In my last post I showed how easy it is to create virtual desktops in Windows Server 2012, and while that’s now a core part of providing remote desktops to your users there is still the good old fashioned terminal services, or to give its modern name Remote Desktop Services (RDS). RDS also changes quite a lot in Windows Server 2012 and so I have made this short screencast to show how to set it up..
Notes:
VDI and RDS are designed to compliment each other:
So when to use what?
I think this comes down to efficiency and manageability. You can support far more (typically 12x) remote users with RDS than with VDI running on the same server hardware. So if possible use RDS complimented with technologies like App-v to virtualise application delivery to delegated users. That way you’ll just have to maintain the few servers providing RDS and secure the users profile disks.
It may be that some or of all your users can’t use RDS because they applications they want don‘t ‘like’ being run from and RDS server. In that case the next most efficient option is pooled VDI where a virtual desktop is shared rather than being dedicated to a particular user. In this scenario you just have manage one virtual desktop, and then control the deployment of revisions to that (which may just include patches or whole new applications). Your final option is to give your users personal virtual desktops which means that each of these needs to be managed in exactly the same way as if they have real desktops. What’s good about VD/RDS in Windows Server is that the users get a good experience either way with multi touch support, smooth video streaming and USB redirect so they can use webcams, dongle, card readers etc.
Whether you want to upgrade your PCs to Windows 8, gain access to exclusive offerings such as Windows 8 Enterprise edition and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, or use Windows with greater flexibility, there is a Microsoft Volume Licensing solution that is right for your organization.
Learn how simple Windows 8 Licensing is when you take the new MVA product Licensing course. This course covers:
· Windows 8 editions - identifying the type of user for each edition
· Consumerization of IT and today’s tech savvy trends
· Review the channels through which these editions can be purchased
· The licensing and flexibility of Windows 8 Licensing and go into more detail on various editions
· Companion Device Licensing
· Several typical real life customer scenarios that gives you realistic business situations where Windows 8 licensing is applied
I can’t promise Licensing is made exciting, but I can promise that it is made very simple whether you have basic or expert knowledge it is extremely handy.
Here we see the channels through which Windows 8 is made available. For example, Windows RT is only available through the OEM channel as a pre-configured system on certified hardware. It offers users a consistent Windows experience.
Did you know that you can purchase upgrade licenses through a Volume Licensing program to gain access to Windows 8 Pro? Upgrades are available through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs for small to midsize organizations such as Open License, Open Value, Open Value Subscription or Select Plus.
From the Eligible Professional Grade Offerings with Windows 8 Pro, learn how to take advantage of the convenience and flexibility available through the various Volume Licensing Programs. Especially important is the availability of Software Assurance for our Windows Desktop operating systems designed to enable customers to implement new flexible work style scenarios.
Understand how there is increased value with Software Assurance. In addition to new version rights, SA provides exclusive access to enterprise offerings, such as Windows 8 Enterprise edition and to the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP).
SA offers greater flexibility for how customers use Windows. For example there is a new use right called Windows To Go, allowing employees to access a corporate image running Windows 8 Enterprise from a bootable USB.
Qualifying operating systems - Properly licensed Microsoft operating systems (such as Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP) have either a full operating system (OS) license or the combination of an upgrade operating system license and a pre-existing, full operating system license. Only certain editions of the Windows operating system qualify for upgrades under Volume Licensing agreements.
If your OS license qualifies, you can purchase the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade license, under your Volume Licensing agreement. It is important to understand that Windows licenses that are available through Volume Licensing are upgrade-only licenses and can only be acquired on top of a base OS license.
To learn more, take the assessment, print your certificate and become a certified licensing expert for Windows 8 just like that!
Start Here
New years resolution: must blog more! It's only taken me to the end of January to start my resolution but I'm going to try one blog article per month.
We're bringing back Tech.Days Online on the 24th/25th & 26th of April. This time with more days and more topics. Simon and Andrew will be back and we'll be introducing some new faces as well! We will also be providing free MVA points for the learning!
If you can't spare the time to get out of the office or have a travel restrictions, then this is a great opportunity to learn from your browser!
- Learn online from the comfort of your own desk
- Register once and dip in and out of the sessions you want to attend
- Half an hour, bite size sessions on the topics you most want to hear about
- Dedicated sessions for IT Professionals and Developers.
- Ask the experts questions throughout the three days
- 50 free MVA points for anyone that attends
- Plus the opportunity to win loads of cool prizes!
