external content: www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase
This article will cover a combination of present machine and infrastructure virtualization technologies implemented by MSIT and our thoughts on what the future may bring.
Coverage of present technologies will include what we have implemented over the past six years, from Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 through Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V, and the “how and why” behind particular choices we have made.
Discussion around future initiatives will focus on how MSIT plans not only align with emerging technologies, but also be able to use them in combinations that provide new and innovative offerings to our customers.
Specific topics will include but are not limited to a description of our hardware platforms, how Hyper-V leverages underlying infrastructure virtualization features, how public and private cloud initiatives relate to our current service offerings, and an overall effort towards a dynamic infrastructure to bridge the various solutions.
Microsoft IT Datacenter Virtualization Past, Present and Futures
Video: What Does the Cloud Mean to the CIO TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Video: Microsoft IT Enterprise Architecture and the Cloud TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Video: Cloud Computing: What Customers are Discussing with Microsoft IT TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Video: Microsoft IT CISO Perspective on Cloud Security TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Video: Microsoft IT’s Lessons Learned: Moving Applications to the Cloud TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Video: Microsoft IT Developing Applications with Microsoft Azure TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Video: How Microsoft IT is Integrating Operations with the Cloud TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Video: How Microsoft IT is Using SQL Azure to Enable Self-Service BI TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Video: How Microsoft IT Built Application Segmentation and Migration Strategies for the Cloud TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Video: How Microsoft IT is Implementing a Hybrid Messaging Deployment TechNet Radio session coming Wednesday, March 30, 2011
These documents provide a detailed description of the features and functionality of Office 365 services currently in beta.
Microsoft_Exchange_Online_Beta_Service_Description
Microsoft_Lync_Online__Beta_Service_Description
Microsoft_Office_Professional_Plus_Beta_Service_Description
Microsoft_Office_Web_Apps_Beta_Service_Description
Microsoft_SharePoint_Online_Standard_Beta_Service_Description
external Content: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-working-on-concero-cloud-management-portal/8425
Microsoft is building a new management tool, code-named “Concero,” that will allow customers to oversee both on-premises and cloud-based services.
Microsoft is planning to show off the new member of its System Center product line at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2011 conference in March.
There is a mention of Concero on the MMS Web site agenda, that explains the coming product this way:
The move to cloud based deployment of services will result in deployments which are partly on private on-premise clouds based on VMM and Hyper-V and partly on Windows Azure. In this hybrid world, it is imperative to have a management tool that allows customers to deploy and manage their services across these environments. System Center codename “Concero” is a self-service portal targeted at this customer base.”
The Concero tool will allow customers to manage both on-premises Services running on Hyper-V hypervisor and System Center Virtual Machine Manager and off-premises Services running on Windows Azure and Windows Azure Appliances. Concero will be built on Silverlight, to enable an “access anywhere” experience, according to information on Microsoft’s Web site.
12 hours of the HD-quality videos were just released and are ready to go!
Session 01: Windows Azure Overview Session 02: Introduction to Compute Session 03: Windows Azure Lifecycle, Part 1 Session 04: Windows Azure Lifecycle, Part 2 Session 05: Windows Azure Storage, Part 1 Session 06: Windows Azure Storage, Part 2 Session 07: Introduction to SQL Azure Session 08: Windows Azure Diagnostics Session 09: Windows Azure Security, Part 1 Session 10: Windows Azure Security, Part 2 Session 11: Scalability, Caching & Elasticity, Part 1 Session 12: Scalability, Caching & Elasticity, Part 2, and Q&A
external content: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2010/06/19/10027366.aspx
Here are the CSV volumes in my cluster. Note that Cluster Disk 10 has two partitions.
