Microsoft continues the battle with VMware with more videos from MVA about SC 2012 SP1 and Hyper-V

Uploaded just a minutes ago there are new videos from MVA on TechNet. The videos compare Microsoft technologies with VMware technologies. Previous MVA released such course with videos where Hyper-V was compared with ESXi and vSphere. Now we can see the same approach with Microsoft Private Cloud over the VMware vCloud compare and by Microsoft Private Cloud it is meant freshly released System Center 2012 SP1:

 

Obviously Microsoft is determined to win this battle or at least to show that they are all in the Private Cloud.

More videos were added to compare Hyper-V with VMware vSphere 5.1:

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook – Book Review

After reviewing the Packt Publishing books for two of the components for Microsoft Private Cloud – Configuration Manager and Service Manager now it is a time for a third component – Hyper-V.The book from Packt Publishing about Hyper-V is titled Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook. The book is authored by a well known MVP Leandro Carvalho.

The book consists of 9 chapters and about 300 pages. The chapters will walk you trough all the basic features of Hyper-V 2012 and to some of the advanced ones by also noticing what have been changed since the last version.. As every Cookbook from Pack Publishing Hyper-V features are presented as min-guides that you can follow in order to test the product my yourself. Of course before actually buying the book I suggest to prepare some test environment where you can follow the guides from it. That way the book will be more effective to you. I have tried most of the features in the new Hyper-V server but by reading the book I’ve managed to try a feature called Resource pools that I just haven’t paid so much attention before. As Windows Server 2012 heavily relies on PowerShell every example in the book that is executed trough GUI there is an separate example how to achieve the same trough PowerShell. So if you are not so PowerShell knowledgeable you can learn some tricks how to perform certain tasks for Hyper-V.

As a summary I can recommend this book to every beginner who has less or no experience with Hyper-V. Also if you are on some beginner or medium level with Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 and you want to learn and test the new features in Hyper-V 2012. You Can find the book in several online stores:

More about the book you can find by clicking on the image below:

KB: Feature and performance optimization of Hyper-V Replica (HVR) in Windows Server 2012

Microsoft published a very useful article on how we can fine-tune Hyper-V Replica if we face performance problems. I suggest if to try changing these registry keys only if you face some performance problems. If everything is working smoothly better not touch them. The article is located here.

Windows Server 2012 Upgrade Jump Start Training

This Jump Start Training was held live last month and now it is available as a recordings. This course is led by Microsoft Senior Technical Evangelist Rick Claus and Ed Liberman from TrainSignal. The course is divided in 12 topics which can be found as separate videos here.

HYPER-V 2008 R2 SP1 Best Practices

Roger Osborne a Microsoft PFE posted some general best practices for Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1 on Ask Premier Field Engineering (PFE) Platforms blog. He also promises to update these practices for Hyper-V 2012 so we will be waiting.