Tami Reller shared with the audience that the update previously referred to as “Windows Blue” will be called Windows 8.1and will be a free update to Windows 8

Ms.Reller went on to say that “even though the Windows ecosystem needs to know where Microsoft is going so it can go with the company, the Windows team still needs to listen to its customers and partners about what they want.”

To me this means that: yes, we have a new application platform in the new Windows 8 UI, previously know as Metro Apps, and we want you to use it and develop to it. We also value our long time customers who use some of the 3 million traditional applications and are interested in having the management and experiences that they have come to expect from a Windows machine. This along with the awesome hardware that are partners are currently putting out is a huge win for those of us who do work on these machines. (Check out the the Dell XPS 12, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, the Sony VAIO Tap 20, or the recently announced Acer Aspire R7)

Read the whole Windows Team article here:
http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/05/14/windows-keeps-getting-better.aspx

This article is a repost of an article in my series, Running WordPress on Microsoft’s Azure Public Cloud–The Series.

Running WordPress on Azure is Cost effective, Scalable, and Easy! In this article we will go step by step in creating a WordPress blog on Azure. We are using Azure Web Sites to create this WordPress site so it will continue to run for free even after your 90 day trial has expired. You can run up to 10 free Azure Websites with this account. The one limitation of the free account is that your DNS name is fixed. That means I would have to use http://mythoughtsonit.azurewebsites.net instead of my http://mythoughtsonit.com address. This is easily changed by upgrading to a paid subscription.

Create a web site in the portal

1. Create an Azure Free Trial Account. Click this link for details on creating your 90 day trial account

2. Login to the Windows Azure Management Portal.

3. Click on the “WEB SITES” Section in the left side column.

   

4. Click the New icon on the bottom left of the dashboard.
   

5. Click the Web Site icon, and click From Gallery.

   

6. Locate and click WordPress in list, select it and then click Next.

   

7. On the Configure Your App page, enter or select values for all fields:

   • Enter a URL name of your choice
   • Leave Create a new MySQL database selected in the Database field
   • Select the region closest to you

   

8. Then click Next.

9. On the Create New Database page, you can specify a name for your new MySQL database or use the default name. Select the region closest to you as the hosting location. Select the box at the bottom of the screen to agree to ClearDB’s usage terms for your hosted MySQL database. Then click the check to complete the site creation.

   

After you click Complete Windows Azure will initiate build and deploy operations. While the web site is being built and deployed the status of these operations is displayed at the bottom of the Web Sites page. After all operations are performed, A final status message when the site has been successfully deployed. It usually takes less than a minute.

Launch and manage your WordPress site

1. Click on your new site from the Web Sites page to open the dashboard for the site.

   

2. On the Configure tab to change your PHP version from 5.3 to 5.4.

   

3. On the Dashboard management page, scroll down and click the link on the left under Site Url to open the site’s welcome page.

   

4. Enter appropriate configuration information required by WordPress and click Install WordPress to finalize configuration and open the web site’s login page.

   

5. Login to the new WordPress web site by entering the username and password that you specified on the Welcome page.

6. You’ll have a new WordPress site that looks similar to the site below.

   

Have fun check out the rest of the series on what you can do next.
This article is part of the Running WordPress on Microsoft’s Azure Public Cloud–The Series

Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning, or WebDAV, is a set of protocols based on HTTP that allows end-users to map a network drive over http and edit content and files stored on the web server. When WebDAV was first offered on Microsoft server I had evaluated it and decided it did not perform well enough for me. The WebDAV extension to IIS was completely rewritten back in the Server 2008 timeframe and is worth taking a look at again.

In this article I will guide you step by step through the process of setting up WebDAV on Server 2012 in a Windows Azure IaaS environment. This will give you a solid performing file share on the internet over port 80 and the http protocol.

