Category: MCT

Training is Essential

Delivering Microsoft, Time Management and Project Management Trainings is one of my great passions. For the participants I stand for them achieving success. Their employers understand the necessity of training. As a Consultant I always stress that necessity in talks with customers but unfortunately a lot of Organizations still do not see the importance of having a skilled workforce.

I think that is not a good situation for at least three reasons.

  1. Statistics show that people are more loyal and trustworthy when their employer truly wants to get the best out of them. One way of doing so is by leveraging Personal Development Plans. We’ve seen the conversation between the CEO and CFO on Social Media often enough (“CFO: What if we invest in our people and they leave! CEO: What if we don’t and they stay!”). I go for invest in them, they’ll tend to stay. IT Pro’s know (or at least they should know) they must stay up to date to be of value. If their employer does not invest in their staying up to date they might go looking elsewhere.
  2. Organizations really spill lots of money on hardware and software they do not use. No difference here when looking to end users or IT Staff. Available technologies are not being used but have been paid for…. Very un-businesslike. To be blunt: for end users MS Word is just a typewriter, for IT Pro’s Server 2012 R2 is just the same as a Novell 3.12 server. What a waste! If organizations do not use the full potential of their hardware and software purchases why buy it in the first place.
  3. IT (a.k.a. ICT, where the C stood for Communication, I’d like to substitute that with Collaboration so we get Information and Collaboration Technology) is a relative young job/department/function. It has only been around for a couple of decades. ICT evolves very fast, actually it evolves progressively and organizations have no idea how to deal with that. They only react. Ignorance is killing ROI and supplies a sky-rocketing energy boost for TCO. There is a lack in Vision and Strategy and therefore there is no Context for nothing ICT Related. Staying on top of current ICT Development, which can be achieved by education and training, is really essential for being able to create that Vision/Strategy/Context.

Organizations have a lot of good reasons for not putting any funds into training/development of their workforce. Frankly, I don’t give a sh*t for reasons for not doing something (we even spend time and energy on creating reasons for NOT doing something, think about that one for a while, that whole idea is so stupid). Organizations need to focus on inventing reasons for doing something. You only need ONE reason for doing something.

Now I gave you three reasons for doing Training, so let’s do it! Train. Learn. Explore. Invent. Develop.

BE CURIOUS

TechEd Europe 2013 Day 3 and Day 4: Windows 8.1 & Office365 with PowerShell

Due to a tight schedule I have not been able to post a Blog last night… I’ll do it now. Although the Windows 8.1 Preview is already out there I still think I should mention a few things. And of course I had to see my co-chairman of the Dutch Office365 User Group do his session on managing Office365 with Powershell. The rest of my time at TechEd I was proctoring the Hands On Labs and I was assisting in the Instructor Led Labs, making a difference for the delegates of the Event.

So, now we have Windows 8.1 with the return of something like a Start button (imho it could be left out anyway, remember how laughed at the Start button back in ’95?). But if it makes you happy, I’m happy. The real good news is that the switching between “Metro” (oeps, Modern UI) and the classic desktop is much less. For desktop users, they can choose to stay in the classic desktop and yes, boot to the classic desktop, while touch/tablet users can stay in the Modern UI. That’s neat!

In my previous Blog I already mentioned “Workspaces”, a safe online/offline way of connecting to corporate fileshares over https for mobile devices. You need to implement this on a Server 2012 R2. Windows 8.1 defaults to Skydrive for saving files but gives the user the opportunity to keep a locally cached copy of those files.

 

Danny Burlage did a nice job in delivering his session Powershell. I know as a MCT and speaker that Powershell is not “sexy” and it’s hard to deliver an interesting hour! It took him only 1 hour to provision a newly created Office365 Tenant with User, Contact, DistributionGroups, Rooms, Archives and so on with just a few amazingly simple PowerShell scripts.

CU at the next Teched?

 

Attending Microsoft Management Summit 2013

On April 6 I will fly to Las Vegas where MMS2013 will start.

