’m sure a lot of people are also wondering, given the recent excitement around our next version of Windows..

Wow!  A two-parter!     

Short answer to your first part: No.  Don’t wait to start the migration. 

Longer explanations and reasons:

The many and varied ways that Windows 7 surpasses Windows XP are well documented and easy to find, so I won’t go into them all here.  But understanding those benefits and knowing that you can take advantage of them NOW should be reason enough. 

But more importantly; If you are prepared for the migration to Windows 7 and are able to make that transition now, the move to Windows 8 will be a breeze.  You’ll be using the same migration tools.  You’ll be able to run Windows 8 on the same hardware.  And although the move to Windows 7 taskbar will be a slight learning curve, you still have a start menu.  The Start Screen might be too much for them to handle all at once. 

(Actually, once you get the hang of a couple of new UI moves, and even if you only have keyboard and mouse available to you with no touch-screen, you can just think of and treat the Start screen as an improved, colorful, customizable start menu; one that has new full-screen apps that will also run on your next Windows RT tablet.)

Part 2 of your question deals with licensing.  I won’t go there.

“Oh c’mon you chicken..”

Okay.. yeah.. sorry.  But honestly, I’m not familiar with “Implementation Credits”.  Are you referring to Desktop Deployment Planning Service (DDPS) credits?  If so, this question would be best answered by your Microsoft Account Executive, or the local Microsoft licensing experts your company has been working with.

I hope you’re following my blog, Josh, or this will be a very short conversation.

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What about the rest of you?  Are you deploying Windows 7 or waiting for Windows 8?

http://bit.ly/24hipc

Get yourself 5 of those “5 Hour Energy” drinks, set your alarm clock, and join the WORLD for this amazing opportunity to learn all about the Private Cloud solutions from Microsoft. 

Here’s the description from the registration page:

Every organization has the power to employ cloud technologies in their own way, at their own pace and with their own terms. The use of private cloud technologies help transform how organizations manage infrastructure resources, provision applications and automate services for their business. It also helps them leverage and manage public cloud services that expand their current infrastructure and application capabilities. As an end result, organizations increase IT operational agility, improved business focus and achieve value-add economics that evolves their IT infrastructure into a strategic asset.

Over 24 hours, you will hear from top industry and technical professionals from around the world to help you better understand the private cloud technology solutions that are available today. You will hear from industry organizations about how they view the public cloud and how the role of the IT Professional will evolve as more and more organizations begin a private cloud transformation. Listen to the number of technical professionals who will be on hand talking about the required components to simplify private cloud creation and management. Talk with them and your peers about the numerous operational efficiencies that come from deploying a private cloud with the reduction of servers and the benefits of provisioning and managing virtual applications across multiple platforms.

We hope that you will come away from this event with the knowledge and experience to help you in your private cloud infrastructure decisions and be prepared to have thought-leadership based discussions focused on building and managing your organization’s agile and efficient private cloud environment.

Event Start:   May 10, 2012 8:00AM GMT (that’s 4:00AM Eastern US, 1:00AM Pacific)
Event End:     May 11, 2012 8:00AM GMT (that’s 4:00AM Eastern US, 1:00AM Pacific)

REGISTER HERE

Thanks for the request, Howard.  Here are some good ones: 

• Site: Scripting with PowerShell – videos, guides, wiki articles.. a great starting point.
• Site: PowerShell.com – “The Community for PowerShell People”
• Book: Automating Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows PowerShell 2.0 – co-authored by my good friend and former teammate Matt Hester.
• Blog: Windows PowerShell Blog – by the Windows PowerShell Team

These are just a few of the hundreds that are out there.  I’m sure you’ll be able to “Bing” a few others…

At our TechNet Event in Columbus, OH recently, Andy asked:

There is no limitation, Andy.  I think some of the concerns people have are related to licensing.  Can I really take a live virtual machine and move it freely between nodes in a cluster?  The answer is, yes.  Absolutely.  Assuming you’re already licensed to run that virtual machine, you can migrate between nodes in a cluster as many times as you want.

CLICK HERE for more details on Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2. 

And if you’re comparing licensing options between Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and VMware vSphere 5, make sure you try out this virtualization cost calculator.

Amy asks:

This question was in the context of our discussion on “Offline Domain Join” (djoin.exe).  For those of you not familiar with it, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 support the ability to join a machine to a domain, even while there is no network connectivity between the joining machine and a domain controller. 

