Adam Lichtenberg’s Blog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/adamlichtenberg/feed.xml Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Tech Wed, 17 Apr 2019 03:30:03 GMT en-US hourly 1 Course 2 of 11: - Provision and Manage Virtual Machines https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/adamlichtenberg/discovering-cloud-admin-course-2-provision-and-manage-vms Wed, 21 Mar 2018 03:39:54 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/adamlichtenberg/?p=135 (This post is part of my review of the Microsoft Professional Program: Cloud Administration)

Course 2 of 11: - Provision and Manage Virtual Machines

Overview:  The "Azure Virtual Machines" course is comprised of 5 modules covering what is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), creating virtual machines, configuring virtual machines, virtual machine disks, and how to manage virtual machines. There is two additional modules which cover a practical assessment and final exam which aims to test your recently gained knowledge to the test. Don't skip the introductory module since it covers setting up a free Microsoft Azure trial account which lands you $200 of Azure credit for 30 days. I love free stuff! Time Spent / Level of Effort: This course is the first real deep dive into what Azure is all about. Compared to the first course where it took me under 3 hours to complete, this course took me between 8-10 hours. As before, I watched all the videos at double speed then completed each quiz after each module. The module quizzes were easy to pass since the answers are explained in the videos or the self-paced reading material. Maybe I missed a few answers in the videos, but I had to search a few answer on the web to complete a few quizzes. The final exam and lab were pretty straight-forward and I passed the overall course with a 82%. Course Highlight: The terms SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS are not new. However, the course did a really thorough job on explaining the differences between them all in a very simple and easy to understand manner. I have a fair amount of experience with Azure, but never with a true production environment. Module 3 introduced an important Azure feature for production environments called Availability Sets. As an Azure administrator, you must be prepared for planned (updates) and unplanned (hardware) failures. One way to prepare is with Availability Set, which is a logical grouping of two or more virtual machines. For all Virtual Machines that have two or more instances deployed in the same Availability Set, Microsoft guarantees you will have Virtual Machine Connectivity to at least one instance at least 99.95% of the time. Suggestions: While navigating through the course, take notes on the numerous resources, tools, and tips that are generously provided in each module. Also, since the labs walk through step-by-step to provide the answers for the quizzes, it is easy to set up the environment and then instantly delete it from your Azure account after answering the questions. Here are two interesting resources that I took note of: Azure Tools for Visual Studio: Where developers can setup a VM for testing quickly using built in templates in Visual Studio. Azure Resource Explorer:  is a great tool to view and modify resources you have created in your subscription. The tool is web-based and uses your Azure portal logon credentials. The source for the Resource Explorer tool is available on GitHub, which provides a valuable reference if you need to implement similar behavior in your own applications. This tool is particularly useful in viewing Azure scale sets. With the tool you can see the individual virtual machines and their properties.   If you have taken this course in the past or are going through it now, please leave a comment and share your experience. Thanks, Adam Lichtenberg [MSFT]]]> Course 1 of 11: - Getting Started with Cloud Administration https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/adamlichtenberg/discovering-cloud-admin-course-1-getting-started-with-cloud-administration Tue, 23 Jan 2018 03:31:02 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/adamlichtenberg/?p=95

(This post is part of my review of the Microsoft Professional Program: Cloud Administration)

Course 1 of 11: - Getting Started with Cloud Administration

Overview: This first introductory course is split into two parts; Part 1: Cloud and Azure basics and Part 2: Tools you will need. This course is a great starting point for IT pros coming from a on-premises data center background as well as those who may or may not have experience with cloud services like Azure. The introduction from Julia White (Microsoft Corporate Vice President) highlights the capability of Azure while the rest of the first part serves as a summary of what to expect in this course. The second part is all about getting started with your own Azure subscription, learning the portal, installing Azure PowerShell modules, Azure Command Line Interface (CLI), how billing works, and a primer of the Azure Pricing Calculator.

Time Spent / Level of Effort: I completed this course right under 3 hours. I recommend reading through written resources in addition to watching the videos since there's a wealth of information inside each lesson.

Course Highlight: My favorite part of this course was the virtual walk-through of an Azure data center and where they are located around the globe. Seeing how Azure data center architecture has evolved over the years from traditional construction to the modular iterations was fascinating. Learning about Azure resources available at no cost and free account subscriptions was also helpful for me and for anyone else who wants to get their hands dirty and learn with no commitment.

Suggestions: A colleague of mine, Sam Lester, has shared his experiences while completing the Microsoft Professional Program (MPP) in Big Data. Following his great advice, I watched the videos at x2 speed which allowed faster viewing while still allowing me to retain the information. Having the quiz open in another browser tab while watching the videos and reading the material is a sure fire way to ensure a 100% success rate. As you complete course 1, please take a few moments to provide your feedback in the End of Course survey. Your feedback genuinely does matter.

 

If you have taken this course in the past or are going through it now, please leave a comment and share your experience.

Thanks,

Adam Lichtenberg [MSFT]

]]> Discovering Cloud Administration with the Microsoft Professional Program (MPP) https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/adamlichtenberg/microsoftprofessionalprogramcloudadmin Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:26:23 GMT https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/adamlichtenberg/?p=55

Discovering Cloud Administration with the Microsoft Professional Program (MPP)

Discovering and learning more about Azure and AI has been on my technical training To-Do list for some time. After returning to work from a short leave of absence, I've made it a priority to devote the time needed discover more about both and Azure is where I'm starting. You can call it my new year's resolution. For Azure, the updated Microsoft Professional Program (MPP) for Cloud Administration helps with my Azure training goal and is designed exactly the way I like to learn; self-paced, online, with accompanying discussion boards. The program will start you down the path of learning how to:
  • Setup Azure virtual machines
  • Automate Azure workloads
  • Migrate Workloads to Azure
  • Deploy and manage Azure applications
  • Work with databases in Azure
  • Setup virtual machines
  I'll be writing and sharing my notes for each course. My goal is to share what each course covers, how much time I spent, highlights, suggestions for completing the course and overall program, along with any other interesting or related information. There are a total of 10 course plus a final capstone project which are each covered by my reviews for each course.   Course 1: Getting started with Cloud Administration Course 2: Provision and Manage Virtual Machines Course 3: Implement and Azure Network Infrastructure Course 4: Manage Azure Active Directory Course 5: Implement and Manage Azure Storage Course 6: Deploy and Manage Azure App Service Course 7: Provision, Configure and Manage Azure SQL Database Course 8: Secure and Manage Compliance of Azure Resources Course 9: Automate Azure Workloads Course 10: Migrate IaaS Workloads to Azure Capstone: Microsoft Professional Capstone: Cloud Administration   If you are going through the Cloud Administration MPP program, please leave a comment and share your experience. It’s a lot of fun to discuss these courses with others who are going through them. Thanks, Adam Lichtenberg [MSFT]  ]]>