It is a true honor to get awarded for the 10th time as an Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).
I received an e-mail from Microsoft and I am happy, honored and proud to share that I have been re-awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) 2019
The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program is, according to Microsoft, given to “technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community”. It is a distinction that Microsoft awards to non-Microsoft employees who help other members of the development communities, either by answering (correctly!) to questions in forums, writing blog posts, presenting at events, making sample code available, among others. The award is granted on a yearly basis and it is possible to receive it multiple times. It is a way for Microsoft to show their appreciation to those who care and spend their time helping others. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others – that’s what sets them apart.
I was first awarded MVP in 2009, back then I was in a category called High Availability which got merged into Cloud and Datacenter Management. I those days Tech-Ed was the Ignite from now and Symon Perriman was Program Manager – Server Clustering & High Availability. I was very busy with SQL Cluster and File Cluster. As Building MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager) packs to monitor all kinds of applications. I was involved in In a lot off beta testing, so I may have gotten Microsoft’s attention.
MVPs don’t receive any payment whatsoever from Microsoft. We don’t have to follow their instructions or are in any way told what to do, but we do have a code of conduct and are bound to certain rules, like, do not disclose confidential information that we are given by Microsoft.
One of the benefits of being a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) is the chance to attend the Global Summit. The MVP Global Summit is where all the MVPs in the world get together in Bellevue and Redmond, WA. In recent years, it was usually held in November, but this year got moved close to Spring (March 4-7).
To Keep my MVP Award I’m doing Ask the Experts / Ask me anything on the Cloud Roadshows / Techdays or other events where possible. Answer Community Questions where I can. Be a Windows Insider get you the Early bit of the software and is a great place to meet other community members. As the Microsoft Tech Community has his own platform with great options to connect to other members. There are also a lot of Yammer groups, As Azure Advisory and Azure previews. This makes it also hard to BLOG, not that there is no content or time (well a bit) there are great items but as the most is covered with the NDA. It is waiting on the release moments of the products so that I can release the blogs, often I write blogs from the first versions and in the final release the screens or options are different. But it is a great way to help shape the product and interact with the product teams and do interviews or join product group sessions.
Next to my job as EMEA Cloud Solution Architect with Insight.com This roll ask also a lot of my time and I don’t know how long I can keep up doing both. But for now I’m real happy to be re-awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) 2019
Thank you Community for reading my blog , Follow me on twitter Thank You.
Again a big Thank You Community for following me and reading my blog Thanks
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Windows Admin Center is a new, locally-deployed, browser-based management tool set that lets you manage your Windows Servers with no Azure or cloud dependency. Windows Admin Center gives you full control over all aspects of your server infrastructure and is particularly useful for managing servers on private networks that are not connected to the Internet.
Windows Admin Center is the modern evolution of "in-box" management tools, like Server Manager and MMC. It complements System Center and Operations Management Suite – it’s not a replacement.
To get started get the latest version from the Windows insiders page.
Windows Admin Center also provides these solutions:
- Computer Management – Provides a subset of the Server Manager features for managing Windows 10 client PCs
- Failover Cluster Manager – Provides support for ongoing management of failover clusters and cluster resources
- Hyper-Converged Cluster Manager – Provides an all-new experience tailored for Storage Spaces Direct and Hyper-V. It features the Dashboard and emphasizes charts and alerts for monitoring.
So the installation is just a simple MSI file Downloaded here https://aka.ms/wacdownload
When not using a self signed certificate you can use your own certificate and add the thumbprint to the installation
You can also create your own self signed certificate and use a silent setup
New-SelfSignedCertificate -certstorelocation cert:\localmachine\my -dnsname MVP16core10.mvp.local
Silent setup for Installing Windows Admin Center
msiexec /i WindowsAdminCenter1804.25.msi /qn /L*v log.txt SME_PORT=443 SSL_CERTIFICATE_OPTION=generate
msiexec /i WindowsAdminCenter1804.25.msi /qn /L*v log.txt SME_PORT=443 SME_THUMBPRINT=F377B0BC731AFB1F93558C035155DE148C6214F3 SSL_CERTIFICATE_OPTION=installed
After installing and opening the webpage there is a welcome screen. guess we all do the Skip Tour.
Adding servers is really easy. do it manually or import a csv file
Now that Windows servers are added real time info is visible in the portal.
With the extra extensions new features are added to the Windows Admin Center WAC
Currently more and more add on extensions are added to the Windows Admin Center. this makes the tool even more important to use.
https://github.com/Microsoft/windows-admin-center-sdk/
There are some great extensions for Windows Admin center. like the Storage Migration preview or the DataOn extention. Or adding the login to the Azure AD.
