Re-Deployment Connecting to Azure and Create your first VM with #AzureStack #Education

The Students are back at school and that means Cloud computing with Microsoft AzureStack in the Classroom. Before we begin we have to prepare the Dell EMC PowerEdge R630 Server with a redeployment of Microsoft Azure Stack Developer Kit (ASDK). In this blogpost we will share three items :

1. Re-Deployment of Microsoft Azure Stack (ASDK)
2. Connecting the Stack to Microsoft Azure for the Marketplace.
3. Make an Offer & Plan subscription to Create your first VM on AzureStack.

Because we still have Technical Preview of AzureStack on our Dell EMC PowerEdge Server, we have to re-deploy AzureStack to the latest version.  In the following step-by-step guide you see how we did that.
Of course we follow the Microsoft docs here as well for the re-deployment of AzureStack

Select here Windows Server 2016 instead of Azure Stack

Steps to redeploy Azure Stack

1. On the development kit host, open an elevated PowerShell console > navigate to the asdk-installer.ps1 script > run it > click Reboot.
2. Select the base operating system (not Azure Stack) and click Next.
3. After the development kit host reboots, delete the CloudBuilder.vhdx file that was used as part of the previous deployment.
4. Deploy the development kit

We downloaded the new ASDK software here  and prepared the “CloudBuilder.vhdx”
Because we already did an AzureStack Deployment of TP3 we placed the new CloudBuilder.vhdx on the Windows Server 2016 on C:\CloudBuilder.vhdx and reboot the Machine. In the Boot manager we Choose now for Azure Stack again 😉

We run the AzureStack Script with the following Powershell commando in Administrator modus :
.\InstallAzureStackPOC.ps1 -NatIPv4Subnet 10.10.10.0/24 -NatIPv4Address 10.10.10.3 -NatIPv4DefaultGateway 10.10.10.1

After more then five hours the AzureStack installation script was finished.

Reset the password expiration to 180 days

To make sure that the password for the development kit host doesn’t expire too soon, follow these steps after you deploy:+

1. On the development kit host, open Group Policy Management and navigate to Group Policy Management – Forest: azurestack.local – Domains – azurestack.local.
2. Right click on MemberServer and click Edit.
3. In the Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to Computer Configuration – Policies – Windows Settings – Security Settings – Account Policies – Password Policy.
4. In the right pane, double-click on Maximum password age.
5. In the Maximum password age Properties dialog box, change the Password will expire in value to 180, then Click OK.

Now the Re-Deployment of Microsoft Azure Stack is done we saw some changes in the ASDK host, have a look in the Hyper-V Manager and you see they changed naming conventions of VM’s. That means in the ASDK that you don’t have to connect to
MAS-CON01 to jump to the AzureStack Admin portal. From the Azure Stack Developer Kit Host you can go directly to both Azure Stack portals:

1. To open the Azure Stack operator’s portal, navigate to (https://adminportal.local.azurestack.external/) and sign in using the Azure Active Directory credentials specified during installation.
2. To open the user portal, navigate to (https://portal.local.azurestack.external/) and sign in using user credentials

From here we go to the Azure Stack Admin portal to configure an Offer & Plan to Create a AzureStack subscription for the Students.

We login the AzureStack Admin portal https://adminportal.local.azurestack.external/

The way to connect to Microsoft Azure Stack (ASDK) you can find that here

Now we configure an Offer & Plan to make it possible for users to select an Azure Stack subscription to create a Virtual Machine for the first time. More information to do this you can find that here on Microsoft Docs

Step 1. Select Offer.

Step 2. Create Offer.

Step 3. Give your offer a name

Step 4 Add a Plan to your Offer.

Step 5. Select the Services for the Plan

Step 6. Set the Quotas

Step 7. Click on OK

Step 8. Offer and Plan is successfully deployed.

Step 9. You have to Change the Offer from private to public

Offer is updated.

The IT-Education Azure Stack subscription is created.

For Students to create  Virtual Machines they need Images in the AzureStack marketplace. We will make this possible by connecting the Azure Marketplace and manage the images for the students.