I just finished building my Schedule and I will append my notes from each session into this Blog post.

Here’s my schedule:

  • The Benefits and Reasons for Upgrading to Windows Server 2012 Active Directory
  • Getting Started with Orchestrator and Service Manager
  • System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 Overview
  • System Center 2012 SP1 Operations Manager Overview
  • Getting Started with Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks
  • How to Design and Configure Networking in VMM and Hyper-V
  • Designing a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Architecture for Scale and Performance
  • Orchestrating Hyper-V Replica Planned Failover with System Center 2012 SP1
  • Implementing Common Scenarios in Virtual Machine Manager: Services and Service Templates
  • Cisco Virtual Networking Solutions for Microsoft Hyper-V Environments
  • Develop a Successful Flexible Desktop Strategy in Today’s Digital Era
  • Monitoring and the Network and Storage Infrastructure with Operations Manager 2012
  • Manage and Monitor Your Windows Azure Usage From System Center 2012 SP1
  • How to Manage and Deploy Microsoft User Experience Virtualization Across an Enterprise
  • Software Defined Networking with Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012 SP1
  • Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0: Migration and Coexistence
  • Building the Perfect Windows 8 Image

Now that I see it in all its glory it’s an impressive list, a lot of great work to do! Long days and short nights.

So, it’s Friday night and I’m all set to go, my flight is tomorrow morning at 10 AM from Amsterdam. A 4 hour stopover in Philadelphia so I’ll be in Las Vegas around 9 PM Pacific Time.

That was a long trip, some 25 hours… Sunday morning I went of to Wallmart to buy me a bicycle for taking up up and down to the MMS2013 Venue; Manadalay Bay, which is some 5 miles from my hotel. For $ 95 I’m done, no cab fares for me (that’s what I thought).
Going to Manadalay Bay I had a flat tire within 3 miles… bummer. A thorn is the backtire. I left my bicycle and continued walking. Got my MMS2013 Badge after walking The Strip up and down. And then I took a cab (poor excuse… blisters on my feet) back to the hotel and arranged to pick up my bike.
Ok, Monday I’ll start posting teh Technical Stuff.

MMS2013 KeyNote

I attended quit a few keynotes over past 5 years at various Microsoft Conferences. In this MMS2013 Keynote one thing was really different: IT IS ALL HERE!

No promises of upcoming releases or beta demos. It’s all about what is available right now. Server 2012 with all its features in the middle, surrounded by System Center 2012 SP1, SQL 2012, Azure, Intune, Advisor, Office 365. So now is the time to automate all that stuff, leveraging all the features to enable businesses to do their business.
I think of it as a very smart keynote: we have work to do NOW! Whether it is on premises or in a public cloud, probably a lot of bits of both for most enterprises. But with one and only one toolset and underlying technology: Microsoft.

MMS2013 The Benefits and Reasons for Upgrading to Windows Server 2012 Active Directory

This breakout sessions showed how easy it is to upgrade current domains to Server 2012, there is no reason not to. Domain Controllers become clonable on Hyper-V. Dynamic Access Control keeps data safe bases on multiple policies. Remote execution out of the box. Software controlled networking and Storage Spaces. Let’s go for it.

MMS2013 System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 Overview

SCCM2012 has at least 2 highlights for me:
1. User-centric approach enables to give users the same experience on whatever device.
2. Integration with Intune meaning that we can manage devices without them connecting to the corporate network. Devices such as Windows RT, Windows Phone, iOS and Android!

MMS2013 Private Cloud Reference Architectures

This session was about all the work Microsoft and its Vendors have put into making things work. The biggest takeaway is that most of the things have already been done and are tested and documented. The trial and error method, as a lot of IT Pros use, is not going to do it when building Private Clouds. S you’d better use those Reference Architecture documents!

MMS2013 Getting Started with Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks

David Aiken turned out to be a very funny speaker and his session was great. He pretended to be a newbie and went through all the steps with all the questions while creating some VMs and connecting them. He concluded with: you do it once or twice like this and from then on you use Powershell!

