With Microsoft Prerelease Software like Windows Server Insider Preview Builds, you can experience and test the new features in your Test environment before it’s GA and in your production datacenter(s). First you have to register for the Windows Server Insider program here
Then you can download the Windows Server Insider Preview Build.
I’m updating my mvplab.local domain.
With this you can Build your own test environment and experience the new features in Windows Server Insider Preview Builds.
The Microsoft Windows Server Insider Team is also on Microsoft Tech Community.
Windows Server Long-Term Servicing Channel Preview in ISO format in 18 languages, and in VHDX format in English only.
Windows Server Datacenter Azure Edition Preview in ISO and VHDX format, English only.
Microsoft Server Languages and Optional Features Preview
Keys: Keys are valid for preview builds only
Server Standard: MFY9F-XBN2F-TYFMP-CCV49-RMYVH
Datacenter: 2KNJJ-33Y9H-2GXGX-KMQWH-G6H67
Azure Edition does not accept a key
Expiration: This Windows Server Preview will expire September 15, 2023.
Installing Windows Server Insider Preview Build 25314
For the Microsoft Product Group it’s important to give your feedback when you have ideas or experience some issues with these Windows Server Insider Preview Builds. Here you find more information about the Feedback Hub.
With this you can build great Hybrid Solutions with Windows Server Insider Preview Build Clusters which is connected with
Microsoft Azure Arc Services for Azure Hybrid IT Solutions. In this way you can test new experiences before you go into production and learn a lot of what you can do! Here you can read more about Azure Arc enabled Servers
My Domain Controller is Up-to-date with the Newest Windows Server Insider Preview Build 25314 for now 😉
With Windows Server Insider Preview Build you can make your own environment, with your own domain, Clusters, Hybrid Servers or build your environment for Containers. You can experience and test for example Windows Server Insider Preview Azure edition with Hot Patching feature on. Start today with Microsoft Windows Server Insider Preview Builds and Share your feedback with Microsoft.
With Windows Admin Center in the Azure portal you can manage the Windows Server operating system of your Arc-enabled servers, known as hybrid machines. You can securely manage hybrid machines from anywhere–without needing a VPN, public IP address, or other inbound connectivity to your machine.
With Windows Admin Center extension in Azure, you get the management, configuration, troubleshooting, and maintenance functionality for managing your Arc-enabled servers in the Azure portal. Windows Server infrastructure and workload management no longer requires you to establish line-of-sight or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)–it can all be done natively from the Azure portal. Windows Admin Center provides tools that you’d normally find in Server Manager, Device Manager, Task Manager, Hyper-V Manager, and most other Microsoft Management Console (MMC) tools.
In the following steps we will install Azure Windows Admin Center (Preview) on a Microsoft Azure Arc enabled Server from the Azure Portal.
Click on Windows Admin Center (Preview) on the Left side.
Then click op Setup
Set the port.
Click on Install
Installing extension Windows Admin Center
At the Activity log you can follow the installation.
and See the Quick Insights
No Problems here 😉
Let’s Connect
Sign in with your Username and Password
Running Windows Admin Center from the Azure Portal.
Azure Windows Admin Center of the Azure Arc enabled Server.
PowerShell session remote on the Azure Arc enabled Server.
Events of the Azure Arc enabled Server.
Conclusion
With Microsoft Azure Windows Admin Center and Azure Arc enabled Servers you can manage your servers from anywhere.
You got all the benefits of Microsoft Azure Hybrid features. Try it yourself, Windows Admin Center is still in preview and for testing only.
You can experience this awesome Azure Hybrid solution before it goes in production 😉
Azure Arc-enabled servers lets you manage Windows and Linux physical servers and virtual machines hosted outside of Azure, on your corporate network, or other cloud providers. VM insights monitors the performance and health of your virtual machines and virtual machine scale sets, including their running processes and dependencies on other resources. It can help deliver predictable performance and availability of vital applications by identifying performance bottlenecks and network issues.