First you need an Azure Account. You can setup a free trail of Azure. Details can be found here:
http://mythoughtsonit.com/2013/04/step-by-step-guide-to-setting-up-a-windows-azure-free-trial/

Second Provision a Server 2012 machine. Watch a video of what to do here:

Third open port 80 to this new server:

1. In the Azure Portal select your 2012 server and choose the “ENDPOINTS” tab on the top.
   
2. Click “ADD ENDPOINT” at the bottom of the screen
   
3. Enter the ENDPOINT information for port 80 to port 80
4. Done.

Next we need to install the IIS Webserver and WebDAV.

Installing WebDAV on IIS 8.0

1. Start Server Manager and go to “Add Roles and Features”
2. Under Server Roles – add the Web Server (IIS) Role
   
   
   
3. Click through the wizard until you come to the Role Services section. Then find and select “WebDAV Publishing” and “Windows Authentication”
   

   
   

4. Click Next and then Install
   
   
5. When the Install is finished you are ready to move on to the next section.
   

Configuring IIS 8 for WebDAV

1. After the installation finishes you need to configure the box for access. Start the IIS Manager tool. Choose the “Default Web Site” on the left side. Then click on “Authentication”

   
   

2. Open the Windows Authentication option and enable it.

   
   

3. Open the “WebDAV Authoring Rules”

   
   

4. Create a WebDAV rule. I choose to allow all users access to all content. A better security practice is to limit what users can use the service. It’s your data so you decide.

   
   

5. Make sure WebDAV is enabled and that your access rule is set:
   
   
6. That is it… Now your ready to access your WebDAV file share!

Test and insure you can hit the web server by using your browser:

• Because you opened port 80 and installed IIS 8 you should see the default web page when you browse to your servers internet DNS name. Example: http://YourDomainName.cloudapp.net/

  

How to map a drive to your WebDAV server:

There are two ways I use to connect to the WebDAV server

How to map a drive to your WebDAV server from the Win 8 GUI:

1. From Windows Explorer, right click on “Computer” and select “Map a network drive”

   
   

2. Map your network drive by entering the address to your server
   Example: http://YourDomainName.cloudapp.net/
   I selected “Connect using different credentials” because my workstation was not joined to the server in anyway and I needed to use an account in the servers local SAM database.

   
   

3. Hit “Finish” and enter your credentials.
   
   
4. Now you will have a connected drive that you can access from Windows Explorer or any tool via the drive mapping.
   

How to map a drive to your WebDAV server from a CMD box:

1.  Hit Windows Start and type: CMD <enter>

2.  Enter the command: net use [drive letter] [URL]
     Example: net use E: http://YourDomainName.cloudapp.net/

The demand has been so great for more information about using Windows Azure Infrastructure Services as an extension of your datacenter and IT Operations, that we’ve decided to schedule a few more FREE events to close out the end of our fiscal year here in Central Region Microsoft US DPE.  The four of us (Kevin Remde, Keith Mayer, Matt Hester and I) are holding events at four locations at the end of this month (and one in mid-June):

• Southfield, MI (Detroit), May 21, 2013, and
• Irving, TX (Dallas), May 30, 2013
• Edina, MN (Minneapolis), May 31, 2013, and
• Downers Grove, IL (Chicago), June 13, 2013

Each of these days will be made up of two half-day events on two different topics, giving you three different registration options.

“Huh?”

You can register for the morning session.  You can register for the afternoon session.  OR you can register for the full-day.

“Cool.  What are the topics?”

I’m glad you asked…

Morning Topic: Using Windows Azure as a server and datacenter backup solution – Windows Azure Backup.  We’ll talk briefly about, and then walk through a hands-on example (you will follow along and do this on your own computers) of enabling, configuring, and leveraging Windows Azure Backup.

Afternoon Topic: Building a Microsoft SharePoint 2013 lab entirely in Windows Azure.  Again, at the end of this you will have a Microsoft SharePoint 2013 lab configured in your own cloud based lab in Windows Azure.

