Author: jay f

The tools are now out! The Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) is a collection of tools that you can use to customize, assess, and deploy Windows operating systems to new computers.

 

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Microsoft Azure e-books

Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure
Michael S. Collier and Robin E. Shahan
February 2015
246 pages

The “Microsoft Azure Essentials” series helps you advance your technical skills with Microsoft Azure. “Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure” introduces developers and IT professionals to the wide range of capabilities in Azure. The authors—both Microsoft MVPs in Azure—present conceptual and how-to content for seven key areas and describe management tools and business cases.

Download the PDF (6.66 MB)

Download the EPUB file (12.04 MB)

Download the Mobi for Kindle file (24.57 MB)

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Building Cloud Apps with Microsoft Azure
Scott Guthrie, Mark Simms, Tom Dykstra, Rick Anderson, and Mike Wasson
July 2014
198 pages

This ebook walks you through a patterns-based approach to building real-world cloud solutions. The patterns apply to the development process as well as to architecture and coding practices. The content is based on a presentation developed by Scott Guthrie and delivered by him at the Norwegian Developers Conference (NDC) in June of 2013 (part 1, part 2), and at Microsoft Tech Ed Australia in September 2013 (part 1, part 2). Many others updated and augmented the content while transitioning it from video to written form.

Download the PDF (6.35 MB)

Download the EPUB file (22.7 MB)

Download the Mobi for Kindle file (12.3 MB)

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Introducing Microsoft Azure HDInsight
Avkash Chauhan, Valentine Fontama, Michele Hart, Wee Hyong Tok, and Buck Woody
May 2014
130 pages

In Introducing Microsoft Azure HDInsight, we cover what big data really means, how you can use it to your advantage in your company or organization, and one of the services you can use to do that quickly—specifically, Microsoft’s HDInsight service. We start with an overview of big data and Hadoop, but we don’t emphasize only concepts in this book—we want you to jump in and get your hands dirty working with HDInsight in a practical way.

Download the PDF (6.37 MB)

Download the EPUB file (8.46 MB)

Download the Mobi for Kindle file (12.8 MB)

Download Companion Files (6.83 MB)

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Introducing Windows Azure for IT Professionals
Mitch Tulloch with the Windows Azure Team
October 2013
142 pages

Get a high-level overview of Windows Azure—and get a running start with this flexible cloud platform. Designed for IT professionals, this guide introduces core features and functionality, with technical insights and advice from a Microsoft MVP and members of the Windows Azure team. Topics include Windows Azure solutions, Compute services, Network services, Data services, and App services.

Download the PDF (8.0 MB)

Download the EPUB file (22.5 MB)

Download the Mobi for Kindle file (40.3 MB)

Get the book’s companion files (2.33 KB)

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Rethinking Enterprise Storage: A Hybrid Cloud Model
Marc Farley
July 2013
120 pages

Discover how a hybrid cloud model—combining cloud storage services with traditional on-premise storage—can solve multiple storage challenges cost-effectively, all under a single data management system. Focusing on the Microsoft hybrid cloud storage solution, this book offers concise insights on technical, strategic, and practical considerations—so you can begin evaluating potential benefits to your organization.

Download the PDF (3.0 MB)

Download the EPUB file (3.8 MB)

Download the Mobi for Kindle file (7.2 MB)

 

Hundreds of newly released sessions to spark your Ignite planning

The Microsoft Ignite Session Catalog is here! Be sure to take a look at the hundreds of sessions covering cloud infrastructure and management, big data and analytics, productivity, unified communications, operating systems, and mobile devices at the biggest enterprise technology event of the year! You’ll find sessions that provide deep technical detail on specific products, as well sessions that provide strategy, guidance and best practices on security and topics including deployment, operations and usage. We will be adding more sessions and labs in the coming weeks, so please check back often for updates.

Get more out of Ignite with a Pre-Day Session

For an additional investment of $500, Pre-Day Sessions on Sunday, May 3, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. offer a unique opportunity to extend your learning experience with a full day of focused training the day before the conference opens. These sessions are designed to provide you with a deep knowledge base and skills that you can apply as soon as you’re back in the office. You’ll be able to tap into the knowledge and insights of the people who, in many cases, literally wrote the book on their subject.

