May192020May 19, 2020May 18, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Microsoft Build 2020

Microsoft Build 2020 Expert Q&A Azure Hybrid Cloud Management

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Events, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Webinar, Windows Admin Center, Windows Server 2019, Work

This year, the Microsoft Build 2020 (May 19-20) will be a global digital experience with a non-stop, 48-hour interactive livestream experience straight to your screen. In the digital event session catalog, you find out more about the learning content at the for Microsoft developers but also IT Pros. I am happy to let you know that I will be part of a Microsoft Build 2020 Expert Q&A session on Azure Hybrid Cloud Management together with Sarah Lean (Microsoft Cloud Advocate).

Expert Q&A: Azure Hybrid Cloud and Management

Wednesday, May 20 – 11:45 AM – 12:15 PM CEST 

Community Connections experience – Connect with experts to discuss Azure Hybrid Cloud and Management Technologies like Azure Arc, Azure Stack, Azure Stack HCI, Azure Management, Azure Governance, Azure Migrate, and Azure File Sync.

In this Microsoft Build Q&A session, we will be there to answer questions about Azure Hybrid Cloud and Management. Join us on topics like:

I hope you join us at this year’s Microsoft Build 2020 conference online! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.


May142020May 14, 2020May 14, 20203Commentsby Thomas Maurer
How to SSH into an Azure VM from Windows Terminal Menu

How to SSH into an Azure VM from Windows Terminal Menu

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Terminal

A couple of days ago, I released a blog post on how you can add a PowerShell remote session in the Windows Terminal menu. In my example, I created a menu item in Windows Terminal to use PowerShell remoting to connect to an Azure virtual machine (VM). In the meantime, I got a lot of questions on how you can add an SSH connection to an Azure VM in the Windows Terminal. That is why I am going to share here, how you can add an SSH connection to an Azure VM in the Windows Terminal menu.

Scott Hanselman wrote a great blog post on how you can add tabs to open an SSH connection, so I highly recommend that you read his blog for all the details.

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May112020May 11, 2020May 18, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Livestream Hybrid Cloud Server Management with Azure Arc

Livestream on Hybrid Cloud Server Management with Azure Arc

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Windows Admin Center, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019

On Wednesday, May 27, I plan to do a Livestream on how to govern and manage servers in a hybrid cloud environment with Azure Arc. In the live stream, we will set up my Azure environment and add on-premises Windows and Linux servers to Azure Arc, so I can start managing them using the Azure Resource Manager.

Azure Arc allows you to onboard physical and virtual servers in your hybrid environment (on-premises, edge, and multi-cloud). By joining serves to Azure Arc, you get the benefits you are used from native Azure resources, like tags, RBAC, and many more. In the preview, you can now use Azure Management services like Azure Log Analytics and Azure Policy to make sure your servers are compliant across your hybrid environment.

Livestream Azure Arc for Servers – Hybrid Cloud Server Management

YouTube Livestream will be starting on Wednesday, May 27 at 16:00 (CEST): Make sure you set a reminder!

 ▶ Download the calendar ICS file here. 📅✔

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to get a notification.

Manage and govern your hybrid servers using Azure Arc

Thomas Maurer shows you how you can manage and govern your Windows and Linux machines hosted outside of Azure on your corporate network or other cloud providers, similar to how you manage native Azure virtual machines. When a hybrid machine is connected to Azure, it becomes a connected machine and is treated as a resource in Azure. Azure Arc provides you with the familiar cloud-native Azure management experience, like RBAC, Tags, Azure Policy, Log Analytics, and more.

If you are interested in these topics, join me and check out the following links:

Join us on the YouTube Livestream

If you are interested, join us on May 27 online. I am really looking forward to chatting with you in the Livestream about hybrid cloud server management with Azure Arc. You can find the live stream here on YouTube.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.


May102020May 10, 2020May 18, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Cloud with Chris Podcast

Cloud with Chris – Podcast on Hybrid Cloud

Posted in Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Webinar, Windows Server

I was on the Cloud with Chris podcast to talk about Hybrid Cloud and especially what Microsoft Azure has to offer with the Azure Hybrid services. Cloud with Chris is a great podcast if you want to learn more about different cloud computing technologies and concepts. You can listen to the podcast right here.

Cloud with Chris

Exploring Cloud concepts with Chris Reddington (Welsh Tech Geek, Cloud Advocate, Musical Theatre Enthusiast and Improving Improviser!). We will regularly invite guests to talk about their experiences with the cloud and hear about some of the lessons learned around their cloud journey.