In the services wen can add the Azure Active directory. Keep in mind once it set I couldn’t it set back to the local account.
For Connection to the Azure AD you need a little Powershell script download it here : https://aka.ms/WACAzureConnectScript
To allow the Windows Admin Center gateway to communicate with Azure to leverage Azure Active Directory authentication for gateway access, or to create Azure resources on your behalf (for example, to protect VMs managed in Windows Admin Center using Azure Site Recovery), you must first connect your Windows Admin Center gateway to Azure. You only need to do this once for your Windows Admin Center gateway – the setting is preserved when you update your gateway to a newer version.
To connect your gateway, you must run the New-AadApp.ps1 PowerShell script (there is also a hyperlink in the Windows Admin Center UI for this download, which is visible wherever you try to use an Azure integration feature for the first time), which creates a web application in Azure AD with the name "SME-gateway" and registers the application with the Windows Admin Center gateway. This allows Windows Admin Center to connect to Azure resources like Azure AD on your behalf. You can run the script from any computer that has access to the Windows Admin Center gateway and to Azure.
You need to install the AD powershell modules on the Server.
Install-Module AzureRM.Resources
Install-Module AzureAD
$cred = Get-Credential
.\New-AadApp.ps1 -GatewayEndpoint "https://mvp16core10.mvp.local" -Credential $cred
The Logon Box will appear and logon with your Azure Credentials.
Now that you are logged on you will see an App registration in your Azure AD.
If needed you need to give the App permissions
Close browser and login into the Windows admin center
Windows Admin center will ask you for the Azure AD credentials
Keep in mind for Connection to the On premise Windows Admin Center you need to have WinRM firewall ports open to the WAC and WinRM enabled. but this is logical. The connection is over a Public IP or better a Site to Site VPN or express route connection. Make sure your NSG is correct configured.
One on the nice options of WAC – Windows Admin Center is the HTML5 RDP connection. Quick and easy RDP into the VM.
Remember that I installed the extensions Storage migration service. ( this works only with server 2019)
The new Storage Migration servers will be added to the admin center. But optional server features must be added before usage.
the Above are the migration options. Migrate directly all your files to a Server 2019 or Azure Files storage
And on the Windows Server 2019 you must enable the following features.
.
And you need an orchestrator role therefore you need to install the RSAT Storage Migration Server tools
After this you can create a migration JOB to move all the files.
A full blog post from Ned Pyle gives in-depth details how to migrate the files
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/filecab/2018/04/12/introducing-the-windows-server-storage-migration-service/
Next week there is the Windows Server Summit 2018 there will be more info about Windows server 2019 and Windows Admin Center.
Join the meeting!
Get started now
The Windows Server Summit is on June 26, 2018, but you can get started now by joining the Windows Insiders program and downloading the Windows Server 2019 preview. Don’t forget to also download Windows Admin Center, the evolution of Windows Server in-box management tools.
see you on June 26th!
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In Almost a week Microsoft is hosting a Virtual event:Windows Server Summit This year Windows Server reaches the incredible mark of 25 years in market. If you’re a Microsoft professional, you probably built your career on the Windows platform and we appreciate the trust you deposited on us. The launch of Windows Server 2019 later this year solidifies the importance of Windows Server on Microsoft’s hybrid strategy and now we want to help you take the next step in your career and support you in the journey of either move to the cloud, leverage cloud services on-premises, or evolve your datacenter infrastructure and applications.
Join us on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 for a virtual experience to learn tips and tricks for modernizing your infrastructure and applications—regardless of whether you’re running Windows Server on-premises or in the cloud.
We’re just a week away from the Windows Server Summit. The event will be on June 26, 2018 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time. We have a packed agenda with tons of good content, lots of demos, and excellent speakers.
Erin Chapple, Director of Program Manager and Arpan Shah, General Manager of Azure Infrastructure Marketing will kick of the event with a keynote to discuss what’s new around Windows Server, Microsoft’s hybrid strategy, roadmap, and much more. After that, we dive into the new functionalities of Windows Server 2019 and Windows Admin Center.
Learn how to build the future with Windows Server
Explore the roadmap for Windows Server, discover new skills and best practices, and get your questions answered in conversations with the Microsoft experts behind our products.
Hybrid
Learn how Windows Server helps you integrate Azure services into your on-premises environment and how to better run Windows Server in Azure.
