Microsoft Learning hosted another new and exclusive Jump Start virtual training event – Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals.  We are thrilled to announce availability of the HD-quality video recordings – FREE – on TechNet Edge and soon coming to MS Showcase, the Zune Marketplace, iTunes!  Additionally, every module will be made available (with assessment questions) on the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) in the next few weeks.

What’s the high-level overview?

· The 15-hour course is broken into three sections covering Microsoft Virtualization: Platform, Management, and VDI

· “Team-teaching” approach led by Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Symon Perriman and Microsoft partner and virtualization architect, Corey Hynes

· Every module is an engaging discussion, packed with best practices and real-world demonstrations

Who is the target audience for this training?

· IT Professionals, Virtualization Engineers, Data Center Managers, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators, Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects

· Microsoft customers and partners currently using VMware

· Companies using VMware searching for real-world answers as they consider whether or not Microsoft Virtualization truly fits their needs

Where do I go for this great training?

The HD-quality video recordings of this course are on TechNet Edge.  Here are direct links to each module:

· Entire course on TechNet Edge: Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals

o Platform

· 1: Virtualization Overview

· 2: Differentiating Microsoft & VMware

· 3a: Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 1

· 3b: Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 2

· 4: High-Availability & Clustering

o Management

· 5: System Center Suite Overview with focus on DPM

· 6: Automation with Opalis, Service Manager & PowerShell

· 7: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

· 8: Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0

o VDI

· 9: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1

· 10: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2

· 11: v-Alliance Solution Overview

· 12: Application Delivery for VDI

· Links to course materials on Born to Learn

Where can people learn more?

Virtualization experts worldwide are taking a new look at Microsoft Virtualization.  After this Jump Start, we hope you will understand why.  Check out the Microsoft Learning “Virtualization Training Portal” to better understand virtualization-specific certifications and where to find instructor-led classes to help you and your team.  Additionally there is great training content on the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) where you can learn at your own pace, connect with other IT Pros and earn prizes & rewards.

The initial release of “Concero”  will enable customers to deploy, manage and control applications and services deployed on private clouds built using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and in the public cloud offering of Windows Azure. This provides a consistent and simple user experience for service management across these clouds.

Some key capabilities of “Concero” are

• Ability to access resources across multiple VMM Servers
• Ability to register and consume capacity from multiple Windows Azure subscriptions
• Deploy and manage Services and virtual machines on private clouds created within VMM 2012 and on Windows Azure
• Copy Service templates (and optional resources) from one VMM Server to another
• Copy Windows Azure configuration, package files and VHD’s from on-premises and between Windows Azure subscriptions
• Enable multiple users authenticated through Active Directory to access a single Windows Azure subscription

Concerno Screenshots
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The good news just keeps coming and we’re pleased to keep the momentum rolling with the latest release of our rock stable, feature rich, standalone Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1! For those who need a refresher on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, it includes key features based on customer feedback such as:

• Live Migration
• High Availability with Failover Clustering
• Cluster Shared Volumes
• 10 Gb/E Ready
• Processor Compatibility Mode
• Enhanced Scalability
• …and much more.

For more info on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, read: http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2009/07/30/microsoft-hyper-v-server-2008-r2-rtm-more.aspx. Service Pack 1 for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 includes all the rollup fixes released since Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and adds two new features that greatly enhance VDI scenarios:

• Dynamic Memory
• RemoteFX

After installing the update, both Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX will be available to Hyper-V Server. These new features can be managed in a number of ways:

• Using the updated R2 SP1 Hyper-V Manager user interface on a full version of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Using the updated Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7 & Windows 7 SP1
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta

Dynamic memory is an enhancement to Hyper-V R2 which pools all the memory available on a physical host and dynamically distributes it to virtual machines running on that host as necessary. That means based on changes in workload, virtual machines will be able to receive new memory allocations without a service interruption through Dynamic Memory Balancing. In short, Dynamic Memory is exactly what it’s named. If you’d like to know more, I've included numerous links on Dynamic Memory below.

