Below is a video talking about how Microsoft’s Virtual Machine manager 2012 can manager Hyper-V, VMware, and Citrix Xen.

The below video shows how easy it is to setup VDI with Windows Server 2012 which is just another native capability of Windows Server!

Windows 2012 Hyper-V has a wonderful new feature called Hyper-V replica that will allow a Hyper-V host to replicate on a per Vm basis from one host to another providing an out of the box DR solution.  There are a number of way to enable replication on each VM either in Hyper-V manager or from powershell however if you have a large number of VMs manually can be a task.

The below script can be run to grab all the VMs on a host that does not have VM replication enabled and configure the replication

————————————————————————————————————————————–

#This script will read in a number of inputs and then configure hyper-v replication for VMs that currently do not have replication enabled

#Note this script assumes you have already enable Hyper-V replica on the servers

 $Replica = read-host “Enter Hyper-V replica destination server name”

$Port = read-host “Enter the replication port”

$HVhost = read-host “Enter Hyper-V source server name”

$Auth = read-host “Enter replication auth method of Kerberos or Certificate”

$alldisalbed = get-vm -ComputerName $HVhost | where {$_.replicationstate -eq ‘disabled’ }

#This will display all VMs that are about to be enabled for replication

write-host “The following VMs will be enabled to replication to $replica”

$alldisalbed

foreach ($VM in $alldisalbed) {

 enable-VMReplication $VM $Replica $Port $Auth

Set-VMReplication -VMName $VM.name  -ReplicaServerName $Replica -ReplicaServerPort $Port -AuthenticationType kerberos -CompressionEnabled $true -RecoveryHistory 0 -computername $HVhost

Start-VMInitialReplication $VM.name  -ComputerName $HVhost

}

Microsoft has released Exchange 2010 SP3 which will allow  integration with Exchange 2013  http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/02/12/released-exchange-server-2010-sp3.aspx

The Microsoft Ted team took 4 Surface Pro and installed Windows Server 2012 and performed share nothing live migrations, its a fun watch….

http://blogs.technet.com/b/building_clouds/archive/2013/02/21/surface-pro-hijinks-video.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

DMVMUG [District of Columbia Maryland Virginia Management User Group is thrilled to announce our upcoming technology event!  Come receive insightful technical sessions plus an opportunity for hands on labs!!

8:00am – 8:50am REGISTRATION [Continental Breakfast]

9:00am – 3:50pm [IT CAMP]Mad About Windows Server 2012 in Seven Ways

“Includes Windows 2012 Domain Controllers”

Must register and complete the Early Experts Challenge – Apprentice before attending IT Camp

• Build your lab with Boot-to-VHD. Here are the steps.
• Build your lab in the cloud with Windows Azure with 90-day free trial. Here’s how.
• Sign up Windows Server 2012 Early Expert Challenge and join our study group.

BIO: Yung Chou is currently a Sr. IT Pro Evangelist in Microsoft US Developer and Platform Evangelism team. Within the company, he has had opportunities serving customers in the areas of support account management, technical support, technical sales, and evangelism. Prior to Microsoft, he had established capacities in system programming, application development, consulting services, and IT management. His recent technical focuses have been in virtualization and cloud computing with strong interests in private cloud with service-based deployment and emerging enterprise computing architecture. He is a frequent speaker in Microsoft conferences, roadshow, and TechNet events.

BIO: Mike Kline is an IT professional based in the Washington, DC, area. After serving in the Army (97B) and attending George Mason University, Mike officially joined the IT industry in 1999, starting as a Help desk technician and working his way up to his current role as an Active Directory systems engineer. He’s currently a four-time Microsoft MVP for Directory Services and holds several certifications, including the MCSE (2012), MCITP, and CISSP. He’s also active in several forums and has a personal blog at ADisfun.com.

PLUS

9:00am – 9:50am [SESSION 1]

Optimizing System Center with WME & DeployExpert [SPONSOR] Jesse Rodriguez & Rachel Landua

Altrinsic Solutions and Windows Management Experts (WME) partner to build, install and implement solutions to make System Center Administrators lives easier while providing substantial cost savings to the entire organization. As partners, we believe it is essential to find out where our clients are now before leading them to where they want to be.  That is one reason we emphasize the reality of hardware diversity and the complexity of managing real world devices by building and installing deeply automated solutions to extend, expand and enhance the System Center experience.

