Windows Admin Center and The Container Extension #WAC #Containers #Winserv

Windows Admin Center

Windows Admin Center is a locally deployed, browser-based app for managing Windows servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, as well as Windows 10 PCs. It comes at no additional cost beyond Windows and is ready to use in production. If you want to work more secure with Windows Server Core images without the GUI or with Microsoft Azure Stack HCI operating system then Windows Admin Center is the tool for the Administrator to manage your workloads on-premises or in the Cloud. You have one web based interface for all your Server consoles (MMC) to manage your Hybrid Datacenter.
Here you can read more about Microsoft Windows Admin Center and download the free software.

Get the best with Windows Admin Center Extensions

Windows Admin Center and the Container Extension

When you have installed Microsoft Windows Admin Center you can configure the settings and extensions for your environment. When you want the benefits of the Microsoft azure Cloud Services you can configure your Azure subscription and add the extensions to your Windows Admin Center. There are also Third Party extensions like Dell, DataOn, Fujitsu and more.
Here you find more information about how extensions work.

Container Extension

In the following step-by-step guide we will work with the Container Extension of Windows Admin Center on a Windows Server 2019. You have already added the server in WAC and installed the Container extension. In my MVPLAB.CLOUD is that Windows Server 2019 datacenter Starship01.mvplab.cloud. When you open the server you will come in the Overview of the Windows Server:

Click on Containers.

Click on Install for the Docker installation on Starship01.mvplab.cloud.

This will install Docker on the Windows Server 2019 and reboot when it’s ready to use for Containers. From this moment you can work with Windows Containers on the host via Windows Admin Center.

Remote Desktop in Windows Admin Center, the docker host is installed with the Windows Filter by default.

When you want to use Docker Linux Containers with Windows Server 2019 host, you have to configure the Linux kit LCOW with a distro on the host. More info here

Containers on Starship01.mvplab.cloud

To start with containers you can create your own, or pull an image from Docker Hub with Windows Admin Center. In my case I pull Windows Server 2019 ltsc with IIS image.

mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore/iis  (Image)

windowsservercore-ltsc2019 (Tag)

Click then on Pull.

Select your image and click on Run.
Give your Container a name and set your settings.

Click on Run.

Click on Containers tab and you will see your running Container

More details you see the IP-Address of the Container.

IIS is running on Windows Server 2019 ltsc in a Docker Windows Container.
That was easy right 😉

Making your Own Docker file with Windows Admin Center Container Extension

When you have your own Github repository with your software, you can make your own docker file and make a docker image on your host for deployment. To show this I have used this sample on Microsoft docs, but you can clone also a github repository and copy the dockerfile on the host.

I copied the dockerfile on the host C:\BuildImage.

—————

# Sample Dockerfile

# Indicates that the windowsservercore image will be used as the base image.
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:ltsc2019

# Metadata indicating an image maintainer.
LABEL maintainer=”jshelton@contoso.com”

# Uses dism.exe to install the IIS role.
RUN dism.exe /online /enable-feature /all /featurename:iis-webserver /NoRestart

# Creates an HTML file and adds content to this file.
RUN echo “Hello World – Dockerfile” > c:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html

# Sets a command or process that will run each time a container is run from the new image.
CMD [ “cmd” ]

---

Here is the Microsoft docs website

Image Creation in progress

New Image Created with Windows Admin Center

Running your Own Container image

Container “Hello World – Dockerfile” running

Conclusion :

In Windows Admin Center comes ITpro world and DevOps world Together in One web based console like with the Container extension. Microsoft is developing really fast in Windows Admin Center to get all the right Feature for ITPro, DevOps and SecOps Administrators in one place. Awesome are the Windows Admin Center Extensions, developers makes these better and better to do the job for Administrators 🚀
Windows Server 2019 Core and Azure Stack HCI are Operating systems without a GUI, and with Windows Admin Center they are really good to manage, update and keeping in control of security.
I like Windows Admin Center a lot and it Rocks for managing your hybrid Datacenter 😉

Send your comments and feedback via Microsoft GitHub repo by opening a new issue for the Container Extension. Follow @vrapolinario on Twitter

 

You can Follow Windows Admin Center here on Twitter : @servermgmt

JOIN #Microsoft Inspire 2020 Global Event July 21-22 #MSInspire #Azure #AzureStack #Cloud #MVPBuzz #Innovation

Microsoft Inspire 2020 Global Event 🚀

Innovation. Leadership. Partnership.

Now is the time. Join your global partner community for the Microsoft Inspire digital event experience. Register today and get ready to extend your partner network as we explore what’s coming in the year ahead and work together to find shared solutions for our customers. Join Microsoft Inspire 2020 Global Event on July 21-22 Now at no Cost!

