Tag: TechEd

TechEd Europe 2013 Day 3

On day 3 I do not have highlights to share but I’ve had a great day. I’ve spent most of the time on sessions for Hosters. From these session it seems Microsoft will heavily invest on Windows Azure Pack. The end goal is to create a common API that can be used across Windows Azure and Windows Server with System Center. I’ve managed to find some answers to my questions for others I’ve received a promise for help. At the end of the day on the Ask the Experts dinner I’ve managed to meet and talk to interesting people in and outside of Microsoft. Tomorrow morning I am leaving Madrid. It was first and great TechEd for me and I hope in the future to attend another one.

TechEd Europe 2013 Day 2

Today for me was all about Networking and NVGRE Gateways. Here are some of my highlights from day 2:

  • There are no changes in the NVGRE packet which means WS 2012 and WS 2012 R2 can co exist.
  • You have to have separate hosts/clusters for NVGRE Gateways to reside.
  • Microsoft NVGRE Gateway will have automatic failover.
  • For high availability you will have two gateways in cluster and one will be active the other standby.
  • In the Preview build of VMM 2012 R2 there are some limitations like you can have only one gateway that resides only on one Hyper-v Host
  • I was on the Pete Zerger and Anders Bengtsson session for Orchestrator – very funny session with a lot to learn.
  • Met Mark Russinovich – great guy, very friendly.
  • Azure is also constructed in stamps. Every stamp is controlled by Azure Fabric Controller. On top of the Fabric Controllers there is API and on top of the API is the Azure portal.
  • There will be Service Templates for all System Center components even for VMM.
  • Microsoft Gateways and the hosts where they reside must be Windows Server 2012 R2.
  • In preview the Hyper-V host that will host the gateways is marked in VMM trough PowerShell. In RTM there will be checkbox.
  • Demo was shown of automatic failover of NVGRE Gateways without downtime of the network.
  • The logic for Multitenant dividing of the traffic happens on host level.
  • Each Tenant has its own Public NAT address.
  • GWs can be domain joined or not domain joined but for failover you will need domain joined.

Tomorrow will be my last day at TechEd 2013 as I have to leave early on Friday morning.

TechEd Europe 2013 Day 1

What a day today? Here are my highlights from today:

  • WS 2012 R2, SC 2012 R2, Windows Azure Pack and SQL Server 2013 Preview builds were surprisingly released.
  • Great keynote by Brad Anderson which was almost the same like in TechEd NA.
  • Foundation session on Modern Datacenter by Woosly and Snover.
  • Session on What is new in SC 2012 R2 – Usage Analytics for Orchestrator announced but it will require WAP.
  • Great session by Ben Armstrong on Hyper-V
  • Met a lot of people from and out of Microsoft. Had a great fun especially with Pete and Anders.

BTW the feeling is strange to want to deploy those preview bits and being at TechEd at the same time.

TechEd Europe 2013

TechEd 2013 North America Hands-On Labs are available

Microsoft released the Hands-On labs from TechEd 2013 North America publically. You can go to Channel 9 website and start these small labs in order to get a grasp on certain features. There are even some labs with Windows Server 2012 R2. Access them from here.