VMM | Aidan Finn, IT Pro

Microsoft News – 14 January 2015

Here’s the Microsoft updates from the last few days.

Windows Server

Advances in Active Directory since Windows Server 2003: Features that people have been asking for since 2003 … some have been there since Windows Server 2008!

System Center

Windows Azure Pack and it’s licensing: A post by MSFT employee (and co-author on the last Hyper-V book), Michel Luescher.
Microsoft Updating Intune and SCCM with an Eye Toward Windows 10: Mobility seems to be the focus.
Step-By-Step: Building A System Center Virtual Machine Manager Lab Part 1: Start to learn VMM
SCOM – New Windows Server OS Management Pack Available – BUT BEWARE!: A warning from Kevin Greene about a new (and recently pulled) update to the Windows Server OS management pack.

Azure

Azure Data Center Migration just got easier: It’s still a hack, so it’s not as simple as it should be.
AzCopy – Introducing synchronous copy and customized content type: AzCopy 3.1.0 and 4.1.0-Preview are now released.
Microsoft Azure Reaches New Industry-Leading Cloud Compliance Milestones: Compliance stuff.
Migrate Linux VMs to Azure with Migration Accelerator: Microsoft announced support for the migration of Linux physical and virtual machines to Azure.

Office 365

What’s new – December 2014: Quite a few things, despite the end of year holidays.

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2015,Active Directory,Windows Server 2003,WAP,System Center,Intune,Configuration Manager,VMM,Private Cloud,Cloud,Cloud Computing,Operations Manager,Azure,Hybrid Cloud,Linux,Office 365

Microsoft News – 9 January 2015

3 big announcements from Azure last night plus a useful Hyper-V reporting script feature today.

Hyper-V

Hyper-V Reporting Script: A post by Ben Armstrong promoting a very useful script by Hyper-V MVP Serhat AKINCI

System Center

Hyper-V NVGRE Gateway Toolkit: An alternative way to deploy Hyper-V NVGRE gateways
Have a say on the future of System Center: A survey on System Center.
Azure Pack Tenant portal extensibilities – Part 1: This series of posts is going to talk about a certain set of extensibilities that Microsoft enabled for Azure pack to support different reseller-type functionalities.

Azure

Azure Storage to start disabling SSL 3.0 on February 20th, 2015: Protecting against the SSL 3.0 vulnerability. You need TLS 1.0 or higher to continue.
Azure is now bigger, faster, more open, and more secure: Azure Key Vault helps customers safeguard and control keys and secrets using HSMs in the cloud, with ease and at cloud-scale. Furthermore, customers can deploy an encrypted Virtual Machine with CloudLink SecureVM with the master keys in Key Vault. The "Goliath" G-series VMs have gone GA. And an image of a Docker-enabled Ubuntu VM is in the Marketplace.
Largest VM in the Cloud: G-series sizes provide the most memory, the highest processing power and the largest amount of local SSD of any Virtual Machine size currently available in the public cloud.
Introducing Docker in Microsoft Azure Marketplace: Microsoft announced the first Ubuntu image fully integrated with the Docker engine available for fast deployment from the Microsoft Azure marketplace.

Security

Evolving Microsoft’s Advance Notification Service in 2015: We’re getting less information. Is this a good or a bad thing? I don’t know yet.

Technorati Tags: Hyper-V,Windows Server 2012 R2,Virtualisation,Networking,System Center,VMM,Cloud,Hybrid Cloud,Private Cloud,Azure,Storage,Security

Microsoft News Summary – 9 September 2014

It’s a slow day, so here’s your updates for today. I think the Azure Automation post should be useful – I’ll sure be ~~ripping it off~~ inspired by it for future demos Smile

Hyper-V

Using Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode: An article by me on Petri.com
Hyper-V Networking NVGRE do’s and don’ts: This post will explain the do’s and don’ts of Hyper-V Network virtualization. Especially on the topic where we want to bring our next solution / example to Microsoft Azure Pack and / or System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Azure

11 Sample Runbooks to Help You Build Your Own: This is where I struggled with Orchestrator, mainly because I don’t have a real world environment to inspire me. Here’s some samples to get you going with Azure Automation.
Managing Concurrency in Microsoft Azure Storage: How Azure storage handles multiple users viewing and updating data simultaneously.
Networking 101 for Disaster Recovery to Microsoft Azure using Site Recovery: Getting the networking requirements right is a critical piece in ensuring Disaster Recovery (using ASR) readiness of your business critical workloads.