Altrinsic has helped more than 750 companies worldwide effectively and efficiently deploy and migrate millions of systems and combined with WME’s fifteen years of global experience in the systems management field, we’re able to take our clients, whether large or small, to the next level of IT effectiveness. Our goal is to move our clients from a basic model to an optimized one, so they can reduce the costs of managing their environment and independently sustain the improvements.

System Center 2012 Operations Manager Network Monitoring, Phillip Bracher

We will be discussing what is new in System Center Operations Manager 2012. To include Resource Pooling, Config service Scale and Federation. We will be going over System Center Operations Manager 2012 Network Monitoring features such as a walk through on the discovery process of network devices, monitoring, dashboards and reporting. SNMP supported protocols within System Center Operations Manager 2012.

BIO: Phil has been working at Microsoft for 6 years and has been supporting System Center Operations Manager since the introduction of the product. He has been a System Center Operations Manager Technical Lead for the Product. Phil helped develop the System Center Operations Manager training courses for System Center Operations Manager and is a Master Trainer for System Center Operations Manager. He is currently helping customers successfully implement the product and create custom management packs

10:00am – 10:50am [SESSION 2]

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 U1 Meets Orchestrator, Rhonda Layfield-MVP

One of the most interesting improvements to MDT is the ability to integrate Orchestrator Runbooks into task sequences. If you have ever tried to figure out how to move computer objects from one OU to another during a deployment or create/retrieve computer names it is easier than ever using Runbooks. Need to generate emails alerting you to failed deployments (or successful) – Runbooks can do that too. The Deploy to VHD task sequences automate the creation and deployment of VHD images – see exactly how in this session.

BIO: For over 30 years, Rhonda has helped people securely deploy, protect, and streamline their IT resources. She began her career in the US Navy where she spent 7 years as communications specialist with a top secret clearance. Later as Sr. Security Analyst for an electrical utility company operating nuclear power plants she discovered serious security flaws in software about to be acquired. She also consults for large customers showing how to quickly and cheaply roll out 50,000 Windows 7 desktops

Ensure Application Readiness to Simplify System Management, Ken Davidson, Systems Consultant, Dell Software

Avoiding user disruption during computing upgrades is essential. Application compatibility failures are time-consuming, expensive, and complex. Whether you’re migrating to Windows 7, applying monthly Microsoft Patch Tuesday updates, or adopting new application virtualization technologies, ensuring application compatibility is the biggest hurdle to success.  In this session we will show you how to reduce application migration risk and ensure application readiness. There is an easy way to automate application compatibility testing, application remediation, application packaging, and application virtualization to accelerate patch updates or deployments to new platforms.  In addition we will demo a wide range of reports that make it easy to find and fix compatibility issues in minutes, package them up, and get your applications up and running quickly with minimal manual effort. This way you can reduce the time and risk of ongoing system management.

11:00am – 11:50am [SESSION 3]

Farewell to the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK), Rhonda Layfield-MVP

The new Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) is replacing the Windows AIK. Find out what Windows ADK can do for you in this demo driven session. DISM and USMT both have new functionality and there are some new tools to help you measure performance of startup and shutdown times along with determining the overall energy efficiency of your existing and newly deployed machines. Also there is a new version of WinPE – WinPE 4.0 complete with new bells and whistles and for those of you using KMS for your client activations the new Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) is a must see

BIO: For over 30 years, Rhonda has helped people securely deploy, protect, and streamline their IT resources. She began her career in the US Navy where she spent 7 years as communications specialist with a top secret clearance. Later as Sr. Security Analyst for an electrical utility company operating nuclear power plants she discovered serious security flaws in software about to be acquired. She also consults for large customers showing how to quickly and cheaply roll out 50,000 Windows 7 desktops

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager—Compliance Settings Management (formerly DCM), Roberto Rodriguez

With the release of Desired Configuration Management in ConfigMgr 2007, organizations were given the ability to define models of Operating System, Application, Update levels and more. This approach to managing systems now evolves in ConfigMgr 2012 to provide a state based foundation of the Application Model, User Centric computing and model based compliancy. We will cover the next release of DCM called Settings Management in ConfigMgr 2012 and show how to leverage the new functionality in your organization today.

BIO: Roberto Rodriguez has over 10 years of consulting and engineering experience supporting the Department of Defense (DoD), and multiple Federal Government Agencies.  Within his role in Microsoft he has focused on the System Center Configuration Manager.