Configuring RemoteFX with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1

Although using Dynamic Memory does not need any additional server side configuration beyond installing the R2 SP1 update, enabling RemoteFX does require some additional configuration on the host.  The exact steps for enabling the RemoteFX are detailed below:

1) Verify the host machine meets the minimum hardware requirements for RemoteFX. 

2) Verify the host has the latest 3D graphics card drivers installed before enabling RemoteFX.

3) Enable the RemoteFX feature using the following command line:

Dism.exe  /online /enable-feature /featurename:VmHostAgent

4) From a remote machine running the full version of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 or a client OS running the latest version of RSAT, connect to the Hyper-V Server machines, create a Windows 7 R2 SP1 virtual machine and under “Add Hardware”, select “RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter”.  Select “Add”.

If the “RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter” option is greyed out, it is usually because RemoteFX is not enabled or the 3D video card drivers have not been installed on the host yet. Before attaching the RemoteFX adapter, make sure to set user access permissions, note the computer name and enable Remote Desktop within the VM first. When the RemoteFX 3D video adapter is attached to the VM, you will no longer be able to connect to the VM local console via the Hyper-V Manager Remote Connection.  You will only be able to connect to the VM via a Remote Desktop connection.  Remove the RemoteFX adapter if you ever need to use the Hyper-V Manager Remote Connection.

How much does Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 cost? Where can I get it?

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 is free and we hope you enjoy it! Here’s the download link: Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1

several new Windows Azure features and services

• An update to the Windows Azure SDK (software development kit), due out later today, that includes a Web Deployment Tool to simplify the migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites. The tool integrates with Visual Studio 2010 and the Web Platform Installer.
• Updates to the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control service, which provides a single-sign-on experience to Windows Azure applications by integrating with enterprise directories and Web identities from Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
• The release of the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service — some time in the next 30 days — which the Softies said will accelerate the performance of Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications.
• A community technology preview (CTP) of Windows Azure Traffic Manager, a new service that allows Windows Azure customers to balance application performance across multiple geographies.
• A preview of the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming capabilities, which allows developers to upload IIS Smooth Streaming-encoded video to a Windows Azure Storage account and deliver that video to Silverlight, iOS and Android Honeycomb clients.

There are also some new offers for Azure customers, explained in a new Windows Azure Team blog post.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2011/04/10/windows-intune-tech-tune-up-questions-answered.aspx

• How much does Windows Intune cost? - Windows Intune is $11 USD per PC per month
• Does Windows Intune replace WSUS? –NO, Windows Intune has functionality parity with WSUS. But it does much more than WSUS, as it also includes , upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise and future versions of Windows, software and hardware inventory, remote assistance, malware protection, and policy.
• Can mobile phones or non-Windows devices be managed? - Windows Intune only managed Windows-based PC`s today
• Is there a minimum number of PCs required to use Windows Intune? - There is no minimum - you can purchase a single-seat license if you wish. If you would like to try Windows Intune, you can get a free 30 day trial account that comes with 25 seats.
• Can I replace my anti-virus with Windows Intune? - Yes, Windows Intune includes endpoint protection for your PCs.
• Will Intune work with a thin client environment? - At this point in time Windows Intune does not support installations on thin clients
• How does Windows Intune work for a service provider to manage separate customers? - For service providers that are the administrator for multiple customer accounts, they will see the multi-account console when they log in with their Live ID. In the multi-account console, they will see a list of all their customers and a snapshot of their health. From there, they can easily and quickly click into a specific customer account to take action.
• Can Windows Intune help manage and monitor servers? - Windows Intune is designed to help customers protect and manage their PCs and cannot be used to manage servers. For customers with only a few servers that are looking for basic server management, we recommend using Forefront Endpoint Protection in conjunction with native tools and functionality included in Windows Server such as Group Policy, Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), and Server Manager. For customers with many servers and more complex server management needs, we recommend they consider our System Center family of products.
• Does communication between the Windows Intune client and the service go through port 443? - Correct. All communication between the client and service are secured.
• What is the Windows Intune Center? - The Windows Intune Center is the client software installed on each end-user PC that is managed by the Windows Intune service. From the Windows Intune Center, an end-user can do the following:

• Request remote assistance
• Check on the update status of their computer.
• Scan their computer or a removable device such as a USB drive or external hard drive.