Day One: Visual Studio 2012 - 24th April
Dedicated to developers and testers, learn more about Visual Studio 2012 ‘the tool for developing for Windows 8’ and hear from our experts and ALM Partners. We will cover Agile development with Team Foundation Server 2012, testing capabilities of VS and the new Team Foundation Service. We also welcome your views on what additional development content you would like us to include. We will update the agenda nearer the time, so you can choose which sessions are of most interest to you. Link to the survey to have your say.
Day Two and Day Three - 25th & 26th April
Two whole days solely devoted to IT Professionals, but there’s a twist; we want your help to set the agenda. Complete our short survey and choose the topics, speakers and content that you want to learn more about, so you get the most out of your time with us.
Register for your place now, and we’ll confirm the agenda in a couple of weeks-time based on the results of our survey. Once we’ve confirmed the agenda, you can then choose to attend the sessions that are of most interest to you.
http://www.microsoft.com/click/services/Redirect2.ashx?CR_CC=200178703&CR_EAC=300073380&CR_ID=%%IndWWMDB Individual ID%%
I'm going to try and keep to my new years resolution of one blog article per month to complement the articles the rest of the team are regularly writing. I do need your help, if you don't see an article by me in a month, send me an tweet, ask me where it is :)
Thanks for reading, we look forward to seeing you online at Tech.Days in April
Dan
@danpi
Guest Post by Rob Fraser, Cloud Services CTO, Microsoft Ltd
A new study from Forrester, commissioned by Microsoft Ltd, has found that cloud computing is empowering ‘change agents’ from all corners of an organisation to deliver business innovation and drive positive business change.
Essentially, it shows that where there are certain types of people who are willing to push boundaries and innovate within their organisation, with applications and services delivered via the cloud acting as catalysts for positive change.
You might expect then that the study would reveal a sort of ‘wild west’ of IT, with un-sanctioned projects popping up all over the place and creating an unmanageable IT environment, what is often referred to as shadow IT. But the reality is quite the opposite. It shows that the most successful cloud deployments are those with strong alignment between business and IT and that all projects from those interviewed had engagement from IT.
This is clearly good news to ensure IT environments remain secure and adopt the correct rigour towards governance and privacy. But Forrester did make some bold recommendations to IT as cloud adoption becomes more widespread.
IT to evolve
The study suggests that IT departments could consider becoming ‘cloud brokers’, offering a marketplace of services and applications which the business can call on to innovate and deliver value (see how Microsoft is supporting this at www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com)
Skills to change
Forrester suggests that cloud computing is accelerating the shift in skills requirements for the IT function from technology to business management. One of the study contributors, the head of IT at a UK University said: “We will have to start having people with different skills. 80% of the [IT] department today consists of technical resources, 20% is business. We will shift to more business management skills when managing multiple [cloud] services.”
Maintain the close alignment between IT and business
Independent of the origin or executive sponsorship of a cloud project, successful initiatives require strong collaboration between business and IT. Forrester states that “The vision of ‘swiping a credit card’ and getting a complete, functional cloud solution is a fairy tale in most cases.”
Ultimately, we think that cloud computing will provide the impetus for IT leaders to become agents of change within their organisations and fulfil a long-promised role. IT is sometimes said to be 80 per cent focused on ‘keeping the lights on’ – the day-to-day operations that keep essential services up and running. However, the cloud means IT can start to find a way forward to providing new capabilities, adding new value and working with the business to create new offerings.
What do you think? Has cloud driven innovation in your organisation and how have you kept control over shadow IT deployments? Please share your examples with us or join the discussion at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Cloud-Computing-Microsoft-UK-3837607/about
To read the full report, visit www.microsoft.co.uk/changeagents
To celebrate the launch of Microsoft Office 365 in the UK we are holding a unique event taking place based on and around the specially created Route 365 bus. The 365 will travel through London for a day, playing host to a fascinating selection of speakers sharing their personal stories of how technology supports and improves their day to day lives.
Highlights include Tess Daly, Will Greenwood and Sally Whittle all giving their personal accounts of how technology is enhancing their working and personal lives. Members of the public are invited to join the bus and get involved both online and in the real world, to ask them about their experience. Attendees and members of the public will be joined by artists, musicians and entertainers as the bus moves through London, with the whole experience being streamed live at http://catchthe365.com
The entire journey is being used to show how Office 365, including OneNote, PowerPoint, Excel and Word allows you to work and stay connected, even while you are on the move.
Far be it for us to succumb to hype and bombast when we're launching a new product such as Office 365. However, when we challenged ourselves to discover all the truly unexpected ways that people weave Office into their daily lives, we couldn't have expected such a variety of imaginative solutions to everyday problems. From using OneNote as a shopping list to sticking Excel to the fridge door as the family diary, Office has become part of the fabric of modern life. So we set ourselves the challenge of seeing just how far we can push Office 365, with connectivity and the cloud built right in.