Security
Better security starts with the Operating System. Learn how Windows Server helps you elevate your company’s security posture.
Application platform
Containers are changing the way developers and operations teams run applications. Learn how Windows Server helps you modernize yours.
Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)
Windows Server 2016 introduced new HCI capabilities that are game-changers. Now, check what’s new around HCI for Windows Server 2019.
Sign up for updates
Get started now
The Windows Server Summit is on June 26, 2018, but you can get started now by joining the Windows Insiders program and downloading the Windows Server 2019 preview. Don’t forget to also download Windows Admin Center, the evolution of Windows Server in-box management tools.
We can’t wait to (virtually) see you on June 26th!
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Last week I was helping on the Microsoft Tech Summit Amsterdam. The event took place at RAI Amsterdam from March 28-29, 2018. There where a lot of MVP’s at the Booth and Ask Microsoft Anything #AMA See some impressions here. The Keynote was done by Tad Brockway https://twitter.com/tadbrockway.
The Tech Summit was a great place to meet and greet also for the Experts it was great to meet Jeff Woolsey again. In the the picture above to getter with James van den berg https://mountainss.wordpress.com/
Some key features where Windows Server 2019 ,Azure Site Recovery, Deduplication and Project Honolulu an amazing free tool to manage your server environment.
Introducing Windows Server 2019 – now available in preview https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2018/03/20/introducing-windows-server-2019-now-available-in-preview/
Windows Server 2019 is built on the strong foundation of Windows Server 2016 – which continues to see great momentum in customer adoption. Windows Server 2016 is the fastest adopted version of Windows Server, ever! We’ve been busy since its launch at Ignite 2016 drawing insights from your feedback and product telemetry to make this release even better https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/tag/azure-site-recovery/
The Technical Preview of Project Honolulu – our reimagined experience for management of Windows and Windows Server. Project Honolulu is a flexible, lightweight browser-based locally-deployed platform and a solution for management scenarios. Project Honolulu: The New Future Of Windows Server GUI Management
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mvpawardprogram/2017/10/27/friday-five-october-27/
Clustering FileServer Data Deduplication on Windows 2019 Step by Step #sofs #winserv #ReFS #WindowsServer2016 #Dedupe
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/clustering-fileserver-data-deduplication-on-windows-2016-step-by-step-sofs-winserv-refs-windowsserver2016-dedupe/
Sign up for the Insiders program to access Windows Server 2019
We know you probably cannot wait to get your hands on the next release, and the good news is that the preview build is available today to Windows Insiders. Join the program to ensure you have access to the bits. For more details on this preview build, check out the Release Notes.
We love hearing from you, so don’t forget to provide feedback using the Windows Feedback Hub app, or the Windows Server space in the Tech community.
Go register on the Community there is great content an interaction with other Community members
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Tech-Summit-Content-17/bd-p/MSTechSummitContent
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Today and tomorrow I’ll be at the Microsoft Tech Summit. You can find me at the Workshop Proctor "Build and manage your applications on Azure" or at the Microsoft Booth or somewhere at the Expert Hub Center the help the Microsoft Tech Community
To help the Community / visitors Build your skills with the latest in cloud technologies at a free, technical learning event for IT professionals and developers, coming to a city near you. The Tech Summit is hitting the road with their top engineers to bring you two days of in-depth sessions, networking opportunities, industry insights, and hands-on skill-building with the experts behind Microsoft’s cloud services.
The cloud is changing expectations and transforming the way we live and work. Whether you’re developing innovative apps or delivering optimized solutions, Microsoft Tech Summit can help you evolve your skills, deepen your expertise, and grow your career.
Discover the latest trends, tools, and product roadmaps at more than 70 sessions, covering a range of topics across Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, which includes Windows 10, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. From beginner sessions that will help you develop core cloud skills, to advanced, 400-level training that will take your expertise to the next level, there is something for everyone.
This year we will have two 60-minute keynotes focusing on Microsoft 365 and Azure. This will enable our keynote presenters to focus deeply on their areas of expertise and will include customers on stage and demos.
New this year to Microsoft Tech Summit is The Hub Expert Center where attendees will have the opportunity to connect with Microsoft SME’s during Day 1 and 2. It is an excellent opportunity to connect, gather lead retrievals and engage with potential customers.
