System Center Universe Europe 2014 Presentations Now Live on Channel9.com!

The great team over at System Center Universe (SCU) Europe have just announced the availability of all the presentations that were delivered over the three day event last month up on Microsoft's Channel9.com.

I presented two sessions at the event on IP address management with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Application Performance Monitoring (APM) across your private and public clouds. Here's the links to both my presentations:

• Hybrid Cloud DevOps with APM

• Managing your IP Addresses the Easy Way with IPAM

Stefan Roth has listed all sixty presentations on his blog here and for quick access to the ones you want, I've copied them all below too (you should still check out Stefan's blog for loads more cool Cloud OS info though!):

1. Advanced Orchestrator Runbook Authoring and Management
2. Author your own custom gallery item and deploy VM roles in Windows Azure Pack
3. Building a Real self-service platform with SCSM, SMA PowerShell Workflows
4. Building solid business continuity plans using System Center, Windows Server and Azure
5. Compliance Management – the new orange in Client Management
6. Configuration Manager 2012 R2 – a site review
7. Creating awesome System Center Reports with PowerBI and PowerView
8. Customer requirements first – Service Manager Customizations without limits
9. Data Deduplication in depth
10. Deploy the Microsoft Cloud OS in high available
11. Deploy Windows Azure Pack across sites
12. Disaster Recovery in a service provider cloud
13. Disaster Recovery with Azure Site Recovery
14. Enterprise Management Solution (EMS) – the full story
15. How to build a service provider cloud
16. How to deliver BaaS, RaaS and DRaaS in a modern datacenter using System Center & Azure
17. Hybrid Cloud DevOps with APM
18. Identity Management for Hybrid IT with Windows Azure and Windows Server 2012 R2
19. Integrating the System Center components – your path to the galaxy
20. Leaving the dark ages – Migrating from Configuration Manager 2007 to 2012 R2
21. Manage your Azure through Service Manager and SMA
22. Managing your IP Addresses the Easy Way with IPAM
23. Microsoft Hybrid Cloud – Manage Azure with Microsoft System Center
24. Microsoft Mobile Device Management from A to Z
25. Multi-factor authentication for your clouds
26. My top ten things in Windows Server 2012 R2 that will make your life easier
27. OMI and DAL – Understanding the big picture
28. OpsMgr Dashboards – new widgets and possibilities
29. Optimize Azure Virtual Machines for performance and availability
30. PowerShell’s Desired State Configuration – Resource authoring
31. PowerShell’s Desired State Configuration – Notes from the field
32. Self-service software provisioning with SCSM, SCORCH and SCCM
33. Send your monitoring probes deep into unexplored space
34. Service Management Automation – Introduction
35. Service Management Automation (SMA) deep dive
36. Service Manager – Performance and Scalability best practices
37. Show me the reporting money with System Center
38. Software Defined Networking – Comparison of different solutions
39. Speed Lab – Deploy a Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 environment
40. Sponsor Session OPSLOGIX & ITNETX – Conference Closing Note
41. Sponsored Session BLUESTRIPE SOFTWARE – Using System Center and BlueStripe for dynamic application management across Azure and datacenter business applications
42. Sponsored Session CASED DIMENSIONS – How to make Service Manager enterprise
43. Sponsored Session CIRESON – Worldwide First – Unveiling Cireson Portal v3
44. Sponsored Session CISCO – a Unified Data Center – Best integration for Microsoft Environments
45. Sponsored Session COMTRADE – Deliver Citrix desktop virtualization confidently with Operations Manager
46. Sponsored Session DERDACK – Never miss a critical IT incident again. Resolve IT incidents on-the-go. On-call duty redefined
47. Sponsored Session MATRIX42 – Web Console for SCCM – easiness and delegation
48. Sponsored Session NUTANIX – Automating Your Datacenter – Web-Scale Style
49. Sponsored Session STEFFEN INFORMATIK – SCOM Manager
50. Sponsored Session SYLIANCE IT SERVICES – Customizing System Center – Things you’ve never seen before!
51. Sponsored Session VEEAM – Rock your Microsoft datacenter with Veeam
52. Storage Spaces – Scale-out file server deep dive
53. System Center Orchestrator – Runbook Design 101
54. Unified Device Management – It’s all about the experience
55. Upgrading to Configuration Manager 2012 R2
56. VMware to Hyper-V Migration
57. Welcome Note and Keynote Going beyond the borders – prepare yourself for the future!
58. Windows Apps in the Cloud – Azure RemoteApp
59. Windows Azure Pack – Usage Metering & Reporting Troubleshooting Guide
60. Windows Azure Pack usage metering

So, between these sessions and the upcoming TechEd Europe ones that should be available from next week, I think I'll have enough to download to keep me occupied on the plane journey over and back to Seattle when I head to the MVP Summit in a couple of weeks!

