Category: Windows 8/Server 2012

MVA: Windows Server 2012: Identity and Access Course

Another course about Windows Server 2012 is available at Microsoft Virtual Academy. This course is titled Windows Server 2012: Identity and Access and consists of technologies as Active Directory, Remote Desktop Services, DirectAccess and Dynamic Access Control:

Remote Desktop Services Module

DirectAccess for Remote Access Module

Dynamic Access Control Module

Full course materials can be found on MVA.

Build your Test Lab with Windows Server 2012

If you want to test out Windows Server 2012 but you are not sure how to build your test lab Microsoft provides guide for that:

This Microsoft Test Lab Guide (TLG) provides step-by-step instructions to create the Windows Server 2012 Base Configuration test lab, using computers running Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. With the resulting test lab environment, you can build test labs based on other Windows Server 2012-based TLGs from Microsoft, TLG extensions in the TechNet Wiki, or a test lab of your own design that can include Microsoft or non-Microsoft products. For a test lab based on physical computers, you can image the drives for future test labs. For a test lab based on virtual machines, you can create snapshots of the base configuration virtual machines. This enables you to easily return to the base configuration test lab, where most of the routine infrastructure and networking services have already been configured, so that you can focus on building a test lab for the product, technology, or solution of interest.

 

You can download the guide from here.

System Center 2012 SP1 BETA is now available

Great news we now have beta version that we can test and provide feedback. From what I hear is that RTM could be available before end of the year or early next year. The downloads are located here. Some of the new features are:

  • Virtual Machine Manager
    • Improved Support for Network Virtualization
    • Extend the VMM console with Add-ins
    • Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage
    • Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
  • Configuration Manager
    • Deployment and management of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
    • Distribution point for Windows Azure to help reduce infrastructure costs
    • Automation of administrative tasks through PowerShell support
    • Management of Mac OS X clients and Linux and UNIX servers
    • Real-time administrative actions for Endpoint Protection related tasks
  • Data Protection Manager
    • Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0
    • Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share
    • Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes
    • Uninterrupted protection for VM live migration
  • App Controller
    • Service Provider Foundation API to create and operate Virtual Machines
    • Support for Azure VM; migrate VHDs from VMM to Windows Azure, manage from on-premise System Center
  • Operations Manager
    • Support for IIS 8
    • Monitoring of WCF, MVC and .NET NT services
    • Azure SDK support
  • Orchestrator
    • Support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
    • Manage VMM self-service User Roles
    • Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
    • Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds
  • Service Manager
    • Apply price sheets to VMM clouds
    • Create chargeback reports
    • Pivot by cost center, VMM clouds, Pricesheets
  • Server App-V
    • Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
    • Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server

SCOM 2007 R2 will not support monitoring of Windows Server 2012

This week Microsoft posted supported scenarios for SCOM 2007 R2 / 2012 / SP1 with Windows Server 2012. The main surprise to me is that SCOM 2007 R2 will not be able to monitor Windows Server 2012. There are lot of benefits of upgrading from 2007 R2 to 2012 but not all companies can do that at this moment because of a lot of dependencies and Microsoft is not making this easier with this announcement. When such decision is announced I will definitely will want to know what is the reason behind it. There should be very good reason for this because SCOM 2007 R2 mainstream supports end in 2014 which means there are at least 2 years left for supporting. I am still hoping that Microsoft will change their mind and support for monitoring Windows Server 2012 via SCOM 2007 R2 will be provided.

The full announcement is here. 

Linux Integration Services Version 3.4 for Hyper-V

There is new version of the Hyper-V drivers for Linux virtual machines. Download is available here.