You will be Inspired by Microsoft New Technologies and Innovations !

Manage Servers On-premises with Microsoft Azure Cloud Services #Azure #Arc #Security #Cloud #AzureMonitor #ASC

Microsoft Azure Arc Servers On-Premises and Azure Cloud Services

Earlier I wrote a blogpost about Microsoft Azure Arc services installation to manage on-premises Servers with Azure Cloud Services, like Azure Monitor and Azure Security Centre from the Cloud.
Here in this post you will see the Newest Microsoft Azure Cloud Services to Manage and Monitor your Servers on-premises with security and compliance included.

Azure Arc Extensions settings of the Server.

Here you can see we have installed the Microsoft Monitoring Agent for Azure Monitor and log analytics, second we have installed the dependency Agent for Windows for
insights, Performance and Service maps. Here you find more information about Virtual machine extension management with Azure Arc for servers (preview)  

After initial deployment of the Azure Arc for servers (preview) Connected Machine agent for Windows or Linux, you may need to reconfigure the agent, upgrade it, or remove it from the computer if it has reached the retirement stage in its lifecycle. You can easily manage these routine maintenance tasks manually or through automation, which reduces both operational error and expenses.

Managing and maintaining the Connected Machine agent

Azure Arc Insights Performance monitor

The Azure Arc Insights Performance monitor is there by default and installed with the following dashboards :

• CPU Utilization
• Available Memory
• Logical disk IOPS
• Logical disk MB/s
• Logical disk Latency
• Max logical disk used %
• Bytes Sent Rate
• Bytes Received Rate

Azure Arc Logs Analytics

Of course you can make your own custom Dashboards in the Azure Portal with your own triggers, so in this way you get the same Azure Monitor Innovative Tools for your On-Premises Servers. 😉

Within Microsoft Azure Arc Insights, you can also see a Service Map of the Server

Here is were the dependency agent comes in, you get a service map of the Server and see the communication lines with other resources. In this picture you see Server Yoda01 a Domain Controller of my MVPLAB.
You can see that there are three Clients are logged on the domain controller.

Microsoft Azure Security Center for Azure Arc Servers

 

One of the most powerful and important features of Microsoft Azure Cloud platform is Security! Microsoft Azure Security Center (ASC) is a unified infrastructure security management system that strengthens the security posture of your data centers, and provides advanced threat protection across your hybrid workloads in the cloud – whether they’re in Azure or not – as well as on premises.

Here you see my Azure Arc Servers (On-Premises) in Azure Security Center.

Azure Arc Server in Azure Security Center recommendations Summary

Five security assessments passed the test, but Azure Security assessment has two recommendations one is Medium Risk and one low.

Here you see the Security advise and the Remediation to take action on your Server.

Microsoft Azure Security Center Overview with the Overall Secure Score.

Security controls – Each control is a logical group of related security recommendations, and reflects your vulnerable attack surfaces. A control is a set of security recommendations, with instructions that help you implement those recommendations. Your score only improves when you remediate all of the recommendations for a single resource within a control.

To immediately see how well your organization is securing each individual attack surface, review the scores for each security control.

 Here you find More information about Azure Security Center Secure Score

To get your Azure Arc Servers (On-premises) complaint for the business and security, you can use Microsoft Azure Arc Policies

Azure Arc Policies to meet your Compliance state.

Conclusion

Microsoft is bringing Azure Cloud Power tools everywhere with Azure Arc Services to give you modern tools like Azure Monitor and Azure Security Center to keep you in control, Secure and Compliant for your business. Keep following Microsoft for Hybrid IT Management, because more awesome features are added every day in Microsoft Azure Cloud Services. Let’s start to get your Azure Security Score UP and UP 😉

Download the Microsoft Azure Migrate E-Book for your Cloud Migration #Azure #Migrate #Cloud

Microsoft Azure Migrate E-Book

Download this e-book to learn about Azure Migrate, Microsoft’s central hub of tools for cloud migration. In this e-book, Microsoft will cover:

• What is Azure Migrate
• How Azure Migrate can help your migration journey
• Running a datacenter discovery and assessment
• Migrating your infrastructure, applications, and data
• Additional learning resources

Download the Free Azure Migrate E-Book here

More information about Microsoft Azure Migrate Tools on my Blog :

Microsoft Azure Migrate Assessments in Action VMWare to Cloud

Microsoft Azure ARC for Hybrid Infrastructure Management #Cloud #Azure #Hybrid

Microsoft Azure ARC and Manage your Infrastructure

Azure Arc for servers (preview) allows you to manage your Windows and Linux machines hosted outside of Azure on your corporate network or other cloud provider, similarly to how you manage native Azure virtual machines. When a hybrid machine is connected to Azure, it becomes a connected machine and is treated as a resource in Azure.