12:00pm – 12:55 pm MINGLE/SPONSORS

              12:15pm – 12:55pm

Lunch & Learns: Incremental Index SQL Server  Maintenance – A Solution that “Just Works”, Intro to PowerShell & System Center Integration

1:00pm –  1:50pm [SESSION 4]

Intelligent OS Deployment Automation [SPONSOR] Jesse Rodriguez & Rachel Landua

Altrinsic Solutions and Windows Management Experts (WME) partner to build, install and implement solutions to make System Center Administrators lives easier while providing substantial cost savings to the entire organization. As partners, we believe it is essential to find out where our clients are now before leading them to where they want to be.  That is one reason we emphasize the reality of hardware diversity and the complexity of managing real world devices by building and installing deeply automated solutions to extend, expand and enhance the System Center experience.

Altrinsic has helped more than 750 companies worldwide effectively and efficiently deploy and migrate millions of systems and combined with WME’s fifteen years of global experience in the systems management field, we’re able to take our clients, whether large or small, to the next level of IT effectiveness. Our goal is to move our clients from a basic model to an optimized one, so they can reduce the costs of managing their environment and independently sustain the improvements.

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager – Role Based Access with Custom Right-Click Tools for the Console, Roberto Rodriguez

BIO:  Susan Dyer is an 8 year Microsoft Senior Consultant who has been supporting our Microsoft Federal and DoD customers with System Center Designs and Implementations.  She recently completed a Proof of Concept with the SC2012 Products for a large Federal Department and is currently preparing the design for ConfigMgr 2012 for them.

2:00pm –  2:50pm [SESSION 5]

Introduction to MDT 2012 – User Driven Installs (UDI), Howard Carter

Don’t be fooled by the name – Admins are Users too. In this Windows Deployment session we will demonstrate the User Driven Installation wizards that are built into the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and how they can add a powerful flexibility to an Operating System Deployment process.

BIO: Howard Carter is a Senior Microsoft Consultant who has been engineering, building, and deploying Windows images for more than 15 years.  He helps large organizations migrate their Desktops, Applications, and Data to the next generation operating system with a minimum of effort and risk.

Extending Microsoft System Center to non-Windows Platforms, Ken Galvin, System Center Project Manager, Dell Software

System Center Configuration Manager is an ideal solution for change and configuration management of Windows-based systems. In this session we will show how an organization can deliver change and configuration management capabilities to over 120 non-Windows systems. Thanks to the Quest Management Xtensions solutions, organizations with complex IT environments can now natively extend the capabilities of Configuration Manager from the Windows domain to systems and devices such as UNIX, Linux, Cisco, other Network Devices, Storage Devices and more.  We will help show you how to use your preferred solution, Configuration Manager, to manage both Windows and non-Windows systems , in both mixed and native modes—without having to invest in additional infrastructure, training, staff or difficult-to-manage point solutions. The result is less complexity, more uniform management and a significant reduction in costs due to the elimination of redundant infrastructure and multiple platform-specific tools.

3:00pm – 3:50pm [SESSION 6]

Deploying Windows 8 with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 OSD, Howard Carter

In this session we examine the new OS Deployment capabilities of System Center Configuration Manger 2012 and some of the intricacies of deploying Windows 8 images.

BIO: Howard Carter is a Senior Microsoft Consultant who has been engineering, building, and deploying Windows images for more than 15 years.  He helps large organizations migrate their Desktops, Applications, and Data to the next generation operating system with a minimum of effort and risk.

Overview of System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager, Jim Ratsch

System Center 2012 – Data Protection Manager (DPM) is a server-based application that enables disk-based and tape-based data protection and recovery for computers in and across Active Directory domains. DPM performs replication, synchronization, and recovery point creation to provide reliable protection and rapid recovery of data both by system administrators and by end-users.

BIO:  Jim Ratsch has been working in the Federal space since 1998 and within Microsoft Federal for the last six years. Within his role, he has focused on the Windows Platform and Active Directory on both reactive and proactive technical support. He has recently been focusing on Hyper-V/SCVMM and lab building, and has worked with Microsoft virtualization products since they were introduced with Microsoft’s acquisition of Connectix.

4:00pm DOOR PRIZES RAFFLE

SPONSORS  Dell Software, Altrinsic Solutions,  Windows Management Experts (WME) and Microsoft Premier Services

There is a nice ROI calculator located here http://servervirtualization.cloudapp.net/ that you can use to estimate the cost of your virtual enterprse.

Welcome to the first of many new video posts………..

In this post I am going to create a 2 node scale out file cluster and move hyper-v resources to the SOFC while continuously taking cluster services offline.

