Microsoft Azure Stack Single Server POC Deployment part1 #Azure #AzureStack #HybridCloud

Dell Power Edge R710 Server for Microsoft AzureStack TP1 POC

Hardware Requirements

These requirements apply to the Azure Stack POC only and might change for future releases.

Component	Minimum	Recommended
Compute: CPU	Dual-Socket: 12 Physical Cores	Dual-Socket: 16 Physical Cores
Compute: Memory	96 GB RAM	128 GB RAM
Compute: BIOS	Hyper-V Enabled (with SLAT support)	Hyper-V Enabled (with SLAT support)
Network: NIC	Windows Server 2012 R2 Certification required for NIC; no specialized features required	Windows Server 2012 R2 Certification required for NIC; no specialized features required
Disk drives: Operating System	1 OS disk with minimum of 200 GB available for system partition (SSD or HDD)	1 OS disk with minimum of 200 GB available for system partition (SSD or HDD)
Disk drives: General Azure Stack POC Data	4 disks. Each disk provides a minimum of 140 GB of capacity (SSD or HDD).	4 disks. Each disk provides a minimum of 250 GB of capacity.
HW logo certification	Certified for Windows Server 2012 R2	Certified for Windows Server 2012 R2

Data disk drive configuration: All data drives must be of the same type (SAS or SATA) and capacity. If SAS disk drives are used, the disk drives must be attached via a single path (no MPIO, multi-path support is provided)

HBA configuration options: 1. (Preferred) Simple HBA 2. RAID HBA – Adapter must be configured in “pass through” mode 3. RAID HBA – Disks should be configured as Single-Disk, RAID-0

Supported bus and media type combinations

• SATA HDD
• SAS HDD
• RAID HDD
• RAID SSD (If the media type is unspecified/unknown*)
• SATA SSD + SATA HDD
• SAS SSD + SAS HDDExample HBAs: LSI 9207-8i, LSI-9300-8i, or LSI-9265-8i in pass-through mode
• Sample OEM configurations are available.
• * RAID controllers without pass-through capability can’t recognize the media type. Such controllers will mark both HDD and SSD as Unspecified. In that case, the SSD will be used as persistent storage instead of caching devices. Therefore, you can deploy the Microsoft Azure Stack POC on those SSDs.

Deploy Azure Stack POC

• Before you deploy, prepare the Azure Stack POC machine and make sure it meets the minimum requirements.

1. Install Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition Technical Preview 4 EN-US (Full Edition).
2. Download the Azure Stack POC deployment package to a folder on your C drive, (for example, c:\AzureStack).

• Run the Microsoft Azure Stack POC.exe file.

 

This creates the \Microsoft Azure Stack POC\ folder containing the following items:

• DeployAzureStack.ps1: Azure Stack POC installation PowerShell script
• MicrosoftAzureStackPOC.vhdx: Azure Stack data package
• SQLServer2014.vhdx: SQL Server VHD
• WindowsServer2012R2DatacenterEval.vhd
• WindowsServer2016Datacenter.vhdx: Windows Server 2016 Data Center VHD (includes KB 3124262)

Important: You must have at least 128GB of free space on the physical boot volume.

• Copy WindowsServer2016Datacenter.vhdx and call it MicrosoftAzureStackPOCBoot.vhdx.
• In File Explorer, right-click MicrosoftAzureStackPOCBoot.vhdx and click Mount.
• Run the bcdboot command:

bcdboot <mounted drive letter>:\windows

 

• Reboot the machine. It will automatically run Windows Setup as the VHD system is prepared.
• Configure the BIOS to use Local Time instead of UTC.
• Verify that four drives for Azure Stack POC data:

• Are visible in disk management
• Are not in use
• Show as Online, RAW

• Verify that the host is not joined to a domain.
• Log in using a local account with administrator permissions.
• Verify network connectivity to Azure.com.

 

Important: Only one NIC is allowed during the deployment process. If you want to use a specific NIC, you must disable all the others.

Run the PowerShell deployment script

1. Open PowerShell as an administrator.
2. In PowerShell, go to the Azure Stack folder location (\Microsoft Azure Stack POC\ if you used the default).
3. Run the deploy command:

I’m running the script with Proxy settings.

 

Deployment starts and the Azure Stack POC domain name is hardcoded as azurestack.local.