“That’s neat, Kevin.  How do I do that?”

The process involves using the DJOIN.EXE command (from an elevated command prompt) two times.  The first time you run it on a domain controller (or a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 machine as a domain administrator) to create a new computer entry in Active Directory:

djoin /provision /domain <domain to be joined> /machine <name of the destination computer> /savefile blob.txt

Two things result from this:

1. The computer entry is created in Active Directory, and
2. A file creating domain metadata is created.

Now take that text file and use it on the machine joining the domain by running DJOIN again.. but this time with the /requestODJ parameter:

djoin /requestODJ /loadfile blob.txt /windowspath %SystemRoot% /localos

You might also be interested in using DJOIN for modifying offline virtual machines.  This involves using the DJOIN command the second time to change the properties of the operating system right inside the .VHD file by mounting the .VHD file and then pointing to the \WINDOWS directory path of the virtual machine’s installation:

djoin /requestODJ /loadfile blob.txt /windowspath <path to Windows directory of the offline image>

A great description of Offline Domain Join can be found HERE.  And here is the Offline Domain Join (djoin.exe) Step-by-Step Guide. 

So.. back to Amy’s question: Can one use DJOIN to fix that annoying problem of a computer losing its association with the domain to which it was previously joined?

I would say that, yes, it could be used for fixing that.  The DJOIN command has an optional /reuse parameter which “Specifies the reuse of any existing computer account. The password for the computer account will be reset.” (from the command syntax section of the Step-by-Step Guide)

Caution: To do that would require you to keep that blob.txt file around and stored somewhere.  We don’t recommend that, because you should really treat that file as if it were protected credentials. From the Step-by-Step:

The base64-encoded metadata blob that is created by the provisioning command contains very sensitive data. It should be treated just as securely as a plaintext password. The blob contains the machine account password and other information about the domain, including the domain name, the name of a domain controller, the security ID (SID) of the domain, and so on. If the blob is being transported physically or over the network, care must be taken to transport it securely.

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What do you think?  Does DJOIN have a place in your toolbelt?  Share your experiences with it, or any questions, in the comments.

Yes, I’m back (finally) with another in my series of expanded-answers to questions I have received during TechNet Events and IT Camps I’ve facilitated.  But for these next blog posts I’m going to have a little fun by actually showing you the written question.

Our question today comes from Timi, who asked me:

Great question.  Windows 8 – the consumer and professional desktop product – will still be available for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.  So we’re not yet ready to abandon 32-bit desktops.  It’s not going away.  Certainly there are still a lot of you out there running or supporting people running 32-bit installations, and you’d still like to be able to do an in-place upgrade.

And the answer to your next question you ask regarding “WOA” (which stands for Windows on ARM) is that it is 32-bit.  For those of you who are not familiar with it, Windows on ARM is now officially known as “Windows 8 RT”, and under-the-hood, though you won’t really have to worry about it, it is 32-bit.

“Huh?  Why won’t I have to worry about it?  Don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t be worried about.”

Forgive me.  But really.. Windows 8 RT is the operating system for ARM-based devices.  It comes pre-installed and running on those devices.  It’s not an operating system that you can purchase and install yourself.  So, whether it’s 32-bit or 64-bit is really only a concern to the folks who are building Windows 8 + ARM based tablets.

“Thanks.”

You’re welcome.

“MediaValet Thrives on Microsoft’s Cloud Platform” is the title of this press release.  It’s great to hear about the cases where Windows Azure is being used so effectively, and really taking full advantage of its… well.. advantages.  Things such as global scale and pay-as-you-go.  Great, reliable, redundant storage.  And the opportunity to create some massively parallel compute engines for heavy tasks such as image or video rendering.

RTW = Released to the Webitubes

Wow.. what a big week. The System Center 2012 release, the official naming of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, and now the newest version of the MDT - Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 – is released and available for download.

For those not familiar with it, the MDT is “a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment.”  Here is the overview from the download page:

Overview

Deploy Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, and Windows Server 2008 R2 with the newly released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012. MDT is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. MDT provides you with the following benefits:

• Unified tools and processes, including a set of guidance, for deploying desktops and servers in a common deployment console.
• Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.