Azure ARC

Generate a script to onboard target machine.
Read more here for connecting hybrid Machine.

Connect hybrid machines to Azure from the Azure portal

The latest Azure ARC 2020 Updates via Microsoft Mechanics with Travis Wright

#Microsoft Build 2020 Virtual Event May 19-20-21 Build your Schedule Now! #MSBuild #MVPBuzz

Microsoft Build 2020

Choose from 48 hours of continuous content to create your own digital event experience. Registration is free and is required to get full, interactive access to the digital event. Here you can register for Microsoft Build 2020 Virtual Event

The Session Catalog is Live ! Build your own Schedule here 

With 30+ Community talks, learning sessions, and skill-building activities exploring Minecraft, MakeCode, Visual Studio, AI, Azure, and more, there is something here for every student and every level of experience!

Check out the full list here or search by keyword to add lessons to your schedule.

Don’t miss this Awesome Event 👍😎🚀

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Standalone Cluster for Testing #microservices #Containers #Apps

Microsoft Azure Service Fabric standalone

Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices and containers.

To build and run Azure Service Fabric applications on your Windows development machine, install the Service Fabric runtime, SDK, and tools. You also need to enable execution of the Windows PowerShell scripts included in the SDK.

I have installed the latest version :

• Service Fabric SDK and Tools 4.1.409
• Service Fabric runtime 7.1.409

here you find more information about installing Azure Service Fabric Standalone version for testing
I have installed the Azure Service Fabric Cluster on my Windows10 Machine for testing only.

When you want to great your own Azure Service Fabric Cluster for Production, you have to prepare your self and making a plan before you build.

When you have your Azure Service Fabric Standalone Cluster running, you want to deploy your microservices, apps or containers on it and test your solution. In the following steps I deploy with Visual Studio a Web App to Azure Service Fabric Cluster Standalone version 7.1.409

Here is a Github Sample for Azure Service Fabric.

git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/service-fabric-dotnet-quickstart

Here you have your Clone from Github.

To deploy this App to the Azure Service Fabric Cluster we use Microsoft Visual Studio

Once the application is downloaded, you can deploy it to a cluster directly from Visual Studio.

1. Open Visual Studio
2. Select File > Open
3. Navigate to the folder you cloned the git repository to, and select Voting.sln
4. Right-click on the Voting application project in the Solution Explorer and choose Publish

Click on Publish.

Select connection Endpoint Local Cluster and click on Publish.

The Web App is Published to the Azure Service Fabric Standalone Cluster.

When you open the Azure Service Fabric Explorer you will see your App Running

This sample is for testing only and is not secure for production, just to learn how it works 😉

Of course you can also deploy Containers with Visual Studio to your Azure Service Fabric Standalone Cluster.

Deploying Service Fabric Container via Visual Studio.

More Azure Service Fabric information

Here you find the Azure Service Fabric documentation

Here you find the Microsoft Azure Service Fabric website

Here you find the Azure Service Fabric Tech Community Blog

Happy Testing your Apps, microservices, and Containers.

Join the Containers in the Cloud LinkedIn Community Group

 

Windows Insiders – WSL 2 – Windows Terminal #WIMVP #WindowsInsiders #Kali #Azure

Windows Insiders Preview Build 19613

If you like to test the new features of Windows 10 and give feedback to the Microsoft product team, then the Windows Insiders Program is the place to Join. Here you can become a Windows Insider

I’m a Windows Insider since 2014 and a Windows Insider MVP since July 2019 and I love the collaboration with the Community and with the Microsoft Product Team to make a better product like Windows 10 together.

On my windows Insiders Build version 19613, I like to have my tools and Apps installed like :

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Visual Studio Code with all the Awesome Extensions 😉
• Windows Admin Center
• All the Microsoft Edge Browser versions
• WSL 2 and Windows Terminal ( via Microsoft Store)

I’m in the Microsoft Windows Insiders FAST Ring, and I want to test everything like Windows 10 operating system but my Tools must also be working on every new Windows Insiders Build.

Installing WSL 2 and Windows Terminal on Windows Insider Build version

Open Powerhell in Administrator modus

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows–Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

When both dism commands are successfully completed, you have to restart your machine.

wsl –set-default-version 2

Now you have set WSL 2 version in the basic, but you have to install a Linux distro where you can find
here in the Microsoft Store

I installed Kali Linux distro from the Microsoft Store.

Enter a New User name and password.

Kali Linux distro is now running on WSL 2 on my Windows Insiders Build.

One of the Cool features in Windows Insiders Build version 19613 is that you can use your File explorer for Kali Linux 😉

Linux in Windows Insider Explorer.