Network and network, then network some more

There is something special about the connections you make at events. That’s why we’re making it easy for you to find and connect with others interested in similar topics. There will be meet ups in lounges; fire-starter and birds-of-a-feather community-led sessions in theaters; regional, industry and technology-focused meal-time mashups; and after hour networking events with Microsoft tech and business leaders to add to your agenda to unwind, kick back, and truly enjoy the scene. You can talk tech all day and night.

Mark your calendars for #IgniteJam on Twitter

On February 3^rd at 9:00 am PT, we’ll have the whole event team and lots of speakers ready to chat with you on Twitter. We’ll be ready to answer your questions about the event and hear what you’re excited about in terms of community experiences and things to do in Chicago. Add the event to your calendar with this link.

To participate in this #IgniteJam

1. Log in to Twitter at 9:00 AM PT on February 3^rd. For easier real-time participation, use Twubs and join us at:  http://twubs.com/ignitejam.
2. Introduce yourself and include the hashtag #ignitejam and tag us at @MS_Ignite.
3. Watch for questions coming from @MS_Ignite and chime in with your answers and commentary, using the hashtag #ignitejam.

Feeling fired up? See where technology is headed and meet who’s fueling it—at Ignite. Register today, and add a Pre-Day Session to your Ignite agenda.

 

I be at Ignite Session will you..

 

Did you miss the Azure IaaS for IT Pros Online Event or do you want to watch specific sessions for a second time to deep dive with Azure experts into topics like Core IaaS, Cloud Infrastructure Fabric, or Open Source Software on Azure? All of the technical sessions from the event are now available as on-demand courses at Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA).

Watch the Azure IaaS for IT Pros courses and earn MVA points!

Become an IaaS go-to guru

Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure Chief Technology Officer, kicks off the courses with his keynote on Core IaaS Infrastructure Technical Fundamentals, followed by deep technical training in the technologies critical for IT Pro Implementers, like you. Experts share their technical insights on topics including Core IaaS, Cloud Infrastructure Fabric, Open Source Software on Azure, and Workloads on Azure IaaS.

Be recognized for your skills

Test your knowledge and earn MVA points when you complete the courses. You’ll gain the technical insights you need to prepare for Exam 70-533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions on your way toward Microsoft Azure Specialist Certification.

Azure IaaS for IT Pros on-demand course topics:

• Course 1: Establish the Foundation: Core IaaS Infrastructure Technical Fundamentals
• Course 2: Dive Deep into Networking, Storage, and Disaster Recovery Scenarios
• Course 3: Embrace Open Source Technologies (Chef and Puppet Configurations, Containerization with Docker and Linux) to Accelerate and Scale Solutions
• Course 4: Optimize Windows Workload Architecture and Administration Capabilities Within Azure

 

Between January 5 and May 31, 2015, take any Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) or Microsoft Dynamics exam, and get a free Second Shot if you fail the first take.

With our full transition to Pearson VUE as our sole exam delivery provider this year, there’s a slight difference in the Second Shot process. Please note:

• You must complete a Microsoft certification exam between January 5, 2015 and May 31, 2015. Simply go to https://www.microsoft.com/learning, log in, and schedule your exam.
• After your exam, log in to check your personal dashboard at https://www.microsoft.com/learning to verify testing results. Please allow up to 24 hours for results to show up on the dashboard.
• If you need a Second Shot, select “retake” for your exam within 30 days from your first take.
• Please review the Pearson VUE testing center availability for your specifc exam and then schedule your retake. 
• For complete terms and conditions of this offer, visit the Second Shot page on our website.

Good luck on your road to a new Microsoft certification title.

 

Tool for  create and manage the Enterprise Mode site list for Enterprise Mode IE.This tool lets IT Professionals create and update the Enterprise Mode site list for their company, without directly editing the XML. The Enterprise Mode site list only works with Enterprise Mode IE.

