Get on the wait list for an event in Belgrade, Serbia on February 11

Get on the wait list for an event in Perth, Australia on February 11

Get on the wait list for an event in Brisbane, Australia on February 12

Register now for an event in Bangkok, Thailand on February 27

If you’re in the neighborhood of one of these events, I urge you to register if you can or get on the wait list if you’re close to one of the sold-out sessions. You’ll be glad you did!

Thanks,

Christa Anderson

The post Final Stops for the Windows Server 2012 Community Roadshow: Australia, Serbia, and Thailand! appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Read Satya’s full post.

The post Windows Server 2012 is here — and so is the Cloud OS appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

For Windows Server 2012 we listened to our customers and partners and added the most desired features and resolved the top pain points in Remote Desktop Services (RDS).   Following a description of RDS, I’ll summarize some of the many dramatic improvements we have made.

For those people that are not familiar with RDS, it is the workload within Windows Server that enables users to connect to virtual desktops, session-based desktops and RemoteApp programs.  The key value that RDS provides is the ability to centralize and control the applications and data that employees need to perform their job from the variety of devices that the employee uses.  This provides “work anywhere from any device” while ensuring that your control and compliance needs are met.

In the previous release, we received consistent feedback that:

1. RemoteFX was very popular however its underlying protocol (RDP) did not provide a great experience over Wide Area Networks (WANs)
2. Session and virtual machine infrastructures were complicated and costly and
3. The administration experience was not simple.

Windows Server 2012 addresses each of these issues.
For Windows Server 2012 we have made RemoteFX dramatically better over a WAN as well as balancing between scale (host side cost) and reduced bandwidth.  Specific improvements include:

• Adaptive Graphics.   We support a mix and match approach, determining and using the right codec for the right content instead of one size fits all.  We included codecs optimized for multimedia, images, and text.  We improved caching as well as added progressive rendering.  Progressive rendering allows RemoteFX to provide a responsive experience over a highly constrained network.
• Intelligent Transports.  We support UDP as well as TCP.  UDP provides a better experience over a lossy WAN network but, is not always possible dependent on the routers, and firewalls involved.  RDP will automatically use TCP when UDP cannot be used to ensure connectivity and the best possible experience.
• Optimized Media Streaming.  We utilize a new codec to reduce bandwidth consumption for media content (in some cases a 90% bandwidth reduction) while also providing a great end user media experience.
• Adaptive Network Auto Detect.   In this release, the end user no longer has to set the network in the Remote Desktop Connection client: the client auto-detects the network type and, also adapts as the network changes.
• DirectX11 Support with vGPU.   In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, we first introduced the RemoteFX Virtual GPU (vGPU), which provided DirectX 9 application support and Aero theming for virtual machines running on Hyper-V servers with physical GPUs.  In Windows Server 2012, the vGPU feature is expanded and all Windows 8 virtual machines can take advantage of a DirectX 11 capable GPU, either emulated in software (softGPU) when no GPU is present in the host or para-virtualized and hardware-accelerated (vGPU) when a DirectX11 compatible video card is present in the host.   We do support multiple GPU’s within one server and are seeing greater engagement with OEM’s to provide systems that support this.
• Single Sign-On.  In Windows Server 2008 R2, it was possible to configure an RDS deployment so that users will need to enter their credentials only once when connecting to RemoteApps and hosted desktops. However, this configuration was very cumbersome. In Windows Server 2012 we dramatically simplified this by eliminating the need to use multiple certificates. We also made it possible to use locally logged on domain credentials so that users connecting from managed devices can connect seamlessly without any credential prompts.
• Email and web discovery of Remote Applications and desktops.  Users now can find the correct remote workspace to connect to by just providing their email address. This removes the requirement to remember a long website URL. In addition, Remote Desktop Web Access now supports other browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
• Multi Touch.  We support full remoting of gestures (e.g. pinch and zoom) between the client and host with up to 256 touch points.  This provides for a consistent experience when using a touch enabled device locally or, over RemoteFX.  As more apps are written supporting touch as the primary interface, this will become more important.
• USB Redirection.  In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 we supported USB isochronous remoting only for vGPU enabled virtual machines.   We have added support when using sessions and physical hosts which provides a consistent experience independent of physical, session, or virtual machine based host.
• Metro-style Remote Desktop.  In the app store we have added a new Metro-style application to provide an immersive touch-first remoting experience.  Discoverability of remote resources, touch optimization, easy reconnect to your favorites, are just some of the specific features added.

