Tag: Container

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Oct022018October 2, 2018October 2, 20181Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 released, get it now!

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Private Cloud, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019, Work

Microsoft announced Windows Server 2019 a while ago and also showed of a lot of new features and improvements at Microsoft Ignite last week. Today Microsoft announced the release of Windows Server 2019. Windows Server brings improvements in four key areas, such as Hybrid, Security, Application Platform and Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI). Together with Windows Admin Center, Windows Server 2019 becomes a powerful platform to run your workloads on-premise or in the cloud.

Windows Server 2019 Investments

You can also read more about Windows Server innovations on my blog:

I have some other blog post in the pipeline, covering new features in Windows Server 2019.

Download Windows Server 2019

You can download and get Windows Server 2019 form different Microsoft source:

MSDN and the Microsoft Partner Network will get Windows Server 2019 later in October.

At Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft showed also some great Windows Server demos and I hope you check it out!


Aug222018August 22, 2018August 22, 20181Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 – What is coming Next

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, Hyper-V, Kubernetes, Microsoft, Nano Server, Server Core, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019, Work

A while ago Microsoft announced the next key versions Windows Server 2019 and System Center 2019. And a couple of weeks ago, at the Windows Server Summit, Microsoft was taking more about what is new in Windows Server 2019. Microsoft also talked a lot about the positioning of Windows Server and what we can expect in the future. With the news finally released to the public, I can start talking and blogging about the new features and investments. I decided to create a series of blogs, to show the world the great new features. This blog post here, should give you a high level overview about how Microsoft is investing in Windows Server 2019.

Windows Server – The Power behind the Intelligent Cloud and the Intelligent Edge

Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge

Windows Server is not only powering the Intelligent Edge where you have a great Software-Defined Datacenter plaform running Hyper-V or Stroage Spaces Direct, or as application platform. It is also powering the Microsoft Azure Intelligent Cloud. Windows Server is running the foundation of the platform of Azure and also many many services running in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Azure Stack. If the innovation happening in the Microsoft Public Cloud, we as customers also benefit from that.

Windows Server – Hybrid Cloud in the DNA

Windows Server Hybrid Cloud

Windows Server is a great platform and it runs where ever you are. If you run on-premises in your Software-Defined Datacenter running in on physical hardware or in virtual machines or on Azure Stack, Windows Server is your platform. If you are running in the Public Cloud, Windows Server is not only the platform powering Azure. Windows Server is also a great platform for you to run application in Microsoft Azure or other cloud services providers.

Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server

Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server Reserved Instances

The Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server is also a great option to run Windows Server workloads in the cloud. It allows customer to leverage the licensing they already have. This can bring down cost by a huge factor, and this together with Azure Reserved VM Instances up to 82%.

Windows Server 2019 – Innovation and Investments

Windows Server 2019 Investments

If we have a look at the investments done in Windows Server 2019, we can see that we can categorize them in 4 categories.

  • Hybrid Datacenter Platform
  • Security
  • Application Innovation
  • Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Unique hybrid datacenter platform

Windows Server 2019 brings new functionality and features to extend your datacenter to Azure to maximize existing investments and gain new hybrid capabilities. To achieve this Microsoft brings improvements to Windows Server 2019 like built-in Azure Active Directory integration, Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, Storage Migration Services and many more.

Enhanced security capabilities

One of the key factors in today’s IT landscape is security. Microsoft started the journey by bringing enhanced security features to Windows Server 2016. With Windows Server 2019 Microsoft improves these security features of their server operating system. Microsoft adds new capabilities like Shield Virtual Machines for Linux, Exploit Guard, Encrypted Virtual Networks and under a lot of others. My favorite, the integration of Windows Defender Advanced Thread Protection or Windows Defender ATP.

Faster innovation for applications

With the Semi-Annual Channel releases of Windows Server, Microsoft already released some great investments to enable developers and IT pros. These allow them to create cloud native apps or modernize their traditional apps using containers and micro-services. In Windows Server 2019, Microsoft goes one step further and releases the SAC Improvement s like Linux Containers on Windows Server and the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server to the LTSC release. Microsoft also invest heavily to improve the container experience on Windows Server, by optimizing the container images for Server Core and Nano Server, a new Windows Container Image and better integration into orchestrators like Kubernetes and Service Fabric.

Unprecedented Hyper-converged Infrastructure

Microsoft is also improving your software-defined datacenter experience to achieve greater efficiency and security. With Windows Admin Center, Microsoft introduced a new web-based management UI which will be a perfect solution to manage your Windows Server 2019 servers. However, Microsoft is also investing in more hardware support like Storage Class Memory support. But also, on adding scale, resilience and performance improvements to your Storage Spaces Direct deployments. This includes improvements like Cluster Sets, improved performance for Mirror-accelerated parity volumes and much more.

In the next couple of days and weeks I will release some blog posts. These will covering the new features and improvements in Windows Server 2019 with a little more technical depth. And I am sure we will even have more to share after Microsoft Ignite. So ,stay tuned and follow my blog 🙂


Aug202018August 20, 2018August 20, 20181Commentby Thomas Maurer
AzCopy Azure and Azure Stack

Sync Azure Blob Storage with Azure Stack Blob Storage

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

There are some scenarios where you want to sync Blob Storage on Azure with Blob Storage on Azure Stack. This easily be done using the AzCopy tool. AzCopy is a command-line utility designed to copy data to and from Microsoft Azure blob and table storage using simple commands with optimal performance. You can copy data from one object to another within your storage account, or between storage accounts in Azure as well as in Azure Stack.

