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IT Camps–Hands on Learning!–Coming to you!

In the West Region, Harold Wong and I are hosting a set of events in the March and May / June timeframe.

In November 2011, we tried out a new format for events which we called IT Camps. This new format included the ability for the attendees to select the topics that would be discussed. We are evolving this a bit and holding more of these IT Camp style events in March.

Join us for our upcoming IT Camp where we are changing the format and structure of our in-person events! We are implementing the following changes:

  1. The events will start at 8:30 AM and end at 4 PM (versus 8 AM – 12 PM)
  2. We will have a Hands-On component as part of the afternoon agenda
  3. You get to help pick the content / topic of discussion for a good portion of the presentation slots (and maybe even get to present yourself if you want)
  4. We will only have two “official” presentations – one from Microsoft and one from Veeam

To participate in the afternoon session, you will need to bring your own computer (laptop preferred) with the following minimum configuration:

  • 4GB RAM (8 GB preferred)
  • At least 20GB of free disk space (75 GB preferred)
  • x64 compatible processor with Intel VT or AMD-V technology

I encourage everyone to start posting suggestions for topics to be discussed during the Open Topics sections. Also, if you have a topic that you would like to discuss, then please say so when posting your comment to this blog post. I am a firm believer that we can all learn from one another as we all have unique experiences and talents that we bring to the table. I look forward to reading your topic suggestions and then seeing you at the events!!

To register, please visit the appropriate links for your city.

March 13, 2012          Bellevue, WA          Chris Avis

March 15, 2012          Los Angeles, CA      Harold Wong

March 15, 2012          Portland, OR           Chris Avis

March 16, 2012          Phoenix, AZ             Harold Wong

March 19, 2012          Denver, CO             Harold Wong

March 19, 2012          Mountain View, CA  Chris Avis

Agenda and abstracts of Sessions

8:00 AM – 8:30 AM Check-In and Welcome

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM: Get out of Dodge: Migrating to Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Is your infrastructure still clinging to the 2003 x86 server architecture? But with every day that goes by, you worry more and more that the other shoe will drop. You know you have to bite the bullet and get these critical services over to more modern hardware paired with the current supported revisions of the server platform. These are the services that keep the lights on, the servers running and most importantly: the users happy! This demo-intensive session covers how to migrate essential services like DHCP, DNS, File/Print, Certificate Services and more.

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM: Veeam Presentation

Discover how System Center 2012 can be leveraged to manage coexisting private cloud technologies from the metal to the app! This session will focus on the following System Center 2012 components: Virtual Machine Manager, Orchestrator and Operations Manager and how each technology can manage both Hyper-V and VMware Hypervisor platforms.

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM: Open Topics

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: Lunch

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM: Open Topics

2:45 PM – 4:00 PM: Hands-On-Lab: Configure Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 (Free version)

There are many IT Pros who have expressed interest in using the free version of Hyper-V Server. In this hands-on-session, we will demystify the configuration steps necessary to get Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 up and running so you can start using the free tool. As most folks know how to install an OS, we will not bore you with a 35 minute install; instead we will provide a VHD file with the product pre-installed, but not configured. We will help everyone configure their machines to boot to VHD and complete the configuration steps.

Following the configuration of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, you will import the System Center 2012 RC VMs provided by Veeam so you can also get guided hands-on-experience with their management product.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2012
    Can talk about determining IPv6 addresses, static and DHCP.

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2012
    Thank you for the suggestion.  I am not sure I will be able to find someone from Microsoft to speak on this topic with this short of notice but I will cetainly try.