Some of the key changes in MDT 2012 are:

• Comprehensive tools and guidance to efficiently manage large-scale deployments of Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 365.
• An enhanced user-Driven Installation (UDI) deployment method that utilizes System Center Configuration Manager 2012. UDI lets end users initiate and customize an OS deployment on their PCs—via an easy-to-use wizard.
• Ease Lite Touch installation through integration with Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT).
• This release provides support for deploying Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a lab environment.

Highlighting was my own.  Notice that this is a good start in helping you gear up for your Windows 8 deployments.

Get it HERE.

And for even more information, be sure to check out the Microsoft Solution Accelerators page, and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team Blog.

[drumroll, please]

Windows Server 2012!

I bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Download the Beta HERE

Wonderful news!  Today at the Microsoft Management Summit going on in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced the availability of System Center 2012. 

You can start your evaluation downloads now: http://aka.ms/PvtCld

Pass it on!

This is great… Today Microsoft announced that there will be three (count ‘em.. 3) editions of Windows 8 when it goes on sale – presumably later this year. 

“Wait a sec…only three?  Didn’t Windows 7 come in 6.. or more?”

Yep.  Three.  Brandon LeBlanc writes on the Windows Team Blog that Windows 8 will be delivered as:

1. Windows 8
2. Windows 8 Pro
3. Windows 8 RT

The first two editions on the list are for PCs/Desktops/Laptops that have the Intel and AMD CPUs.  They will still come as 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.  Plain “Windows 8” is the consumer edition.  “Windows 8 Pro” is the edition for business and for tech enthusiasts.

The third one, “Windows RT”, is the new version that will ship pre-installed on ARM-based PCs and tablets.  It’s the version that was formerly referred to as Windows-on-ARM or WOA.

“This all sounds great.  It’s certainly much less confusing.  But what features or applications are available in these?  How do they compare?”

Read the full post for the full details – including a chart that compares the versions.

Oh.. one more thing.  Now it’s official: The product is called “Windows 8”.  Go figure. 

Also -

“NOTE: As with previous versions of Windows, we will also have an edition of Windows 8 specifically for those enterprise customers with Software Assurance agreements. Windows 8 Enterprise includes all the features of Windows 8 Pro plus features for IT organization that enable PC management and deployment, advanced security, virtualization, new mobility scenarios, and much more.”

So I guess if you count Windows 8 Enterprise edition, there are actually 4 SKUs.  But who's counting?

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What do you think?  Do you like this move?  Does it make sense?  Share your rants in the comments, please.

Immediately after my previous blog post about the new cloud-centric MCSE certifications, I received an instant message and an e-mail from the group responsible for it.  They thanked me, and then asked if I would please share some additional information.  So the following text comes directly from that e-mail:

Move Your Career to the Cloud with the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert certification

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) is a reinvented certification for today’s technology solutions

Microsoft has reinvented its certification program by building a broader and deeper set of technology solutions skills validation, starting with cloud-enabled solution skills. As one of the most recognized and respected certification programs, Microsoft is charting the path for IT Professionals and Developers to keep their skills relevant as new technology solutions are released.

Reinvented, Not Just Renamed

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) emphasizes solutions

Microsoft has reinvented its certifications to validate the skill sets needed to develop, deploy, and maintain Microsoft technology solutions. These certifications recognize IT Pros and Developers who have skill sets that run both broad and deep. Certifications are available at three skill levels:

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA)

The Associate level is the prerequisite certification necessary to get your Expert level certification. This certification validates the core skills you need to get your 1st job in IT.

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) & Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)

The Expert level is Microsoft’s flagship set of certifications validating that your skills are relevant in the constantly changing tech environment. The Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) is the destination for established IT Professionals who have expertise working with Microsoft technology solutions. The Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) is the destination for established Developers who have expertise developing solutions with Microsoft tools.

Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM)

After you have achieved your Expert level certification, Master is the next destination. This certification is for the select few who wish to further differentiate themselves from their peers and achieve the highest level of skills validation.

The Cloud Changes Everything

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) helps bridge the new cloud computing talent gap

“With the demand for cloud skills growing quickly, the gap between hiring demand and talent supply across the United States is getting larger and causing more difficulties in sourcing candidates.”
- Wanted Analytics, Hiring Demand for Cloud Computing Skills Skyrocketing, March 2012

The need for cloud computing skills has been pushing the market for months. Solution providers are seeking cloud-ready employees to bring their businesses to the next level. The cloud computing market is evolving at such a pace that while the number of job postings is skyrocketing, the talent isn't there to fill the positions.