The second main improvement area is in overall infrastructure simplification and cost reduction.   Cost and complexity is a major roadblock for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and hosted desktop deployments of all sizes. In Windows Server 2012 we made many improvements to address this problem, such as:

• Robust Pooled Virtual Desktop Collection model.  “Pooled virtual desktop collection” model refers to the idea that a large number of virtual machines can be managed as a single entity by using a single virtual desktop template. This model is very attractive in VDI because it allows IT admins to provide a work desktop to multiple users without having to maintain a full OS for each user. In Windows Server 2012 we fully support this deployment model. Virtual machines can be created in batch from a virtual desktop template, patched by only modifying that virtual desktop template, and recreated/refreshed automatically by the RD Connection Broker. This dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of supporting a large number of users.
• User Profile Disk.  A major blocker for the “pooled virtual desktop collection” model has been lack of personalization: Since the pooled virtual desktop collection is based on a common virtual desktop template, the user’s personal documents, settings, and configurations would normally not be present. User Profile Desk was added to solve this problem for either virtual machine-based or session based desktop deployments. As the user logs on to different virtual machines within the pool or different RD Session Hosts within the session collection, his/her User Profile Disk gets mounted, providing access to the user’s complete profile. Since User Profile Disk operates at a lower layer, it works seamlessly with existing user state technologies such as Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection.
• Wide range of high-performance and low cost storage options.  RDS is built on top of Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 storage, so the enhancements made throughout the hypervisor and storage stack in Windows Server 2012 benefit all RDS deployments. To name a few, we support:

• VDI over SMB, SANs, or direct attached local storage
• Pooled virtual desktop collections can be configured with storage tiers to optimize IOPS
• Highly scalable and resilient configurations with Clustering and with Storage Spaces
• All these improvements provide a dramatic reduction in costs while maintaining performance and management benefits of central storage.

• Fairshare of resources in RD Session Host.  In Windows Server 2012, RD Session Host server allocates CPU, Disk I/O, and Network I/O such that a single user cannot consume resources that would negatively impact other users on the same host.  Each user will get a “fair share”.  This is done with minimum overhead so the CPU, disk, and network resources are used to maximum capacity.
• GPU Optional.  In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 we had a requirement on a physical GPU for the new RemoteFX features that shipped in that release.  In Windows Server 2012 the physical GPU is optional for VDI where it provides value if you are running applications that could benefit from hardware offload such as a CAD/CAM application.
• Removal of a dedicated RD Session Host server running in redirection mode.  We have removed the RD Session Host server running in Redirection mode which was a required component in previous versions. This functionality is now incorporated into the RD Connection Broker. This reduces the number of components to deploy and manage.

The third and final focus area for improvements made in RDS has been in overall management simplification.  This is targeted at improving the E2E management experience as well as enabling partner solution creation.  Improvements include:

• RDS Management Interface integrated into Server Manager.  RDS now includes a single management interface through which you can deploy RDS end to end, monitor the deployment, configure options, and manage all your RDS components and servers. This management interface is built into the new Server Manager, taking advantage of many new Windows Server 2012 management capabilities such as multi-server deployments, remote configuration, and orchestrated configuration workflows. This interface replaces older tools such as Remote Desktop Services Manager, RemoteApp Manager, and RD Session Host Configuration.  The management tools for RD Gateway and RD Licensing are still provided separately since these roles are often deployed independently.
• Scenario-Focused Deployment.  The new Server Manager provides a scenario-focused wizard that dramatically simplifies the task of bringing up a complete RDS deployment. This wizard sets up all the roles needed for an RDS deployment, configures each server role correctly to communicate with the other roles, and walks you through creating your first virtual desktop or session collection as well. The wizard comes in two flavors:

• Quick Start is optimized for deploying Remote Desktop Services on one server, and creates a collection and publishes RemoteApp programs.
• Standard Deployment allows you to deploy Remote Desktop Services across multiple servers, allowing for a more customized deployment.