 

1. At the Enter the password for the built-in administrator prompt, enter a password and then confirm it. This is the password to all the virtual machines. Be sure to record this Service Admin password.
2. At the Please login to your Azure account in the pop-up Azure authentication page, hit any key to open the Microsoft Azure sign-in dialog box.
3. Enter the credentials for your Azure Active Directory Account. This user must be the Global Admin in the directory tenant
4. Back in PowerShell, at the account selection confirmation prompt, enter y. This creates two users and three applications for Azure stack in that directory tenant: an admin user for Azure Stack, a tenant user for the TiP tests, and one application each for the Portal, API, and Monitoring resource providers. In addition to this, the installer adds consents for the Azure PowerShell, XPlat CLI, and Visual Studio to that Directory Tenant.
5. At the Microsoft Azure Stack POC is ready to deploy. Continue? prompt, enter y.
6. The deployment process will take a few hours, during which several automated system reboots will occur. Signing in during deployment will automatically launch a PowerShell window that will display deployment progress. The PowerShell window closes after deployment completes.
7. On the Azure Stack POC machine, sign in as an AzureStack/administrator, open Server Manager, and turn off IE Enhanced Security Configuration for both admins and users.

There are two ways to log in to the Azure Stack POC.

Log in as a service administrator

A service administrator manages resource providers, tenant offers, plans, services, quotas, and pricing.

1. Log in to the Azure Stack POC physical machine.
   
2. Double-click the AzureStack.local.rdp desktop icon to open a Remote Desktop Connection to the client virtual machine. This automatically uses the AzureStack\AzureStackUser account that was created by the deployment script. Use the admin password you gave in step 5 of the script process at the Enter the password for the built-in administrator prompt.
3. On the ClientVM.AzureStack.local desktop, double-click Microsoft Azure Stack POC Portal icon (https://portal.azurestack.local/).
4. Log in using the service administrator account.Click on Accept

Log in as a tenant

Tenants provision, monitor, and manage services that they subscribe to, like Web Apps, storage, and virtual machines. A service administrator can log in as a tenant to test the plans, offers, and subscriptions that their tenants might use. If you don’t already have one, Create a tenant account before you log in.

1. Log in to the Azure Stack physical machine.
2. Double-click the AzureStack.local.rdp desktop icon to open a Remote Desktop Connection to the client virtual machine. This automatically uses the AzureStack\AzureStackUser account that was created by the deployment script. Use the admin password you gave in step 5 of the script process at the Enter the password for the built-in administrator prompt.
3. On the ClientVM.AzureStack.local desktop, double-click Microsoft Azure Stack POC Portal icon (https://portal.azurestack.local/).
4. Log in using a tenant account.

RDP may restrict how many users can access the physical Microsoft Azure POC host. To enable multiple users, see Enable multiple concurrent user connections.

 

Next blogpost will be about Configuring Microsoft Azure Stack part 2

Exploring #NanoServer for Windows Server 2016 with @Jsnover #Powershell

Microsoft Chief Architect, Enterprise Cloud, Jeffrey Snover, takes a closer look at Nano server – the secure new headless deployment option for Windows Server 2016. He demonstrates how it gives you the lightest and fastest option with significantly fewer patches and reboots. Watch as he shows you how to customize Nano Server for your next generation apps and highlights your management options from PowerShell to remote management.

Onboarding #Azure VMs to Operations Management Suite (OMS) video #MSOMS #HybridCloud

You can read much more on the Microsoft Operations Management Suite Blog here :

Microsoft Search Operations Management Suite logs Explained #MSOMS #HybridCloud

At the core of Microsoft OMS is the log search feature which allows you to combine and correlate any machine data from multiple sources within your environment. Solutions are also powered by log search to bring you metrics pivoted around a particular problem area.
On the Search page, you can create a query, and then when you search, you can filter the results by using facet controls. You can also create advanced queries to transform, filter, and report on your results.
Common log search queries appear on most solution pages. Throughout the OMS console, you can click tiles or drill in to other items to view details about the item by using log search.In this tutorial, we’ll walk through examples to cover all the basics when you use log search.

We’ll start with simple, practical examples and then build on them so that you can get an understanding of practical use cases about how to use the syntax to extract the insights you want from the data.

When you conduct log searches in OMS, you’ll use the following techniques:

• Use basic filters
• Use additional filters
• Manipulate search results
• Use the measure command
• Use the max and min functions with the measure command
• Use the avg function with the measure command
• Use the where command
• Use the in operator
• Use the distinct command

After you’ve familiar with search techniques, you can review the Search field and facet reference.

An early look at Microsoft #AzureStack and what it means for IT, with @jsnover #HybridCloud

Microsoft Is bringing Azure Cloud Services to Your Datacenter with Microsoft Azure Stack

Azure Stack gives you Microsoft Azure Services to run your datacenter just like a service provider. On this episode of Microsoft Mechanics, Jeffrey Snover takes an IT Pro perspective to show you how you can leverage the operational and resource management model of Azure for your datacenter on premises. Also, you’ll see how this hybrid approach gives you the flexibility to deploy apps and resources where and when you need them.

Here you can find more information on Microsoft Azure Stack documentation