In the past 20 years, Microsoft Certifications have been THE tool to address the skills gap. To be relevant, certifications need to continue to be the tool needed and recognized in the market.

That’s why Microsoft has reinvented its certification program—to certify a deeper set of skills that are mapped to the Cloud and to real-world business contexts. Rather than testing only on a component of a technology, IT Professionals and Developers are now tested on more advanced skills and a deeper understanding of the technology.

New Certifications Are Available Now

Private Cloud and SQL lead the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) reinvention

We’ve posted a lot more information about the reinvented program and the first new certifications: Private Cloud MCSE, Database MCSE & Business Intelligence MCSE:

• Microsoft Certification overview page: http://aka.ms/MSCerts
• Microsoft Certification overview video: http://aka.ms/MSCertsVideo
• MCSE information page: http://aka.ms/MCSE
• MCSE video on YouTube: http://aka.ms/MCSEvideo
• MCSE Private Cloud: http://aka.ms/MCSEpvcloud
• MCSE Data Platform: http://aka.ms/MCSEDP
• MCSE Business Intelligence: http://aka.ms/MCSEBI

You may also wish to encourage your readers to take advantage of a new 2-for-1 exam offer from Prometric:

Prometric 2-for-1 offer: http://aka.ms/Prometric241

Hot off the newswire:

Today Microsoft announced some changes to the certification program for IT Professionals, in order to address the growing need for people being able to prove their expertise in all things cloud-related.

“Wait.. you said that “the MCSE is back’.  Huh?!”

That’s right.  What was the well-known “Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer” acronym MCSE has been re-purposed.  It now stands for “Microsoft Certified Solution Expert”

From the press release…

Because cloud computing talent is in short supply, Microsoft has reinvented its flagship credential, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, for the cloud. The new Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) shows employers and peers that those certified have the skills to do the job in an expanding market. Forecasts show that public and private IT cloud services will generate nearly 14 million jobs worldwide between now and 2015.1The MCSE is the flagship credential for those who want to lead their company to the cloud and is the target credential for established IT professionals and developers who have expertise working with Microsoft technology solutions.

“The new Microsoft certifications are raising the bar across the industry and reflect industry shifts that require a broader knowledge base and deeper skills across solutions that cloud computing requires,” said Don Field, Microsoft’s senior director of Product Management. “The Microsoft certifications reflect the experience and skills needed to build, manage and evolve solutions in a cloud-based environment, ensuring validation of real-world skills for individuals and helping hiring managers identify the best-qualified job candidates.”

The new framework will help IT professionals and developers navigate their own path, while also making it clearer for hiring managers to identify credentials that offer the greatest value to their organization’s needs.

“So… just when I get my MCITP they go and do this?  What happens to my MCITP?”

Yeah.. I know.  And honestly I haven’t looked into what it means for current certifications.  But if the past is any indication, your existing certs are still valid and valuable.  And if I were still on the path to getting my MCITP: Virtualization Administrator, I’d still do it.  Those skills are still valuable, and will be a good foundation for the new certifications.  (Hint: Take 70-659.  Pass it.  You’ll thank me.)

“What tests are required for this?”

The official path to the MCSE: Private Cloud certification is:

1. Get your MCSA: Windows Server 2008 R2 if you don’t have it already.
2. Take exam 70-247: Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012
3. Take exam 70-246: Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012

Go to the MCSE Page at Microsoft Learning for all the details.  There is also an MCSE path for SQL Server.

Here’s a video that summarizes the value, too…

“Are you going to get this private cloud certfication, Kevin?”

Definitely.  Probably sometime after July 1st.  (Microsoft Employees know what I mean.  )

Another hint: Get started with System Center 2012.

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What do you think?  Should we start an MCSE: Private Cloud study group?  Are you going to go for it?  Share your thoughts in the comments.

As usual, here is the online version of the event resources I’ll be handing out to my central U.S. IT Camp Event attendees for the next several months. 

It is likely that this online version is even better, because A) it contains even more than what I could fit onto one page, B) items may have added since the printing of the copy you have, and C) you don’t have to type the URLs! 