MMS2013 How to Design and Configure Networking in VMM and HyperV (Part 1 and 2)

Wow, tough technical stuff at the end of the day: network virtualization or software based networking. You really need to switch some buttons in your brain to figure this out. Mainly it’s about 2 things:
1. Network Convergence: we can now put all network communications through just one NIC (teamed) instead of having separate NICs for different kind of communications. Less hardware, less cables!
2. Isolation: although we can use convergence we still can isolate VM Networks from each other. We can use the same (virtual) IP Ranges multiple times, tenants/customers can bring their own IP Ranges.
A couple of advantages are that we can manipulate IP settings without configuring that on individual hosts or guests and that we can do Live Migrations across (physical) subnets.
Don’t start with VMM and Clusters before you ingrained this stuff!

MMS2013 Orchestrating Hyper-V Replica Planned Failover with System Center 2012 SP1

Okay, you can initiate a planned replica failover from Hyper-V Manager manually. The @OrchestratorGuy took a different approach. From heavy touch, through lite touch, to zero touch. The principles of Orchestrator are simple; it does nothing but it can do everything. So he assembled a couple of tiered runbooks to do the trick. Run the runbook and the failover occurs. Alsways nice to see such demo’s.
Then he introduced System Center Service Manager into the game; initiate the failover through a Service Request in the Self Service Portal. Worked like a charm, with the CMDB being being updated, tickets opened and closed, properties of the VMs adjusted etc. etc. Great demo!
The key point out of this session: before you can automate something, get your procedures straight!

MMS2013 Implementing Common Scenarios in Virtual Machine Manager: Services and Service Templates

The VM is not important, the Service is. So you should even use Service templates if the Service consists of only one V. It gives you more repeatability, consistency and ease of management. At first glance it looks somewhat overdone but when you think it through it’s quite logical if you are getting into automation.

MMS2013 Develop a Successful Flexible Desktop Strategy in Today’s Digital Era

I am a BIG fan of Eduardo Kassner. He was once again brilliant in his confronting sarcasm, I really like that. I am NOT saying anymore, here is the abstract, the video should be available tomorrow on Channel9.
New desktop technologies such as BYOD, VDI, Slates, Consumerization, among other pressures are causing many IT environments to consider re-architecting their desktop infrastructure. In this session you will see predictions, market trends, and then proceed to separate myths from facts by proposing a mobile workspace strategy that focuses on meeting your users’ desktop requirements based on roles / personas, and enabling technologies rather than implying that one technology solution would fit all.

MMS2013 How to Manage and Deploy Microsoft User Experience Virtualization Across an Enterprise

UE-V is part of MDOP and it eases the pains of roaming profiles and combining profiles for desktops, laptops, remote desktops and VDI.
UE-V does this in a smart way by using an agent on the client(s). The Agent captures the changes on either OS or Application level and stores them locally and on a Network Share when the reconfigures app is being closed or the OS being locked/logged off. Now the smart thing is that only the changes are uploaded and downloaded instead of the complete profile.
There are no servers involved (except for the network share, which can be the AD-homedirectory), it also works offline, it is manageable through GPO and SCCM ant it comes with a bunch of out-of-the-box templates.
It makes no sense not using this if you have MDOP!

MMS2013 Automating System Center Deployment with the Powershell Deployment Toolkit

Well, this was a really COOL session. The demo, started at beginning of the session, completed in 55 minutes and the System Center Suite was completely installed, including SQL, prerequisites, integration and Management consoles. Pffffff.
They took a bit off effort to build this but then you have something. You only have to fill in some parameters such as server names, service accounts and stuff and the Powershell scripts do the rest, including the download of all necessary components!
Awesome!