To find the free disk space through PowerShell, the information is available inside the objects returned by Get-ClusterSharedVolume. You can easily see that information by piping the output to Format-Custom: PS> Get-ClusterSharedVolume "Cluster Disk 1" | fc *
Here is an example. Note that I’m just getting this information for one CSV disk (Cluster Disk 1), but you can also get it for all CSVs on the cluster by running: PS > Get-ClusterSharedVolume | fc *
Now let’s look at the full output:
PS C:\> Get-ClusterSharedVolume "Cluster Disk 1" | fc *
class ClusterSharedVolume
{
Name = Cluster Disk 1
State = Online
OwnerNode =
class ClusterNode
Name = ahmedbc1-n2
State = Up
}
SharedVolumeInfo =
[
class ClusterSharedVolumeInfo
FaultState = NoFaults
FriendlyVolumeName = C:\ClusterStorage\Volume2
Partition =
class ClusterDiskPartitionInfo
Name = \\?\Volume{ef349066-525c-11df-8261-001e4fe757b6}
DriveLetter =
DriveLetterMask = 0
FileSystem = NTFS
FreeSpace = 17665183744
MountPoints =
]
PartitionNumber = 1
PercentFree = 84.24681
Size = 20968370176
UsedSpace = 3303186432
HasDriveLetter = False
IsCompressed = False
IsDirty = Unknown
IsFormatted = True
IsNtfs = True
IsPartitionNumberValid = True
IsPartitionSizeValid = True
VolumeOffset = 1048576
MaintenanceMode = False
RedirectedAccess = False
Id = 3b115c10-95ab-4420-8e58-da1d988c7750
As you see, the information is not easy to find because you have to look through the nested objects and the default formatting is not nice. For example, I’m sure you want to see the size in GB not bytes!
Here is a “one line” command that gives you some information:
PS C:\> Get-ClusterSharedVolume | select -Expand SharedVolumeInfo | select -Expand Partition | ft -a
uto Name,@{ Label = "Size(GB)" ; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.Size/1024/1024/1024) } },@{ Label =
"FreeSpace(GB)" ; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.FreeSpace/1024/1024/1024) } },@{ Label= "UsedSpace(
GB)" ; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.UsedSpace/1024/1024/1024) } },@{ Label = "PercentFree" ; Expre
ssion = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.PercentFree) } }
Name Size(GB) FreeSpace(GB) UsedSpace(GB) PercentFree
---- -------- ------------- ------------- -----------
\\?\Volume{ef349066-525c-11df-8261-001e4fe757b6} 19.53 16.45 3.08 84.25
\\?\Volume{297b7d61-62d5-11df-91ff-001e4fe757b6} 0.49 0.46 0.03 93.95
\\?\Volume{297b7d68-62d5-11df-91ff-001e4fe757b6} 0.49 0.46 0.03 93.91
\\?\Volume{ef349070-525c-11df-8261-001e4fe757b6} 19.53 19.44 0.09 99.55
\\?\Volume{ef34907a-525c-11df-8261-001e4fe757b6} 19.53 15.78 3.75 80.80
\\?\Volume{ef3490a2-525c-11df-8261-001e4fe757b6} 0.97 0.93 0.04 95.91
The problem with this is that it does not give you the friendly name given the nested nature of the objects returned with Get-ClusterSharedVolume. To do a better job displaying the information, I created this script that will display the information in a better view, which is attached to this blog post. Please download the DisplayCSVInfo2.txt file and rename it as a DisplayCSVInfo.ps1 file. This is an unsupported script by Microsoft and should be used at your own risk.
PS C:\> .\DisplayCSVInfo.ps1
Name Path Size(GB) FreeSpace(GB) UsedSpace(GB) PercentFree
---- ---- -------- ------------- ------------- -----------
Cluster Disk 1 C:\ClusterStorage\Volume2 19.53 16.45 3.08 84.25
Cluster Disk 10 C:\ClusterStorage\Volume6 0.49 0.46 0.03 93.95
Cluster Disk 10 C:\ClusterStorage\Volume7 0.49 0.46 0.03 93.91
Cluster Disk 2 C:\ClusterStorage\Volume3 19.53 19.44 0.09 99.55
Cluster Disk 3 C:\ClusterStorage\Volume4 19.53 15.78 3.75 80.80
Cluster Disk 7 C:\ClusterStorage\Volume5 0.97 0.93 0.04 95.91
Various Technet article:
· Managing a VMware Infrastructure in VMM (conceptual overview and management discussion)
· Configuring VMM to Manage a VMware Infrastructure 3 Environment (Step by Step approach, from VMM Help)
· Configuring Security for a Managed VMware Environment in VMM
Here is a great video of a presentation at TechEd.
http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/VIR324
great webcast:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&seriesid=37&webcastid=15406
external content: View article...
In Exchange 2010, we introduced Personal Archives, a feature intended to allow you to reduce or eliminate PST files by provisioning archive mailboxes for your users. For more details, see Understanding Personal Archives in Exchange 2010 documentation.
In Exchange 2010 RTM, you can provision a user's archive mailbox on the same mailbox database (MDB) as the user's primary mailbox. In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can also create the archive mailbox on a different MDB located on the same Mailbox server as the user's primary mailbox, or on another Mailbox server. Using mailbox move requests, you can also move archive mailboxes independently of the primary mailbox.