In the following steps you see more Azure Arc Insights of this On-premises domain controller.
Azure Arc Insights Performance monitor
Here you see by default performance counters in a dashboard of the Azure Arc enabled Server :
CPU Utilization
Available Memory
Logical Disk IOPS
Logical Disk MB/s
Max Logical Disk Used %
Bytes sent rate
Bytes received rate
In the right corner you can show your own workbooks.
Azure Arc Insights Map dependencies
I really like this feature to see more Insights of your dependencies with this map. See if there are any communication issues
in your solution is great!
Here you see connections of the Azure Arc enabled domain controller from on-premises.
You even can see if you have Malicious Connections in your process, here they are all green 🙂
Azure Arc Insights Map Changes
You can Investigate Changes
Azure Arc Insights Map Alerts
Here you can Investigate the Alerts.
Azure Arc Insights Overview
Make your own Data Collection Rule.
Here is the Data Source MSVMI-HybridIT
Here you can configure your resources with the Data Sources.
Create your own Data Collection endpoint for your Azure Arc enabled Server
Create your endpoint and select your Tag
with Tags you can set the Owner or cost number on the data collection endpoint.
When It’s ready you can here select the Data collection endpoint for your Server.
We only have Performance Counters, so we will add more Data Sources.
Here you can see some default Data sources.
I select Windows Event Logs.
Here you can configure the event logs and levels to Collect.
I selected only these.
Click on Next : Destination>
Select the right destination.
Then Click on Add Data Source
I like to thank you Community for Supporting, Sharing and Reading New Microsoft technologies on my Blog, Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn Community Groups 💗 I wish you all happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year 2023 may the Best Wishes comes true ! 🎄🥂
I’m very proud and Honored on the Microsoft Global MVP Awards 2022-2023 !
MVP Award for Cloud and Datacenter Management
MVP Award for Windows Insiders
MVP Award for Azure Hybrid
Thank you Microsoft Product Groups, MVP Award Program, Windows Insider Team, Azure Hybrid Team, Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI Team for all your support, NDA PGI sessions, and for the Awesome software, Features, solutions you are building 🙂
Wish you all Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year 2023 may the Best Wishes comes true ! 🎄🥂
Here are some Great links for Reading and Sharing :
JOIN these LinkedIn Community Groups for free and Share New Microsoft Technologies Together:
Microsoft Azure Update Management Center (Preview)
Update management center (preview) is a unified service to help manage and govern updates for all your machines. You can monitor Windows and Linux update compliance across your deployments in Azure, on-premises, and on the other cloud platforms from a single dashboard. Using Update management center (preview), you can make updates in real-time or schedule them within a defined maintenance window. Here you can find more information about Azure Update Management Center
In the following step-by-step guide, we will start with Azure Update Management Center (Preview) and Microsoft Azure Arc enabled Windows Servers running on-premises in my mvplab.local domain.
With getting started you can configure the environment.
I start here with my Azure Arc enabled Storage Server.
Updates installed on the Azure Arc Enabled Windows Server.
In Azure Update Management Center Overview Dashboard
you can see that one machine is completed.
For Monitoring you can make your own workbooks.
I like this History, to see if updates are successful or not.
Conclusion
Microsoft Azure Update Management Center is still in Preview but it’s a new way to manage all of your updates on your Servers on-premises with Azure Arc enabled, or on Azure Cloud, but also in other Clouds if you want. One Update Management Center from the Azure Portal is Awesome to work with and gives you control and overview of your update compliance in your datacenter(s). Important: This Great tool is still in preview and not for production environments yet until it’s made GA by Microsoft and you have the full support on this awesome management tool.
In the last blogpost of MVPLABSerie we learned how to add Servers from anywhere to Microsoft Azure Arc services to get the Azure Hybrid benefit with awesome features and Management tools. you can find that blogpost over here:
With Windows Admin Center in the Azure Portal you can manage the Windows Server operating system of your Arc-enabled servers, known as hybrid machines. You can securely manage hybrid machines from anywhere–without needing a VPN, public IP address, or other inbound connectivity to your machine.