Licensing

Predicting the future…: A guesswork on where SPLA will go in the future

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2012 R2,Hyper-V,Networking,System Center,VMM,Azure,PowerShell,Scripting,Storage,DR,Licensing

Microsoft News Summary – 8 September 2014

It’s been 5 days since my last of these updates – events, meetings and travel take their toll!

Below you will see an announcement on how to deploy DPM in Azure to backup stuff from within Azure VMs (not a host level backup). Please note that this is licensed using on-premises SysCtr SML licenses and cloud management licensing is not the same as on-premises licensing. A SysCtr Datacenter SML covers 8 VMs in the cloud, so you might need lots more SysCtr licensing to manage Azure.

Microsoft has also launched a Migration Accelerator for Azure based on the InMage acquisition. Right now, the preview is limited to the USA. That’s pretty dumb; anyone who knows MSFT virtualization knows that Europe is the place to be.

Oh – the MSFT versus FBI Irish data centre case rumbles on. It’s clear that the motivations of the US government were not speed (the Irish government would have been quick to help) but are more along the lines of “Mine! MINE! MINE!!!! MY PRECIOUSSSSS!”.

Windows Server

What is Hyper-Convergence? A post by me on Petri.com
5 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade To Windows Server 2012 R2: A post by me on Petri.com

SCVMM

Support Tip – Updating DHCP agents after applying VMM 2012 R2 Update Rollup 3: With the release System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager Update Rollup 3 (VMM 2012 R2 UR3) the DHCP agent was updated. The most important fix in this agent is the mitigation of an issue that can cause delays of up to 45 seconds in acquiring an IP address when using private networks.

Azure

Modernizing Your Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud – Step-by-Step: Building Microsoft Azure Virtual Networks (Part 14): A video on managing deploying networks in Azure.
XenDesktop 7.5 Windows Azure Pack Gallery Image Tech Preview: The Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 Windows Azure Pack Gallery Image enables rapid and repeatable XenDesktop deployments. The automation capabilities of Windows Azure Pack are leveraged to greatly reduce administrator involvement with XenDesktop configurations.
Azure IaaS workload protection using Data Protection Manager: Deploy DPM in Azure to protect your Azure VMs, and if you want, stream that data to Azure online backup.
Introducing Microsoft Migration Accelerator: Spawned from the technology of our InMage acquisition the MA is designed to seamlessly migrate physical, VMware, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Hyper-V workloads into Azure.
Azure Automation: Reliable, Fault-Tolerant Runbook Execution Using Checkpoints: As an Azure Automation runbook author you want to create runbooks that execute reliably in the face of unexpected issues like errors, exceptions, network issues, and crashes. Azure Automation helps you with this.
Networking Infrastructure Setup for Microsoft Azure as a Disaster Recovery Site: This post explains how to setup the required networking infrastructure with the help of an example.
MSFT certification (70-533): Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions (IaaS)
Study Guide for 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions: Curated by Marius Sandbu.

Office 365

Microsoft Promo Provides Support for Office 365 Migrations: Microsoft has kicked off a limited-time Office 356 promotional offer this month, but it’s just for new customers. The deal extends from Sept. 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 for new customers only that purchase 150 "seats," or more, of various Office 365 licenses.
Toshiba to bring €139 Windows 8.1 tablet to market in Q4: This includes Office 365 Personal with 1 TB One Drive and offers license for 1 Tablet + 1 PC/Mac for 1 year. And other stuff. As was joked in the office today: buy Office 365 and get a tablet.
Questions to ask your cloud provider: According to Microsoft

Hardware

Intel releases first Core M processors for business-class convertible PCs: Broadwell means thinner, lighter devices with no moving parts (fans). Devices could be as thin as 9mm!

Legal

(Irish) Government’s ‘serious concern’ over US order on Microsoft: The Irish Government has expressed serious concern about a US court order for Microsoft to hand over emails held on servers in Ireland to US prosecutors, saying it would create significant legal uncertainty about data protection in Europe.

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2012 R2,System Center,VMM,Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,Citrix,DPM,Backup,DR,PowerShell,Scripting,O365

Microsoft News Summary – 20 August 2014

The headline news from yesterday is that Steve Ballmer has resigned his new position from the Microsoft board to focus on “teaching” and his duties as the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball franchise. He’s still the largest independent owner of MSFT stock.

Microsoft

Former Microsoft CEO Ballmer steps down from the board: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is stepping down from his current role as Microsoft board member.
Gartner names Microsoft a leader in Four Magic Quadrants: Microsoft is currently positioned as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrants for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, x86 Server Virtualization, Enterprise Application Platform as a Service and Public Cloud Storage Services.