In episode 6, we focused on Hybrid Cloud and how Microsoft Azure can really provide value. Microsoft Azure is designed to be hybrid and helps our customers to run their services where ever they need them, connect existing services to the cloud, and make their on-premises environment even better. In the podcast, we are talking about how you can connect existing systems to Azure Hybrid services, the new Azure Stack portfolio, Azure Arc, and much more.

Joining me in this episode is Thomas Maurer, a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft who engages with the community and customers around the world! Most of the focus so far in Cloud with Chris has been on Public Cloud, so Thomas and I adjust course slightly, and talk about Hybrid Cloud, and the new and upcoming features of the Microsoft Azure platform. Get ready to be introduced to a wide variety of Azure Technologies, and how they may be able to strengthen your on-premises, public cloud or multi-cloud deployments. Let’s listen in…

You can check out his podcast site and listen to it on the platform of your choice. You can learn more about Azure Hybrid here:

I hope you will enjoy the Cloud with Chris podcast on Hybrid Cloud, and if you have any questions please let me know in the comments.


May072020May 7, 2020May 6, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Surface Pro X with Slim Pen

How to Enable or Disable Hibernate on the Surface Pro X

Posted in Hardware, Microsoft, Surface, Windows, Windows 10, Work

I am sure you have seen that I am the proud owner of a Surface Pro X. The Surface Pro X is one of the latest Microsoft Surface devices, and instead of coming with an Intel or AMD x86 processor, it comes with a custom Qualcomm ARM CPU, called the Microsoft SQ1. The Surface Surface Pro X also runs Windows 10 on ARM, which allows you to run ARM64 and emulated x86 (32-bit) apps. Since I really like this device and the always-on feature, I just quickly want to share how you can enable or disable hibernate on the Surface Pro X.

The reason why I want to disable hibernate is that I can take advantage of the always-on capabilities for a much longer period of time. To understand the differences between shut down, sleep, or hibernate, you can check out the following Microsoft support article.

Shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC and the Surface Pro X

There are different ways of handling your PC when you are not using it, you can turn your PC off completely by shutting it down, make it sleep, or you can hibernate your PC.

Sleep

Sleep uses very little power, your PC starts up faster, and you’re instantly back to where you left off. You don’t have to worry that you’ll lose your work because of your battery draining, because Windows automatically saves all your work and turns off the PC if the battery is too low. Use sleep when you’re going to be away from your PC for just a little while—like when you’re taking a coffee break.

Hibernate

This option was designed for laptops and might not be available for all PCs. Hibernate uses less power than sleep and when you start up the PC again, you’re back to where you left off (though not as fast as sleep). Use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop or tablet for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time. First check to see if this option is available on your PC and if it is, turn it on.

(Source Microsoft Support)

Enable or Disable Hibernate on the Surface Pro X

To enable or disable hibernate you can use the following options by using PowerShell or the Command Prompt as administrator.

Disable Hibernate run:

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

Enable Hibernate run:

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

You can also find out more about the battery behavior of your Windows 10 devices by using powercfg, so you can see how much battery power your devices uses in sleep or hibernation or while using it. I wrote a blog post called Troubleshoot Windows 10 Battery Life and Modern Standby.

Windows 10 SleepStudy Report

Windows 10 SleepStudy Report

I hope this post helps a couple of people dealing with the power management of Windows 10 and how to enable or disable hibernate on the Surface Pro X. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.


May052020May 5, 2020May 4, 20204Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Write PowerShell Code Online in a web browser using Visual Studio Codespaces

Write PowerShell Online using Visual Studio Codespaces

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code

Last week the Visual Studio Services team announced a new service called Visual Studio Codespaces. Visual Studio Codespaces allows you to do cloud-hosted development for wherever you’re working. While the new services support many different programming and scripting languages, it also supports PowerShell. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can write PowerShell code online in a web browser using Visual Studio Codespaces.

What is Visual Studio Codespaces

As mentioned, Visual Studio Codespaces (earlier known as Visual Studio Online) are cloud-hosted development environments, which are accessible from everywhere. I don’t want to go too deep into what Visual Studio Codespaces are since there are already great resources out there. However, I want to quickly give you an overview of the basics of Visual Studio Code spaces and how you can use them to write PowerShell code.

