Config Manager and IPv6 (…not together!)

I got word of a couple new things floating around the web that you might want to catch…

First off, my good friend and all-around tech nerd, Ed Horley, just released his first Pluralsight course on… you guessed it… IPv6! Read more about it on his blog and if IPv6 is on your radar, I can’t think of a better person to get you started.

Second, the fine folks at LearnIT! are teaming up with Wally Mead for a webinar on Wally’s Favorite Configuration Manager Features. It’s on July 23rd at 9am Pacific Time, the full blurb is below!

You have a Configuration Manager 2012 environment installed and running. All is going good as things are working OK. However, have you really been able to gain the best you can from it? Do you just get by using the handful of features you need to use?

In this session, we’ll discuss the features that I love in Configuration Manager 2012 R2, and why. Hopefully this will give you some insight to some features that you may not be using, and why you should look into them further.

Instructor Bio: Wally Mead

Wally is a Principal Program Manager at Cireson. He currently focuses on the improvement and development of products, and drives further innovation between Configuration Manager and Cireson apps. He also consults on Configuration Manager as a key part of the Cireson team.

In addition, Wally continues to provide education for the community through presenting webinars, speaking at conferences (such as TechEd, System Center Universe, Midwest Management Summit), and conducting training courses, as well as assisting the community on the Microsoft TechNet forums.

In the Seattle Area? Check out the Upcoming SITPUG Meeting!

I don’t often get a chance to hang out in Washington, but one of the long standing MVPs in the area runs this quarterly meeting for Seattle IT Pros.

Date/Time: November 7th, 6-8pm

Location: Microsoft Civica Office, 205 108th Avenue NE, Suite 200 (4^th floor)

Bellevue, WA 98004

The guest speaker will be Teju Shyamsundar of Microsoft. Teju is a System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Premier Field Engineer. The topic of the presentation is “What’s New in System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager.”

Looking for an easier way to manage all devices in your organization? In her presentation, Teju will go through some of the new features available to manage devices with Configuration Manager 2012 R2. She will focus on integrating Windows Intune with Configuration Manager to manage mobile devices, including Windows Phone 8, iOS and Android.

As a Premier Field Engineer, Teju has extensive experience with SCCM. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer & Information Technology from Purdue University. Her complete bio is available here.

Future meetings for 2015 are scheduled on February 4th, May 6th and August 5th!

Moving to Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure – Online Event!

Get the best of both worlds! With Microsoft Azure and System Center 2012 R2, IT Pros who manage infrastructure can easily extend on-premises networks to embrace the power and scale of the cloud—securely and seamlessly. Solve pressing IT issues with hybrid cloud solutions that you can implement today. In these Jump Start sessions with live Q&A, explore how to manage more data without more hardware, protect data with off-site backups, and prepare for disaster recovery.

In these sessions, field-experienced Technical Evangelists focus on Microsoft Azure storage, virtual machines, and virtual networking. Complete the hands-on labs, and walk away with a fully functional Windows Server 2012 R2 or Linux cloud-based test lab running Microsoft Azure. Be sure to sign up for the free Microsoft Azure trial so you can follow the demos during the sessions. Don’t miss this event!

COURSE OUTLINE:
Day one:

Introduction to Microsoft Azure
Cloud Storage and Virtual Networks

Day two:

Virtual Machines
Monitoring Public and Hybrid Clouds
Microsoft Azure Active Directory

Register now! (linkto: http://aka.ms/MovetoHybrid)

Moving to Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure
Date: May 21 and May 22, 2014
Time: 9:00am‒11:30am
Where: Online virtual classroom
Cost: Free!

IT Camp Question: Can I run VMM even though I’m not in control of the entire domain?

This question was asked recently at an IT Camp on Virtualization. The attendee was responsible for the server and infrastructure of an OU, not the entire domain. He wanted to know if he could still take advantage of Virtual Machine Manager for just the servers in that one OU.

Short Answer: Yes!

Long Answer:
Its true that VMM requires access to Active Directory for authentication and some other features, but you can run multiple instances of VMM in one domain.

A couple key points:

Any one host (and it’s virtual machines)can only be managed by a single instance of VMM.
VMM would not recognize an OU as boundary of any kind – any host could be added if the appropriate credentials were presented.
Each instance of VMM would have it’s own database. If reporting across multiple VMM instances becomes a requirement, it’s possible to connect each VMM instance to a single OpsMgr instance and do the monitoring and reporting from there.

So there you have it. Even if you don’t have your thumb on the pulse of your ENTIRE organization, you can still use VMM for the part you reign.

Azure IT Camps – Coming to a City Near You!

Do you want to learn more about Windows Azure and System Center 2012 R2? Now is your chance!

