Jun022018June 2, 2018June 2, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows Server Banner

Microsoft Windows Server Summit – Online Summit

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Virtualization, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Work

On Tuesday, June 26, 2018 Microsoft will held the Windows Server Summit Online, a virtual experience to learn tips and tricks for modernizing your infrastructure and applications—regardless of whether you’re running it on-premises or in the cloud. And you can bet you will also get some new information on Windows Server 2019.

Learn how to build the future with Windows Server

Microsoft will talk about the roadmap for Windows Server, and let you discover new skills and best practices, and get your questions answered in conversations with the Microsoft experts behind our products.

This online summit will focus on 4 key areas of Windows Server:

  • Hybrid – Learn how Windows Server helps you integrate Azure services into your on-premises environment and how to better run Windows Server in Azure.
  • Security – Better security starts with the Operating System. Learn how Windows Server helps you elevate your company’s security posture.
  • Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) – Windows Server 2016 introduced new HCI capabilities that are game-changers. Now, check what’s new around HCI for Windows Server 2019.
  • Application platform – Containers are changing the way developers and operations teams run applications. Learn how Windows Server helps you modernize yours.

So if you want to know more, join the Microsoft online event!

 


May312018May 31, 2018May 31, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 RSAT Feature on Demand

Windows 10 RSAT Feature on Demand

Posted in Cloud, IT, Microsoft, Powershell, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Work

Microsoft just released a new Windows 10 Insider build (Build 17682), with a lot of improvements. However, a great new feature for IT Pros is that RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10) is now a feature on demand. You can now go to Windows Settings, Optional Features and select add features, where you then will see the different Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10.

This means IT Pros do not need to manually download the RSAT tools to upgrade. This will safe most of us a lot of time.

What is RSAT

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10 lets IT administrators manage Windows Server from a remote computer running the full release version of Windows 10.

How to Install RSAT

Install Windows 10 RSAT using PowerShell

As mentioned you can use the Windows 10 Settings and add the feature using the UI, but you are also available using PowerShell.

This feature is currently only available in the Windows 10 Insider builds and is likely to be rolled out to everyone with Windows 10 1809 later this year.


May312018May 31, 2018May 31, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack

Passed 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam

Posted in Certification, Cloud, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Work

Back in February Microsoft released the Azure Stack beta exam, 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam. As always I try to take the exam early as they are available and today I finally got the results that I passed exam 70-537.

Passing Exam 537: Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack validates the skills and knowledge necessary to plan, deploy, package, update, and maintain the Azure Stack infrastructure. Candidates also demonstrate the ability to offer hybrid cloud resources and requested services, and to manage IaaS and PaaS.

This exam measures the following skills:

  • Deploying and Integrating an Azure Stack Environment
  • Configuring PaaS and IaaS for Azure Stack Environment
  • Providing Services to enabling DevOps for Azure Stack Tenants
  • Maintaining and Monitoring an Azure Stack Environment

This week I finally got the message that I passed the Beta exam. If you want to take that exam you should really be familiar with the products and solutions mentioned above, otherwise you will have a hard time passing the exam. There are both questions about Azure Stack ASDK as well as the multi node system, so I would recommend that you get some hands on experience with a multi node system as well.

If you want to know more about the exam, check out this link: Microsoft 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam


May312018May 31, 2018May 31, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 Audio Devices with Emojis

Rename Windows 10 Audio Devices with Emojis

Posted in Fun, IT, Windows, Windows 10

I know, I am usually not blogging about emojis, but this time I can it is pretty cool and helpful. A couple of days ago I saw a tweet from one of the Microsoft Windows Program Managers and how she renamed her audio devices with emojis. I think this is pretty cool and visualization makes it also easier to find the right devices. In this quick blog I will show you how you quickly can rename your audio devices in Windows 10 with emojis (or even without ;).

First you might have seen the new audio devices selection in Windows 10

Windows 10 Audio Devices

Now to rename these devices, simply right click on the audio symbol in the taskbar and click on Sounds.

This will open up the Windows Sounds options. Here select Playback Devices. Right click the device you want you rename, for example your headphones and click on Properties.

Windows Audio Devices Properties

In the properties you can now change the name and add for example emojis. To use emojis you can open up a document or mail simply use press “Windows + .” and the emoji panel shows up. Select the emoji you want to use und copy past it in the name field. Save the changes and now your Windows 10 Audio devices will show up with a different name and even emojis.