Enjoy!

New Windows Azure Pack (WAP) & Azure Visio Stencils Available for Download

Well, it's been a few months since I last had a chance to work on some new Visio stencils and finally, I've managed to put one together for the relatively new Windows Azure Pack (aka WAP) and have bundled into the same stencil, some graphics for Windows Azure too.

If you're looking for some other Visio stencils related to System Center 2012 R2,  then you can find them here:

SCVMM 2012 R2 Visio Stencils

DPM 2012 R2 Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 Infrastructure Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 Application Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 Networking Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 APM Visio Stencils

This stencil contains images that cover things like the WAP Admin & Tenant portals, SPF Web Server, SMA, Service Bus and Workflow Manager.

I've also thrown in things like Visual Studio Online with its Global Service Monitor and APM capabilities, Orchestrator, VMM, AppController and standard Windows Azure roles and functions.

You can download the stencil from the TechNet Gallery at the following link:

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Windows-Azure-Pack-Windows-813d13a8


If you find this stencil useful, please take the time to give it a Star rating on the TechNet Gallery :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions or problems with the stencil by posting in the comments section below.

New SCVMM 2012 R2 Visio Stencils Available for Download

As a consultant, my job involves working closely with our sales and pre-sales teams to deliver comprehensive technical documentation for our customers around the solutions that we deliver. Good documentation is always more powerful when you include some decent Visio diagrams that give the reader a proper visualisation of what you're proposing.

Working with System Center over the last few years, I've learned quite a few tips and tricks to help me create nice visualisations by leveraging System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and some nifty PowerShell scripts. Using these methods, I've created a number of Visio stencils that I think might be worthwhile sharing with the community and in this first post (hopefully I'll get around to doing a few more of them over the next week or so), I'd like to share my Visio stencil for the recently released System Center 2012 R2 - Virtual Machine Manager.

The stencil contains twenty images that should cover off all the roles and components of SCVMM 2012 R2.

You can download the stencil from the TechNet Gallery at the following link:

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/System-Center-2012-R2-7a5f1fcd

If you find this stencil useful, please take the time to give it a Star rating on the TechNet Gallery :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions or problems with the stencil by posting in the comments section below.

If you're looking for stencils for other System Center 2012 R2 products, then check out these links:

DPM 2012 R2 Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 Infrastructure Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 Application Visio Stencils

SCOM 2012 R2 APM & Networking Visio Stencils

Windows Azure Pack (WAP) & Azure Visio Stencils

Enjoy!

Heading over to System Center Universe Europe (DACH)

This afternoon, I'm sat in Dublin airport waiting on my buddy Damian Flynn to navigate his way through the big city traffic (he's used to a more rural type of motoring experience) so we can head over to Switzerland and present at the System Center Universe DACH conference.

I'm really looking forward to meeting up (again this year!) with my System Center community friends and also to have the opportunity to hear some of them present on the latest and greatest technologies around systems management and cloud. There's a really impressive line up of speakers coming from far and wide - including Cameron Fuller with his first appearance as a public speaker outside of the USA.

I'm involved in (at least) two sessions over the next few days with the first one being tomorrow with a cameo appearance to talk about Windows Server 2012 R2 IPAM with Damian, Thomas Maurer and Michel Luscher in our session titled "SCVMM Networking: From Zero to Hero in Two Hours". The lads are by far the better virtual network guru's than me, so I should (hopefully) learn a thing or two from them as they do their magic!

On the Tuesday, I've got the chance to either impress or bore people with my very own session on "What's New in System Center 2012 R2 - Operations Manager". I've put the work into the demo's, tidied up the decks and now it's all in the hands of the "Demo Gods"! As a precaution (and learning from past experience here), I've recorded my demo's in case the internet decides to act up at 12:00 on Tuesday!

So that's it for now, I'll try to get a few blog posts out over the next few days on how things are going.

Download a Free White paper on Hybrid Cloud with NVGRE (WSSC 2012 R2)

A new white paper has just been made available by some MVP friends of mine on the complex topic of Hybrid Cloud NVGRE using Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2.

The whitepaper is available as a free download and was authored by System Center Cloud and Datacenter MVP's - Kristian Nese and Flemming Riis.

The technical reviewers of the paper included two other System Center Cloud and Datacenter MVP's -  Stanislav Zhelyazkov and Daniel Neumann. It also contained input from the Microsoft product group aligned directly with virtual networking and WSSC 2012 R2 so you know the technical content is going to be of a very high standard.

Check out Kristian's blog post from the link below to get your hands on the white paper today:

http://kristiannese.blogspot.no/2013/09/white-paper-hybrid-cloud-with-nvgre.html

Enjoy!