Category Archives: Learning

My Impressions on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook

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Having read Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook I can safely say that if you need get up to speed with Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 this is a great book for this purpose.

Having met Leandro Carvalho that’s not a surprise. What is pretty impressive is how he managed to get all you need to know to get going inside of one book that you can still lift with one hand. Now this is not going to make you a veteran Hyper-V enterprise architect over the weekend but it will help you get a well set up and functional Hyper-V environment running, monitored and protected. If you are already familiar with Hyper-V form previous Windows versions this book will also get you up to speed on a lot of the most important new features and improvements.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook

Now a mere 305 pages are not enough to go into depth on every subject but this book will make a fine learning tool to set up a lab and take your first Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V servers / clusters into production. It also tackles some of the more intimidating stuff to some people like in place upgrades of Hyper-V clusters and disaster recovery. Details like CSV cache, Port ACL and their significance in the new Hyper-V version are not forgotten. I like that attention to detail. Knowing the vastness of what’s new in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V I’m impressed at how well organized and effective the information is presented. So if you need to get started with Hyper-V, do it here with this book. It will make for a fine foundation to build on and move on to investigate the numerous network configurations, the VHDX format, SMB 3.0 goodness etc.

Heading Towards The 2013 Global MVP Summit

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Hello people, I’m making my way to Seattle at the moment to attend the 2013 Global MVP Summit. I’m really looking forward to this as I have a lot of feedback and questions on using Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V in real live. That and the fact that we’ll get to discuss all this amongst each other and with the product teams. There are not many opportunities where you get to meet up with so many enthusiastic subject matter experts from all over the world.

Last month I checked my Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) papers and made sure my passport was valid.  So after packing my bag it’s now traveling time as I need to get myself to SEATAC. One of these below works just fine for that purpose I know from experience. While awaiting boarding time I’ve parked myself in LHR. If it’s anything like last year this could be considered a long-haul MVP flight Smile.

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I’m eager to meet up with friends and acquaintances again to talk shop and some fun. So Hyper-V, Cluster, Storage, Network PMs … my fellow MVPs and I are on our way. See you all very soon!

My TechDays 2013 Agenda Recommendations

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As you all know by know the TechDays 2013  are approaching fast.  I have mentioned this before. There is still time to secure yourself a seat and attend this event. People for far and away are coming over for this so why not you?

You’ll gain insights into a lot of new technologies. You can decide to go deep or broad or any combination of these two options. The idea is that you can return to your desk and have a better understanding of Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V, Windows 8, System Center and what a private cloud can do for you and your business.

I know several speakers and they are aiming to offer you some practical knowledge so you can get a head start with these technologies. Understanding the concepts about and the principles behind sometimes abstract subjects is important. This is also true for a healthy mix of real life experiences, tips on how to get thing working and what to look out for. I hope the local community speakers can help you out there. But to do so you need to show up Smile. Sure you can watch on line sessions and download presentations. But consider being able to talk to the speakers and experts at the Microsoft boot, to have the opportunity to sit down for a talk about real live experiences and openly discuss your needs and concerns. No, it’s not free consultancy, it’s talking amongst peers who are often dealing with the same issues as you are which can help you decide what routes to explore further.

The complete agenda is available on line here.

Tuesday 5 March

Register for the track of your choice here. Hard choice between the security track and Exchange 2013 but I’m leaning towards the latter. Scott Schnoll & Michael Van Horenbeeck (Belgian MEET member and MVP for Exchange) are presenting.

Wednesday 6 March

08:45 – 10:15

This slot is easy, grab the keynote to set the tone for the TechDays.

IT Pro Keynote

10:45 – 12:00

Systems Center user and ready for Windows Server 2012? Attend  Vijay Tewari’s session.

What’s new System Center 2012 SP1, VMM

13:00 – 14:15 & 14:30 – 15:45

Easy choice. Windows 8 is not weird or hard to learn at all.For the small effort of educating yourself on this subject by attending these two sessions by a very knowledgeable MVP and great presenter Tom Decaluwé, you’re ahead of the pack, reaping the benefits while ignoring the drama.