Click Here for Download

 

The installation package for HPC Pack 2012 R2 Update 1 is available for download here. The HPC Pack Image in the Azure Gallery, for both Azure Global and Azure China, is also now generally available. Together with this image, an official PowerShell script tool to deploy an HPC Pack cluster in infrastructure as a service (IaaS) VMs is now downloadable from here.

About two months ago, we announced the release of the Preview version of the Update 1 for HPC Pack 2012 R2, We want to thank everyone who helped us tested the early releases and sent us feedback. We made some important and necessary changes to our official release as a result.

The following are the significant new features in HPC Pack 2012 R2 Update 1:

• A major focus in Update 1 has been to quickly and robustly create a Windows HPC cluster using Azure virtual machines (IaaS). In order to achieve this goal, we released an HPC Pack image in the Azure Virtual Machine Gallery. All customers with an Azure subscription can use The HPC Pack IaaS deployment script tools to quickly deploy an HPC cluster with just a few steps. For details about how to use these tools, you can refer to the help document here.
• After a new cluster in Azure has been set up, you can use new tools to manage your HPC cluster in Azure. You can easily create, start, stop, or delete compute nodes as virtual machines on your cluster.Custom compute node images are supported. You can leverage this customization to make your whole deployment process much faster when installing applications and other dependencies. For more details, please see the online help document here.
• We also continued the investment around our existing scenario for “bursting” to Azure with Platform as a Service (PaaS) compute instances. To further enhance this scenario, we added grow/shrink capabilities to the HPC Pack scheduler. Now you can configure your HPC cluster to automatically adjust the number of active VMs in Azure, whether using virtual machine compute nodes or PaaS compute nodes. For more details, see the help document here.
• There are also several important new support and bug fixes added for HPC Pack, such as support of SQL Server 2014 and moving nodes to a different cluster. For more details, you can refer to the What’s New and Release Notes documents.

This post came from Microsoft

 

Is it time to level up your skills using Infrastructure as a Service?  Want to learn from the best technical engineers and noted technology leaders around?  Join Mark Russinovich, Corey Sanders, and members of the Azure Engineering team for a live event delivered online over four days.  Join for one session, join for them all. You’ll dive deep into technical scenarios, ask questions of the experts, and level up your own skills.  Azure IaaS for IT Pros Online Event, December 1-4

Become an IaaS go-to guru Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Chief Technology Officer, Azure, will kick off the event, followed by deep technical training in the technologies critical for IT Pro Implementers, like you, to deepen your foundational cloud skills.  Following the keynote, experts will share their technical insights on topics including Core IaaS, Cloud Infrastructure Fabric, Open Source Software on Azure, and Workloads on Azure IaaS. Be recognized for your skills Get certified for your skills! Register for the event to receive reminder emails and obtain details for receiving a 50% off exam voucher you can use towards Exam 70-533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions for Microsoft Azure Specialist Certification. Join the live event from 9am to 1pm PST December 1 Establish the Foundation: Core IaaS Infrastructure Technical Fundamentals December 2 Dive Deep into Networking, Storage, and Disaster Recovery Scenarios December 3 Embrace Open Source Technologies (Chef and Puppet Configurations, Containerization with Docker and Linux) to Accelerate and Scale Solutions December 4 Optimize Windows Workload Architecture and Administration Capabilities Within Azure

Register Here

Computers that are running volume licensing editions of Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 are, by default, KMS clients with no additional configuration needed.

To use the keys listed here (which are GVLKs), you must first have a KMS host running in your deployment. If you haven’t already configured a KMS host, see Deploy KMS Activation for steps to set one up.

If you are converting a computer from a KMS host, MAK, or retail edition of Windows to a KMS client, install the applicable setup key (GVLK) from the following tables. To install a client setup key, open an administrative command prompt on the client, type slmgr /ipk <setup key> and then press Enter.

if you are looking for KMS Client Setup Key 

Go  Here

If you bought Windows 8.1 or Windows 8, you can download and install Windows from this page using just your product key

Have your product key handy. You can find it in your online order information, in the confirmation email for your purchase or on the DVD packaging. The product key is a 25-character code that looks something like this:
XXXXX- XXXXX- XXXXX- XXXXX- XXXXX.

Go Here