Prepare For Windows Server 2012 This Fall

With the academic year in full swing and no lack of material we need to learn and study Microsoft is giving you a helping hand by providing a huge pool of resources. There’s TechNet, Evaluation software but also the Microsoft Virtual Academy.

To reward you for your hard work you get a cinema ticket to go relax at the movies. Click on the banner for more information on this.

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The nice thing about the Microsoft Virtual Academy that you can do study the modules at your own pace and at your own moment of choosing. Combine this with TechNet Virtual labs and you have a lot of resources at your finger tips to learn even more even if you don’t have the room or resources to build a (home) lab.

If all that technology left you wanting to get some hands on with Windows Server 2012 you can also register for an IT Camp. There should be some more of them coming I’ve read on the site. With Mike Reseler  (@MikeResseler) & Arlindo Alves@aralves) delivering those IT Camps you’ll be in good hands. Happy studying and have fun at the movies Winking smile

Flash Forward To Windows Server 2012 SP1

No, it doesn’t exist yet. But when you muck around in a lab a lot kicking the tires and trying to break stuff just to see how it reacts, doing unsupported stuff you can get a “flash forward” sometimes. image

Look at the picture above, this is what a rolling upgrade from Windows Server 2012 RTM to Windows Server 2012 SP1 might very well look like as this message is the one we all know from the previous versions Smile. Alright, that’s enough time travelling for today. Back to work.

Transition a Windows Server 8 to Windows 2012 Release Candidate Hyper-V Cluster

For those of you interested in moving their lab from Windows Server 8 beta to Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate I can refer you to my 3 part blog series on Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows Server 2012 (Beta).

  1. Part 1 Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows Server 2012 (Beta) – Part 1
  2. Part 2 Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows Server 2012 (Beta) – Part 2
  3. Part 3 Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows 8 (Beta) – Part 3

So the entire process is very similar but for the fact that to go from Windows Server 8 Beta you have to do a clean install on every node you evict during the process. An upgrade is not supported and not possible. I even tried the old trick of editing the cversion.ini file in the sources folder to lower the supported minimum version for an upgrade, but no joy.imageimage

You probably remember this trick to enable an upgrade form the beta/RC  to RTM with Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7  But that doesn’t work and even if it did it would not be supported.

But just follow the 3 part series and do an fresh install instead of an upgrade of the cluster nodes and you’ll be just fine.