Ask the Experts: We will hold an Ask the Experts Networking Hour on Day 1 from 17:45 – 18:45. All Speakers and Staff are required to attend this event. New this year are two 30-minute panels hosted by Microsoft SME and MVP’s. Additionally, attendees will be able to interact and learn from industry peers and representatives from Microsoft. Expert table topics will be as follows, and Speakers are required to self-staff these areas: Business Applications, Data and AI, Cloud Infrastructure, App Development, Internet of Things, Modern Workplace and Microsoft 365
on the Microsoft Tech Community at:
Visit aka.ms/ts/amsterdam
Sign in with your Microsoft or LinkedIn account and select ‘Evaluations’ to submit your feedback after sessions
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Backup for Azure file shares is something that is a feature that we all want. Azure Files is a cloud-first file share solution with support for industry standard SMB protocol. Azure Backup enables a native backup solution for Azure file shares, a key addition to the feature arsenal to enable enterprise adoption of Azure Files. Using Azure Backup, via Recovery Services vault, to protect your file shares is a straightforward way to secure your files and be assured that you can go back in time instantly.
If you want to read my old blogs about Azure backup https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/tag/azure-backup/
Below is a schematic on how the Backup for Azure File Shares Works.
Key features
- Discover unprotected file shares: Utilize the Recovery Services vault to discover all unprotected storage accounts and file shares within them.
- Backup multiple files at a time: You can back up at scale by selecting multiple file shares in a storage account and apply a common policy over them.
- Schedule and forget: Apply a Backup policy to automatically schedule backups for your file shares. You can schedule backups at a time of your choice and specify the desired retention period. Azure Backup takes care of pruning these backups once they expire.
- Instant restore: Since Azure Backup utilizes file share snapshots, you can restore just the files you need instantly even from large file shares.
- Browse individual files/folders: Azure Backup lets you browse the restore points of your file shares directly in the Azure portal so that you can pick and restore only the necessary files and folders.
How to start with the Azure File share backup
First we make a backup vault that holds all the backups.
In the Azure Recovery services Vault I created a new vault that holds my file share backup.
Doing this with powershell :
$vaultname="Azure-Fileshare-Vault02"
$rsgroup="AFS-BV-02"
$Location="West US"
Get-AzureRmRecoveryServicesVault
New-AzureRmResourceGroup -Name $rsgroup -Location $Location
New-AzureRmRecoveryServicesVault -Name $vaultname -ResourceGroupName $rsgroup -Location $Location
Now we open the just created backup vault and add a Backup job
Adding the Azure Backup job
As you can see the new Azure FileShare option is there. If you want to do this with Powershell keep in mind that you will need the latest updates and as this is a preview it might change in the next version as currently there is only the -WorkloadType "AzureVM" option there.
Now we select the storage account that holds the file share.
It could take some time for the validation.
Now that the file share is selected, we can make a backup policy. Or use one that you already created.
After establishing a backup policy, a snapshot of the File Shares will be taken at the scheduled time, and the recovery point is retained for the chosen period.
Then finally we enable the backup. There will be a initial backup created.
When you check the backup jobs in you backup vault you can see the just created file share backup.
Just wait for the first backup or go to the job an right click and do a backup now.
You can also create an ondemand backup or stop the backup.
With the backup now you can force to backup the FileShare.
If you double click the backup item and go to …more you can Stop the backup or even delete the backup.
Azure File Share Restore
Well the Azure FileShare Restore is easy, Pick restore in the menu and pick a restore point.
You can pick the original location but an alternate location can also be used. This is a great option on selecting the files or place the restored files on a different locations to sort out the files first.
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Building a File server in Server 2016 isn’t that different tan in Server 2012R2 except there are different options, ReFS, DeDupe and a lot more options. As we start with the basic file server clustered and using ReFS and Data Duplication. This is a common scenario and can also be used in Azure.
Data Deduplication can effectively minimize the costs of a server application’s data consumption by reducing the amount of disk space consumed by redundant data. Before enabling deduplication, it is important that you understand the characteristics of your workload to ensure that you get the maximum performance out of your storage.
In this demo I have a two node cluster a quick create of the cluster. This is a demo for file services.
Create Sample Cluster :
#installing the File server and cluster features
Get-WindowsFeature Failover-Clustering
install-WindowsFeature "Failover-Clustering","RSAT-Clustering" -IncludeAllSubFeature
Restart-Computer –Computername Astack16n014,Astack16n015 –force
#Create cluster validation report
Test-Cluster -Node Astack16n014,Astack16n015
#Create cluster
New-Cluster -Name Astack16R5 -Node Astack16n014,Astack16n015 -NoStorage -StaticAddress "10.255.255.41"
Now that the Cluster is in place we can start with the basic of the file cluster, the disks need to be sharable so no local disks.