We said we wanted to dream up a way that would show people the real power of Office. That's why today, we're asking thousands of people to Catch the 365. The Route 365 is a specially kitted out Routemaster bus that's travelling the streets of London (you can follow its journey live here: http://catchthe365.com). On this bus, we've invited special guests to give highly personal presentations on something that's close to their hearts, either in their working life or personal life or both. Microsoft Ambassador, Former British Lion, Rugby World Cup Winner and Sky Sports analyst, Will Greenwood has agreed to step onto the Route 365 to talk about how he uses mobile technologies and software such as Word and Excel to stay on top of his busy work schedule as a rugby analyst and journalist, especially during events like the British & Irish Lions tour, which kicks off this summer.
Founder of Tots 100 and the Mum and Dad Blogger awards, Sally Whittle will use PowerPoint to share her experience of running a successful business while bringing up children.
Bridget MacPherson, of the Phoenix School in Leicestershire will share her passionate position on change in education. And Juliette McMullen will give us her unexpected insights into bringing up toddlers with the help of OneNote and Excel. And to top it all off, Tess Daly has promised to become a surprise passenger, to talk about how everyday technologies have helped her build her media and business careers, whilst being a high-profile mum.
The speakers will be using the Ignite format for their talks, which means they will use PowerPoint to do a five-minute presentation, with 20 slides auto-forwarding every 15 seconds. If you've never watched an Ignite talk, this is worth seeing as it is a high-energy way to tell a personal story. And if you want to ask our speakers questions that they can answer live, online, please do so by tweeting your question using the hashtag #catchthe365
The entire bus-based experience will be streamed live, including musical moments and tablet art from Paul Kercal, to Catchthe365.com. But if you're in Central London, why not check out our live location using the Bing Map on the website and come down to try out the new Office and get involved with all the fun of the day. We will be taking over Leicester Square in central London from 12pm to 3pm today. We will also be running competitions throughout the day, so please check out the website or follow us on Twitter to find out how you could win yourself a copy of Office 365.
I'm the corporate vice president for the development team of Windows Azure in the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. I've worked on lots of products in twenty years at Microsoft with the unifying theme of building platforms and tools for developers to do great work. I love writing code! And I love working on a team where developing software and helping others build and deliver their own software is a core mission.
When Jason Zander came over last year I got a chance to put together a series of interview questions and grill him about Visual Studio 2012. At the time Jason was directing the Visual Studio team and since then he has gone on to head up Windows Azure.
In this interview we covered everything from key features to the process that the Visual Studio team take for software development and testing. I even asked those awkward questions around how do developers feedback to the development team and get noticed!
Here’s what happened!
If you would like to find more about what Jason Zander is up to you can take a look at his blog and follow him on Twitter.
And remember to take up our latest offer!
Microsoft is serious about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and the first sign of this in Windows server is when you try and add a role or feature..
If you opt for install Remote Desktop Services Installation and select Virtual Desktops as in my short screencast you can see that a lot of work has gone in to making this as simple as possible. However there is more to VDI in Windows Server 2012 than a good installation experience for example:
In this screencast I put all of the Pooled VDI virtual machines’ storage onto a highly available file server (this post shows you how I built that) and this is where my user profile disks are also stored so that no matter which physical host a user gets their pooled desktop from they will still get their own user settings.
I used a separate VM for each role in my remote desktop infrastructure, however if you elect for a quick setup then you can have all the roles on the one physical host from which the virtual desktops will run as well.
There’s a more details lab guide here, and you can easily navigate to other labs form here for a quick setup as well. Either way you’ll need an Evaluation Copy of Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8
In many of the screencast in this series I have moved a VM around my demo setup, however there has only been the one copy of it whether it was on a scale-out file server, in a cluster or both. In any production environment you would want to augment this with additional disaster recovery techniques including have a backup of the key virtual machines somewhere.
Replica in Windows Server 2012 is a partial answer to this. You setup a process to make an offline copy of a given virtual machine (VM) on another server and continually keep it updated. This replica VM can be updated over “UK speed” (don’t get me started!) broadband and you can also maintain up to 4 roiling snapshots enabling you to go back past a data error you may want to correct. This screencast shows you how to set it up ..