Windows 10 Audio Devices with Emojis


May232018May 23, 2018May 23, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows Server 2019 Add Remote Access Role

How to install VPN on Windows Server 2019

Posted in DirectAccess, IT, Microsoft, Web, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019, Work

This blog post is a step by step guide how to install and configure VPN on Windows Server 2019. The blog post shows you how you can easily setup a VPN server for a small environment, branch office or for a hosted server scenario. This VPN (Virtual Private Network) server allows you to connect from remote clients or firewalls to the Windows Server.

I already did a similar post for other versions of Windows

To install VPN access to a Windows Server 2019, simply follow this step by step guide:

Read More

May182018May 18, 2018May 18, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
IT Camp 2018 Overview

Speaking about Azure Stack at IT Camp 2018 in Cluj-Napoca

Posted in Cloud, IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Work

I am happy to announce that I will be speaking for another year at IT Camp in Cluj-Napoca Romania. This will be my third time I will be part of this amazing IT conference in Transylvania, this time for IT Camp 2018. In my session I will speak about Azure Stack and provide you with information how you can leverage Azure Stack in your datacenter.

IT Camp 2018 Speaker Thomas Maurer

ITCamp 2018

Azure Stack - Everything you need to know!

Microsoft released Azure Stack as a Azure appliance for your datacenter. Learn what Azure Stack is, what challenges it solves, how you deploy, manage and operate a Azure Stack in your datacenter. Learn about the features and services you will get by offering Azure Stack to your customers and how you can build a true Hybrid Cloud experience. In this presentation Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations and experience during the Azure Stack Early Adaption Program and Azure Stack Technology Adoption Program (TAP).

It will be again an amazing event with a lot of top speakers, a lot of fun and a lot of knowledge for networking. I hope I see you there!


May072018May 7, 2018May 8, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) – The best place to host your containers

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, IT, Kubernetes, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Virtualization, Windows Server

Microsoft today at Build 2018 announced that they will rename Azure Container Service (AKS) to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) manages your hosted Kubernetes environment, making it quick and easy to deploy and manage containerized applications without container orchestration expertise. It also eliminates the burden of ongoing operations and maintenance by provisioning, upgrading, and scaling resources on demand, without taking your applications offline.

  • Drastically simplifies how you build and run container-based solutions without deep Kubernetes expertise
  • Auto Update, auto scale
  • New capabilities integrated with dev tools and workspaces, CI/CD networking, monitoring tools, etc.
  • All included in the Azure Portal

Create Azure Kubernetes Service AKS

This will be a great services to run containerized workloads in a very simple manor and reduce management overhead.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) will also be available on Azure Stack, as announced in the Azure Stack Roadmap update a couple of months ago.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Azure Stack
Managed Kubernetes with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Azure Stack will make it even easier for Azure Stack users to manage and operate Kubernetes environments in the same ways as they do in Azure, without sacrificing portability. This new service features an Azure-hosted control plane, automated upgrades, self-healing, easy scaling, and a simple user experience for both developers and cluster operators. With Container Service, customers get the benefit of open source Kubernetes without complexity and operational overhead. This update applies primarily to Azure Stack users.

With AKS on Azure and Azure Stack. and other services like the Azure Container Registry, Docker for Windows, Windows Server and Hyper-V Containers, Visual Studio Team Services Integration for Azure and Containers, the Microsoft container story becomes very strong. It allows you to run your container workloads in a very simple CI/CD pipeline (VSTS), deployment on Managed Kubernetes (AKS) and deploy it where ever you need it, in the public cloud (Azure) or on-premise (Azure Stack).

Yes Microsoft still has ACS (Azure Container Service), which allows you to deploy different pre-configured container environments and orchestrators, like Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, DC/OS, for scalable deployments and management of containerized workloads.



  • About

    Thomas Maurer

    My Name is Thomas Maurer. Microsoft MVP. Work as a Solutions Architect and Technology Lead for itnetX, a consulting and engineering company located in Switzerland. I am focused on Microsoft Technologies, especially Microsoft Cloud & Datacenter solutions based Microsoft System Center, Microsoft Virtualization and Microsoft Azure.

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