My Microsoft Teched Australia 2013 speaking sessions
This year I will be presenting 4 ILL sessions at TechEd Australia, but you can also find me at the Microsoft Showcase : Datacenter and at the Insight booth in the Exhibition Centre.
Take time to visit Insight booth and learn about what we can do to help your business and to enter on a draw to win a Microsoft Surface or a signed copy of my book: System Center 2012 VMM.
My Sessions:
| AZR-I201
Wednesday 11:15 – 12:45 |
Getting to Know Windows Azure IaaS, Part 1
Whether you build apps or support the infrastructure that runs the apps, the cloud can be a really big place. For some, it’s a natural evolution for their application and infrastructure to embrace the power and scale of the cloud. For others, it’s a journey that has to begin with a single step. Windows Azure provides that first step with a scalable, flexible platform for deploying your applications your way. With our Infrastructure as a Service platform (IaaS) called Windows Azure Virtual Machines, you get the flexibility to choose between Windows and Linux with full control over the operating system configuration and installed software, matched with the portability of Hyper-V disk images. Windows Azure Virtual Machines provide the perfect environment for meeting all of your Infrastructure-as-a-Service needs. To learn more about our Infrastructure as a Service platform, we invite all developers and IT professionals to join Matt Hester as he introduces you to the Microsoft Cloud Platform, dives deep into Windows Azure Virtual Machines, and helps walk you through a hands-on demonstration of the power of IaaS on the Windows Azure platform. This is part 1 of 2. Please plan on attending both WAD-IL201 and WAD-IL202 to complete the lab. The lab requires you to connect to the Windows Azure Portal, where you will provision three separate virtual machines in the cloud and configure them each via a Remote Desktop client connection. All participants need to have access for Windows Azure prior to the lab. You can register for a FREE 90-day trial of the Windows Azure prior to the lab. You can sign up for your FREE trial here: http://aka.ms/IaasBootCamp. |
| AZR-I202
Wednesday |
Getting to Know Windows Azure IaaS, Part 2
Whether you build apps or support the infrastructure that runs the apps, the cloud can be a really big place. For some, it’s a natural evolution for their application and infrastructure to embrace the power and scale of the cloud. For others, it’s a journey that has to begin with a single step. Windows Azure provides that first step with a scalable, flexible platform for deploying your applications your way. With our Infrastructure as a Service platform (IaaS) called Windows Azure Virtual Machines, you get the flexibility to choose between Windows and Linux with full control over the operating system configuration and installed software, matched with the portability of Hyper-V disk images. Windows Azure Virtual Machines provide the perfect environment for meeting all of your Infrastructure-as-a-Service needs. To learn more about our Infrastructure as a Service platform, we invite all developers and IT professionals to join Matt Hester as he introduces you to the Microsoft Cloud Platform, dives deep into Windows Azure Virtual Machines, and helps walk you through a hands-on demonstration of the power of IaaS on the Windows Azure platform. This is part 2 of 2. In order to attend this session you need to attend WAD-IL201 first. The lab requires you to connect to the Windows Azure Portal, where you will provision three separate virtual machines in the cloud and configure them each via a Remote Desktop client connection. All participants need to have access for Windows Azure prior to the lab. You can register for a FREE 90-day trial of the Windows Azure prior to the lab. You can sign up for your FREE trial here: http://aka.ms/IaasBootCamp. |
| MDC-I315
Friday |
Microsoft System Center 2012 – Orchestrator: Overview and Automation of IT Process
This lab guides you through several process automation examples, providing hands-on experience with the concepts explained in the course manual and provides real-world context. In this exercise, you are introduced to the interfaces available with Orchestrator. Create a Runbook to perform actions such as working with File Management Objects, monitor a folder for the accumulation of more than 5 log files, move the files to an archive folder and log an event for each file archive operation, using the Runbook Tester Console to Validate Runbooks. This lab also covers the creation of a Runbook to perform the actions, such as automate recovery of a Windows Service based on alert detection from a unit monitor in System Center Operations Manager to address the intermittent Windows service failures. It also highlights advanced concepts and techniques that can be employed when creating runbooks in Orchestrator. |
| MDC-I321
Thursday |
Microsoft System Center 2012: Network Virtualization
This lab provides a step-by-step description for how to build, configure and implement Hyper-V Network Virtualization using Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1. You create a multi-tenant virtual network on shared physical network including multiple subnets and virtual routes using the NVGRE configuration. |
What’s New in 2012 R2: Why is it so important for IT Pros to understand how modern applications are built
A great post by Microsoft Brad Anderson covering :
- Windows Azure Pack and it ability to build an application once and then deploy and operate it in any Microsoft Cloud – private, hosted or public.
