Building Clouds Blog

Windows Azure Pack (WAP) includes a SQL Server resource provider that allows tenants to deploy and manage databases on a shared SQL Server fabric . Out of the box, and in the spirit of a Platform as a Service approach, tenants do not control on which...

Hi again, it’s Jeff Buller. This is the final post in my series on Mobile Application Delivery. Part 5 will discuss how to deliver Android applications to users, utilizing Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune. A table of contents of...

Readers of the Building Clouds blog probably know me as the “PowerShell Deployment Toolkit” guy. PDT is all about deploying the management stack – System Center and Windows Azure Pack. PDT will even create the VMs needed to deploy that management stack...

Hi readers! Today we’ve a guest blogger. Peter Heese is a Solution Architect at the Datacenter CoE here in Microsoft and he will walk us through a guide and a script he wrote to automate the configuration of WAP to use load balancers and AD FS. Hi I am...

About a month ago, the Gallery Resource Import Tool (GRIT) was published: Fully written in PowerShell, the “ Gallery Resource Import Tool ” (GRIT) aims at simplifying discovery and installation of VMRole Gallery Items in Windows Azure...

Migrators, assemble! The MVMC team has published version 2.0, packed with new features, and in tandem the BCB team is releasing a new version of MAT! MVMC 2.0 MAT for MVMC 2.0 MVMC is a tool for converting VMware...

I just posted an updated PDT 2.64.2608 to the TechNet Gallery here . This update resolves a few bugs, and adds: Installer.ps1 Supports extensions to Workflow.xml via Extender*.xml files New switch option –SkipValidation RoleCombinations New switch –MaxStage...

Hello Readers! This past January , we published two Windows Azure Pack (WAP) VM Role gallery items for database workloads, including SQL Server 2012 SP1 and Oracle Database 12c, to complement the SQL Server 2012 gallery item already available at the...

Hello Readers! Once again, I have an awesome blog post that I wanted to bring to the top of your reading list… Authoring SMA Runbooks in the PowerShell ISE by Joe Levy And right after you finish reading this great post (above...

Hello folks! We are back this year with more architecture related content, but now you will see that the track code for each session will vary (no more ARC). Since the architecture track spreads in different pillars, from now on the sessions would pare...

Today we published the latest version of the Migration Automation Toolkit, MAT4SHIFT v1.6.1. This is largely a maintenance release but does include a few new features. If you are looking at this technology for the first time, MAT4SHIFT is a script...

Contoso Labs Series - Table of Contents Now that we have all of our equipment, we need to figure out what our deployment footprint looks like. It’s worth noting that while we’re discussing this like it was a linear process, this is actually...

Hi again, it’s Jeff Buller. This post will discuss how to deliver Windows Phone 8 applications to users, utilizing Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune. A table of contents of the full series is listed below.       ...

Contoso Labs Series - Table of Contents Now that Cisco has been chosen as the vendor for our network, we need to identify the layers of our network fabric, and the devices to be used in those roles. We'll have a 3-level network topology when done...

Hello Readers! Yes, it’s only been a couple minutes since Charles published parts 1 to 4 for this series , and maybe you thought we would rest a bit and take a breath before publishing new content… Well, not really! Today, we also have...

Contoso Labs Series - Table of Contents Now that our storage is straightened out, it's time to set our sights on network gear. As was mentioned earlier, this entire project is operating as an independent entity from Microsoft's normal IT operations...

Yay! Part 4 has finally arrived… And by Part 4, I am obviously talking about the next big post in “The New World of Tenant Provisioning with Windows Azure Pack” blog series. What is this one all about? Automated Deployment...

Contoso Labs Series - Table of Contents Now that we've got our JBODs and our file servers, we need to tackle an underappreciated aspect of this solution: The SAS connectivity itself. How Many? After discussing our configuration and layout...

Hi again, its Jeff Buller and Victor Arzate . This is Part 2 on introducing the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Starter Kit (VDI SK) v1.0 Preview. This post will provide more details about VDI SK, how to use it and where to download. Overview As discussed...

Hi, it’s Jeff Buller and Victor Arzate . We are Program Managers on the Windows Server and System Center CAT team. On behalf of our team, we are happy to announce the release of the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Starter Kit (VDI SK) v1.0 Preview. This...

Contoso Labs Series - Table of Contents Now that we have our JBOD's identified, we needed to decide what we were connecting them to. We seriously considered using some of our compute nodes as file server heads, but quickly ran into insurmountable...

Today we have Torsten again as a guest blogger! In his previous post he explained us how to extend the Hello World sample to call a SMA Runbook. Now he will explain us how to debug when things don’t go as expected! Hello readers, Torsten Kuhn again, I...

Contoso Labs Series - Table of Contents Today we're looping back to our first decision point: Storage. We already made our commitment to Storage Spaces on JBODs, now we had to find the right parts and vendors to fit our needs and build a good solution...

Aaaaaand we’re back! Okay, I realize the title of this post is very similar to Part 2 of this blog series - and there is very good reason for that. Though they look similar, they are different. Different personas; different scripts; different context...

Hello readers, Jim Britt and Victor Arzate here. This time we will show you how you can manage Windows Azure services via Service Management Automation (a.k.a. SMA). Up until now we have shown you many samples on how to leverage SMA for automating processes...