Join us at this FREE full-day hands-on event in a city near you to experience the power of Hybrid Cloud. Our field-experienced Technical Evangelists will guide you through the process of jumpstarting your knowledge on Windows Azure Storage, Virtual Machines and Virtual Networking for key IT Pro scenarios. Complete all of the hands-on labs and you’ll walk away with a fully functional Windows Server 2012 R2 or Linux cloud-based test lab running Windows Azure!

Session Requirements
Be sure to bring a modern laptop that is capable of running the following prerequisites. For more detailed system specs, click on the city nearest you.

Modern operating system, including Windows 7, Windows 8, Linux or Mac OS X
Modern web browser supporting HTML5 and Javascript, including IE 9 or later, Chrome, Firefox and Safari
A remote desktop (RDP) client – included with Windows platforms. Mac and Linux RDP clients can be downloaded for free

All participants registering for the event should have an active Windows Azure subscription. If you have not already done so, sign up for a FREE trial of the Windows Azure platform and services, including access to Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks.

Hope to see you there!

From my Friends over at Microsoft Virtual Academy

9/23/2014 Update – This event is available on demand, when you need it. If you are just starting to take a closer look at Windows Server and Hyper-V, this is a great way to get a jumpstart.

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Free Online Event: Virtualizing Your Data Center with Hyper-V and System Center

Free online event with live Q&A: http://aka.ms/virtDC

Wednesday, February 19^thfrom 9am – 5pm PST

If you’re new to virtualization, or if you have some experience and want to see the latest R2 features of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V or Virtual Machine Manager, join us for a day of free online training with live Q&A to get all your questions answered. Learn how to build your infrastructure from the ground up on the Microsoft stack, using System Center to provide powerful management capabilities. Microsoft virtualization experts Symon Perriman and Matt McSpirit (who are also VMware Certified Professionals) demonstrate how you can help your business consolidate workloads and improve server utilization, while reducing costs. Learn the differences between the platforms, and explore how System Center can be used to manage a multi-hypervisor environment, looking at VMware vSphere 5.5 management, monitoring, automation, and migration. Even if you cannot attend the live event, register today anyway and you will get an email once we release the videos for on-demand replay!

Topics include:

Introduction to Microsoft Virtualization
Host Configuration
Virtual Machine Clustering and Resiliency
Virtual Machine Configuration
Virtual Machine Mobility
Virtual Machine Replication and Protection
Network Virtualization
Virtual Machine and Service Templates
Private Clouds and User Roles
System Center 2012 R2 Data Center
Virtualization with the Hybrid Cloud
VMware Management, Integration, and Migration

Also check out the www.MicrosoftVirtualAcademy.comfor other free training and live events.

Do You Need More Books? Of Course You Do!!

I’m sure you need a resolution for 2014 to read more books about technology! If that happens to be one on your list, here are few that might interest you.

FREE eBook – Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Technical Overview by Mitch Tulloch with Symon Perriman and the System Center Team. Read more about it at the Microsoft Press blog. This is also available in print format from Amazon, but you’ll need to pay for that.
Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators by Edward Horley. Due out by the end of December, you can currently pre-order this title. The Kindle version should be available in January.
In early Spring, look for the release of Networking for VMware Administrators, by Chris Wahl and Steven Panto. While geared toward folks who work with VMware vSphere, I think it’s valuable to be able to understand virtual networking concepts and how they are used by various vendors, even if you aren’t a VMware shop. Estimated at about 350 pages, this isn’t going to be very light reading!

Do you have any reading recommendations? What’s on your list for 2014?

New System Center Training on Microsoft Virtual Academy

If you don’t regularly check in with the Microsoft Virtual Academy, you are missing out on a great way to learn at your own pace. If System Center is something you are getting into, or even if you’ve been using it for years, you might want to look at some of the new recordings available. Here are a few that are fresh this week!

Infrastructure Provisioning (with Kenon Owens)
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/infrastructure-provisioning-and-management-with-system-center-2012-r2
Many organizations have a very diverse underlying infrastructure. From different pieces of hardware, to different hypervisors. Regardless of this, they need to be able to manage everything in a consistent way. With System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, they are able to have a consistent management experience across these multiple hypervisors. This course will address deployment of compute, storage, and networking resources, and how to construct all of the different resources that we have and construct them together into a private cloud. Finally the course will delve into day-to-day operations to keep the infrastructure up and running, and deploying services to the end users as well as the architecture behind it all.

Infrastructure Monitoring (with Won Huh)
http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/infrastructure-monitoring-with-system-center-2012-r2
This course covers new monitoring capabilities and opportunities offered in Systems Center 2012 R2. Moving away from physical boxes being monitored only by individual teams, this course goes over all monitoring opportunities, including Private Cloud Monitoring, Public Cloud Monitoring, Hybrid Cloud Monitoring, OS and Workload Monitoring. Also included in this course is information about proactive monitoring integrated through System Center Advisor, and an overview of the new customized widget dashboard.