- Windows Azure Service Bus, integrated experience as a part of the Windows Azure Pack, with the goal of bringing a self-service tenant experience that is consistent with the one that currently exists in Windows Azure.
- and lots of scenarios:
- Scenario 1: Application Messaging Patterns with Service Bus
- Scenario 2: Manage Messaging Entities Across Clouds
- Scenario 3: Hosting Alternatives with Service Bus
To read the blog series, follow http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/08/21/what-s-new-in-2012-r2-enabling-modern-apps-with-the-windows-azure-pack.aspx
Next Steps
- Service Bus 1.1 for Windows Server
Learn more about Service Bus features, components, and functionality in this deep technical overview on MSDN.
- Service Bus homepage
Check out the video tutorials, downloads, and other info on the Windows Azure site.
- AMQP 1.0 Support in Windows Azure Service Bus
Additional information on how to build a cross-platform, hybrid application using an open standard protocol.
- Service Bus Forums
rad’s
Microsoft announced date for Windows 8.1 RTM
Microsoft announced that Windows 8.1 will be available to consumers and businesses worldwide on October 18, 2013. At 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand(4:00am October 17th in Redmond)
I’m excited to announce that, on the same day, eligible customers will be able to download Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2, as well as the latest update to Windows Intune! .
Keep learning about the 2012 R2 releases via our “What’s New in 2012 R2” series, and also download the preview bits if you haven’t already done it.
Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 will begin rolling out worldwide as a free update for consumers with Windows 8 or Windows RT devices through the Windows Store. Windows 8.1 will also be available at retail and on new devices starting on October 18th by market. So mark your calendars!
More info:
Networking enhancements in the Windows 2012 R2 based on customer feedbacks
With Server 2012 and VMM 2012 SP1, Microsoft enabled new foundational scenarios from Continuous Availability (with in-box NIC Teaming) to building blocks for Software Defined Networking (with the extensible Hyper-V Virtual Switch and Hyper-V Network Virtualization [HNV]) to IP Address Management (IPAM).
Now with Server and VMM 2012R2, Microsoft is targeting the reduction of networking Capital Expenditures (CapEx), by enabling customers to maximize utilization of their existing resources and reduce the need for specialized hardware over time.
Microsoft got the feedback from customers advising that they want choice and flexibility in both the networking vendors they use and the cloud in which their workloads run. They need the ability to plug and play between vendors without having to change management software, processes, or knowledge, plus the ability to deploy any workloads across any cloud provider.
The other feedback received by Microsoft is that network automation is key. Automation is required across the Service Provider’s network, the tenant’s network, and network infrastructure services (load balancing, firewall, etc.).
As you can see in the figure below, the feedback is giving notably results to the customers with many features that further enhance Microsoft end-to-end capabilities:
Recommended articles:
IaaS Innovations in Windows 2012R2
To deliver smooth end-to-end scenarios in the Windows Server 2012 R2 release, Microsoft is focusing on two important aspects of delivering IaaS:
- Continuing to drive innovation into the infrastructure itself to ensure network, compute, and storage are not only low-cost, but also easy to operate through rich integration with System Center.
- Delivering a delightful experience for the IaaS and customer of the Service Provider (tenant administrators) using IaaS.
Microsoft is targeting specifically Service Providers and enterprises that want to act as Service Providers for their users.