You can get AzCopy on Windows and AzCopy on Linux. You should get at least AzCopy version 7.1.0. In my example I use the version 8.0.0 preview version, which also works fine. Make also sure that you have deployed a supported version of Azure Stack. Check out my blog about updating Azure Stack to get more information.

After the installation you will find the AzCopy.exe in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy”

How to Sync and copy files from Azure to Azure Stack

You can use AzCopy with Azure Stack as you would do in Microsoft Azure. To copy and Sync files you can use the following command. Be aware that synchronous data transfer between Azure storage and Azure Stack is not supported. There for you will need to specify the the /SyncCopy or –sync-copy parameter.

Of course this works in both directions and also between two different Azure Stack storage accounts.

You can find more about AzCopy on Azure Stack on the documentation page. If you have any questions feel free to comment on the blog post. There are other great storage tools which work great with the Microsoft Hybrid Cloud environment like Visual Studio or Azure Storage Explorer. These scenarios show perfectly how Microsoft built their hybrid cloud environment. Basically you can use the same tools, processes and knowhow in the Public Cloud as well as in your datacenter.


Jun292018June 29, 2018August 22, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Windows Container Images

The New Windows Container Image

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, Hyper-V, Kubernetes, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Work

At Microsoft Build 2018, Microsoft announced a new Windows container image, next to the Windows Server Core container image and the Nano Server container image. This new Windows container image is for applications and workloads which need additional API dependencies beyond Nano Server and Windows Server Core.

With the release of the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview (Build 17704), you can now download a preview of that container image. Your container host will need to run at least on the Windows Insider build 17704.

Windows Container Image

The IT world is transforming and Microsoft can see a huge demand by customers for containers. However the container images available today, Nano Server and Windows Server Core are lightweight versions of Windows and not including some of the components of Windows. A huge scenario for containers is to put legacy applications into containers. With the new Windows container image, Microsoft is offering a new option for applications who need more components which are not included in Windows Server Core, like DirectX or proofing support.

Microsoft Windows Container Images

As of today, Microsoft offers 3 container images in preview:

ImageVersionSize
mcr.microsoft.com/nanoserver-insider10.0.17704.1000232 MB
mcr.microsoft.com/windowsservercore-insider10.0.17704.10003.38 GB
mcr.microsoft.com/windows-insider10.0.17704.10008.07 GB

Getting started with Windows Containers

First you need to have a host running Windows Insider Preview Build 17704 or higher. After that you can simply use docker to get the latest Insider container images from the Microsoft Container Registry:

You can read more about the new Windows Container image here on the Microsoft Virtualization Blog.

If you want to know more about the production Container Images for Windows, check out my blog post: Docker Container Images for Windows Server 1709 and new tagging


Jun122018June 12, 2018August 27, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Experts Live Netherlands 2018 Thomas Maurer

Speaking at Experts Live Netherlands 2018 in Ede

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, Events, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft MVP, Nano Server, PowerShell, Server Core, Speaking, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 1803, Windows Server 2019, Work

After speaking at Experts Live Netherlands in the past, I am happy to announce that I will be speaking at the Experts Live Netherlands 2018 Conference. Experts Live Netherlands 2018 will take place at 19 June 2018 in Ede. I have great professional and personal memories from the latest Experts Live Netherlands conference and it is always a huge honor to speak at a such a great event. I am also happy to be back in the Netherlands for a couple of days.

Experts Live

In my session, I will present about the latest Windows Server innovation in the Windows Server SAC releases as well as the next Windows Server 2019.

Experts Live Netherlands 2018

My Name is Server, Windows Server

In Fall 2017 Microsoft has updated Windows Server to the next Semi-Annual Channel release with new features and improvements and Microsoft will now release new SAC and LTSC releases. Join this session for the best of Windows Server, learn how the new Servicing Model of Windows Server works and what does it mean to use SAC or LTSC releases, and what new improvement and features Microsoft offers in the latest releases such as 1709, 1803 and Windows Server 2019. You’ll get an overview about the new, exciting improvements that are in Windows Server and how they’ll improve your day-to-day job.   In this presentation Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations in Windows Server 2019 and the Semi-Annual Channel including: · Windows Server Containers · Hyper-V features · Nano Server · Storage · Networking · Security · Windows Server Containers And more!

I really hope to see you there!

 


May072018May 7, 2018August 22, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Kubernetes Service

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

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, 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.


Apr252018April 25, 2018August 27, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Thomas Maurer Supercharging Hyper-V with quantum computing

Speaking at the Hyper-V Community + Hybrid Cloud Community Pre-Day in Germany

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft MVP, PowerShell, Speaking, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 1709, Windows Server 1803, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Work

I already announced that I will be speaking at the Cloud & Datacenter Conference 2018 in Germany again this year. One day before the conferences starts there is a Pre-Day with the Hyper-V Community and Hybrid Cloud Community, where I will have another session. This session will purely focus on the latest and greats in Hyper-V.

Hyper-V Community + Hybrid Cloud Community Pre-Day

Supercharging Hyper-V with quantum computing

Okay, I am not really talking about quantum computing, but hey there are some cool features in Hyper-V you should definitely know about! In this session Thomas Maurer will talk about 10 hidden Hyper-V features everyone should know about. This covers different features for Hyper-V on Windows Server as well as on Windows 10. Be prepared for a lot of Demos!

The Speaking at the Hyper-V Community + Hybrid Cloud Community Pre-Day will take place on 14th May in Hanau Germany (Close to Frankfurt). I hope to see you there!



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    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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