Virtual Machine Manager

VMM 2012 Self-Service users cannot open a console session to a virtual machine: When you try to connect to the console session of a virtual machine (VM) that is running in Windows Server 2012 by using Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager or Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager Service Pack 1 (SP1), the connection fails, and you receive the following error message – Virtual Machine Manager lost the connection to the virtual machine for one of the following reasons.

Azure

Azure Virtual Machine Disk Encryption using CloudLink: Encrypt Windows and Linux VMs in Azure using a third-party product.
What is Microsoft StorSimple? A post by me on Petri.com.
Where can I find information on how to Sell, Deploy and Support Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Hybrid Cloud? Microsoft Partner Technical Services can assist you as you sell, deploy and support Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Hybrid Cloud solutions.

Office 365

SharePoint Online simplifies storage management: Anything that simplifies SharePoint is welcome!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,System Center,VMM,Hyper-V,Security,Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,Office 365,SharePoint,Storage,Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft News Summary – 18 August 2014

The big news this morning is that Microsoft has had to withdraw 4 of last weeks automatic updates. But in other news:

Prepping for new management features: Azure will soon require administrators to be registered in Azure Active Directory to be able to sign in to the Azure portal or use the Azure management API.
VMM Network Builder: VMM Network Builder is a VMM UI add-in that allows users to easily create virtual networks in VMM. Careful now, this tool was built by interns so it probably won’t be maintained. Don’t get too invested!
Using file copy to measure storage performance: Why it’s not a good idea and what you should do instead
Bill Gates ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: And you know he can’t just have someone dump a bucket over his head.

Technorati Tags: Windows,Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,VMM,System Center,Networking,Storage,Storage Spaces,Failover Clustering

Microsoft News Summary – 15 August 2014

Here’s the latest from the last 24 hours:

New – Configurable Idle Timeout for Azure Load Balancer: Microsoft announced that the Azure Load Balancer now supports configurable TCP Idle timeout for your Cloud Services and Virtual Machines. This feature can be configured using the Service Management API, PowerShell or the service model.
Integrate System Center Advisor into Operations Manager Dashboards: Drive System Center Advisor search using Operations Manager dashboards.
Introduction to Azure Backup: What we expect to be the hottest selling Azure feature for SMEs.
Old IPv4 Router Settings May Be Causing Internet Slowdowns This Week: The number of routes across the Internet is beginning to exceed the number that IPv4 routers were set to handle.
Understanding the files collected by the Test-StorageHealth.ps1 PowerShell script: Understand the results of health and capacity tests done to a Storage Cluster based on Windows Server 2012 R2 Scale-Out File Servers.
Bare Metal Post-Deployment – Running the Post-Deployment Automation and Bonus – Part 5: Final part in this VMM series.
Businesses Using Windows Server 2003 Could Face VISA & MASTERCARD Backlash: End of support in July 2015 = 2015 no more security patches = security vulnerabilities = no PCI compliance = bankruptcy.
Edge Show115 – Azure AD Connect Preview (configuring hybrid identity with Azure AD): This video takes an exclusive look at Azure AD Connect to implement hybrid identity. Jen Field (Senior Program Manager Azure AD Fabric) takes us through using the new deployment tool to deploy Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS), Directory Sync (DirSync / AAD Sync), Azure AD and the accompanying SSL certificates. These are components that you’ll commonly deploy for Office 365, Windows Intune and more.
Replacing TMG with IIS ARR for an Exchange Hybrid: Lots of people looking to replace the now-dead Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway.

Technorati Tags: Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,Networking,System Center,Operations Manager,Backup,Hybrid Cloud,Storage,Storage Spaces,Windows Server 2012 R2,Deployment,VMM,Windows Server 2003,Active Directory,Security,Exchange,IIS

Microsoft News Summary – 14 August 2014

There’s a new craze out there with famous people called the Ice Bucket Challenge. A person is dared to take a bucket of ice water over the head (and post the video online) or donate to charity, in in of of “raising awareness” of a disease called ALS. Nadella and Zuckerberg have done it. Gates has been challenged.