The replica is always off and it’s up to you under what conditions you invoke failover and of course you can script this in PowerShell with Start-VMFailover as well as all of the configuration for Replica I did in the screencast. The principal and replica can either be a cluster or an individual server. In my demo all the servers belong to the same domain but if that’s not the case then you can use CredSSP to set this up. One use of this is that hosters are planning to offer replica as a service so you’ll be able to set your critical VMs to be replicated (is that English?) over the internet into their data centres as a service. As I briefly mention in the screencast you can also set your replicated VM to preserve it’s network settings when you fail over to it in its new location,
The replica is always off and it’s up to you under what conditions you invoke failover and of course you can script this in PowerShell with Start-VMFailover as well as all of the configuration for Replica I did in the screencast.
The principal and replica can either be a cluster or an individual server.
In my demo all the servers belong to the same domain but if that’s not the case then you can use CredSSP to set this up. One use of this is that hosters are planning to offer replica as a service so you’ll be able to set your critical VMs to be replicated (is that English?) over the internet into their data centres as a service.
As I briefly mention in the screencast you can also set your replicated VM to preserve it’s network settings when you fail over to it in its new location,
Stephen Rose is the Sr Product Manager for the Windows Commercial team at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, WA. Before joining Microsoft, Stephen spent 15 years running his own IT consulting company. In his current role, he manages the Window technical content on the Springboard Series on TechNet, he oversees the Windows 7 and 8 Forums, is the editor for the Springboard Insider Newsletter, writes for Windows Team Blog, acts as the moderator for the Windows Virtual Roundtables and leads Springboard Series Tours in North and South America, as well as Europe and Asia.
You can follow the Springboard Series on TechNet via Twitter @MSSpringboard or on his personal feed @stephenlrose
Stephen Rose came over to Microsoft UK towards the end of last year and I had the opportunity to put him in the hot seat and ask him all about what he does, who he is and what he sees as most important to UK IT professionals. I got him to show me some of the gadgets he had on him along with the key things that he loves about Windows 8 for enterprise.
Here’s what Stephen had to say!
Last night we announced general availability of System Center 2012 SP1, it’s great, expansive product that is absolutely key to delivering your Private Cloud, Managing your Public cloud and managing the consumerisaiton of IT. You can get the trail VHDs at the bottom of this post or download the installers– go give it a try. We’re also announcing our System Center 2012 IT Camps schedule today too!
As System Center 2012 is such a large stable of technology I thought, rather than try to cover the expanse myself, I’d get some of our MVPs to write about some of their favourite features. These guys have been using SP1 for months, their thoughts, comments, expectations and experiences helping to form the SP1 update.
We’ll start with Patrick Lownds, MVP. You can find Patrick on twitter.
System Center Virtual Machine Manger 2012 (VMM 2012) introduced the concept of being able to deploy a bare metal host. This feature allows customers to order servers from their vendor of choice and simply plug in that server and automate the deployment of Hyper-V. The Hyper-V host could either be a standalone domain joined host or it could form or be part of an already formed cluster at a later stage. If you’re not familiar with the process, VMM 2012 leverages the baseboard management controller (BMC) to deploy an operating system image, which is contained in a VHD, together with any specific OEM drivers, that are contained in the VMM 2012 library, applies those drivers to the operating system image, enables Hyper-V, and then restarts the server. New in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 (VMM 2012 SP1) is the ability to do deep discovery of that bare metal host. This process boots the server to perform an inventory of the hardware, using a WinPE image. Once the information is collected the server shuts down and provides VMM 2012 SP1 with information about that host i.e. processor, memory and network interface cards. This provides VMM 2012 SP1 with a greater insight into the hardware and allows you to configure in advance the more complex aspects of Virtual Machine Manager. For example, you could configure the use of DHCP or the use of an IP address from a pool of addresses managed by VMM, for each of the network interfaces detected, prior to deploying Hyper-V.
System Center Virtual Machine Manger 2012 (VMM 2012) introduced the concept of being able to deploy a bare metal host. This feature allows customers to order servers from their vendor of choice and simply plug in that server and automate the deployment of Hyper-V. The Hyper-V host could either be a standalone domain joined host or it could form or be part of an already formed cluster at a later stage.
If you’re not familiar with the process, VMM 2012 leverages the baseboard management controller (BMC) to deploy an operating system image, which is contained in a VHD, together with any specific OEM drivers, that are contained in the VMM 2012 library, applies those drivers to the operating system image, enables Hyper-V, and then restarts the server.
New in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 (VMM 2012 SP1) is the ability to do deep discovery of that bare metal host. This process boots the server to perform an inventory of the hardware, using a WinPE image. Once the information is collected the server shuts down and provides VMM 2012 SP1 with information about that host i.e. processor, memory and network interface cards.
This provides VMM 2012 SP1 with a greater insight into the hardware and allows you to configure in advance the more complex aspects of Virtual Machine Manager. For example, you could configure the use of DHCP or the use of an IP address from a pool of addresses managed by VMM, for each of the network interfaces detected, prior to deploying Hyper-V.
