Create a MCSA Windows Server 2012 study guide.

You can create your own study guide to help you prepare for an exam quite easy.

I will use the Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012, 70-417 exam as an example but it can easily be changed to any other exam or topic.

A nice feature of TechNet is the ability to Print Multiple Topics.

You can create a collection of articles in the TechNet Library and print them or save them as HTML or PDF files which comes in handy when studying.

Collect your information

Lets start with the first part of the Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012, Skills Measured.

Broken down and some search of the topics on TechNet the section could look like this:
Exam 70-410
Install and Configure Servers (25%)

Install Servers.

• This objective may include but is not limited to:
  • Plan for a server installation;
  • plan for server roles;
  • plan for a server upgrade;
  • install Server Core;
  • optimize resource utilization by using Features on Demand;
  • migrate roles from previous versions of Windows Server

Creating the guide

Now lets use that information and create the first part of the MCSA Windows Server 2012 study guide.

The first topic is Plan for a server installation. Click the link above and a new window starts. In the upper right corner you’ll find teh icons for Preferences and Print/Export

 

Click the printer icon to get the option to select Print This Topic and Print Multiple Topics, select Print Multiple Topics.

The link redirects you to the Print/Export Multiple Topics – Help page where you get information on the feature.

Click Start to continue.

Click Add This Topic

Continue with the other 5 topics and the first collection is complete.

click Collection

In this view you can re-arrange and rename the content of the collection.

The result could look something like this.

In the the Export Your Collection field you can choose to export your collection as HTML or PDF

Now you can continue to add the topics into a larger one…

I’m currently in the middle of reading mine.

Hey wait a minute, got another great resouce to in cas you missed is. The Windows Server 2012 Virtual Labs in case you need some time away from the theory.

See you around in binary space. 😉

The private IT-Camp, education cloud. IT Camps On-Demand – Part 2 – A Camp of my own

As a said in my article IT Camps On-Demand I work as a consultant and attending the IT Camps in Sweden has been hard for me.

Any way, I saw a tweet by Niklas Åkerlund aka @vNiklas that got me interested.

@vNiklas: Labs | virtuallycloud9 http://t.co/ipTN3GLi #win2012 #winserv #hyperv

Tommy Patterson, @Tommy_Patterson another IT Pro evangelist has published information on his website virtuallycloud9 that provides the instructions for the IT Camp HOL

• IT Pro Windows Server 2012 Lab Download Link and Guide Available
• IT Pro Windows Server 2012 Lab Part 2 – Hyper-V Storage
• IT Pro Windows Server 2012 Lab Part 3 – Continuously Available File Shares
• IT Pro Windows Server 2012 Lab Part 4 – Hyper-V over SMB
• IT Pro Windows Server 2012 Lab Part 5 – Enabling Hyper-V Replica
• IT Pro Windows Server 2012 Lab Part 6 – Shared Nothing Live Migration and Hyper-V Live Storage Migration

The two recourses combined gives the possibility to create an IT Camp of your own.

So whats holding you back, lets start building your own IT-Camp.

You know I do!

Onenote 2 Go in 8 steps!

If I cant find a reasonable usage area for a product, I tend not to use it. For instance, to install Windows 8 on a virtual machine and test it out from my PC doesn’t work for me. I go All in and install it as my main OS right away. By doing so I must face the product every day and by doing that I learn.

I have for some time wondered about a usage area for the OneNote app for iPhone. Yes I have an iPhone and I like it. (I do want to try the Windows Phone to see if I like that too.)

Anyhow I read a tweet by Veronica Wei Sopher, @shih_Wei about blog strategy that gave me an idea that lead to a purpose for the app. The tweet made me remember the OneNote app I tried out and uninstalled just because I didn’t find a good usage area for it.

Now I use it all the time and it helps me a lot.

This is an example of how my latest posts have been done with a little help from my OneNote friend.

I used to keep notes on my phone, PC at work, at home, on pieces of paper on my desk, in notebooks and in OneNote. I was a mess and it were really hard to remember where I put them and it wasn’t easy to get an overview of my ideas.

It’s really easy and I blame my self for not thinking about it before.
The tools you need are Microsoft OneNote, SkyDrive and in my example the OneNote app installed on iPhone.