How to install DSC Providers for Linux on CentOS 6.2: This tutorial is streamlined by combining multiple commands together where applicable.
Migrate On-Premise Virtualized Workloads to Azure using Azure Site Recovery: ASR can also help you quickly and easily spin-off additional development and testing environments or migrate on-premise virtual machines to Microsoft Azure.
Gartner – Plan Now to Avoid Windows XP Deja Vu With Windows 7: Only morons fails to learn lessons from before. Use your new-found deployment tools/expertise and start preparing to get off of Windows 7.
It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s VDI and SPLA!!! In summary, you cannot sell/use Windows client OS in a multi-tenant hosted VDI environment. That’s not new – it’s how it has always been. Anyone selling it is either obfuscating that they’re really skinning Windows Server, or they are breaching Microsoft’s licensing terms.
Enable Multi-Factor Authentication in Azure: Azure MFA helps safeguard access to data and applications while meeting user demand for a simple sign-in process. It delivers strong authentication via a range of easy verification options—phone call, text message, or mobile app notification—allowing users to choose the method they prefer, this post will show you how to setup the phone call method.
Bare Metal Post-Deployment – Constructing the Post Deployment Automation (continued) Part 4: Here is part 4, a continuation on the topic of Constructing the Post-Deployment automation.
Microsoft CEO Takes Ice Bucket Challenge, Then Passes it on to Google, Amazon CEOs: Satya Nadella takes the dare to have a bucket of ice water poured over him to raise awareness of ALS. The Mark Zuckerberg video is quite funny – he looks STUNNED .. And he dared Bill Gates to do it in the next 24 hours.

Technorati Tags: Linux,Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,DR,Windows 7,Licensing,VDI,Security,Deployment,System Center,VMM,Virtualisation,Hyper-V

Microsoft News Summary – 13 August 2014

Overnight, Microsoft released the August 2014 Update Rollup for WS2012 R2 and Windows 8. Lots of hotfixes!

TechNet Radio: (Part 10) Building Your Hybrid Cloud – Windows Azure Pack Remote Console Support: A video on Channel 9
Bare Metal Post-Deployment – Introduction and Scenario Part 1: VMM host deployment.
Bare Metal Post-Deployment – Pre-Conditions Part 2: The series continues.
Bare Metal Post-Deployment – Constructing the Post-Deployment Automation – Part 3: Here is part 3 on the topic of Constructing the Post-Deployment automation
August updates for Windows 8.1: It’s not as big as the April update, but it still has new features.
Azure Automation: Runbook Input, Output, and Nested Runbooks: This post will cover some of the basic concepts that will help you create high-quality runbooks.
Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Readiness Assessment: Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Readiness Assessments for Active Directory, SharePoint Server and SQL Server.
The Best Hyper-V Training Resources: A post I wrote for Petri.com

Technorati Tags: Hybrid Cloud,Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,System Center,VMM,Deployment,Windows 8.1,PowerShell,Scripting,Hyper-V,Virtualisation

Microsoft News Summary – 1 August 2014

Talk about crappy timing. A federal court in the USA has determined that emails are not actually emails, and therefore Microsoft must turn over ~~emails~~ business records stored on Email servers in the Dublin region to the FBI. One must wonder why the FBI didn’t contact the Irish authorities who would have jumped at once if the case was legitimate and issued an order locally. Maybe the case is not actually legitimate?

On the eve of Azure going big through Open licensing, a federal judge has stuck a stake through the heart of the American IT industry – this is much bigger than Microsoft, affecting Google, Apple, Oracle, IBM, HP, Dell, and more. Microsoft has already lodged an appeal.

Microsoft ordered to hand over Irish-based data to the US government: Microsoft must turn over a customer’s emails stored in a data centre in Ireland to the US government, a US judge has ruled in a case that has drawn concern from privacy groups and major technology companies.
Microsoft responds to ruling in warrant case: Microsoft Executive Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith provided the following response to a federal court ruling in New York on Thursday in the company’s ongoing case challenging a U.S. government warrant for customer data stored in Dublin, Ireland.
Deploy a SharePoint Farm in Microsoft Azure: Using the new farm functionality in Azure
General Availability for Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) 5.0: EMET is a free tool, designed to help customers with their defense in depth strategies against cyberattacks, by helping block and terminate the most common techniques adversaries might use in comprising systems. EMET 5.0 further helps to protect with two new mitigations, and with new capabilities giving customers additional flexibility on their deployments.
Support Tip – VMs deployed to Hyper-V networks experience delays acquiring an IP address after reboot: When using System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM 2012 R2), you may discover that some virtual machines that are deployed on Hyper-V Network Virtualization networks with dynamic IP address allocation may not get an IP address for a few minutes after a reboot of the VM. Eventually the VM gets the IP address and otherwise functions normally.

Technorati Tags: Azure,Cloud,Cloud Computing,Office 365,Microsoft,SharePoint,Security,Hyper-V,System Center,VMM