MMS2013 Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.0: Migration and Coexistence

I’m supposed to be an App-V specialist so this was a very interesting session. I’ve been doing stuff with App-V 5.0 but I did no go in yet to coexistence and upgrading. Now that I have seen the things mentioned in the abstract below, I see great opportunities at our customers!
This session focuses on the process of migrating from App–V 4.6 to App–V 5.0, including coexistence of the App–V 4.6 Client and the App–V 5.0 Client.
The process of migrating App–V 4.6 packages to App–V 5.0 will include using the App–V 5.0 Package Converter tool and the process of customizing converted packages to leverage App–V 5.0’s new features.
We will also discuss some of the new features of the App–V 5.0 Sequencer that may make customers consider re–sequencing their applications instead of converting their App–V 4.6 packages

MMS2013 Building the Perfect Windows 8 Image

This session was almost a Hands On Instruction Lab, so I actually did the HOL after the session. An excellent session/HOL leveraging MDT and Windows8 for either Desktop Deployment or VDI Deployment.
That concluded my MMS2013 participation.

General insights are mostly about automation and the roadmap towards that automation. I have a lot of stuff to share, why we should do those things and where to start.

Taking (Microsoft) Exams: Pitfalls

It’s exam time with all the new Microsoft releases and new Certification Tracks. In my previous post I gave some reasons to get certified. In this post I will look at some pitfalls I see happening while people take their exams. Apart from a good preparation of course….. that’s obvious enough.

In 1998 I brought my first class to a Testing Center and I guess that I took about a thousand people to their exams since. A lot of things happen while making an exam which could lead to unnecessary failing. Here are a couple of points I use for coaching my students to become successful exam passers.

Take your time. I have never heard candidates complaining about too little time. And yet, when I look at scores in test exams, about 60% of the result is reached in the first 40% of the exam. On average, candidates are focused for about 20 minutes. So, take a break every 20 minutes. In the old days, I sometimes even took a smoke. Anyway, take the breaks every 20 minutes or so, it will enable you to also score well on the last items.

Don’t look at the answers. I do a lot of exam training and I catch people starting eliminating answers right away, that’s really a waste of energy. You’ll end up doing each and every question 4 times; check answer “A”, read the question again…. No, check answer “B”, read the question again…. No, and so on. An exam of 60 questions will end up in an exam of 240 questions. Try to formulate the best answer and then look if it’s there. The elimination process is only your last resort.

Every question is the first question. I really know a lot of people who get mad or angry about certain, in their opinion stupid or wrong questions. That is setting yourself up for failure for the next questions. Don’t be righteous! Your final score is NOT about your opinion on the topics and questions covered. Get over it BEFORE you click “Next”!

Get yourself Clear(ed). On entering the exam room leave all that’s in the back of your mind at the door, especially your opinions of yourself and the exam you’re about to take. I always call my wife, and if she’s not picking up the phone, I’ll just speak into her voicemail for a minute or two. While you’re making an exam there’s nothing you can do about a situation at work, at home, or whatever. You came to pass for an exam, don’t let anything stand between you and a passing score while making the exam.

Know your personal pitfall. My personal pitfall is “Arrogance”. Man, I’m doing good! I can afford to just gamble this (stupid) question and still be on track for a passing score. Bummer! Failed with 690 point out of 700. So I write down in big capitals on the scrap sheet “ARROGANT???”. And I manage myself. When I catch myself on being just that I click “Previous” and do the question. You have to be honest with yourself, or a better way to say that, honor yourself and distinguish your personal pitfall. You know what it is, you only need to acknowledge that it’s there. That gives you a choice instead of being the victim.

Time and location. Get agreement for picking time and place, when and where will you be taking your exam? Where I work we also have a Testing facility, I do not take my exams there. I want to be anonymous, especially during all the breaks I take. I do not want to walk to the toilets and have to have a chat with one of my co-workers. As for the time slot, some prefer taking exams early in the morning and some prefer late afternoon. Choose whatever works best for YOU. That’s what I mean with “get agreement”. Reschedule is a better option than setting yourself up for failure.

Be proud. It takes courage to take it on, acknowledge yourself for that and get acknowledgement from the people around you. Celebrate whatever the outcome may be. You really learn a lot form failing.