Open Servers and open your Azure Arc Enabled Server.
First of all we have to add the right Role assignment.
Click on Access Control on the Left.
Click on Add => Add Role Assignment.
Here you have to add the following Role Assignment. Windows Admin Center Administrator Login. Add this to your account
When the account is done, then go to Windows Admin Center (Preview)
on the left panel. Click then on Setup.
Click on Install
Setup Successfully!
Now you can Connect your Azure Arc Enabled Windows Server.
Here we have my Storage Windows Insider Server in mvplab.local domain.
From here you can do your IT Management with WAC.
Remote PowerShell on Azure Arc enabled Server.
Microsoft Azure Arc Insights Monitoring and Log Analytics
For IT Management and troubleshooting, monitoring and getting Insights is important to act quickly to keep the business and IT solutions running. With Azure Arc Insights you can see with Maps the connections of the Windows Server.
Azure Arc Insights with Map.
See also the Quick Link to Connection details
This is a really cool overview of your connections.
Here you can see if you have a Malicious connection!
Here I do a Query on the Arc Enabled Server mvpstore01 Update Summary.
There are a lot of Log Analytics queries to play with and mark them as your favorite for your Arc enabled Windows Server 😉
In the following blogpost we will have a closer look at Microsoft Azure Auto Manage and Update Management Center for
Microsoft Azure Arc enabled Windows Servers. We will not forget Security with Azure Defender for Cloud coming in the next blogposts.
Conclusion
With Microsoft Azure Arcenabled Servers you get a Microsoft Azure Hybrid environment with Great features and solutions.
Some features are still in preview and not supported for production workloads, but you can test them now like I do with my mvplab.local
This new innovative technology is going fast forward for Azure Hybrid Services to Manage your Windows Servers, Azure Stack HCI Clusters or your Linux virtual Machines. Azure Arc rocks and you can connect Microsoft Azure Anywhere 🙂
Today every company wants to benefit from Cloud to achieve more for the business. Microsoft made Azure Arc to simplify governance and management by delivering a consistent multi-cloud and on-premises management platform.
In the following steps we are going to onboard the Windows Insider Servers and Windows 11 Insider Beta Virtual Machine which are running in mvplab.local domain into the Microsoft Azure Cloud. We will install the Azure Connected Machine Agent via a PowerShell Script in the next steps :
Here you can Choose for the right script.
I choose for Add Multiple Servers with a Service Principle.
Click on Generate Script.
Read the prerequisites access to port 443.
view Outbound URLs link.
Click Next
Select the right Azure Subscription and Resource Group.
Select your Azure Region.
Select Operating System
Select the Connectivity method.
Click on Next
If you don’t have a Azure Service principal, you can create one here.
Click on Create Service principal.
Create your Service Principal
Copy your Client ID and Client Secret !
You need this later.
Choose the Deployment method :
Basic Script or Configuration Manager ( I choose for Basic) Download the Script
I have copied the script to my Domain Controller On-premises here.
Open with PowerShell ISE the OnboardingScript.ps1
and Copy / Paste your
Service Principal Client ID and Secret here in the Script.
Click on save and run the script.
Start PowerShell in Admin modus
Run Script .\OnboardingScript.ps1
Server is connected with Azure 🙂
Here is the Azure Arc Enabled Server, my Domain Controller.
Here I have all the Azure Arc Capabilities available for my Domain Controller.
Azure Hybrid
With the Same Script I added the mvplab.local Windows Insider Servers to Azure
They are all Azure Arc Enabled Servers.
On all Azure Arc enabled Servers is the Azure Connected Machine Agent installed.