As I said, you can register for either one, or register for the full day.  PLEASE just register one time, so that we can get an accurate estimate of attendance.

Okay, here are the registration links:

May 21 – Southfield, MI

• Register for the Morning Session on Windows Azure Backup
• Register for the Afternoon Session on configuring a SharePoint 2013 Lab in Windows Azure
• Register for the full day (instead of one of the above scenarios you get both )

May 30 – Irving, TX

• Register for the Morning Session on Windows Azure Backup
• Register for the Afternoon Session on configuring a SharePoint 2013 Lab in Windows Azure
• Register for the full day (instead of one of the above scenarios you get both )

May 31 – Edina, MN

• Register for the Morning Session on Windows Azure Backup
• Register for the Afternoon Session on configuring a SharePoint 2013 Lab in Windows Azure
• Register for the full day (instead of one of the above scenarios you get both )

Downers Grove, IL

• Register for the Morning Session on Windows Azure Backup
• Register for the Afternoon Session on configuring a SharePoint 2013 Lab in Windows Azure
• Register for the full day (instead of one of the above scenarios you get both ) (and you get me)

Space is limited, so register early.  And make sure you heed the requirements prior to coming.  You’ll need at least some Internet and Remote-Desktop capable hardware, and a Windows Azure subscription.  (Get a free 90-Day Trial here)

See you there!

Here is the dialog I was receiving:

Here is the solution to this and other Azure Portal issues:

1. Logout of the Azure Portal website
2. Clear your browser’s cache
      
3. Login to the Azure portal and all should work!

I believe the issue here is that there are new components to the Azure portal but your browser still has old components cached and that causes the problems. My new best practice is to clear the browser cache before logging into the Azure portal. Hope this may save you some trouble shooting!

-Brian

For today’s post I will cover the steps to put a Domain Controller in Windows Azure for Disaster Recovery. This DC can actually serves two purposes, first it is a full copy that give us an offsite copy of AD, second it can be used for servers in Azure so they don’t have to travers the WAN.

Let’s clear up some confusion first, the Active Directory tab in the Azure portal is for Windows Azure Active Directory. Windows Azure AD is a modern, REST-based service that provides identity management and access control capabilities for your cloud applications. It is similar to Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services and does not offer Disaster Recovery for your AD environment. It can sync users with your corporate AD and provide a single sign on solution with ADFS. It is useful for your developers when building custom applications. You can read more on Azure AD here: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/features/identity/

What we need to is create a full blown Active Directory Domain Controller up in Azure. To accomplish this we will create a Virtual Machine.

To extend our Corp at to Azure we will treat it just as if we were building a server in a remote datacenter with one change to watch for. The fundamental requirements for deploying Windows Server Active Directory on Windows Azure Virtual Machines is the same as deploying AD from on-premises with one change. We need to install the AD database on a different disk other than the C: drive. We will create an Azure data-disk and attach it as drive E:. This is where we will store both the AD database and the SYSVOL.

Why store AD on a different drive?
Windows Azure provides two distinct disk types for virtual machines. Azure offers an “Operating System-disks” and “Data-disks.” Data-disks use write-through caching, guaranteeing durability of writes — this is fundamental to the integrity of any Windows Server Active Directory forest that has more than a single domain controller because the loss of a single write can affect the entire distributed system rather than just a single machine.