• Active/Active RD Connection Broker.  In previous releases the RD Connection Broker role service has supported an active/passive clustering model. This provided high availability in the case of component failure, but it did not address high scale requirements. In this release, we have eliminated the need for clustering and switched to an active/active model. With this model, two RD Connection Brokers can be combined as a farm to provide both fault tolerance and load balancing.  This prevents the broker from being a single point of failure and also allows ‘scale out’ as load demands.
• PowerShell support.  All platform functions and capabilities can be controlled through a comprehensive and rich PowerShell layer.  IT administrators can use this layer to build sophisticated automation that helps fit RDS into their IT infrastructure and workflows. We also anticipate third-party vendors to use this new extensibility layer to address unique new scenarios and integrate Windows Server 2012 RDS into management tools.

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 provides a single infrastructure, and consistently great remoting experience even over WAN while offering three deployment choices: Session, Pooled virtual desktop collection, Personal virtual desktop collection to reduce the cost appropriate to the needs of the user.  The administration is simplified and platform hooks are provided for partner extension to provide additional value and solutions.

Customers are excited about RDS with Windows Server 2012 and some have already rolled out a pre-release version into production taking advantage of these new benefits!   We are proud of the work we have done and look forward to providing more information as we drill into the specific features in blogs posts to come at the RDS Blog.

– The Entire Remote Desktop Virtualization Team

The post Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services (RDS) appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

With the official naming of Windows Server “8” as Windows Server 2012 and the launch of System Center 2012 at MMS a few weeks back, Microsoft has now delivered a solution to our customers for building their private clouds and to hosters for building their own Infrastructure-as-a-Service public cloud offerings. It is instructive to recap the meaning of moving to the cloud model and the core tenets of a cloud as was laid out in the keynote by Brad Anderson at MMS, and then take a look at how this is done with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1.

The Cloud Model
First off, it is important to note that cloud computing does not necessarily mean that the workload is running outside a customer’s premises. The workloads could be deployed on infrastructure that is on a customer’s premises, or on their partners’ premises but completely controlled and managed by the customer. That is a “private” cloud. Workloads could also be deployed and run on a hoster’s premises on shared infrastructure that is used by other tenants. That is a “public” cloud. In both cases, cloud computing is a way of consuming capacity with the attributes of resource pooling, self-service, elasticity and usage-based metering.

The Cloud Personas
As the cloud model decouples the infrastructure from the services it supports, it also decouples two distinct processes: provisioning and consumption. And there are two corresponding personas:

• Service provider (the datacenter admin)
• Service consumer (an application owner)

These two personas look for quite distinct attributes, each in their domain:

The separation of concerns between the provider and consumer offers great simplicity and agility. It is a foundation for the trend toward democratization of computing. We often hear that the consumer should not have to be aware of the details of the physical infrastructure, but we can make a stronger statement: the consumer is not allowed to be aware of the physical infrastructure, because that would constrain the daily work of the provider. The provider may need to replace an old machine with a new one that is more efficient, and should not have to involve or even inform the consumer, as long as the abstractions and service level agreements are satisfied. This decoupled model does not fit with all existing IT processes or with all existing apps; in a coming blog we will discuss how Windows Server and System Center accommodate a mix of work styles.

Cloud Attributes Realized
Let’s look at each of the four cloud attributes and see what Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 provide customers.