1. Open OneNote and create a New Notebook.
   Choose to store it on the Web
   Click Sign Inand enter your Microsoft account.
2. Enter a Name for your Notebook
3. Choose a SkyDrive Personal Folder where you want to store your notebook and click Create Notebook
4. Start the OneNote App  
5. Log Onusing your Microsoft account (Windows Live ID)
6. Enter your credentials and click Log On
7. Microsoft OneNote is now loading your notebooks. 
8. Voila your notebooks. 

Now you can get started making notes on the go!

How about a Blog in the Cloud in 7 clicks!

The process of getting an 90 day free evaluation account for windows Azure is described at the Windows Azure website.

The Windows Azure interface is really great and intuitive and when you have logged on you are good to go.

Since my blog is a WordPress blog I will use that in my

Now to business Get your own blog hosted in Windows Azure:

1. In the bottom right corner click NEW
2. Choose COMPUTE –> WEB SITE
3.  

   

4. Choose FROM GALLERY
5.  

   

6. Scroll down and choose WordPress
   
   
7. Enter the name of your blog
8.  

   

9. In The Create new database, leave default or change to what you like.
10.  

    

11. Tick the box
12.  

    

13. Finish (Or in my case Swedish)
14.  

    

You can now start building your blog or importing one you already have.

That’s it and that’s that.

IT Camps On-Demand

As a consultant in Sweden I find it hard to attend many of the initiatives that Microsoft provides. I have wanted to attend the IT-Camp in Sweden but haven’t been able to attend.

Now I can !

Harold Wong @haroldwong and John Weston @technetguy has recorded the sessions that they deliver for the IT-Camps in the US and made them available on demand.

To view the recordings click the image and you’ll land on the IT Camps On-Demand: Windows Server 2012 page at Channel 9.

QUI TACET CONSENTIRE VIDETUR – "He who is silent is taken to agree"

I received a tweet that stated “If it’s on you balance sheet, it’s not ‘cloud’” that made me interested.

In an article “If its on you balance sheet, it’s not ‘cloud’” written by George Knox he refers to this and some other quotes in a Forbes article “Buyers Beware “Private Clouds” That Aren’t Clouds at All”written by Dan Woods who in turn quotes Ken Ziegler CEO of Logicworks. There weren’t any references to Ken Zieglers statements so I can’t really comment on those.

I think they are wrong and that the articles are misleading, hence my title to this post.

What strikes me reading those articles are that the word cloud is mentioned around these articles and the writers don’t even stop and explain what the cloud is. NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology have made a definition of what cloud computing is. The publication can be read here.

The cloud is the idea of resources delivered transparent to the consumer when they want or need them. There are two main players in the cloud. The consumer, e.g. the user of the service and the function that delivers the resources, the service provider.

The driver of cloud isn’t just economical. I would say that its efficiency driven. Economic parameters like cost savings are not a parameter on which the cloud is built. The cloud can often cut cost but not always. But it will provide efficiency.

Deployment Models for the cloud are:

The public cloud is resources delivered to the many customers which holds consumers who share the resources often via the internet.

The private cloud is delivered to onecustomer what might have many consumers that don’t share the resources with other customers.

The customer is either a person or an organization of some kind.

NIST also states a few other

The cloud consists of three service models or building blocks:

1. Software as a Service, (SaaS)

2. Platform as a service, (PaaS)

3. Infrastructure as a Service, (IaaS)

Software as a Serviceis something you subscribe to and can use right away with minor configuration for instance providing your name and password for your e-mail.

Platform as a Serviceon the other hand is a service on which you put data, for instance your website. Another way of using PaaS is your dev/test environment. This service needs a higher level of configuration to be operational but pretty much is preconfigured.

Infrastructure as a Service can be described as delivery of infrastructure objects like servers, storage and networks. To use this service you need extensive configuration to get your infrastructure operational.

These building blocks or service models are delivered to the customer with five essential characteristics.

On-demand self-service. A consumer can order the resources without direct interaction with the people involved in provisioning of the resources. Like ordering things in a web shop.

Broad network access. The user can access the resouces from various clients, laptops, smartphones, workstations etc.

Resource pooling. The computing power are pooled and shared by the consumers like on a file/printserver where varous consumers share the same system for storing files and printing documents.

Rapid elasticity. The computing resources will increase quickly to changes. During high peak times more power are provided to the service and returned when there not needed anymore.

Measured service. The resources used by a consumer is measured and reported. The reports are transparent for the consumer and the service provider, a pay per use way of thinking.

The cloud is all about the app and the app is all about collaboration.

It takes two to tango