With Office 365 beta, we also enabled organizations to store archive mailboxes in the cloud, while maintaining the primary mailbox on your on-premises Mailbox servers running Exchange 2010 SP1. Users can seamlessly access their primary on-premises mailbox and their archive in the cloud using Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 and Outlook Web App (OWA).
Figure 1: Provisioning an archive in the cloud for a user with an on-premises mailbox.
To enable archive in the cloud, your organization must be enrolled in and setup for Office 365 beta (you can sign up for the beta here). (This post is not intended to cover all the rich co-existence scenarios made possible with Office 365 and on-premises Exchange deployments.)
When provisioning an archive in the cloud for a user with a primary mailbox on-premises, the archive mailbox provisioning status in the Exchange Management Console (EMC) changes to Cloud-based archive pending. After the cloud-based archive's created (in Office 365), the archive status is not automatically updated in EMC. Additionally, Outlook and OWA do not detect and load the archive mailbox.
Figure 2: After provisioning an archive in the cloud, the user's archive state shows as Cloud-based archive pending in the EMC (and the Shell).
Here's a workaround to manually update the archive provisioning status in your on-premises organization using the ChangeArchiveStatus.ps1 script (download it from here).
Note: It's a temporary workaround required for the Office 365 beta — it'll not be required for Office 365 GA.
Important: Do not perform the following steps until the archive status in Office 365 changes to active.
ChangeArchiveStatus.ps1 <user> $true
• Changing Remote Desktop settings - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Changing-Remote-Desktop-settings (click on the “How can I improve the performance of Remote Desktop over a slow connection? “ link.
• Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 R2 - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/Perf_tun_srv-R2.mspx - Performance Tuning for Remote Desktop Services Knowledge Worker Workload on Page 95
There is also an interesting article that can be found at:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/virtualization2/Q-What-are-some-settings-I-should-configure-in-my-Windows-7-VDI-environment-to-minimize-overhead-and-improve-performance-.aspx
The next release of Operations Manager will introduce many exciting new and enhanced feature sets to help organizations efficiently and effectively monitor their environments across their computer, network and storage infrastructure, while maintaining service levels across their applications. Join us to learn of the key areas of investment in the next release of OpsMgr and discover what feature sets will be delivered in the next release. The future of systems monitoring is coming -- come and see it.
http://www.msteched.com/2010/Europe/MGT205.
To help you deploy commercial private and public clouds based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, System Center, and related products, Microsoft offers a set of programs and initiatives called Hyper-V Cloud. These programs can help you:
Build your own private cloud with help from the Hyper-V Cloud Deployment Guides and Hyper-V Cloud partners.
Get a pre-validated private cloud configuration from Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track OEM partners. Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track partners have worked with Microsoft to combine hardware and software offerings based on a reference architecture for building private clouds.
Find a service provider in the Hyper-V Cloud Service Provider Program who can host a dedicated private cloud for you.
Microsoft is also investing in a set of engagements to help customers with IaaS assessments, proofs-of-concept, and deployments with help from our partners or Microsoft Services. The investments are designed to help reduce the risk, cost, and time associated with testing and deploying a cloud environment.
Deploying Microsoft’s private cloud infrastructure also positions you to take advantage of the Windows Azure public cloud platform through powerful identity, development, and management tools. These tools span across private and public cloud environments so that you can more easily build, migrate, or extend out to the public cloud and benefit from virtually unlimited scale and even greater efficiencies whenever you need it.
White Papers
Case studies
There are lots of cloud solutions providers out there, but only Microsoft is providing a full, comprehensive, end-to-end cloud computing solution. Here’s where the competition stands:
There are multiple cloud solution providers out there, but only Microsoft is providing a full, comprehensive, end-to-end cloud computing solution so that you can harness the full power of the cloud on your terms.
Here’s how Microsoft Private Cloud solutions are different.
Microsoft provides a familiar and consistent platform across traditional, private and public cloud environments, so that you can leverage investments and skill sets you already have, while taking advantage of the new value the cloud provides.
Microsoft solutions for private cloud manage across heterogeneous physical and virtual environments, standardize datacenter processes and provide deep insight into key business applications, so that you can manage services from End to End. With Microsoft solutions for private cloud, you’ll also have the flexibility and control to harness the full power of the Windows Azure public cloud platform, through powerful identity, developer and management tools that span across private and public cloud environments for additional scale and efficiency whenever you need it.
Microsoft is also bringing the power of Windows Azure to the private cloud with the Windows Azure Platform Appliance, a turnkey cloud platform that service providers, large enterprises and governments can deploy in their own datacenter, across hundreds to thousands of servers. WAPA will deliver the power of the Windows Azure Platform to your datacenter.