Exploring Kali Linux

And of course updating the Kali Linux distro with

Sudo apt-get update

And at last…….

sudo apt-get upgrade

The Next tool is Windows Terminal (Preview) from the Microsoft Store

Just Click on Get ( in the Microsoft Store)

Click on Launch

This Windows Terminal Preview version on Windows Insiders can run :

• Command Prompt
• Powershell
• Kali Linux distro (WSL 2)
• Azure CloudShell

From here I can Manage and Install Microsoft Azure Cloud Services with Cloud Shell running on my Windows Insiders Build
for testing all the new features and this goes really easy :

Click next to PowerShell in the pulldown bar on Azure Cloud Shell and copy the Code
into the next URL https://microsoft.com/devicelogin

Enter here your Code from Windows Terminal.

Done you are logged-In Azure via Windows Terminal on Windows Insiders Build.

Azure Cloud Shell in Windows Terminal 😉

Conclusion

The Windows Insiders Program is Awesome to join when you like to test the Newest features of Windows 10 but also the Tools and applications running on the newest Windows Insiders Build version are Cool. When you work with Fast ring releases and Preview versions of tools you can hit a bug, or something is not working. That’s the moment you give feedback in the Windows Insider Feedback HUB to support the Microsoft Windows Insiders Product Team to fix the Bug.

Together we are building for the future of Windows 10 !

Windows Insider Program Feedback Hub.

And as a Windows Insider you can earn Badges for your Support 😉

Docker Linux Container running on Windows Server 2019 #Winserv #Docker #Containers

In the following steps we install Docker for Windows enterprise on a Windows Server 2019 which is running on a hypervisor platform in this case VMware to run a Linux container in the Datacenter.

When you are on a virtualization platform like Hyper-V or VMware and you have installed de Virtual machine with Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard edition, you must make the virtual processors ready for virtualization.
(Nested Virtualization) otherwise you can’t install Hyper-V on VMware.

This is the error you get.

Enable this feature for virtualization to the guest OS for VMware.

When you run Microsoft Hyper-V you have to activate nested virtualization

It’s like this in PowerShell : Set-VMProcessor -VMName <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

Before you install Docker enterprise for Windows Server you have to install the Hyper-V Role and the Container Feature:

Hyper-V Role Installed

Containers Feature installed.

via Powershell is like this :

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V,Containers -IncludeAllSubFeature -IncludeManagementTools

Now we have all the prerequisites installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2019, we can begin with Docker for Windows Enterprise via Powershell in Administrators modus :

Command: Install-Module DockerMSFTProvider

Then you type the following commands:

Import-Module -Name DockerMSFTProvider -Force

Import-Packageprovider -Name DockerMSFTProvider -Force

Command: Install-Package -Name Docker -Source DockerDefault

Now we have Docker EE version 19.03.5 installed for Windows Server 2019.

It’s ready for Windows Containers.

But we want to run linux containers,

Now that we have Docker installed, we need to make some changes to the default configuration to enable support for Linux Containers. This involves setting an Environment variable and creating a docker daemon configuration file.

—————————————————-

# Set LCOW_SUPPORTED Variable to 1 for enabled

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(“LCOW_SUPPORTED”, “1”, “Machine”)

 # Enable Experimental Features in Docker daemon.conf

$configfile = @”

{

    “experimental”: true

}

“@

$configfile|Out-File -FilePath C:\ProgramData\docker\config\daemon.json -Encoding ascii -Force

——————————————————

Because Linux Containers still need a Linux kernel, we need to deploy LCOW for it to run :

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri “https://github.com/linuxkit/lcow/releases/download/v4.14.35-v0.3.9/release.zip&#8221; -UseBasicParsing -OutFile release.zip

Expand-Archive release.zip -DestinationPath “$Env:ProgramFiles\Linux Containers\.”

Now you have to reboot the Server.

Ready for running Linux Containers.

To make Linux containers the Default you can set this environment setting :

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(“LCOW_API_PLATFORM_IF_OMITTED”, “linux”, “Machine”)

Here you can read how to Pull docker Linux images to your Docker Host on Windows Server 2019

What is handy to use is Microsoft Visual Studio Code with the Docker Extension.

Wish you all the Best with Deploying Containers.

#Microsoft Virtual Training Day | NL #Azure #Winserv #Cloud and More!

Microsoft Virtual Training Day | NL this Wednesday March 11th. This day will be full of technical sessions based on our Microsoft Learning Paths.

Explore the tracks

We offer 7 tracks including 5 sessions per track, based on the Learning Paths of Azure Cloud Native, Azure Data, Azure Infra & Ops, Business Applications, Power Platform, Modern Workplace and Surface. On the day itself you can join sessions of different tracks. Please register your sessions here :

http://aka.ms/mvtd