ScaleOutFileCluster

Today Microsoft made the announcement of the customer preview of Office 2013 and Exchange 2013.

More information can be found on Exchange 2013 here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj150540(v=exchg.150)

More information can be found on Office 2013 here  http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/hh968267.aspx

Windows Server 2012 Virtual Labs

Experience the release candidate for Windows Server 2012 firsthand in these virtual labs. You can test drive new and improved features and functionality, including server management and Windows PowerShell, networking, Hyper-V, and new storage solutions.

Getting started

It’s simple. No complex setup or installation is required to try Windows Server 2012 running in a full-featured virtual lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. Before you start, read the minimum system requirements. Next, select a virtual lab from the list below. Then, you will see an application called “holSystems LaunchPad Online” which will launch the lab.

Virtual labs

• Active Directory Deployment and Management Enhancements In this lab, you will learn how to deploy Active Directory Domain Controllers with Windows Server 2012. You will deploy domain controllers using the new Server Manager, as well as deploying remote domain controllers using Windows PowerShell. You will be able to explore the new Active Directory Management tool and use its PowerShell History Viewer.
• Configuring a Highly Available iSCSI Target In this lab, you will learn how Windows Server 2012 can provide storage remotely to any machine. You will build clusters using shared storage and build iSCSI high-availability instances–observing highly available application communication during cluster failover.
• Configuring Hyper-V over Highly Available SMB Storage In this lab, you will learn how to configure a file server cluster to support running Hyper-V virtual machines from SMB file shares. You will create the file share, configure delegation, and then create a new VM on SMB storage.
• Getting Started with Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Replication Asynchronous, application-consistent virtual machine replication is now built in to Windows Server 2012. It permits replication of Hyper‑V virtual machines between two locations for business continuity and failure recovery. In this lab, you will learn how to configure and manage this technology.
• Implementing Storage Pools and Storage Spaces In this lab, you will work with the new storage spaces technology in Windows Server 2012. You will first create new storage pools and virtual disks, and then you will work with those virtual disks in both Server Manager and Control Panel.
• Introduction to DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network anytime they have Internet access. In this lab, you will learn how to configure this now easy-to-install technology and provide greater mobility and ease of access for your users.
• Introduction to IIS 8 IIS 8 in Windows Server 2012 provides many new features to support greater scaling, density, and performance for your web applications. In this lab, you will learn how to configure many of these exciting new technologies, including centralized certificate support, dynamic IP domain restrictions, and throttling.
• Introduction to iSCSI Diskless Boot Deployment Windows Server 2012 can efficiently provide highly available iSCSI block storage for diskless network boot. In this lab, you will learn how to configure both the iSCSI target and diskless boot servers, enabling rapid deployment and network boot capability for commodity hardware.
• Introduction to Windows PowerShell Fundamentals Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language that helps you achieve greater control and productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 230 standard command-line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell enables you to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation.
• What’s New in Windows PowerShell 3.0 In this lab, you will explore some of the new features and functionality in Windows PowerShell 3.0 to enable you to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation.
• Managing Branch Offices In this lab, you will learn how the branch office scenario has been improved in Windows Server 2012 including new branch cache enhancements.
• Managing Network Infrastructure In this lab, you will explore new network management capabilities in Windows Server 2012. You will learn how to implement Network Teaming as well as how to implement DHCP failover. Finally, explore new Windows PowerShell cmdlets for network management.
• Managing Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager and Windows PowerShell 3.0 In this lab, you will learn how the Server Manager and Windows PowerShell framework in Windows Server 2012 delivers an enhanced, multi-server management experience. You will learn to perform tasks such as multi-server management. You will also explore new Windows PowerShell capabilities including new cmdlets and the Windows PowerShell gateway.
• Managing Your Network Infrastructure with IP Address Management Network management is core to running a business, yet the tools that IT professionals need can be too costly or not available from Microsoft. With Windows Server 2012, we change that with the introduction of IP Address Management (IPAM).
• Online Backup Service In this lab, you will use Windows Server Backup to back up your critical data to Windows Azure. This lab will teach you the entire set of workflows around backing up and recovering your data to Windows Azure.
• Using Dynamic Access Control to Automatically and Centrally Secure Data In this lab, you will explore Dynamic Access Control in Windows Server 2012. You will learn how to create Central Access Policies, explore the new Access Denied Remediation features, as well as learn how to use the audit capabilities built into Dynamic Access Control.