• Can we watch this after its complete? - Yes, the Windows Intune Technology Tune-Up is available for viewing here.
• What operating systems does Windows Intune support? -

• Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, and Professional
• Windows Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, and Business
• Windows XP Professional with Service Pack (SP) 2; SP3 recommended

• How is a customer’s hardware and software inventory information kept private? - The multi-tenant, secure architecture of the service separates out each customer account from others. Each enrolled client includes an account/customer specific certificate that enforces this separation. Inventory or other administrative actions do not cross account/customer boundaries.
• Can you decrease the amount of licenses you subscribe to during the 12 month contract? - You can cancel any time within 30 days of purchase and will be billed for the first month. Cancellations can be made after that point, but you will be responsible for paying for the entire initial 12-month subscription. After the initial 12-month subscription you can call to cancel any time. The cancellation will take effect at the end of the following subscription month

Microsoft provided near- and longer-term updates about its ERP and CRM wares for its ERP and CRM customers and partners .

On the near-term front,  the next version of its Dynamics AX ERP product (codenamed AX 6, and now known officially as Dynamics AX 2012) to be released to manufacturing in August 2011. A beta of AX 2012 is out as of April 4.

The Dynamics SL 2011 ERP product is now generally available, as is the on-premises version of Dynamics CRM 2011. And Dynamics GP 2010 R2, another of its ERP products, will be generally available starting May 1, 2011.

Longer-term,  the next major releases of the cloud versions of its Dynamics ERP and CRM products will be hosted on Windows Azure.

1. Using Windows Server 2008 SP1 - Dynamic Memory the XB guys scaled well past 100 VMs (mixed sizes up to 8GB) and achieved 225 VMS per host with 128GB of RAM.

2. You need A LOT of IOPS for that and they used the HP IO Accelerator cards with 100,000 IOPS per server, and put the VM differencing disks on that card. We saw a single Hyper-V server hit 30K-40K IOPS (total) with 125 VMs running (240 IOPS each) with users logged in running heavy labs like SCOM, SCCM, Sharepoint, Lync.

a. With the proper Storage and HW design Hyper-V SP1 can handle ANY workload

b. The ONLY issue today,  is that CSV volumes are a shared IO resource. We need VM-to-LUN QoS for storage paths, for us to guarantee IOPS performance to the VM, for shared disks

c. The IO Accelerator cards are a GREAT VDI story

3. Trunking of 1GB networks is very cost effective alternative to 10GB Ethernet – which VMWare and Cisco are pushing heavily.

a. Trucking allows you to consolidate say (4) 1GB links, into the Blade Enclosure Switch, and use Virtual Networking to distribute the load to the VMs. 

b. At MMS they only used (2) 1GB Trunked links, and found less than 30% utilization from 100+ VMs running labs.

c. HP’s FlexFabric is pretty amazing – it allows your split 10GB bandwidth between Fibre Channle and Ethernet. I’d say a more flexible solution that pure 10GB-E switching that Cisco/VMWare vBlock is pushing.

Microsoft and Toyota announced on April 6 a partnership via which Toyota’s next-generation telematics platform will be built using Microsoft Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

The New telematics platform will encompass GPS, energy management and multimedia technologies.

The first cars to take advantage of the new platform will be Toyota’s electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2012.

Toyota’s longer-term goal is to establish a complete global cloud platform by 2015 that will provide telematics services to their customers globally.