SQL Server Virtual Labs have been updated for SQL Server 2012 SP1

For those looking to get familiar with SQL Server 2012 SP1, Microsoft has updated the Virtual Labs for SQL Server 2012 SP1.

This way you can easily learn and play around with it without having to set up your own lab.

Enjoy.

 

Microsoft – Resources to get more familiar with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)

Nowadays more and more work, communication and collaboration involves multiple external parties. This can involve by example employees, customers, partners, suppliers, cloud providers/platforms/applications.

This means it is becoming increasingly important to have proper authentication and authorization methods in place for single sign on (SSO) so users can be more productive. Besides the ease-of-use It can also lead to better security.

Microsoft’s Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) will make this possible. For more information on ADFS, here are some resources. Keep in mind though that while some information may be outdated, it will give you a broad idea of the concept and the inner workings. The current version of ADFS in Windows Server 2012 is 2.1 , while Windows Server 2008 uses 2.0

• Active Directory Federation Services (TechNet)
• Active Directory Federation Services,Part 1: How Do They Really Work?
• Active Directory Federation Services,Part 2: Building Federated Identity Solutions
• Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 solution guide (including ForeFront UAG)
• Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 Deep Dive: Deploying a Highly Available Infrastructure
• AD FS 2.0 Step-by-Step and How To Guides
• AD FS with Office 365 Step by Step Install Guide
• ADFS 2.0 Setup Guide
• A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control (2nd Edition)
• Choosing Between Forefront TMG or Forefront UAG for Publishing Scenarios
• Cloud Security: The Practical Meaning of Security, Identity and Access Revealed!
• Complete walkthrough: Setting up a ADFS 2.0 Server on Windows Azure IaaS and Configuring it as an Identity Provider in Windows Azure ACS
• Demystified Series: Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Part 1
• Demystified Series: Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Part 2
• Deploying and Configuring ADFS 2.0
• Federated Identity in the Cloud [NZ 2010: SEC402]
• Federation and Federated Identity: Part 1 Active Directory Federation Services – How Do they Really Work?
• Federation and Federated Identity: Part 2 Building Federated Identity Solutions with Forefront Unified Access Gateway and ADFS v2
• Forefront UAG and ADFS: Better together
• Managing Identity in the Cloud with ADFS and Windows Azure – TechDays 2012
• MS Innovations Blog posts tagged with adfs
• Office 365 ADFS virtual lab
• Office 365 for SMB Jump Start (03) | Office 365 DirSync, Single Sign-On & ADFS
• Office 365 SSO: A Simplified Installation Guide
• Plan for and deploy AD FS for use with single sign-on
• Setting up Single Sign on with Office 365 using ADFS 2.0
• The Access Onion – Peeling away at Access Management, Identity Federation, PKI and SSO issues
• What’s new in Forefront UAG Service Pack 2 (also ADFS 2.0 changes)
• Windows Authentication, ADFS and the Access Control Service 
• Windows Server 2008 (R2) Active Directory Federation Services (TechNet)

PS: Microsoft is moving more and more towards claims based authentication. Examples include Windows Server 2012 Dynamic Access Control and also SharePoint 2013 that has switched to claims based authentication by default now.

If you have some other resources that might be useful, please let me know so I can add them as well.

 

Microsoft – Exam preparation resources wiki for Server 2012 and much more

Guido van Brakel (@guidovbrakel) has posted the great “Preparation resources for the exam 70-417: Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012″ on his blog http://www.enduria.eu some months ago.

Apparently he has now partnered up with the Microsoft Learning / Born To Learn team and is moderating wiki posts containing preparation resources for all kinds of exams including:

70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
70-411: Administering Windows Server 2012
70-412: Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services
70-413: Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure
70-414: Implementing an Advanced Server Infrastructure

From what I can see in the wiki based on the placeholders, a lot of great content is planned for the future as well.

The Born To Learn blog , Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) and Server 2012 Virtual Labs are also great resources you may want to check out.

PS: If you’re Dutch or Belgian, you might also want to take a look at the Tweakers.net forum and especially the “[Microsoft Certified] Ervaringen en discussies – Deel 9″ thread where lots of Microsoft Certification information is shared.

 

SCOM2012 – Quick test lab setup OpsMgr 2012 SP1 Beta using prepared VHD

Since I’m currently working with System Center Operations Manager 2012 (also often referred to as SCOM 2012 or OpsMgr 2012), I needed a testing environment.

Because time is precious, I want to minimize the time and effort needed to set it up. This is what I did:

1. Install and configure Hyper-V on my Windows 8 laptop.
2. Deploy a VM with Server 2012 Datacenter edition.
   Configure a static IP address.
   Configure AD DS / domain controller role.
   Configure DHCP server role.
   Configure DNS server role (if desirable, include DNS forwarder for internet DNS queries).
3. Download and extract the pre-configured SCOM 2012 SP1 beta VHD (running Server 2012 Datacenter edition). System Center 2012 SP1 adds Windows Server 2012  SQL Server 2012 Support.
4. Create a new VM for SCOM and configure it to use the downloaded pre-configured VHD.
   Configure it with sufficient virtual CPUs and memory  for the DB and the SCOM components.
5. Start the SCOM VM, and follow the onscreen instructions. NOTE: First time configuration took about 1-2 hours, but this might be related to my hardware. Still it might be smart to plan the installation.
6. Convert the Server 2012 Datacenter edition from ServerDatacenterEval to ServerDatacenter by running an elevated CMD as administrator and issuing the following command:
   DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerDatacenter> ProductKey:<productkey> /AcceptEula
   Reboot.
7. Replace the SCOM 2012 evaluation license with your own license using Operations Manager Shell:
   Set-SCOMLicense -ProductId “yourlicensekey“
   Reboot
   Check the license using the Operations Manager Shell:
   Get-SCOMManagementGroup | ft skuforlicense, version, timeofexpiration –a
8. Shut down your SCOM 2012 VM.
9. Shut down your AD DS / domain controller VM.
10. Create a snapshot and/or export of both VM’s so you can more easily revert to a good starting point.

Also be sure to read Stefan Stranger’s blog post that goes into more detail with regards to the domain controller and automating the task for setting it up. It also includes screenshots to give you a better idea of the process.

PS: I love how Microsoft provides these pre-configured VHD’s. This has been great in the past, but now with client Hyper-V 3.0 in Windows 8 it saves me even more time because I don’t have to boot to Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 for Hyper-V.