As you decide what content to include in your Azure Stack marketplace, you should consider the content available from the Azure marketplace. You can download from a curated list of Azure marketplace items that have been pre-tested to run on Azure Stack. New items are frequently added to this list, so make sure check back for new content. 

To download marketplace items, you must first register Azure Stack with Azure.

Install Powershell for Azure Stack

Register Azure Stack to your Azure Subscription

Now we can select images from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.

We download Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition.

Now it’s time to test the Azure Stack subscription “IT-Education” in the User portal for students by login to https://portal.local.azurestack.external/ with a student account from your Azure subscription *********@domain.onmicrosoft.com

Click on Get a Subscription.

Step 1. Give you own display name and select an Offer

Step 2. Select IT-Education offer.

Step 3. Create your Subscription

Step 4. Click on Refresh

Now the Student can Create a New Windows Server 2016 Virtual Machine on Microsoft Azure Stack (ASDK) 🙂

Step 1. Click on New => Compute => Select the Windows Server 2016 Image.

Step 2. Click on Create.

Step 3. Give your Virtual Machine a Name, User, Password, Resource Group

Step 4. Choose your Virtual Machine Specifications ( See View All )

Step 5. We Choose DS2_V2 Machine.

Step 6. Configure your settings

Step 7. Before you Click on OK, have a look at Download template and parameters

Here you can download your complete template for Automation later 😉

Creating the Virtual Machine for the student.

Azurestackvm01 is running and can we connect via RDP

Windows Server 2016 VM on Microsoft Azure Stack Cloud in the Classroom

Azure Stack Dashboard in the Classroom for the Student.

For now we will watch Microsoft Ignite to LEARN more and we can’t wait for the next Azure Stack Development Kit (ASDK) to work with Multiple VPN in the Classroom connected to AzureStack for Learning Cloud Development

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft #AzureStack PM Hangout after GA Release

Azure Stack PM Hangout just after the GA release of Microsoft Azure Stack

Thank you Microsoft Azure Stack Team and Congrats with this awesome GA release of Azure Stack Developer Kit (ASDK)  we will use in the classroom for students to learn Azure Cloud Technologies.
Cheers, Pim and James

Microsoft #AzureStack TP3 installation in the Classroom for Students #Education with #DellEMC

After Racking and Stacking the DellEMC PowerEdge R630 POC Server in the 19″ Rack It’s time to install Microsoft Azure Stack TP3 ( Technical Preview 3) on the Machine.

First of all Pim and I installed the DellEMC iDRAC version 8  interface to get Remote access and to boot from Virtual Media to install Microsoft Windows Server 2016.

Here we Boot Windows Server 2016 from Virtual Media.

Then we Choose in the LifeCycle Controller for Configure RAID and Deploy an OS.

Virtual Media

We got SSD and SATA storage in the DellEMC PowerEdge R630
From here we just installed Microsoft Windows Server 2016 on the Machine :

After installing Microsoft Windows Server 2016 we are ready to download Azure Stack TP3 and used the following Technical docs:

Microsoft Azure Stack Docs Online

AzureStack Tools on GitHub

We run the AzureStack Checker as Administrator

And of Course is our DellEMC PowerEdge R630 Beast Ready to GO 😉

You can Download AzureStack TP3 here

The Microsoft AzureStack TP3 virtual Disk is made.

.\PrepareBootFromVHD.ps1 -CloudBuilderDiskPath C:\CloudBuilder.vhdx -ApplyUnattend
If you execute this exact command, you will be prompted to enter the AdminPassword parameter.
During execution of this script, you will have visibility to the bcdedit command execution and output.

When the script execution is complete, you will be asked to confirm reboot. If there are other users logged in, this command will fail, run the following command to continue:
Restart-Computer -Force

We disabled the other NIC’s because AzureStack POC uses only one NIC.

Before we Run de AzureStack Script, we made a Azure Active Directory User as Global Administrator like for example :

username@domainname.onmicrosoft.com

If you don’t have a Microsoft Azure subscription you can get one here

We run the AzureStack Script with the following Powershell commando in Administrator modus :

.\InstallAzureStackPOC.ps1 -NatIPv4Subnet 10.10.10.0/24 -NatIPv4Address 10.10.10.3 -NatIPv4DefaultGateway 10.10.10.1

This AzureStack Script runs for a couple of hours.