Learn more at Microsoft Cloud Advantage
Windows Server Hyper-V can help you build out a scalable and efficient cloud infrastructure to transform the way you deliver IT services to your business.
Compare the cloud power of Windows Server Hyper-V with VMware
Microsoft's current experience with the U.S. Department of Agriculture strongly suggests that the answer to both parts of the question is yes.
external content: http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1669217
Every technology can be used in a good and in a negative way:
Cloud can help hack WiFi networks http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70641M20110107
A worthy blog to read!
http://blogs.technet.com/b/msonline/
external content: http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft_mapp/vol2/article14/article14.html
In the nearly one year since Microsoft Azure AppFabric was unveiled at its PDC 2009 conference, much of the promised technology has been delivered, and important new capabilities have been introduced for 2011. The Microsoft cloud application platform is gaining critical technical mass. CIOs, CTOs, project leaders and other IT planners should track the evolution of Microsoft Windows Azure investments and architecture as potentially one of the leading, long-term offerings for cloud computing.
Key Findings
It’s an exciting time for Microsoft’s datacenter program. In addition to operating one of the largest global datacenter footprints in the industry, Microsoft have been working on multiple next-generation, modular facilities that are in various phases of construction.
One of the most innovative new datacenters is set to open in Quincy, WA in early 2011. The Microsoft Dublin facility uses server PODs (Performance Optimized Data Center) and outside air economization to cool the servers, which significantly reduces cooling expense and infrastructure costs. Microsoft took a slightly different approach with Chicago datacenter which utilizes water-side
View inside a Chicago datacenter container
economization for cooling and improves scalability by using IT Pre-Assembled Components (ITPACs.)
An ITPAC is a pre-manufactured, fully-assembled module that can be built with a focus on sustainable materials such as steel and aluminum and can house as little as 400 servers and as many as 2,000 servers, significantly increasing flexibility and scalability.
ITPAC video
The expansion in Quincy takes these ideas a step further by extending the flexibility of PACs across the entire facility using modular “building blocks” for electrical, mechanical, server and security subsystems. This increase in flexibility enables Microsoft to even better support the needs of what can often be a very unpredictable online business and allows Microsoft to build datacenters incrementally as capacity grows. The modular design enables Microsoft to build a facility in significantly less time while reducing capital costs by an average of 50 to 60 percent over the lifetime of the project.
View Microsoft's Modular Datacenter slide deck >>
Stay tuned for more information about our future datacenter projects in 2011.
http://www.globalfoundationservices.com
http://blogs.technet.com/msdatacenters
Planning the next generation of technical infrastructure for corporations can be a complex and daunting task. The success of any infrastructure is measured in how well the design choices match business objectives. Although plenty of product documentation is available, it can be difficult to find guidance on how to appropriately plan the core infrastructure for an organization. The Infrastructure Planning and Design series is designed to present the technical decision maker with the most concise planning guidance for Microsoft technologies. It also provides a means to validate design decisions to ensure that the selected solution meets the requirements of both business and IT stakeholders.
The IPD documents are designed to be used by the following IT personnel:
Check out all the Infrastructure Planning and Design team has to offer! For additional information, including our most recent guides,
visit the IPD page on TechNet — http://www.microsoft.com/IPD.
The Solution Accelerators team has released a new guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1.
The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1 takes the IT architect through a step-by-step process for successfully designing an Exchange Server 2010 infrastructure. Exchange Server 2010 supports a variety of infrastructure topologies that enable IT departments to deploy the messaging architecture that best suits their business needs. This guide will help organizations make informed decisions about the design of fault tolerance and scalability so that their overall requirements are met.
The guide covers these key steps in the Exchange Server 2010 infrastructure design process:
The IPD Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1 can help you reduce planning time and costs, and ensure a successful rollout of Exchange Server 2010 - helping your organization to more quickly benefit from this flexible and reliable messaging platform.
mid term – long term shifts going on
•Many companies will look for ways to outsource the management of their infrastructure•
•The need for architect-level strategic and creative thinkers will increase
•Customer demand for cloud solutions may exceed the market’s ability to deliver at any given time
What Talent is needed for Cloud Computing?
•Architect level skills, especially in distributed systems
•Project management on large, complex, and global engagements
•People who are hungry to learn and flexible in approach
•People excited by cloud technology
•Those with a passion for serving customers
•Vertical industry experience
•Developers with SOA or web service experience
•Systems integration specialists
Shift Focus of Skills