Conclusion
In a simple way you can deploy Azure Arc agent on your on-premises Servers to make them Azure Arc Enabled so you can enjoy the Azure Hybrid features from the Cloud. IT management and Security from Azure becomes available for your on-premises Servers.
It’s not only Infrastructure but also Data Services and Application Services what you can use for your Azure Hybrid Solution.
In the next Blogpost we will have a look at the Microsoft Azure Arc Features in my mvplab.local domain.
Installing Operations Manager creates a management group. The management group is the basic unit of functionality. At a minimum, a management group consists of a management server, the operational database, and the reporting data warehouse database.
The management server is the focal point for administering the management group and communicating with the database. When you open the Operations console and connect to a management group, you connect to a management server for that management group. Depending on the size of your computing environment, a management group can contain a single management server or multiple management servers.
The operational database is a SQL Server database that contains all configuration data for the management group and stores all monitoring data that is collected and processed for the management group. The operational database retains short-term data, by default 7 days.
The data warehouse database is a SQL Server database that stores monitoring and alerting data for historical purposes. Data that is written to the Operations Manager database is also written to the data warehouse database, so reports always contain current data. The data warehouse database retains long-term data.
When Operations Manager reporting functionality is installed, the management group also contains a Reporting server which builds and presents reports from data in the data warehouse database.
These core components of a management group can exist on a single server, or they can be distributed across multiple servers, as shown in the following image.
In my Test LAB mvplab.local I will install the Management Server on a Windows Server Insider member Server and the Operational Database with the Data Warehouse Database on the SQL Cluster Instance. Here you find more Microsoft Information about System Center 2022 Operations Manager
Architecture SCOM 2022
IMPORTANT : In my MVPLAB I’m working with Windows Server Insider Preview Builds and with SQL Server 2022 CTP2.1 Preview version on a Cluster and is not supported yet for Production workloads, then you have to wait for Microsoft to make it General Available!
Now we have a SQL Cluster Instance running in my mvplab.local domain, I’m going to install Microsoft System Center 2022 Operations Manager (SCOM) for monitoring in the following step-by-step guide :
Run SCOM_2022 as Administrator
Click on Next
Click on Accept the Agreement.
Click on Next
Extract the files to your location.
Click on Next
Click on Extract
Completed Click on Finish
Run Setup
Click on Install
I’m installing only the Management Server and Operations Console.
When this was Production I would install every feature on separated Servers with
two Management Servers.
Click on Next
Select installation location
Click on Next
Click on Next
Give your Management Group a Name.
Click on Next
Agree with the License Terms.
Click on Next
Select de SQL Instance and Port.
Set Database Size.
and Data File Folders.
Click on Next
Here you can select de Instance for data warehouse database.
Click Next
Select the Service accounts
Click on Next
Click on Next
Check the Summary.
Click on Install
SCOM 2022 Installation in Progress.
Processing
SCOM License we set later.
I have installed both databases in one SQL Instance for in my MVPLAB.
System Center 2022 Operations Manager (SCOM)
Now you can Configure the Management Packs in SCOM for your environment and set the Alerts. More information about System Center 2022 Operations Manager can you find here :
In my last MVPLAB Serie blogpost, I wrote about setting-up a Microsoft Domain mvplab.local and making a Windows Server Insider Cluster with an iSCSI Target Host Server for Shared iSCSI Storage provisioning. First thing I did was Installing Windows Admin Center for Hybrid IT Management. With WAC we can Manage the Cluster Nodes but also the Cluster, Installing new features via Windows Admin Center like Kubernetes for running Containers and microservices. But first we start with Microsoft Cluster Aware Updating to keep your Cluster up-to-date.
Windows Admin Center Cluster Manager
Installing Cluster Aware Updating
In the following steps you can see how easy it is to install Cluster Aware Updating with Windows Admin Center on your Windows Server Cluster, in my case mvpcl01.mvplab.local
Go to your Windows Server Insider Cluster
In Cluster Manager, go to Updates.
