How to: Deploy Microsoft LAPS and Windows LAPS

We’ve all heard of Microsoft LAPS. This stands for Local Administrator Password Solution and is already available from Windows Server 2008 R2. With Microsoft LAPS it is possible to periodically and fully automatically change the password of the local administrator account.

Microsoft recently launched Windows LAPS, as a successor to Microsoft LAPS. A number of new functionalities have been added and it is now also part of the Windows Server operating system (from Server 2019 April Update) and Windows 10 and 11.

Continue reading “How to: Deploy Microsoft LAPS and Windows LAPS”

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2016

This book assumes that you are familiar with key concepts surrounding Windows Server (i.e., Microsoft Hyper-V, Networking, and Storage) as well as cloud technologies such as Microsoft Azure. In this book, we cover a variety of concepts related to the technology and present scenarios with a customer focus, but it is not intended as a how-to or design manual. You can use other sources, including the online Microsoft resources, to stay up to date with the latest developments on the roles and features of Windows Server 2016. The online resources will also contain the latest how-to procedures and information about designing a Windows Server 2016 infrastructure for your business.

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Download this free ebook here.

Free Whitepaper: Understand Microsoft Hyper Converged Solution

This whitepaper is written by Romain Serre and Charbel Nemnom which describes Microsoft Hyper-Converged solution in Windows Server 2016 using Storage Spaces Direct, Hyper-V and network technologies. The second part of this document shows an example of this implementation.

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This document is written with my friend Charbel Nemnom which covers Hyper-Converged architecture in Windows Server 2016. This document describes technologies related to Microsoft Hyper-Converged model based on Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Quality of Service, ReFS, Hyper-V, Nano Server and some networking features such as RDMA, Switch Embedded Teaming (SET) and SMB.

In the second part of this document, we walk you through a step by step process on how to implement this solution on top of four virtual Nano Servers fully automated.

This document is with regards to the last Microsoft public information and the latest build of Windows Server 2016, we want to emphasize that this whitepaper will also be updated as we move forward to keep up with all the great things that is happening in the Microsoft CloudOS Platform.

We hope you find this document useful and helpful. If you have any questions, comments or errata you find in this whitepaper are welcome and encouraged.

Table of Contents:
Credit Page
Introduction
Software-Defined Networking
Software-Defined Compute
Software-Defined Storage
Nano Server
Windows Server 2016 Licensing
Implementation Guideline
Nano Server Deployments
Storage Spaces Direct Deployments
Host a VM on the solution
Storage Quality of Service
Conclusion
References

Free WhitePaper: Storage Efficiencies with Hyper-V at the Virtual and Physical Layer

Thin provisioning, UNMAP and checkpoints/snapshots are powerful technologies when used wisely. And to truly benefit, we must master them. This will allow us to better deliver storage and offer data protection.

While these technologies can be used at the physical layer (storage array), at the virtual layer (Hyper-V) or a combination of both, what we choose depends on the environment, budget and workloads. They offer:

  • cost reduction
  • operational benefits in ease of use
  • operational benefits in speed of recovering to points in time
  • operational benefits in offering data to Development Operations (DevOps) teams

This white paper will help you understand these concepts better in order to make better decisions for your needs.

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