• Pooled resources: This means that we deal with resources at an aggregate level rather than at the level of individual servers. The cloud exposes a pool of capacity for use by services that require the capacity, and this abstraction decouples the virtualized workloads from the physical infrastructure, allowing dynamic workload placement and independent infrastructure management.
  While modern large-scale clouds often use strictly homogeneous hardware and require that software adapts, this is often not practical in enterprise computing where existing software may have specific hardware requirements; our cloud model supports heterogeneous resource pools, where the system automatically matches software requirements to hardware characteristics.
  Having pools of resources implies that multiple tenants (customers) will have their workloads on this environment and the infrastructure must provide the necessary isolation between fenced-off resource pools. Such multi-tenancy is not just for public clouds: even in a private cloud, the self-service model that gives consumers flexibility to deploy services with little oversight requires robust isolation between pools to prevent accidental impact on a neighbor.

• Windows Server 2012 enables resources to be pooled via a variety of capabilities such as the Hyper-V extensible switch, Network Virtualization, Quality of Service (QoS) and network isolation policies. In addition, with enhancements in live and storage migration, the Windows Server platform enables resources to be moved easily across the datacenter, to optimize the use of datacenter resources.
• System Center 2012 through the Virtual Machine Manager component can aggregate compute, network and storage resources and expose them as a construct called a “Cloud”. It supports managing these Clouds at scale, and dynamically placing workloads in them, with role-based access control mechanisms for multi-tenant isolation and delegation of clouds to consumers. In SP1, Virtual Machine Manager uses the platform capabilities of network virtualization and live and storage migration for more flexible pool management and to load-balance the environment so that customers SLA’s are met proactively.

• Self-Service: In the cloud model, service consumers can use a self-service experience, typically a web-based portal, to access the capacity they have been allocated, self-provision workloads from standing up a single VM to deploying a complex service, and manage the life cycle of those workloads.

• Windows Server 2012 goes a long way in enabling full datacenter automation. Self-servicing implies that all datacenter operations must be fully automatable, otherwise manual labor will be required every time a workload is placed on a cloud. Windows Server 2012 is fully automatable via PowerShell and WMI, exposing the necessary interfaces to enable this scenario.
• System Center 2012 builds on the automation capabilities in Windows Server 2012 and provides portals and management capabilities to enable self-service. The Service Manager component provides a service catalog that drives a self-service portal for IT approval workflows such as allocating capacity. The App Controller component provides a self-service experience for administering virtual machines and services, covering both private cloud and the Windows Azure public cloud. The Operations Manager component provides the operational intelligence for the environment, and the Orchestrator component provides run-book automation. Lastly, the Data Protection Manager component of System Center implements business continuity policies.

• Elastic: Cloud Elasticity means that the infrastructure can support the changing needs of the organization, deploying new services as needed, allocating more resources to services that experience heavy load or de-allocating resources to save power when the load is light. With cross-cloud management, workloads can also move between private and public clouds, providing extra capacity, geo-scale reach, or other characteristics as needed.

• From the Windows Server platform perspective, elasticity is enabled by allowing multiple services running on different infrastructures to be interconnected via IPSec VPNs. Windows Server 2012 has new support for IKEv2 VPNs in the box, allowing it to easily interconnect private and public clouds.
  In addition, elasticity also means that it should be possible to easily move any workload across the cloud to public cloud providers. In current technologies, this is very hard to achieve because workloads tend to have a lot of networking assumptions embedded into them, such as fixed IP addresses and subnets. With Windows Server 2012 Network Virtualization, it is now possible to move a workload around while keeping its own IP addresses and decoupling it from the provider’s IP space.
• System Center 2012 SP1 uses a platform capability for network virtualization in its network constructs. When a workload “network” is defined, System Center allows cloud consumers to deploy such networks on any cloud or on any physical network infrastructure that is made available to them.
  VMM not only allows elastic allocation and release of resources to services within a cloud, but also allows adding or removing capacity to the cloud itself, giving the appearance of unlimited capacity of the cloud as viewed by the service consumer.

