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Here you find some great MSIgnite guidance on Microsoft Tech Community :
Are you exited as I am about the New Microsoft Windows 11 Insider preview builds on your device? The Microsoft Windows Insider Program team is keeping you up-to-date about the new features in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build by videos on YouTube. You can find the Windows Insider Channel here
Before you register as a Windows Insider, It’s important how you want to fly with new releases and or updates of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build. This because there are different Channels and they are explained well at this site.
( Read this first before you begin)
The Windows Insider Program Team is really active on Twitter, I advice you to follow them:
And of course the Windows Insider Program it self on Twitter : @WindowsInsider
Conclusion so far
I Like Windows 11 Insider Preview Build very much. As a Datacenter Administrator I like the New Windows Terminal under the Start button with a right click. The look and feels of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build is awesome and the Microsoft Windows Team did a lot of work to make configuring Windows 11 Insider Preview Build as easy as possible for the end-users. I wish you a lot of fun as a Windows Insider and don’t forget to give your Feedback in the Feedback Hub of Windows Insider.
Installing Windows Server Insider Datacenter Azure Edition
In my last blogpost we installed Windows 11 Insider Preview Enterprise Build on a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine. Now we do the same with Windows Server 2022 Insider build version on Microsoft Azure Cloud.
IMPORTANT
This blogpost is for testing only and not ready for production environments yet!
Before you Search for the Windows Server Insider Preview image, you need some preview features added to your azure subscription first. Here you find more information
One of the features is Inquest Hot patching, which we activate via Azure Cloud Shell with Bash Azure CLI :
az feature register –namespace Microsoft.Compute –name InGuestHotPatchVMPreview az feature register –namespace Microsoft.Compute –name InGuestAutoPatchVMPreview az feature register –namespace Microsoft.Compute –name InGuestPatchVMPreview
Register via Azure CLI with these commands.
Feature registration can take up to 15 minutes. To check the registration status:
az feature show –namespace Microsoft.Compute –name InGuestHotPatchVMPreview
az feature show –namespace Microsoft.Compute –name InGuestAutoPatchVMPreview
az feature show –namespace Microsoft.Compute –name InGuestPatchVMPreview
When registration is done, you will see this message.
Once the feature has been registered for your subscription, complete the opt-in process by propagating the change into the Compute resource provider.
Type the following Azure CLI commandline :
az provider register –namespace Microsoft.Compute
Now your Microsoft Azure Subscription is ready for the new Features with the Windows Server 2022 Insider Preview Datacenter Azure Edition Build.
You need the Core edition when you want to try hotpatching.
and you need to be a Windows Server Insider.
Add Storage to your Virtual Machine.
Because it’s for testing only I selected SSD.
Set your network settings.
Set Management settings like Hotpatch Preview.
At Advanced tab you can add Extensions and Custom scripts.
Click on Review + Create
Validation is passed, Click on Create and the
Windows Server Insider 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition will deploy.
IMPORTANT
Check the Network Security Group (NSG) of the Virtual Machine in Azure and set the security settings!
Set the Security Settings in the NSG.
Because we Installed the Windows Server Insider Core version,
Windows Admin Center (Preview) is very handy for Management.
Running Windows Server 2022 Insider Build 10.0.20348.166 in Azure
with Windows Admin Center (Preview) for Testing.
Now we wait for the Hotpatch 😉
Conclusion
Microsoft Azure Cloud platform is great for testing new products like Windows Server Insider Build versions, Windows 11 Insider Preview and the new Azure features. So when this becomes GA in the future you have already the experience and did some feedback to the Microsoft Product Team 😉
As a Windows Insider it’s great to have your machine in the Microsoft Azure Cloud to test new features of Windows 11 Preview. You don’t have to buy compatible hardware for Windows 11 Preview, and you only pay for the machine when you use it in the Cloud. Here you find the Windows 11 Preview minimal requirements.
In the following steps I deploy Windows 11 Preview Enterprise in Azure Cloud.
Create your Windows 11 Preview Machine in Azure Cloud.
For this you need a Microsoft Azure Subscription to create a Windows 11 Preview Virtual Machine in the Cloud. In the Azure template for deployment you can select the right size Virtual Machine, Storage, networks, and Management extensions like security and Azure Monitor.
Before you Connect your Windows 11 Preview VM, make sure the security for RDP is set in the Network Security Group (NSG)
Set security for your RDP session in the NSG.
Go to Settings => Windows Update => Windows Insider Program.
Click on Get Started.
First step link an account to join the program.
(This must be your Windows Insiders account)
Sign in selection and continue.