To Download Windows 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/dn205295.aspx?CR_CC=200142594
To read Microsoft published IaaS articles :
Can’t access a resource on a failover cluster : Logon Failure: The target account name is incorrect
If you a running a Windows 2012 failover cluster and you tried to access the resource by using a resource name from a Windows XP-based or Windows Server 2003 computer, you will receive the following error message:find the following issue:
is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Logon Failure: The target account name is incorrect
This issue occurs because the rc4-hmac keys on the Domain Controller and the cluster side for the virtual computer object (VCO) are different. The ticket decryption fails when the ticket is encrypted by using the rc4-hmac encryption. Additionally, the cluster becomes unavailable for any computer that uses the rc4-hmac keys.
Note: This applies to Windows 8 and Windows 2012 Fail over cluster and as per Microsoft advise it can impact Hyper-V deployments where the CNO password gets out of sync and you can no longer do Live Migrations.
So this should be proactively deployed
The hotfix is available here: http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=2838043&kbln=en-us
Looking for MS Recommended hotfixes and updates for Server 2012 Failover Clusters?
Microsoft published an article that documents the hotfixes that are currently available for Windows Server 2012-based Failover Clusters.
Failover Clustering allows multiple servers to provide high availability of server roles. Failover Clustering is often used for File Services, Virtual Machines, Database Applications, and Mail Applications.
The recommended hotfixes and updates for Windows Server 2012-based Failover Clusters : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2784261
Update to improve cloud service provider resiliency in Windows Server 2012
Microsoft released an update to improve the cloud service provider in Windows 2012
Note : The KB2870270 roll-up hotfix replaces KB2848344. This hotfix contains the fix for Trim as well as ODX. It is no longer necessary to disable Trim or ODX with this fix applied
The following issues are also resolved with this update:
– An Windows 2012 Hyper-V Cluster that uses CSV is moved or is toggled between directed access and redirected access when the performance monitor is running. In this situation, the performance counters no longer function.
– An Windows 2012 Hyper-V Cluster and the Virtual Machines VHD files are stored on a scale-out file share and the server is under a heavy load. In this scenario, the server may crash, and you may receive a Stop error message that resembles: STOP: 0x000000C2 (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) – Notes: The parameters in the Stop error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer and not all “Stop 0x000000C2” errors are caused by this issue.
– When you use the Windows thin provisioning feature on a Windows Server 2012-based computer, you experience the same I/O delays or I/O stalls that occur during the volume-unmounting process in NTF volumes.
Plus the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles are resolved:
Resource outage when moving physical disc when using DPM to backup an HyperV Cluster.
Microsoft just released a critical fix for hyper cluster that have been backed up by System Center DPM
“Physical Disk resource move during the backup of a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) may cause resource outage”.
If you have configured a Windows Server 2012-based Hyper-V failover cluster CSV and your backup software perform the backup by using snapshots and the Physical Disk resource is moved to another node in the cluster, the Physical Disk resource may fail to come online if the backup of the CSV is in progress. As a result, virtual machines that rely on the CSV may crash.
A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.
More info :http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2869923
- Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
- Windows Server 2012 Essentials
- Windows Server 2012 Foundation
- Windows Server 2012 Standard
Insight selected as a 2013 Microsoft Australia Partner Awards (MAPA) finalist
Insight has been selected as a 2013 Microsoft Australia Partner Awards (MAPA) finalist, for Software Asset Management (SAM) Partner of the Year under the title of Software Asset Management .
Insight, a worldwide leading provider of software and experts in license management solutions, helps organisations fully realise the value of their software investments. Through our SAM services, we can help you critically assess your entire software environment, providing you with reliable counts of licenses owned and licenses utilised, and can offer strategies for embracing best practices and technologies for reducing total cost of ownership and ongoing software compliance.
“Our certified, licensed professionals partner with clients using a consultative approach. By analysing data and internal processes, these experts focus on diagnosing the problem and then implementing solutions and best practices that create continuous improvements.”
For more information about Software Asset Management visit http://au.insight.com/en-au/solutions/software-asset-management
Recommended Books
System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Cookbook
Cloudtidings.com 