Finally, all begins with a real good preparation. As far as Microsoft Exams are concerned, they raised the bars. Certainly in the MCSE Tracks.

Happy studying and ENJOY taking exams!

Why Certification Does Matter

There seems to a lot skepticism on IT Certification and there’s probably a good reason for that. But that is not what I’ll be blogging about in this post. I’m looking for empowering reasons to DO get certified.

For individuals it’s always good to stretch yourself; life begins at the end of your comfort zone. The harder you need to strech the more satisfaction you get out of the result. Maybe that’s even better than a higher salary or bonus, although I do not underestimate those benefits. Certification makes it easier to search for new jobs, you can show that you’re up to date in your field of expertise. Passing an exam is also an acknowledgement for yourself of which you should be proud.

I also think it’s normal to stay up to date, looking at my closest relatives (neither of them are into IT), they all keep on developping their skills and knowledge about their respective jobs. Even my 82 year old mother as a biologist…. She blogs and is active on LinkedIn. But especially in IT, you’re out if you’re not up to date, it goes with the job. About nine months ago I blogged that the “serverhuggers” will be the first to lose their jobs. Last week I heard a CIO/CEO say: “What’s the difference between Elvis and a Systems Administrator? The Systems Administrator is really dead!”

For employers it seems logical that they only want to hire qualified employees to manage their expensive hard and software systems. I’m always very unpleasantly surprised to hear that they just “trust” their people but have actually no idea what they are doing for their money. It’s ridiculous to have untrained and unskilled people manage very expensive systems on which the company relies for it’s primary business processes. As employers invest in new technologies, training is hardly ever on the budget. It’s time now to take that business serious, IT has evolved enough to get rid of the sociologist who happens to know something about Windows. Windows is not manageable through therapy (most of the time… J). Employers investing in people have a more loyal workforce, no, they won’t run after they took their classes and passed their exams.

For outsourcers, headhunters, employer agencies and companies like that, you charge your customers big bucks so you’d better deliver. I do not only want to see an impressive resume with projects, responsibilities and accomplishments. I want to see a steady list of Certifications matching the position, otherwise we have no deal. So you should demand of your candidates a proper set of certifications, moreover, it should be the first thing to look for in any resume.

I take pride in being an IT Professional with an outstanding track record of certification and through that achieving great results in projects and training. And that leads to being reckoned as expert and guru in my fields of expertise.

Server 2012 Certification Tracks

Server 2012 is here! And so are a great deal of the exams necessary to earn your certifications. I took them all, either the real stuff or in beta (beta-period is over though, you’ll have to wait). So what’s available and what are they like?

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate: Server 2012

  • Exam 070-410, Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
  • Exam 070-411, Administering Windows Server 2012
  • Exam 070-412, Configuring Advance Windows Server 2012 Services
  • Or Exam 070-417, upgrading your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012, which is the 3 above exam taken all at once

I did 070-410 (beta) and 070-417 and passed them both. There is not much preparation material available yet, so how did I prepare? Well, first of all, I already started playing around with Server 2012 when the first Technical Preview became available. So I’m already pretty familiar with the interfaces, the “what-is-where-and-how” questions on the exams. Secondly, I am really well grounded in the previous versions of Windows Servers. There is a lot off good old stuff in the exams. And third, I took a very close look at the section “Skills being measured” on the Microsoft Learning website: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-417&locale=en-us#tab1 (substitute the bold-printed exam number for either which exam). Actually, I did everything mentioned on those pages! Been there, done that, got the Certification (no shirts yet in the eCompany Store though….)

Exam 070-410 was a piece of cake, I took the beta unprepared and for free during Microsoft TechED 2012 in Amsterdam. I was not surprised of the result. I took exam 070-417 playing a game with some co-workers; who would be certified before October first. Jimmy van der Mast and I took it up and both passed. It’s a tough exam! Very lengthy, it took me 2,5 hours to complete. And a lot of stuff is being covered. As a trainer/coach I would suggest to a lot of folks to take the 3 separate exams instead of this one. Which has been the case with all previous versions of Upgrade-your-skills exams. It’s 3 exams in one, you cannot go back to a finished section, you’ll get 3 scores, the lowest one being the final score. So you must Pass on all 3 sections. No surprise that both Jimmy and I had the lowest score on the third section, there’s no “good old stuff” in there.