If you want to build a file server with local disk only then we should use storage spaces direct, I’ll use this in the next blog post.
We add a shared disk to the cluster. Enable the disk and format the disk.
I format the disk with ReFS as this is the next file structure and has more options than NTFS.
The next iteration of ReFS provides support for large-scale storage deployments with diverse workloads, delivering reliability, resiliency, and scalability for your data. ReFS introduces the following improvements:
- ReFS implements new storage tiers functionality, helping deliver faster performance and increased storage capacity. This new functionality enables:
- Multiple resiliency types on the same virtual disk (using mirroring in the performance tier and parity in the capacity tier, for example).
- Increased responsiveness to drifting working sets.
- Support for SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) media.
- The introduction of block cloning substantially improves the performance of VM operations, such as .vhdx checkpoint merge operations.
- The new ReFS scan tool enables the recovery of leaked storage and helps salvage data from critical corruptions.
The disk is formatted and added to the cluster,showing as Available Storage.
Our next step would be Adding the File server role to the cluster.
The question here is is this a normal file server or do you want to build a sofs cluster. Currently SOFS is only supported for RDS UPD,Hyper-v,SQL. Comparing both SOFS and a file server.
SOFS = Active – Active File share
Fileserver = Active – Passive File share
We are sing the file server for general usage.
Give your file server a name. Remember this is the netbios name and needs to be in the DNS!
Default is a DHCP IP but I assume you will set this to fixed or make this static in the DHCP & DNS
Now that the file server and the disk is added to the cluster we can start the file Server and add some shares to this
add the file share.
When adding the file share we see this error “ client access point is not ready to be used for share creation”
This is a brand new File Server and already broken ? well no reading this error message it said we can’t access the netbios name
We we do properties on the file server you can see there is a DNS failure. It can’t add the server to the DNS or the registration is not correct.
Just make sure the name is in the DNS and a nslookup works.
When adding the file share you get a couple off options, and lets pick the SMB share Quick option
Get the file share location, this would be on the shared disk in the cluster. if there are no folders make the folder first.
I Give the folder a name and put this to the right disk.
Here you can pick a couple of options and some are already tagged. I this case I only use access-based enumeration.
The file server is ready. clients can connect. Access ACL must be set but this depends on the environment.
Our next step is enable Data Deduplication on this share. It is a new option in Server 2016. Want to know what is new in Windows Server 2016 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/whats-new-in-storage
Data Deduplication
Install Data Deduplication every node in the cluster must have the Data Deduplication server role installed.
To install Data Deduplication, run the following PowerShell command as an administrator:
Install-WindowsFeature -Name FS-Data-Deduplication
- Recommended workloads that have been proven to have both datasets that benefit highly from deduplication and have resource consumption patterns that are compatible with Data Deduplication’s post-processing model. We recommend that you always enable Data Deduplication on these workloads:
- General purpose file servers (GPFS) serving shares such as team shares, user home folders, work folders, and software development shares.
- Virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI) servers.
- Virtualized backup applications, such as Microsoft Data Protection Manager (DPM).
- Workloads that might benefit from deduplication, but aren’t always good candidates for deduplication. For example, the following workloads could work well with deduplication, but you should evaluate the benefits of deduplication first:
- General purpose Hyper-V hosts
- SQL servers
- Line-of-business (LOB) servers
Before enabling the Data Deduplication we can first check and see if there any savings are by doing this.
Run this in a Command or powershell command where e:\data is or data location that we are using for the dedupe
C:\Windows\System32\DDPEval.exe e:\data
Even with a few files there is a saving.
get-volume -DriveLetter e
To enable the dedupe go to server manager , volumes and select the disk that need to be enabled.
Selecting the volume that needs Dedupe other volumes won’t be affected. It’s important to note that you can’t run data deduplication on boot or system volumes
The setting of the # days can be changed in to something what suite you.
When enabling Deduplication, you need to set a schedule, and you can see above that you can set two different time periods, the weekdays and weekends and you can also enable background optimization to run during quieter periods, and for the rest it is all powershell there is no gui on this.
Get-Command -Module Deduplication will list all the powershell commands
Measure-DedupFileMetadata -Path e:\data
I places some of the same ISO files on the volume and as you can see there is a storage saving.
get get the data run an update on the dedupe status.
Update-DedupStatus -Volume e:
It is all easy to use and to maintain. If you have any cluster questions just go to https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/home?forum=winserverClustering and I’m happy to help you there and also other community or microsoft guys are there.
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