Click on Add Cluster Aware Updating Role
Microsoft Windows Admin Center is the Administrator Management tool to use in your hybrid datacenter. You see how easy it is to configure Cluster Aware Updating (CAU) on your Cluster. When you use Windows Server Core or Azure Stack HCI then Windows Admin Center is really handy instead of command-line tools or PowerShell scripting. here you can find more information about Cluster Aware Updating requirements and Best Practices
I have made a new MVPLAB with Microsoft Windows Server Insider Preview Build 25158 to install Services and Features for learning but also to give Microsoft feedback about the products. When the MVPLAB domain and Clusters are ready in basic then I can use new Microsoft Azure Hybrid solutions as well, like Azure Arc Kubernetes services and Azure Cloud Defender for Servers and SQL.
Before we start, you need to become a Windows Server Insider so that you can download the newest Windows Server Insider Builds ISO.
Here you get more information for the Windows Server Insider Program registration
After the free registration you can download the new Microsoft Windows Server Insider Builds here :
To Build your Test and innovation LAB with the newest Microsoft technologies, you need a platform to Build on. Of course Microsoft Azure Cloud Services is Awesome to work with and Great to make test environments but I like to make a Azure Hybrid scenario with Azure Cloud and On-premises datacenter services like for example a Microsoft SQL Cluster with Cluster resources / Instances.
So my MVPLAB will be Azure Hybrid and for On-premises I use Windows Server Hyper-V to make virtual servers.
It’s Great when your hardware provider like Dell is Microsoft Azure Stack HCIcompliant to build your Hyper Converged Infrastructure in your on-premises datacenter.
Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Solution
When you work with Microsoft Azure and Azure Stack HCI, you really need Windows Admin Center for Hybrid IT Management.
This is a Great Administrator tool for managing your Windows Servers, Clusters, Azure Stack HCI, and Azure VM’s in a Hybrid environment.
Windows Admin Center Cluster Overview
Now that we have everything and Hyper-V is running, we will build the Following Windows Servers with the Insider Preview Build:
MVPDC01 ( the first domain controller for mvplab.local domain )
MVPStore01 ( ISCSI Target Host for deploying ISCSI Virtual Disks to my Cluster)
MVPFS01 ( Cluster Node 01 of Cluster MVPCL01 )
MVPFS02 ( Cluster Node 02 of Cluster MVPCL01 )
I install all the virtual servers with 50GB local harddisk for OS and start with 4GB of Dynamic Memory and a Nic.
Only the Cluster nodes get two Nics (One for Heartbeat of the Cluster)
This is for my MVPLAB, but for Production environments I always start with 3 Nics ( 1 = Production 2 = Heartbeat 3 = Storage )
In Hyper-V we make a New Virtual Machine with these specifications and we attach the Windows Server Insider Preview Build ISO.
We install Windows Server Insider Preview Build default and after the installation we set the NIC IP-Address on static and gave the Server the name MVPDC01. Then I installed all the Windows Updates, and after that I started Server Manager to install the Active Directory Feature :
Active Directory just follow the wizard and don’t forget to run DCPromo to
build your domain.
Active Directory and DNS is running locally like
mvplab.local
So now is my domain and DNS running in my MVPLAB, but what do I need more first to build a Windows Server Insider Cluster?
We need Shared storage, so we build a Windows Server Insider ISCSI Target Host to provision Shared VHD’s via ISCSI Initiator to the Cluster Nodes.
The Next member Windows Server Insider is MVPStore01.mvplab.local joined in our new domain. Here I installed the iSCSI Host features:
Start Server Manager and the Add Server role : – iSCSI Target Server – iSCSI Target Storage Provider
Click on Install
In Hyper-V Settings of the Virtual Machine MVPStore01, I have installed a extra disk of 25GB so that we can use that for iSCSI Target Host which is now running on this Server. Now we can provision storage when the new Windows Server Insider Cluster MVPCL01.mvplab.local is installed with the iSCSI Initiator to get Cluster storage. So now we are first going to build a Windows Server Insider Cluster and after that we will provision the Cluster Storage.