• Usage Based: In the cloud model, customers are billed or at least get informed on their cloud resource usage based on their actual resource consumption.

• Windows Server 2012 provides capabilities for detailed and granular metering information for core metrics such as CPU, memory, storage and network. In Windows Server 2012, these metrics follow the VM as it migrates in the environment.
• System Center 2012 aggregates these consumption metrics and allows the cloud operator to show back or bill back based on their policies.

A detailed walkthrough of the various features and capabilities that make Windows Server 2012 a cloud-optimized OS can be found in the white paper Building an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Cloud Using Windows Server 8.

Scenarios
As we can see from above, there are many aspects of a cloud. In this blog we will focus on the Service provider persona and specifically on how providers can stand up their private cloud infrastructure as it pertains to using SMB 3.0 as storage for VMs and using Hyper-V Network Virtualization with Windows Server 2012 Beta and the community technology preview (CTP)  of System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). In future posts we will delve deeper into the other aspects of the cloud.

Standing up Cloud Infrastructure with System Center 2012 SP1
Let’s start by looking at how Hyper-V network virtualization is provisioned and managed from VMM. In System Center 2012, VMM introduced Logical Networks which abstracts the various definitions of networks in enterprise datacenters, allowing datacenter administrators to use the vernacular of the application owners who express their connectivity using terms as “I want my VM to connect to the CORP network”. A logical network could be defined differently for each datacenter site and automation in VMM ensures that when the VM is deployed the appropriate configuration is applied. With SP1, we introduce another abstraction over this called “VM networks”. Logical networks now pertain to the fabric networks and VMs and Services now only connect to “VM Networks”. A VM network can be realized by a VLAN, direct logical network or with Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V Network Virtualization.
In the System Center 2012 SP1 CTP VMM only supports creating VM networks with Hyper-V network virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) which is the long term preferred mechanism. In the final release of System Center 2012 SP1, we plan to support creating VM networks using IP Rewrite which is easier to deploy in existing environment and doesn’t require a change of network infrastructure, but does require a provider address (PA) for each customer address (CA) you allocate. I strongly urge you to read the great blog on Hyper-V Virtual Networking to get an understanding of how this technology works.
The PAs are allocated from the Logical network space so you should create a Logical network as you did previously and allocate an IP address pool from which VMM can pull addresses for the PA space. Next you need to create a VM Network, which is the network that will be used by the actual services being deployed. VM networks can be created with just a few clicks from the new node in the VM’s and Services view in the VMM console. A detailed step-by-step guide for this can be found here.

In the example above you can see that both the Tailspin network and the Wingtip Network have overlapping IP ranges. They are realized and automatically provisioned using Hyper-V Network virtualization, providing full isolation without any special hardware or additional software. When creating a VM, it can now be connected to this VM network, thereby allowing it connectivity to other VM’s on the same VM network, while keeping the VM isolated from other VM networks that belong to different customers even though they are using the same subnet.
For service providers who need to provide isolated environments to their service consumers (tenants), this capability is invaluable and provides the flexibility to enable the tenants to bring their own IP addresses to the public cloud environment. In the CTP, if you want the VM on a VM network to communicate with entities not on the VM network you will need to set up a gateway between these networks. This can be done using a Windows Server instance with the appropriate routing rules and you can expect a future guide to walk you through the process of how to set it up. In addition, System Center will allow this to be done seamlessly as we move forward with development.
Storage is another vital component of a cloud and virtualization project. With Windows Server 2012 we now have the ability to use SMB 3.0 file shares for hosting Hyper-V VM’s in a clustered and standalone environment. This helps drive the cost of cloud down while adding flexibility and making management easier. System Center 2012 SP1 makes it very easy to use. The screen shots below depict how you can add a file share as storage for a cluster and for a standalone host, and VMM configures the Access Control Lists appropriately for this configuration.