The Script got a couple of Phases to go.

Ready successfully after almost 5 hours running AzureStack Script 😉

Now you can start the Remote Desktop Connection to MAS-CON01 :

On the Desktop you see a link to the AzureStack Admin Portal and a Link to the User Portal of AzureStack.

Login with your Azure AD Account.

YES ! Microsoft Azure Cloud in the Classroom for Students with the DellEMC PowerEdge R630 AzureStack Machine is a fact !

Our Next blogpost will be on Configuring the AzureStack TP3 and make Cloud Tenants for the Students
Cheers, Pim and James

It’s Alive!!

Finally James and I powered up our DELL Power Edge R630…

We placed him in rack among our Hybrid Cloud Family with Azure..

Now he is ready to be configured and installed as AzureStack Server in the Classroom…

James and Pim

What is Microsoft Azure Stack Cloud in your Datacenter ?

Before we begin with the Microsoft Azure Stack journey for Education to learn Azure Technologies in the Classroom on a DellEMC Power Edge R630 Server , It’s good to have some background information from Microsoft for those Teachers and  Students who don’t know what Azure Stack is.

Microsoft Azure Stack is a new hybrid cloud platform product that enables your organization to deliver Azure services from your own datacenter to help you achieve more. Get the power of cloud services, yet maintain control of your datacenter for true hybrid cloud agility. You decide where to keep your data and applications—in your own datacenter or with a hosting service provider. Easily access public cloud resources to scale at busy times of the year, for dev-test, or whenever you need them. Only Microsoft builds and runs its own hyper-scale datacenters and delivers that proven innovation to your datacenter.

Azure Stack brings the power of Azure, to your datacenter, transforming your datacenter resources into cloud services for maximum agility, all under the control of IT. For developers, Azure Stack provides a unified app development experience, consistent with Microsoft Azure.

On this channel, you’ll learn all about Azure Stack, from both the administration experience, through to the consumption, and much more!

From here you go to the Microsoft Channel 9 Azure Stack video site

From here you find the Microsoft Technical Documentation on Azure Stack

From here you go to the Microsoft Azure Stack website

Our Journey to #Microsoft Azure Stack with #Dell Power Edge R630

Hello everyone,
In 2015 we started in education with Microsoft Hyper-V Clustering with Cluster Shared Volumes for the Virtual machines and ICT Students could do LAB practices together with the Teacher. Later that year we started with Microsoft Dreamspark Azure Subscription for Developer students. But that’s not enough, IT Pro students like to make Clouds, and make there own Virtual Virtual Machines with Software defined Networking (SDN) for LAB Practices to learn for Certifications. Microsoft had an awesome Azure program for Academic last year and every student had his own Azure subscription for 6 months with $150,- a month and for the Teacher 12 months with $250,- a month to learn Azure Technologies. With this Azure Program we did a Great Microsoft Azure Workshop at Microsoft Netherlands with our IT Students and it was a big success 🙂 Unfortunately this Microsoft Academic Azure Program has ended for education and we need continuity in Azure Technology for our teachers and students. Now in 2017 Dell Netherlands helped us out with supporting a Microsoft Azure Stack Dell Power Edge R630 Appliance for in the Classroom to learn and play with Azure Technologies.

Azure Workshop at Microsoft Netherlands was Great 😉

Today we are very happy with the Brand New Dell Power Edge R630 supported by Dell Netherlands for Education ROC van Amsterdam to teach students Azure Cloud Technologies.
On this blog site we will post our journey with Microsoft Azure Stack on a Dell Power Edge R630 delivered by Dell Netherlands together with the Students.
Here you see the first pictures 😉

Proud on our Microsoft Azure Stack Dell Power Edge R630 Beast 😉

Wow look at that hardware Technology of Dell !

From here our Azure Stack Journey will start for Education and our Students !
Let’s ROCK !