Installing a Windows Server Cluster with Insider preview Build 25158.
I deployed two member servers MVPFS01.mvplab.local and MVPFS02.mvplab.local into the new domain. they have static IP-Address and are working fine with DNS resolving. On both Servers I installed the Feature Failover Clustering
Failover Clustering Installed.
from here we are going to install the new Windows Server Insider Cluster MVPCL01.mvplab.local
Start Failover Cluster Manager.
Create Cluster.
Click on Next
select the two new Cluster Nodes
Click on Next
Select Yes, run configuration validation tests
Click on Next
Click on Next
Run all tests
Click Next
Confirmation
Click Next
Type in the new Cluster name => mvpcl01
IP-Address => 192.168.2.43
Click Next
Confirmation
Click on Next
Creating Cluster….
We now have a Cluster mvpcl01.mvplab.local running, but without storage and without the witness disk. the iSCSI initiator is running on both Cluster nodes, so now we have to provision storage to the Cluster via the iSCSI Target Host MVPStore01.mvplab.local.
iSCSI Storage provisioning to Windows Server Insider Cluster
via the Server Manager of the iSCSI Target host, we are going to create a new iSCSI Virtual Disk for both Cluster Nodes :
Click on New iSCSI Virtual Disk
iSCSI Virtual Disk Name
Click on Next
Type in the Size I’m using 20GB of 24,9 because I need also a Quorum disk for the Cluster.
Select Fixed Size.
Click on Next.
New iSCSI Target
Click on Next
Give the iSCSI Target a Name
Click on Next
Add the Access Servers via iSCSI Initiator
Click on Next
Here you can set Authentication if you want.
Click on Next
Confirmation
Click on Create
the iSCSI Virtual Disk is successfully created.
the iSCSI Target VHD is not connected yet.
Now we connect with iSCSI Initiator from the Cluster Nodes.
The work on iSCSI Taget Host MVPStore01.mvplab.local is Done.
When you start the iSCSI Initiator it will set the services and the firewall settings on the Server.
You have to do this on both Cluster nodes.
First we add the Target portal and that is our iSCSI Taget Host MVPStore01.mvplab.local with
IP-Address 192.168.2.46 with port 3260.
This is under the discovery tab.
Select Targets tab
you see the Target mvpstore01 Inactive.
Select and click on Connect.
If you had Multi-path IO running, you could enable Multipath too.
Click on Ok
The iSCSI Taget Virtual Disk is connected.
On the iSCSI Target Host MVPStore01.mvplab.local is the target now also in Connected status.
You now can now bring the 20GB disk Online via Disk Management and give it a drive letter
for the Cluster.
Then you can add the 20GB disk via Storage of Cluster Manager tool.
You can make Cluster Shared Volume.
I made a Cluster for a SQL Instance and I made
a 2GB iSCSI Taget VHD for the Witness Disk.
So Now we have Cluster storage running and failovers are working, now we need to configure Quorum witness disk via
Failover Cluster Manager.
Go to more actions on the Cluster.
Configure Cluster Quorum
Click on Next
Select the quorum witness
Click on Next
You can configure your witness on different locations.
I will select our 2GB witness disk on our Cluster
Select the Quorum disk
Click on Next
Confirmation
Click on Next
You have successfully configured the quorum settings for the Cluster
Click on Finish
Witness disk is running.
So my Microsoft Windows Server Insider Cluster is ready for workloads, if you want to you can run a Cluster validation to see
if everything is okay. Now my MVPLAB is ready for the next installation on my Cluster and that is :
Installing the Newest SQL Server 2022 CTP2.1 on my Windows Server Insider Cluster.
But that will be a next Blogpost : Installing SQL Server 2022 CTP2.1 on a Windows Server Cluster 😉
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