Windows Server 2012/R2 Documentation-in PDF

Thanks to a post over on SpiceWorks, I’ve discovered that Microsoft has just published a full PDF of all the Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 documentation. This represents the entire contents of the TechNet library on these two subjects. You can download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=41182

Before you go rushing off to download – this is a big download. The pdf file itself is 110.9 MB. And definitely think hard before rushing off to print it out – it runs to 7970 pages. That’s around 8 reams of paper (or around 2 boxes). Not to mention the cost in toner!

Despite the size, this is a great document to have. I’ve loaded it onto my laptop and my Surface devices.

Technorati Tags: Windows,Documentation

Free Windows Server 2012 R2 Ebook

I’ve just seen that Mitch Tulloch has published a nice new free e-book on Server 2012 R2. You can get a free version of the book in PDF, and in due course in .ePub and .Mobi format (these are not yet published).
This MS web site says that the book provides you with an overview of the new features and enhancements added to Windows Server 2012 R2. The intended audience for this book is IT pros who deploy, manage, and maintain Windows Server workloads in data center, private cloud, and hosting provider environments.

To get your free book, just navigate to the MS Press blog site at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2013/11/08/free-ebook-introducing-windows-server-2012-r2-technical-overview.aspx and download from there.
Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2012 R2,Mitch Tulloch

Hello Resolve-DnsName, Goodbye NSLookup

For several decades, I’ve used the NSLookup.exe command in DOS and Windows as a way of doing DNS troubleshooting. At one time, I needed it to verify basic domain lookup configuration, but Windows DNS makes it pretty simple to set domains up correctly. More recently, with products such as Lync, there is a need to have other DNS records validated, particularly SRV records that enable client auto-login etc.

NSLookup is not bad – in a former life I actually read bits of the code. It’s a tool I know how to use, and like I tell my PowerShell class, if it isn't broken, don’t fix it. Fair enough, I suppose, but It’s not really very PowerShell friendly.

As part of preparing my next Pluralsight Course, managing DNS with PowerShell, I’ve been playing with some of the new DNS Client cmdlets that come, in specific, for Server 2012 R2. One useful cmdlet is Resolve-DNSName.

Resolve-DNSName does pretty much exactly what NSLookup did, direct from the command line, plus a bit more. The cmdlet, unlike NSLookup, is able to make use of LLMNR, NetBIOS (or not) and can turnoff recursion in answering a query.

Here is some sample output:

PS C:> Resolve-DnsName -type all reskit.org

Name           Type TTL  Section    IPAddress
----           ---- ---  -------    ---------
reskit.org     A    600  Answer     10.0.0.10

Name      : reskit.org
QueryType : NS
TTL       : 3600
Section   : Answer
NameHost  : dc1.reskit.org

Name                   : reskit.org
QueryType              : SOA
TTL                    : 3600
Section                : Answer
NameAdministrator      : hostmaster.reskit.org
SerialNumber           : 26
TimeToZoneRefresh      : 900
TimeToZoneFailureRetry : 600
TimeToExpiration       : 86400
DefaultTTL             : 3600

dc1.reskit.org A    3600 Additional 10.0.0.10

[Srv1]: PS C:> Resolve-DnsName -Name srv2.reskit.org

Name            Type TTL  Section IPAddress
----            ---- ---  ------- ---------
srv2.reskit.org A    1200 Answer  10.0.0.31

There are also switches for turning on or not DNSSec and EDNS, and can request any/all, or specific RR types. Long live Resolve-DNSName!

Technorati Tags: DNS,PowerShell,Server 2012 R2

Lync Server 2013 now Supported on Windows Server 2012 R2

When Lync Server 2012 shipped, it did not support Server 2012 R2. Naturally since at the time of Lync’s release, Server 2012 R2 had not been released. The UC team’s approach has pretty much always been to test, then support later OSs as appropriate.  The late October 2013 Cumulative update (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2809243 for details) now supports Server 2012 R2. Yeah!

Like all Lync CU’s you need to do the update carefully and as directed. In a large enterprise, you want to do the updates in such a way as to ensure you maintain service, especially if you are running Enterprise Voice where any downtime, even announced in advance, are not considered a good thing by the users.

In a large enterprise environment, with multiple Front End servers, Lync organise those servers in to upgrade domains, And upgrade domain is, in effect, a set of Front end servers that can be upgraded while the pool remains able to serve users. You upgrade one upgrade domain at a time. This is great as you can upgrade whilst still delivering a service. Of course, if you take several servers out of commission all at once, the pool can function but at a degraded level of performance. So it’s probably best to schedule upgrades at times of light production load to avoid issues with temporary loss of performance.

I’m pleased that this is now supported – I want to re-build my internal lab to use Server 2012 R2 and have Lync integrate with the rest of my testing lab.

Technorati Tags: Lync,Lync 2013,Server 2012 R2

Server 2012 R2 is coming–read all about it

As announced recently, the next version of Windows Server, Server 2012 R2, is coming. Last week at TechEd Madrid, Microsoft rolled out a lot of information about this new OS version. There are some really cool features, including PowerShell V4.

In a departure from previous practice, MS is now rolling out key information about this new OS version via a series of blog posts.  Each week on Wednesdays, Brad Anderson, intends to publish a high level blog post on the In the Cloud blog about a part of the overall WS/SC 2012 R2. Brad is unlikely to be doing much actual writing – but should have “guest” content from some of the leaders across the WS/SC engineering team.  To some degree, this is a continuation of the approach Steven Sinofksy took to Windows 8.

Each blog post is intended to link to other more detailed content that describes the technical features that support that scenario.  Such additional, detailed content is planned to reside in various places such as our TechNet blogs (SC, SCSM, SCVMM, SCO, SCOM, WS, PS, etc.), TechNet wiki, Microsoft Virtual Academy and so on. Although the ability of Microsoft to create up to date information on TechNet has not been outstanding.

For the next 2 months at least, the technical information related to WS/SC 2012 R2 will only come from these blog posts and the related content that is released with them.  Microsoft believe that this approach should ensure a coordinated, smooth rollout of technical information regarding R2 instead of just having each individual team randomly posting information about their particular area of the product.

As you will read in the attached post, which is the first in the series, we are aligning everything we do from planning to development/test to release across WS/SC and that extends to include our go-to-market technical communication plan.

The first post in this series is now up. See http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/07/03/what-s-new-in-2012-r2-beginning-and-ending-with-customer-specific-scenarios.aspx.

This is an interesting departure but should serve to centralise the information in a useful way. It also stops teams randomly telling their story and provides a much more controlled approach. I just hope the Windows engineering team listens and hears the comments that these posts will undoubtedly generate. I hope they do a better job than Sinofsky did – indeed had he listened in the first place, the whole Start button thing would never have been an issue. I get the feeling, after meeting Brad, that he indeed is already doing a better job of listening – and that’s a good thing!

Technorati Tags: Server 2012 R2