 

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Server Infrastructure

  • Exam 070-413, Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure
  • Exam 070-414, Implementing an Advanced Server Infrastructure

Those exams are currently not available, I took the beta’s, no scores so far…). According to the Microsoft Learning website they will be “live” on October 16. You can look at the “Skills being measured” by taking the URL mentioned above and change the exam number. And then you will see…….. wow, this covers a lot more than only Server 2012! There is quite a bit of System Center 2012 in there so you have to be fairly familiar with SCOM, SCCM, SCVMM and you have know about AppController, Orchestrator, SCSM and SCDPM. And of course there is Networking, networking and more networking. And there is all flavors of Storage. BEWARE!

On exam 070-413, the name is not well chosen (IMHO). I think “Design” would fit better on exam 070-414. Then they would be more in line with the former Server 2000/2003 Design Exams. So exam 070-413 is still about “what-is-where-and-how”. Know the Interfaces, know how to fulfill requirements, step by step, complete the tasks. Whereas exam 070-414 is more about deciding which technology should be implemented give the requirements. More thinking and overview is required for the latter. I’m good at that, so I thought the first one was tougher than the second one.

Again, my preparations were about doing it all, building the complex Infrastructures and DOING it ALL. Fortunately there is Microsoft’s Virtual Labs (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/hh968267.aspx so you don’t have to build everything yourself.

Overall, these are really tough exams. The certification will be great asset on your resume.

 

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Desktop Infrastructure

  • Exam 070-415, Implementing a Desktop Infrastructure
  • Exam 070-416, Implementing Desktop Application Environments

Same story here, beta’s, no scores yet, live on October 16. And again a lot of System Center 2012 products, networking, storage, performance and optimization. Depending on your line of expertise (mine is more on infrastructures than desktops and applications) this track is at least as tough as the Server Infrastructure track. Lucky for me that Qwise, my employer, does a lot of “Server Based Computing” (Citrix, RDS), VDI and App-V projects so I am well grounded in those matters. And isn’t everything about the App?

The track is very similar to the Server Infrastructure track for the differences between the 2 exams. And also over here, this certification will look great on your resume because markets will soon find out that not many of us will succeed in passing both exams.

 

Happy studying! Keep you posted!

Update, October 23: no MCSE for me, passed one exam in both tracks.

 

Microsoft Cloud Certification – So What’s New?

A couple of weeks ago I already blogged about the 2 new Microsoft Exams on Cloud. There’s nothing new about Microsoft introducing new exams and new exam tracks.

And yet, there is something really different going on now. Most of the Microsoft exams are about servers, their installation, configuration and management.

Well “Server Huggers”, I have bad news for you! We’re done with servers, it’s all about Services! Those of you who already took the Office365 (beta) Exams know what I’m talking about.

For the MCT-Community that is going to be tough as well. A lot of my fellow (senior) consultants are still thinking “servers” and are having a hard time in shifting that towards “services”. And as senior consultants are having a hard time in making that shift, imagine what that means for Systems Engineers, the people we train.

So, are you up to it? Are you able to let go of your servers? Because you have to “walk the talk”, don’t you. You cannot preach services while clinging on to your servers. There is loads of stuff out there to train yourself in shifting from servers to services:

–          Office365

–          Windows Intune

–          Azure

–          System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

–          System Center 2012 as a whole (that is a lot of food….)

If you haven’t begun already you should start right now! I’m talking about your future, no kidding. The other day I attended a seminar at Microsoft about the Microsoft Datacenters. The speaker was very, very clear: the server huggers will be the first people to lose their jobs in the next 3 to 7 years.

Get Ready!