Windows 8 Client Part 1 "The OS internals for IT-Pro’s"

Windows 8 Client Part 2 "The Application internals for IT-Pro’s"

16:15 – 17:30

I’m torn here. Chris Jackson is the guru on this subject and if you’re still running on XP and need to move to Windows 8 or even Windows 7 attend his session and learn how to thrive and not just survive such an project!
App Compat for Nerds

Hyper-V is very dear to me and it’s an interesting subject so if you are using or considering to use Hyper-V go listen to Bryon Surace and learn why dynamic memory is a lot more & better than over commitment!

Hyper-V Dynamic Memory in Depth

17:45 – 19:00

This is a Inovativ (Kenny Buntinx, Dieter Wijckmans, Kurt Van Hoecke) tidal wave of knowledge it seems with a twist of Mike Resseler (always a good thing)

What’s new and improved in Service Pack 1 for the System Center 2012 suite

19:00 – 21:00

Grab the people you think could help your with that question burning inside your head. Don’t be shy! Mingle amongst your peers and engage in some tech talks.

Ask the Experts and Networking

Thursday 7 March

09:00 – 10:15

Start of the day with a true scholar and gain knowledge & understanding on Active Directory in Windows Server 2012. If you were not awake yet, you will be 5 minutes into this session as John Craddock knows how to captivate an audience.

What’s new in Windows Server 2012 Active Directory?

10:45 – 12:00

If you’re going to deploy SCVMM 2012 SP1 you absolutely have to attend this session. Really, I mean it! Vijay Tewari presenting.

Network Management in System Center 2012 SP1 – VMM

13:00 – 14:15

You need it, you want it, you love it in Windows 2012. What? PowerShell of cause and Kurt Roggen will show you why.

The Power of PowerShell: Advanced

14:30 – 15:45

Some of the great additions to the capabilities of virtualization in Windows Server 2012 evolves around the support Active Directory. Better & saver than ever with a lot less fine print. Join Wim Henderyckx & Benjamin Logist.

Forbidden fruits of Active Directory – Cloning, snapshotting, virtualization

16:15 – 17:30

You’ll just have to understand that for practical reasons I have to kind of attend my own session. It’s the nature of presenting.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Networking Evolved

A New Year and it came with a Microsoft MVP Renewal for 2013

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I’m a January 1st MVP. That means that on the 1st January I get an e-mail that brings news of a renewal or not … so apart from celebrating the new year relaxing a bit we also keep an eye on our inbox. This is what arrived just now:

Dear Didier van Hoye,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2013 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Virtual Machine technical communities during the past year.
The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say "Thank you for your technical leadership."

Mike Hickman
Director
Community Engagement
Microsoft

Great news to start the new year with. While you get the MVP reward for contributions over the past year to the community I must say that being active in the community is a very rewarding endeavor in itself. For my job I need to figure out a lot of things and I like to share them, including my mistakes, for the benefit of all. Sharing means communication, which leads to questions and discussions that help all of us gain a better knowledge of how things work. It’s not one way traffic. They say there is no better way to learn a subject that to teach it or write a book on it. I think that holds true. Heck, “just” doing a presentation on one subject helps. There’s a constant stream of new capabilities and options that can be leveraged to achieve our goals and being able to discuss these with so many experts from different environments makes a lot of difference in wrapping our heads around it all.

It also helps me be better at my job. So it also helps my employers. In that respect I have very good bosses. They invest in their people without hesitation. They don’t fear the possibility that we might leave for greener pastures. Instead they focus on getting the best out of us and support this actively. Pretty smart and we all gain something from this, as this makes for a very nice green pasture to stay on and they get knowledgeable, motivated employees.

I’m very happy and I’m looking forward to seeing many of my fellow MVPs in Redmond in February for the 2013 MVP Global Summit. Last year’s summit was very educational. It was also a blast to meet so many people in real life for the very first time and talk shop. Thank you all for the opportunities, the challenges and the continuous learning journey.

To conclude I wish all my community buddies and readers a wonderful and happy 2013!