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

March-June, 2012

Follow Kevin on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KevinRemde

“Like” my Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/KevinRemdeIsFullOfIT

Technical Question E-mails: Kevin Remde – Kevin.Remde@microsoft.com

Positive Feedback E-mails (my boss): Nathan Hancock – Nathan.hancock@microsoft.com

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

"WAG" = Windows Administrator Groups (on LinkedIn):
With Subgroups for user groups by geography – http://aka.ms/WAG

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

Session Slides when they are available: http://aka.ms/FY12H2Remde

Gearing Up for the Future

Microsoft Virtual Academy - http://aka.ms/msvirtacademy

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/librar

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/Server8

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

(CTP = Community Technology Preview – which means “earlier than beta”) 

Late on Friday the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Blog released a post enthusiastically titled “System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server ‘8’ Beta support now available!!!”.  It would seem the System Center team is looking for early feedback on running System Center against the next version of Windows Server (currently codename Windows Server “8”).  And they are particularly interested in people trying out even newer Virtual Machine Manager and Data Protection Manager components, to test how they work with some of the new and exciting features in Server 8.

“But…this is a CTP?  I thought System Center 2012 was already in the Release Candidate phase.”

It is.  But the soon-coming release of System Center 2012 won’t have support for Windows Server “8”, which will still be in beta (or maybe RC – I don’t know the exact timings here) when System Center is released.  Support for Server 8 features such as the new VHDX disk format, “shared nothing” live migrations, and live storage migration won’t be directly supported in System Center 2012 until after Server “8” is released, probably in the form of an update to System Center.  These CTPs are the first publically available versions of those updated System Center components.

“These ‘CTPs’?  There’s more than one?”

Well.. I say that because what you’ll be getting is not the entire System Center 2012 product set, but only the CTPs of new Virtual Machine Manager and Data Protection Manager components that have the necessary new functionality.

So..

1. CLICK HERE to get the CTPs of VMM and DPM, and
2. Give your FEEDBACK HERE.

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Are you going to try this out?  I will, very soon.  Let us know your thought or experiences with this in the comments (after providing feedback to the SC team, of course).

I thought this was pretty interesting.. so for a lighter, geeky-cool post on a Friday afternoon, as I’m busy waiting for large file copies in my home office lab to complete, I thought I’d share it with you.

Microsoft Research recorded a demonstration of how responsive a typical touchscreen operating system is, and how much better the experience could be if the latency (the time between the screen sensing the finger move and the visual feedback of something moving on the screen) could be reduced. 

Check it out:

(Credit: @TechCrunch’s tweet about Chris Velazco’s article on Tech Crunch – found HERE.)

Do you want that kind of experience?  I sure hope our hardware partners are going to give us this kind of amazing experience with Windows 8. 

Are you interested in learning the ins-and-outs of working with Windows Azure?  Wondering how to get started cheaply - as in “for FREE”?  We’re giving you a chance to spend a day with some of the nation’s leading cloud experts and for you to learn how to build a web application that runs in Windows Azure.  You will learn how to sign up for free time in the cloud, and how to build a typical web application using the same ASP.NET tools and techniques.  You’ll explore web roles, cloud storage, SQL Azure, and common scenarios. Get your questions answered via open Q&A, and learn what workloads should not be moved to cloud. 

This will be a hands-on learning experience.  The invite links below have the details needed for setup your machine.  Of course we’ll have help onsite to get the right software installed as well.  Lunch will be provided, and prizes awarded.  You can use the registration links below to get registered. 

By the way.. If you have an MSDN Subscription you already have free cloud benefits!  This video shows you how to get your risk free access to Windows Azure to explore and learn the cloud.  Or activate your MSDN Cloud benefits here.  If you have questions, send our Azure team members an email:  msnextde at microsoft.com. 

Here is the schedule.  Click the date to get location details and to register.  Do it soon, because seats are limited.

• March 30, 2012 – Minneapolis, MN
• April 3, 2012 – Independence, OH
• April 5, 2012 – Columbus, OH
• April 10, 2012 – Kansas City (Overland Park), KS
• April 12, 2012 – Omaha, NE
• April 13, 2012 – Mason, OH
• April 19, 2012 – Southfield, MI
• April 25, 2012 – Houston, TX
• May 1, 2012 – Saint Louis (Creve Coeur), MO
• May 1, 2012 – Downers Grove, IL
• May 2, 2012 – Franklin, TN
• May 3, 2012 – Chicago, IL
• May 8, 2012 – Minneapolis, MN