Get ready for Windows Server 2012 with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 7.0. The latest version of the MAP Toolkit adds several new planning scenarios that help you build for the future with agility and focus while lowering the cost of delivering IT. Download MAP 7.0 and begin planning your server deployments today!
New capabilities allow you to:
· Understand your readiness to deploy Windows Server 2012 in your environment
· Determine Windows 8 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.
Assess Windows Server 2012 readiness
MAP 7.0 assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2012 deployment. This feature includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating the machines that meet Windows Server 2012 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.
Determine Windows 8 desktop readiness
MAP 7.0 assesses the readiness of your IT environment for your Windows 8 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.
Virtualize your Linux servers on Hyper-V
MAP 7.0 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 both the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track scenario, as well as the traditional Server Virtualization and Consolidation 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.
More features and benefits.
Download MAP 7.0.
under http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/hh968267.aspx you can find a lot of Virtual labs for:
1. Active Directory Deployment and Management Enhancements
2. Configuring a Highly Available iSCSI Target
3. Configuring Hyper-V over Highly Available SMB Storage
4. Getting Started with Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Replication
5. Implementing Storage Pools and Storage Spaces
6. Introduction to DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012
7. Introduction to IIS 8
8. Introduction to iSCSI Diskless Boot Deployment
9. Introduction to Windows PowerShell Fundamentals
10. What’s New in Windows PowerShell 3.0
11. Managing Branch Offices
12. Managing Network Infrastructure
13. Managing Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager and Windows PowerShell 3.0
14. Managing Your Network Infrastructure with IP Address Management
15. Online Backup Service
16. Using Dynamic Access Control to Automatically and Centrally Secure Data
Enjoy !
You want to assess your IT capabilities with regards to Private Cloud Computing ?
The “Microsoft Customer Assessment Tool for private cloud” is a free Online tool which helps to assess your Cloud Readiness based on your Priorities.
http://cloudassessmenttool.com/
The tool will provide with a final report that provides you:
This tool is just a quick Assessment and does not replace a complete planning exercise to build a strategy how you can move to the Cloud, but nevertheless it is a good entry point.
Cloud Computing is not a product or solution we can implement, it is a strategy you build on and it requires People, Processes & Technology !
So lets get started with the self assessment tool!
1.) open http://cloudassessmenttool.com/ in your Brower
2.) in the first part you define your drivers, why you want to move to a Private Cloud and what are your obstacles.
3.) in the second part, you will need to provide the best answer to infrastructure related questions.
4.) in the third part, you will need to provide the best answer to your current processes & capabilities
5.) in the fourth part, you will need to provide answers about your Business Applications. And remember it is all about the APP.
6.) the last menu provides you information about your business and in what part of the world you are living
So now we have entered all data :) . As we said in the beginning, this is just a quick Self Assessment !
And the outcome of the Self Assessment will be shown on the screen as below and you will be able to download or send via email a more detailed report.
Some basic and initial recommendation based on the data you entered. More Details can be found when you download the Report as shown on the bottom of the graphic.
Under the next Steps you can also download the report or send the report via email.
Again as we said in the beginning, this is just a quick Self Assessment, if you want a more detailed Assessment through Microsoft and Microsoft Partners you can request it here via the next Steps.
Comparison from Microsoft point of view.
Happy to discuss different views & opinions :)
The table below lists Microsoft’s competitive advantages over VMware for private cloud solutions.
Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V
vSphere 5
Operations Manager
vCenter Operations Manager Suite (vCOPs), vFabric APM
Virtual Machine Manager
vCenter
Orchestrator
vCenter Orchestrator
Configuration Manager
vCenter Operations Manager Suite (vCOPs), vCenter Configuration Manager
The below table shows the comparison between Windows 2012 Hyper-V RC and VMware 5.0 Ent Plus Edition
To learn more about VMST 2012, click here. To download the tool, click here.
VMST 2012 streamlines the process of keeping your offline virtual machines, templates and VHDs up-to-date with the latest operating system and application updates, without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure. VMST 2012 helps you effectively manage the workflow of updating your offline virtual machines according to their individual needs.
Using features in VMST 2012, customers can service:
VMST 2012 is designed to work with Microsoft® System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and with the following technologies:
Thank you again for your interest in this beta review program. Please share this message with anyone who wants to learn more about Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012.
The following links showing short videos and explain Hyper-V Extensible Switch of Windows Server 2012
Hyper-V Extensible Switch, Part I – Introduction
Hyper-V Extensible Switch, Part II – Understanding the Control Path
Hyper-V Extensible Switch, Part III – The Ins and Outs of the Data Path for Capture and Filter…
TechEd Europe 2012 in Amsterdam. Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V delivering over 1 million IOPs from a single virtual machine.
Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V delivering over 1 million IOPs from a single virtual machine
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ch9Live/Channel-9-Live-at-Tech-Ed-North-America-2012/Straight-Talk-about-Hyper-V-and-Beyond-with-Jeff-Woolsey
Hardware Config:
•Industry Standard 4 Socket Server
–80 Logical Processors (10 cores + SMT)
–256 GB of physical memory
–Direct Attached Storage
–5 LSI HBA with 40 SSDs
•VM configured with:
–64 Virtual Processors
–64 GB of memory
•IOmeter
–4k, Random IO, Queue Depth =32, 40 concurrent threads
Industry Leading IO Performance
•VM storage performance on par with native
•Performance scales linearly with increase in virtual processors
•Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V can virtualize over 99% of the world’s SQL Server.