Video – Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Rick Claus and Cristian Molina from Microsoft talk about Windows Server 2012.

Edge Show 63 - Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Title: Edge Show 63 – Windows Server 2012 Essentials
Run time: 23 minutes 23 seconds
Format: Silverlight

Can’t see the Silverlight video above?

Click the link below to choose another video format or to download offline.

  • MP3
  • MP4
  • WMV

Link: http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Edge/Edge-Show-63-Windows-Server-2012-Essentials

VN:F [1.9.20_1166]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

PowerShell – Move AD FSMO Roles in Server 2012

Over the long weekend we worked on two projects:

  1. Upgrade the Hyper-V hosts on the cluster at the data center
  2. Finish prepping a new Hyper-V host and Domain Controller for a new branch office with a new subnet

imageSince the cluster at the data center holds all of the Active Directory FSMO roles we needed to transfer the roles to an alternate location on the MPLS network so that project 1 didn’t slow down or stop project 2.

PowerShell to the rescue!

WHICH SERVER HOLDS THE FSMO ROLES?

Open PowerShell as an Administrator and type:

netdom query fsmo

You’ll see each of the 5 FSMO roles and which domain controller holds them.

Using PowerShell to transfer FSMO roles

The 5 FSMO roles are numbered 0-4:

0 – PDCEmulator
1 – RIDMaster
2 – InfrastructureMaster
3 – SchemaMaster
4 – DomainNamingMaster

Why do we care what those numbers are? Because we can move the FSMO roles very quickly and save a lot of typing.

For example, which PowerShell command is easier to type?

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity “Target-DC” -OperationMasterRole SchemaMaster,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster,DomainNamingMaster,PDCEmulator

Or this one?

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity "Target-DC" -OperationMasterRole 0,1,2,3,4

Personally, if you’re moving all the roles at once to the same DC (like when doing some server maintenance) the 0,1,2,3,4 is easy.

Once you type in either of those commands you are prompted with several options for confirmation.

Y, A, N, L, S or ?

Moving FSMO roles with PowerShell

OPTIONS:

If you choose “Y” for Yes, PowerShell will prompt you to move each role,
then move to the next role, like this.

PowerShell FSMO role transfer - individual confirmation

If you choose “N” for No, PowerShell will skip transferring that role.

If you choose “A” for All, PowerShell will try to transfer all 5 roles to Target-DC.

If the transfer of a FSMO role fails PowerShell will let you know loud and clear.

PowerShell FSMO role transfer message

CONFIRMATION:

Unfortunately, if the transfer is successful you basically don’t get any confirmation of the role transfer.

You’ll need to run NETDOM QUERY FSMO to double-check who has the roles.
NETDOM QUERY FSMO to double-check FSMO role location

Side note – Once nice thing about using PowerShell to transfer the FSMO roles is that you can script the transfer to run at a scheduled time (so you don’t forget to put the roles back where they should be later).

Also, I didn’t have to load the Active Directory PowerShell module – Windows Server 2012 does that for me automatically.

VN:F [1.9.20_1166]
Rating: 9.4/10 (84 votes cast)

Download – Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica

Title: Hyper-V Replica Capacity Planner
Author: Microsoft Virtualization Team
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation
Published: 5/21/2013
File #1: Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica.docx
File size: 263 KB
Pages: 12
File #2: HVRCapacityPlanner.exe
File size: 437 KB
Price: FREE
Download URL: Click here to download

Description:
When considering deploying Hyper-V Replica numerous questions come up:

  • How much network bandwidth is required between the primary and replica site?
  • How much storage is required on the primary and replica site?
  • What is the storage impact by enabling multiple recovery points?

Microsoft released a new tool to help you answer those questions.

Tip: READ THE DOCUMENTATION (seriously – it’s only 12 pages).

Screenshot:

image

VN:F [1.9.20_1166]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Everything You Wanted to Know About Hyper-V Replica

Hyper-VWe had a fun demo of how to configure and use Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 using two HP MicroServers at the KYSBSUG meeting on Thursday May 9, 2013. Hyper-V replica truly is one of the killer features of Windows Server 2012.

Below are the links we discussed at the KYSBSUG meeting along with some extra URLs from my Hyper-V Replica research.

Tip: If you’re completely green to Hyper-V Replica, check out out the VIR302 video below from TechEd 2012.

Bottom line – this list is pretty much anything you could ever want to know about Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012:

Update 2013-05-10: Added 11 more Hyper-V Replica resources

VN:F [1.9.20_1166]
Rating: 10.0/10 (3 votes cast)

KYSBSUG May 2013 Meeting – Hyper-V Replica

The votes are in, and the topic has been decided by you.
Mark your calendars for this week

Date: Thu May 9, 2013
Time: 6:30 PM Eastern – 8:30 PM Eastern
Venue: Money Concepts
Address: 323 Townepark Circle, Louisville, KY 40243

Topic: Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012
Presenter: Tim Barrett

Description: This month we’ll show how to setup Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 and we’ll show Hyper-V replica in action.

Registration: Registration for this event is NOT required.

VN:F [1.9.20_1166]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Star Wars Day 2013

If you’re a geek or a nerd you probably celebrated Star Wars Day on Saturday May 4, 2013 (“May the Fourth be with you”). We got together with some friends and watched a Star Wars marathon of all 6 Episodes back-to-back, ate pizza, and did some Star Wars-themed oil paintings for fun.

Here’s the one I painted Saturday.

Tim Barrett - Star Wars Day 2013

Storm Trooper in oil on 11×14” canvas.
Title: ”Those Were The Droids I Was Looking For”

The painting was inspired by a photograph on the Internet with the addition of the Star Wars Imperial Logo Mug from ThinkGeek.com.

Bottom line: We had a great time and hope you did too.

May the Fourth be with you, always!

VN:F [1.9.20_1166]
Rating: 9.8/10 (4 votes cast)