Overview of the Steps to Create an Active Directory DC in Azure

1. Link the Networks with a site to site VPN. (See how to do that with Server 2012 here)
2. Configure your AD Sites with a new site
3. Create a Windows Server VM (Config DNS to read from a DC)
4. Join the Server to the Domain
5. Promote the Server to a Domain Controller
6. Pour yourself a Fresca

For this post I originally wanted to do a step by step guide instead of this overview. I began, how most Microsofties begin, I  “Bing’ed” what was currently available on this topic. What I found was that a fantastic step by step article already existed. My co-worker, fellow Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist Keith Mayer, already has created a great step by step guide below:

Detailed Step by Step guide to extending AD to Azure – by Keith Mayer
http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/01/20/step-by-step-extending-on-premise-active-directory-to-the-cloud-with-windows-azure-31-days-of-servers-in-the-cloud-part-20-of-31.aspx

If you are interested in more details on guidelines and options for deploying Active directory in Azure be sure to check out the Microsoft documentation:

Guidelines for Deploying Windows Server Active Directory on Windows Azure Virtual Machines
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/jj156090.aspx 

-Brian

Visual Studio Live!
August 19, 2013 thru August 23rd, 2013

This is the event in Redmond Washington is where developers, software architects and designers will connect for five days of unbiased and cutting-edge education on the Microsoft platform. With 60+ sessions led by industry experts and Microsoft insiders, you will walk away from this event having expanded your .NET skills and the ability to build better applications.

Visual Studio Live! Redmond WA
08/19/2013 -08/23/2013
Microsoft Conference Center (MSCC) Redmond, WA

Register Early, before June 12, and get the – Super Early Bird special which will save you $400

For more details see:
www.vslive.com/redmond

While there are several use case scenarios, I like this feature because of the security it adds to managing my Azure Management. Previously to this feature I would manage my Azure servers by connecting to them over an RDP connection on the internet. I had to hope that someone didn’t guess or crack my RDP password. That didn’t give me the warm and secure feeling that I want because as I have written before Passwords Suck. With the new feature I have my Azure network that I VPN into and then I RDP to my server. I removed the ability to RDP in directly from the internet. The VPN connection uses a certificate and not a weak password which further protects against a man in the middle attack. This VPN tunnel uses the Secure Sockets Tunneling Protocol and can automatically traverse firewalls and proxies, while giving you complete security.

Here’s a visual representation of the new point-to-site scenarios now enabled:

How to Enable the Point-to-Site Functionality

To enable this functionality there are several steps that you need to do. It isn’t as easy as just clicking a check box. You need to:

• Setup your Azure Network
• Enable Site to Point connectivity in Azure Portal
• Add a gateway subnet
• Create your routing gateway
• Create a root self signed certificate
• Create a client certificate
• export both certificates
• Upload the root cert to Azure via the portal
• install the client certificate on the workstations that will VPN in
• From the Azure portal create the client VPN package
• Install the client VPN package on client VPN machines

Now your ready to VPN into your Azure network!

For detailed instructions on how to do all of the above please read our Tutorial on how to “Configure a Point-to-Site VPN in the Management Portal”

Give it a try for free – Step by step guide to setting up a windows azure free trial

I just read a really interesting whitepaper that charted the effectiveness of using two Riverbed Steelhead appliances with Hyper-v Replica to reduce the amount of traffic as you replicate server changes from a primary server to your replica server.

If you have seen me demo Hyper-v then you have most likely seen me demonstrate Hyper-v Replica. I often refer to it as poor man’s geo clustering, because it is similar to the geo replication you can do with two SANs, but it costs about $230,000 less. It is included in Windows Server at no additional charge.

The primary scenario for of Hyper-V replica is for disaster recovery. With Hyper-V Replica all of the changes from a primary virtual machine are replicated to another host server. This replication occurs every 5 minutes so there is a possibility of up to 5 minutes of data loss. Not as good as a real-time replication engine that waits for commits from the remote system but way better than going to last nights tape backup. If something happens at the primary site you just startup the replica VM.

In Hyper-v Replica we can compress that data that is copied between the two host servers but if you add in a Riverbed appliance it delivers amazing reduction in traffic. Over and above the built-in compression technology provided by Hyper-V Replica, the Riverbed devices were able to reduced traffic by up to 98% with 70% being typical for sustained and varied workloads. Wow! That is awesome!

Check out the Whitepaper, the link is:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36786

I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
-Brian