If you’ve been wishing for some structured Windows Small Business Server 2008 training offered by Microsoft, wait no more. Microsoft has announced a set of four hands-on labs for SBS 2008, and (it gets better) it’s free!
Title: Windows SBS 2008 Hands-On Labs for Partners
Release Date: 9/25/2009
Version: 2.0
Download Size: 12.5 GB
The courses available are:
- Windows SBS 2008 Admin Console
- Windows SBS 2008 Working with Clients
- Windows SBS 2008 Installation
- Windows SBS 2008 Migration from SBS 2003
The downloads are available from the Microsoft Connect site:
URL: https://connect.microsoft.com/directory/
Invitation Code: SBSP-62B6-K3TH
System Requirements:
- A machine that supports Hyper-V*;
a server class** dual- or quad-core CPU is highly recommended - 5 GB of RAM min. (6-8 GB would be better);
SBS 2008 requires a minimum of 4 GB of RAM,
Parent partition (Hyper-V host) requires 1 GB - 80 GB of free hard drive space;
15 GB will be used initially but the VHDs could grow to a max. of 80 GB - Optional – router that will function between the SBS server and the Internet/corporate network
- Optional – second physical network adapter to connect the SBS virtual machine to the router
Here’s a screen shot of the file downloads in the kit:
* Note: If you’ve never installed Hyper-V before, I’ve got a short video
(4:18 minutes) on YouTube demonstrating the installation.
** Server-class hardware is recommended, but not required since this is a HOL and not a production box. For example, here are my demo Hyper-V box specs:
- HP Compaq dc5800 microtower
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 GHz
- 8 GB RAM
- 1 ea. 149 GB SATA drive (OS)
- 1 ea. 1 TB SATA drive (ISOs and VHDs)
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
To make sure that your machine supports Hyper-V (both in the BIOS and on the processor) check out the SecurAble download from GRC.com that tests hardware virtualization: http://www.grc.com/securable.htm
Props: Sean Daniel’s blog