Visual Studio Codespaces gives you access to development machines, which can be cloud-hosted or self-hosted.

  • Cloud-hosted machines are machines running in the Microsoft Cloud, and you can take advantage of the power of that machine. In this case, you can use the web browser or Visual Studio Code to access that Codespace.
  • Self-hosted machines can be computers in your home, company, installed in the cloud using Azure VMs, or everywhere. Again, here you can use a remote machine using a web browser or VS Code to access that code space remotely.
Visual Studio Codespaces Overview

Visual Studio Codespaces Overview

This now allows you to have a powerful development environment that you can access and run from anywhere. I think that is pretty cool!

You can read more about the introduction of Visual Studio Codespaces here.

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Apr302020April 30, 2020April 29, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Speaking at Microsoft Virtual Training Week Germany 2020

Speaking at the Microsoft Virtual Training Week Germany 2020

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Events, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Virtualization, Webinar, Windows Admin Center, Windows Server 2019

I am happy to let you know that I will be speaking virtually at the Microsoft Virtual Training Week Germany 2020 from May 11-14. This is a free four-day online event, where you can learn in different learning paths and tracks about the latest and greatest Microsoft technologies like Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and many more. I will be speaking on Wednesday, May 13, and Thursday, May 14. The event will have a mix from sessions in German as well as sessions in English. My session will be in English and I will be talking in the Migrating Server Infrastructure and the Modern Cloud Operations track.

Migrating Server Infrastructure (Wednesday, May 13 – 13:30-17:30 CEST)

  • Migrating to Windows Server 2019 (Thomas Maurer – English)
    Tailwind Traders has acquired Northwind, a large subsidiary company. Northwind currently has 1500 servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 – either directly or virtually – on hardware at the midpoint of its operational lifespan. While Tailwind Traders will eventually move many of these workloads to Azure, Windows Server 2008 R2 end of life is quickly approaching. In this session, learn how Tailwind Traders’ used Azure hybrid management technologies to migrate servers, and the roles that they host, to Windows Server 2019.
  • Integrated Cloud Technologies – Hybrid Management Technologies (Thomas Maurer – English)
    Tailwind Traders has now migrated the majority of their server hosts from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2019. Now, they are interested in the Azure hybrid technologies that are readily available to them. In this session, learn how Tailwind Traders began using Windows Admin Center to manage its fleet of Windows Server computers and integrated hybrid technologies, such as Azure File Sync, Azure Arc, Azure Azure Site Recovery, and Azure Update Management to improve deployment performance and manageability.
  • Migrating IaaS Workloads to Azure (Markus Klein – German)
    Now that the migration of their server hosts from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2019 is complete, Tailwind Traders wants to begin the process of “lift and shift”: migrating some of their on-premises VMs they’ve been running in their datacenter. In this session, learn about how Tailwind Traders began the process of migrating some of their existing VM workloads to Azure and how this allowed them to retire aging server hardware and close datacenter and server rooms that were costing the organization a substantial amount of money.

You can find more information and register for free here.

Azure: Managing Cloud Operations (Thursday, May 14 – 13:30-17:30 CEST)

  • IaaS VM Operations (Thomas Maurer – English)
    In recent months, Tailwind Traders has been having issues with keeping their sprawling IaaS VM deployment under control, leading to mismanaged resources and inefficient processes. In this session, look into how Tailwind Traders can ensure their VMs are properly managed and maintained with the same care in Azure as they were in Tailwind Trader’s on-premises data centers.
  • Azure Governance and Management (Thomas Maurer – English)
    Tailwind Traders’ deployments are ocuring in an ad hoc manner, primarily driven by lack of protocol and unapproved decisions by various operators or employees. Some deployments even violate the organization’s compliance obligations, such as being deployed in a manner that violates PCI DSS rules. After bringing their existing IaaS VM fleet under control, Tailwind Traders wants to ensure that future deployments comply with policy and organizational requirements. In this session, walk through the processes and technologies that will keep Tailwind Trader’s deployments in good standing with the help of Azure Blueprints, Azure Policy, Locks, and more.

You can find more information and register for free here.

I hope you join us at the Microsoft Virtual Training Week Germany 2020. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. I also summarized some of the links to documentation which will help you with the topics above.

If you want to watch some videos on demand, check out my YouTube channel.



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    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. I am located in Switzerland. I am focusing on Microsoft technologies, especially cloud and datacenter solutions based on Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Windows Server. Opinions are my own.

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