This is my presentation from TechCamp 2014 where I showed attendees how to build the Hyper-V on SMB 3.0 storage known as a Scale-Out File Server (SOFS) based on JBODs/Storage Spaces, Windows Server 2012 R2 (WS2012 R2) Failover Clustering, and SMB 3.0 networking.
Month: June 2014
TechCamp 2014 Presentation – Hybrid Cloud Using Microsoft Azure
This presentation was an introduction for IT pros to deploying hybrid cloud solutions based on Microsoft Azure, in conjunction with on-premises Hyper-V / System Center deployments. Here’s the deck that I presented … and yes … there are LOTS of slides because there is constantly new stuff in Azure.
Technorati Tags: Azure,Hybrid Cloud,Cloud Computing,Cloud,Hyper-V,Windows Server 2012 R2,System Center,Storage,Networking
The Hyper-V Amigos Podcast – The Amigos Reunite
You might have heard of “The Hyper-V Amigos” podcast – this is something that has a history that runs back quite a while with a number of us European Hyper-V MVPs. Carsten (Rachfahl) and Didier (Van Hoye) asked myself and Hans Vredevoort to join them in their latest show to talk about TechEd North America 2014.
Attending TechEd Europe Roundtable – Have You Got Feedback/Ideas?
Assuming that the bronchitis and tonsillitis that I was diagnosed with at 1:15 am this morning clears up, I will be attending the TechEd Europe roundtable meeting in Barcelona on Monday/Tuesday. The Microsoft folks in attendance are some of the planners of this massive event. My role: give feedback and discuss any ideas at the table.
Here’s your opportunity:
Do you have any feedback or ideas that you’d like me to bring to the table for TechEd Europe 2014? If so, post a comment below.
EDIT: Please keep the comments relevant to the TechEd event itself.
Microsoft News Summary-4 June 2014
A few bits and pieces from the last 24-48 hours:
- Steve Ballmer outbid Ellison, Oprah, and David Geffen to buy an NBA team for $2billion: He’s all in on the skyhook shot now. He’s not the first ex-Softie to buy a franchise. MSFT founder Paul Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks (*cough* *spit*) and the Portland Trailblazers NBA team. Both teams are in different divisions in the same conference. I can imagine what the bets will be like in some private room in Bellevue, WA or somewhere nearby.
- Step-by-Step: Configure VNet to VNet Connectivity in Azure: Learn how to implement the new Azure feature to connect two virtual networks.
- Volume licensing or SPLA? Should you use SPLA or volume licensing?
- Adding more external IP´s to your WAP NVGRE VM´s: Use PowerShell to add more public IP addresses to your SDN VMs
- Failing KB2919355 Update for Windows 8.1: How to force this update to install.
- Azure Guest OS Family 1 Retirement Information: W2008 images will be retired on September 2, 2014. There is no "upgrade"; you have to migrate your services to newer guest OSs.
- From Inside the Cloud: Who has access to your data within Office 365? Answering a question about security, procedure and compliance.
- Desktop virtualization deployment overview: Start of a 4-part series discussing hybrid Remote Desktop Services (RDS).
My New Work Laptop – A Toshiba KIRAbook Ultrabook
My work laptop for the last 3 years has been a modified HP EliteBook 8740w. It’s usefulness shrank pretty quickly as System Center grew bigger and my Hyper-V demos started to require more and more machines, 10 Gbps networking and JBODs. A lab has been built and I routinely access it remotely – and I’ve been known to record some demos using Camtasia when Internet access is dodgy.
An opportunity arose to replace my work laptop – I could move from “the best” to an Ultrabook. This would kill a few birds with one stone:
- Use a brand of machine in work presentations that my employers actually distribute (Toshiba)
- Use a lighter machine
- Donate “the beast” to the lap where it can be reused as a host, maybe as an NVGRE gateway host.
We ordered in some Toshiba KIRAbooks, Toshiba’s premium consumer ultrabook. This is a mad laptop; i7-4550U, 8 GB RAMM, 256 GB SSD, and …. a screen running at 2560 x 1440. It’s unusable without Windows 8.1 screen scaling.
First impressions: Very nice (touch) display. Nice functional build. It looks nice on the desk. Good keyboard. Nice big mouse pad. Slim. Obviously lighter than “the beast”. It has 3 x USB, 1 x SD, and 1 x full sized HDMI. Battery is listed at 9.16 hours (probably by using the custom ECO power profile). It came with Windows 8.1 Pro with the April 2014 update. There is no stylus. And yes, I had to uninstall some crapware from MuckAfee, Spotify, and others. I will have to get USB/VGA and RJ45 dongles (I already use those for my personal Lenovo Yoga).
Price-wise, this seems to come in at $1,699,99 on Amazon.com. It’s just started shipping in Europe, and I didn’t see it on Amazon UK or Germany. AFAIK, Toshiba are selling to consumers via exclusive retailers.
I’ll write up a bit more when I have had time to work with it.
Technorati Tags: Windows 8.1,Hardware
Microsoft News Summary-3 June 2014
It was a bank (national) holiday weekend here in Ireland. I was also attending and speaking at E2EVC in Brussels, where I talked about designing and building Hyper-V over SMB 3.0 storage – that seemed to go down well to a full room.
Here’s a break down of the news from a slow weekend:
- 2012R2 iSCSI Target Settings for Configuring a Specific Network: A useful way to control which NIC the iSCSI target uses for iSCSI traffic.
- Automatic Start and Stop Actions for Hyper-V Virtual Machines: My post on Petri IT Knowledgebase
- 300 Level SPLA Licensing: Licensing scenarios that can literally drive you NUTS because if interpreted wrong, it can cost you and your company money.
- What’s new in Office 365 – May 2014: May has brought a slew of updates to both mobile apps, like OneNote and Lync, and web experiences, like optimizations for OneDrive for business, Office 365 admin experience, and developer APIs.