 Standalone Host

Hyper-V Cluster

Once a VM is deployed onto a host and particular storage sub-system, the service provider desires flexibility to move the workload to different hosts or to use different storage to ensure that VMs are up even when the host needs to be serviced or the storage environment needs to be maintained. With Windows Server 2012 and VMM we now offer multiple options for live migrating the VM and its associated storage. You can:

1. Live migrate the VM within a cluster (which normally has shared block or file storage)
2. Live migrate the VM in and out of a cluster
3. Live migrate the storage of the VM from one storage sub-system to the other
4. Live migrate the VM from one host to the other (with no shared storage)

Just imagine the flexibility that this provides you as a datacenter administrator. The screenshot below depicts these various options from within VMM.

As you can see on the left side of the above screenshot, a VM called Tailspin_VM2 runs on a standalone host HV104. The dialog on the right shows that it can be migrated from this standalone host into nodes of the HVClusterA cluster (hv103n3, hv101n1 and hv102n2) as well as to the standalone HV105. System Center automatically detects there is no shared storage between HV104 and HVClusterA and tags these migrations as “Live (VSM)”, indicating that storage would be migrated too, and not just the virtual machines.

Note that System Center also gives you the option to storage migrate the VM’s storage within the host with no downtime for the VM. This is useful if for example you are running out of local storage on a particular drive and want to move the VM’s storage onto a different drive with more capacity on the host.

Now the perceptive would have noticed that we show only “Live” to HV105! Why is that? No it’s not a bug. To get an understanding of that let’s take a look at the storage property for HV104 (the host the VM is currently on) and HV105. As you will notice, each of these hosts see the same SMB 3.0 share and hence VMM can migrate the VM (without having to move the storage).

Summary
In this blog we discussed the cloud model and the two different cloud personas (“Service provider” and “Service Consumer”). We also described how Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1 deliver this model. We highlighted how Windows Server 2012 and the Virtual Machine Manager component in System Center 2012 SP1 provide the ability for service providers to utilize SMB 3.0 storage for VM’s and create isolated networks using Hyper-V Network Virtualization. Over the next few months we will provide additional details of how VMM can facilitate resource pooling and tenant administration, and how it can utilize the plethora of capabilities in Windows Server 2012.

The post Building Cloud Infrastructure with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1 appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

Planning a customer journey to the cloud just got easier. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.0 includes assessment capabilities to evaluate workloads for both public and private cloud platforms. With MAP 6.0, you now have the ability to identify customers’ workloads and estimate the infrastructure size and resources needed for both Windows Azure and Hyper-V Fast Track. Also new to MAP 6.0 is an Office 365 client assessment, enhanced VMware inventory, and Oracle Schema discovery and reporting. Expanded assessment and discovery capabilities from MAP help you simplify planning for your next migration project. Plan what’s next with MAP.

New Features and Benefits from MAP 6.0 help you:

• Accelerate private cloud planning with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Onboarding.
• Analyze customer’s portfolio of applications for a migration to the Windows Azure Platform.
• Identify migration opportunities with enhanced heterogeneous server environment inventory.
• Assess your client environment for Office 365 readiness.
• Determine readiness for migration to Windows Internet Explorer 9.
• Identify web browser compatibility issues prior to Windows 7 deployment.
• Discover Oracle database schemas for migration to SQL Server.

MAP works with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Security Compliance Manager to help you plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. Learn more.

Next steps:

• Download MAP 6.0
• Learn more about the MAP Toolkit
• Send your questions or comments to the MAP Team.

Get the latest tips from Microsoft Solution Accelerators—in 140 characters or less! Follow us on Twitter: @MSSolutionAccel.

And here’s how to stay up-to-date on all the latest Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform news during and after WPC:

• Read our new Server and Cloud Platform blog
• “Like” us on our new Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Server.Cloud
• Follow us on Twitter: @MSServerCloud

Thank you.

Microsoft Server & Cloud Platform Team

The post Simplify your customers’ cloud migration planning with MAP 6.0 appeared first on Microsoft Windows Server Blog.

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