Next up is Graham Davies, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, you can find Graham’s blog, System Center Solutions here.
As SCOM 2007 R2 gave way to SCOM 2012, we saw the Avicode .Net monitoring capability evolving into Application Performance Monitoring (APM). In SCOM 2012 this was initially focused on WCF based web applications although some flexibility in what was discovered was available by configuring the relevant overrides. SCOM 2012 SP1 has seen a huge jump forward in functionality not only in terms of what can now be discovered and monitored out of the box but also in terms of integration with Team Foundation Server (TFS). So what exactly does SCOM 2012 SP1 bring to the table: The ability to monitor Windows Services, not just IIS-hosted applications. Automatic Discovery of ASP.NET MVC3 and MVC4 Applications. The ability to monitor SharePoint web front-end components. Integration of Operations Manager and TFS You can configure Operations Manager to allow APM alerts to generate and synchronise with TFS work items and APM exception events can be saved in IntelliTrace file format directly from Application Diagnostics enabling Developers to stay within their familiar environment to examine the complete exception call stack. So SCOM 2012 SP1 both extends APM functionality improves the workflow between development and IT operations teams, improving efficiency and reducing the mean time to recovery for the problems detected by APM. .Net Application Performance Monitoring Template Integrating Operations Manager with Development Process
As SCOM 2007 R2 gave way to SCOM 2012, we saw the Avicode .Net monitoring capability evolving into Application Performance Monitoring (APM). In SCOM 2012 this was initially focused on WCF based web applications although some flexibility in what was discovered was available by configuring the relevant overrides.
SCOM 2012 SP1 has seen a huge jump forward in functionality not only in terms of what can now be discovered and monitored out of the box but also in terms of integration with Team Foundation Server (TFS). So what exactly does SCOM 2012 SP1 bring to the table:
You can configure Operations Manager to allow APM alerts to generate and synchronise with TFS work items and APM exception events can be saved in IntelliTrace file format directly from Application Diagnostics enabling Developers to stay within their familiar environment to examine the complete exception call stack.
So SCOM 2012 SP1 both extends APM functionality improves the workflow between development and IT operations teams, improving efficiency and reducing the mean time to recovery for the problems detected by APM.
.Net Application Performance Monitoring Template
Integrating Operations Manager with Development Process
Finally in this post Raphael Perez, Configuration Manager MVP , you can find him on his System Center blog
Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows RT, iPhones, Androids, Linux/Unix, Mac? How can we manage them? Application Virtualization, PowerShell, Mobility, Cloud, VDI, Security, Bring your Own Device (BYOD)? How can we integrate it? These are only few of many questions business need answer and it is simple: Configuration Manager 2012. The Service Pack 1 of Configuration Manager brings the world together, putting in a single console for management of Microsoft and non-Microsoft systems as well as a Microsoft Cloud and any device connected to it. SP1 also support Windows to GO USB devices, roaming profiles, folder redirection, intelligent mobile network detection, it means that SP1 will detect mobile networks (3G/4G) to prevent software deployment when data charges may apply, and many other features. As many other Microsoft systems, SP1 gives you support for PowerShell, it means that the administrator does not need to connect to the Configuration Manager console to perform the day-to-day tasks.
Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows RT, iPhones, Androids, Linux/Unix, Mac? How can we manage them? Application Virtualization, PowerShell, Mobility, Cloud, VDI, Security, Bring your Own Device (BYOD)? How can we integrate it?
These are only few of many questions business need answer and it is simple: Configuration Manager 2012.
The Service Pack 1 of Configuration Manager brings the world together, putting in a single console for management of Microsoft and non-Microsoft systems as well as a Microsoft Cloud and any device connected to it.
SP1 also support Windows to GO USB devices, roaming profiles, folder redirection, intelligent mobile network detection, it means that SP1 will detect mobile networks (3G/4G) to prevent software deployment when data charges may apply, and many other features.
As many other Microsoft systems, SP1 gives you support for PowerShell, it means that the administrator does not need to connect to the Configuration Manager console to perform the day-to-day tasks.
We’ll hear more from the UK and Irelands MVPs here soon! Go give the Evaluation’s a try, we’ve already done most of the installation work for you! and don’t forget to sign up for our IT Camp events to learn more.
System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 - Configuration Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Service Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Service Manager (Data Warehouse) – Evaluation (VHD)
System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Operations Manager – Evaluation (VHD)
System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Orchestrator – Evaluation (VHD)
System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Data Protection Manager – Evaluation (VHD)