IMPORTANT
Here you select your Windows Insider Channel, read the information and choose your
Windows Insider Build Channel. As a Windows Insider MVP I choose for the Dev Channel to give feedback to the product Team and get the first new features of Windows 11 Preview.
Read the recommendations and click on Continue.
Review the Agreements for your Device.
Click on Continue if you agree.
Restart the Virtual Machine into the Dev Channel for
the latest updates.
Set your Windows Update Advanced options.
Here we have Windows 11 Preview Insider Build 22000.160 on Azure Cloud 😉
After this I went to the Windows Insider Feedback Hub to do my settings :
At Settings of the Feedback Hub you can update the software.
and of course your personal settings.
I Like the Windows Insider Feedback Hub in Dark mode.
IMPORTANT
When you are ready with testing and sending feedback to Microsoft don’t forget to Stop the Virtual Machine! This save you money.
Conclusion
Microsoft Azure Cloud Services and Windows 11 Preview Insider Builds working together gives you flexibility and as a Windows Insider you can test every Windows 11 Preview Build from any place with a Internet connection. I like to give Microsoft feedback to make Windows Awesome for everyone on the planet 🙂
With Windows Admin Center you can remotely manage Windows Server running anywhere—physical, virtual, on-premises, in Azure, or in a hosted environment.
The tool, available with your Windows Server license at no additional charge, consolidates and reimagines Windows OS tools in a single, browser-based, graphical user interface.
At Microsoft Ignite 2021 Global Virtual Event they launched Windows Admin Center version 2103. Here you find the download.
Set Proxy Server in Windows Admin Center Settings.
Open in a Separate Window
This is a Separate Window on my Second Screen, this works Awesome!
Windows Admin Center Virtual Tool improvements 🙂
Conclusion
Microsoft is working hard to make Hybrid IT Management better for Administrators to manage Hybrid Cloud datacenters. Windows Admin Center is a must have for managing
Windows Server Core, AzureStack HCI, and Cluster Services. I can say: I love to work with Windows Admin Center 🙂
Working with Dapr in WSL2 Remote VSCode and Ubuntu 20.04 distro
Dapr is a portable, event-driven runtime that makes it easy for any developer to build resilient, stateless and stateful applications that run on the cloud and edge and embraces the diversity of languages and developer frameworks.
Developer language SDKs and frameworks
To make using Dapr more natural for different languages, it also includes language specific SDKs for Go, Java, JavaScript, .NET and Python. These SDKs expose the functionality in the Dapr building blocks, such as saving state, publishing an event or creating an actor, through a typed, language API rather than calling the http/gRPC API. This enables you to write a combination of stateless and stateful functions and actors all in the language of their choice. And because these SDKs share the Dapr runtime, you get cross-language actor and functions support.
I’m using Windows Insider Build version 21277-RS with Docker for Windows Edge and Visual Studio Code.
Docker for Windows Edge Version Running.
Because Docker for Windows Edge support WSL2 Engine and Visual Studio Code too, brought me to an idea to build dapr into Ubuntu 20.04 WSL Distro on my Windows Insiders 21277 RS version on my Surface Book 3. There for you must activate the WSL2 integration with my default WSL distro Ubuntu-20.04.
Dapr init ( in the Ubuntu-20.04 WSL2 Linux distro )
Here you find the Dapr dev environment installation types for Dapr init, I did the standalone version. Dapr makes then the following containers :
Dapr Containers.
Then we have the following running :
Dapr Dashboard
Zipkin
Zipkin is a distributed tracing system. It helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures. Features include both the collection and lookup of this data.
Zipkin Traces
Dapr Dashboard
Now we have Dapr running in the WSL2 Ubuntu-20.04 distro, you can use Visual Studio Code on Windows Insiders using Remote WSL and work with your favourite dapr SDK like the list above 😉
From here you can work with your dapr application.
In this guide dapr is running with Docker containers, but you can also install it on Kubernetes or K8s, AKS, Azure any where, see this overview :
Dapr with Kubenetes Containers.
Dapr Overview.
Important Note : Dapr is now production ready with version 1.0 ! Developers, DevOps, AzOps, you can start with it and Build and Test your own microservices and Container apps ! Hope you are having fun with it too 😉
It’s a year full of misery with the Covid-19 virus around the world. People who lose their loved one, It’s a very sad time for all of us! Microsoft technologies are still going on strong with new features in Azure Cloud Services but also supporting the people who are working in the healthcare, data analytics, Microsoft Teams for Collaboration and much more. But what I want to say to all HealthCare people over the world : THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE WORK YOU DO 👍
I have deep respect for you all !
Community, Microsoft Product Teams, MVP Lead, WIndows Insiders, I wish you and your family happy holidays and a Healthy 2021 with lot of Success! 🎄😍