My original badge

Since then, I have been fortunate enough to have contributed a very small part in helping build one of the greatest companies in history. But my real history with Microsoft actually began in the early 1980’s.

In 1982, I was attending Edgewood High School in Edgewood, MD.

This school knew that computers were going to be some big and invested in some brand new Apple ][ machines. I was already a nerd having played Dungeons and Dragon’s in the 70’s and had some experience working with TRS-80 machines. But after getting exposed to the Apple ][ in this class I knew that I wanted to work with computers for the rest of my life.

I began doing a little programing and actually programmed a Rubik’s Cube simulator in machine language on the Apple. But I also spent hours after school playing Microsoft Adventure – my first exposure to Microsoft (though I didn’t know it at the time, all I cared about was the game itself!)

Later that year, my family moved to Arlington, Tx. We didn’t have a computer in our household, but fortunately for me, just walking distance away was Hardin Computer. This was a newly opened computer store in a strip mall not to far from my house. I used to ride my bike over and hang out at the store for as long as they would let me.  I befriended one of the salesmen there and he let me actually demo programs to customers now and then. One of my fondest memories was being invited to the store and being allowed to unbox the very first Macintosh computer they received. Ultimately, after graduation, ended up doing some part time consulting for them installing Macintosh systems and configuring AppleTalk networks.

Fast forward 10 years to 1993.

I had been working full time for Frito-Lay as a Packaging Specialist for about 6 years. Computers were still a major part of my life and I was running a BBS on my Apple //gs using GBBS software. But I was also heavily involved in social chat BBSes. One in particular in the Dallas area called Talk Channel was a 32 line TBBS system where I spent a LOT of my free time. The owner of the system mentioned selling the system once and after a discussion with a fellow BBSer (Eric Sindelar), we decided to partner up and buy the system. This was my first exposure to an IBM machine and DOS. I had never owned anything but Apple products until this time. I dove in and learned DOS but basically ignored Windows because it wasn’t used for anything in the BBS business. I kept my Apple //gs (which I still have to this day) and my Mac IIsi and did all of my personal an business work on those systems.

In 1994, I was tired of working 80 hours a week in a food processing plant and starting looking for new work to do. I knew I wanted to work in the computer industry and the “information cyberhighway” (The Internet) was just starting to become a word everyday people were using. I had a side-business doing computer repair on Apple and IBM PC’s but wanted to learn more about the IBM side. One of my BBS friends suggested I apply at Microsoft. I honestly did not know what Microsoft was at the time. I was still using Apple products at home and my only dealings with DOS were just to make sure it ran. I was playing a little bit with Windows 3.1 at the time, but to me it was just Windows….not Microsoft.

A few people I knew were working at Microsoft as contractors and got me an interview with one of the vendor providers. I am not exactly sure why the hired me looking the way I did -

wow……but they did.

My First Job at Microsoft

I was supposed to be a customer service representative talking front line calls for the Windows 95 Launch. However, they called me about 3 weeks before I was supposed to start and asked if I could start early. I did, but when I reported to work, the receptionist directed me to the loading dock area. I was very confused about this because I didn’t think that answering customer support calls would be talking place in shipping and receiving, but I went back anyway. Turns out they needed someone to drive a shuttle bus back and forth between the Microsoft “Hilltop” and Microsoft “Canal” buildings. They were about 1 mile apart and it took about 2 minutes to drive between buildings.

At 8:00 I would wait for 3 minutes for people to get in the shuttle or for the mailroom to bring out inter-office mail and log how many riders were on-board.

At 8:03 I would drive to the other building. (2 minutes)

At 8:05 I would wait for 3 minutes for people to get in the shuttle or for the mailroom to bring out inter-office mail and log how many riders were on-board.

At 8:08 I would drive to the other building. (2 minutes)

At 8:10 I would wait…….well…you get the picture

I did this job so well they held me over for an extra week.

When this shuttle job ended I started my job as a Pilot A Customer Service representative. I literally answered hundreds of phone calls a day – “This you for calling Microsoft customer support services…my name is Chris…..may I have your phone number please?”. I would then route them through to whatever department they needed. I did this job for 15 months before I had to take time away from contracting. But in that time I figured out exactly what Microsoft was. I figured just how big of a game-changer the Internet was. I knew I wanted to work for Microsoft.

I continued to apply for positions at Microsoft but didn’t get any traction. So started contracting with other companies to increase my technical skills. In early September of 1997, I received a call from a Microsoft recruiter saying they had seen my applications and noticed that I was just shy of the technical qualifications they were looking for. But they were starting a new program – a boot camp of sorts – called Service Academy. They were hiring folks that were right at the edge of the technical skills needed and were doing all the training to put people over the line and then place them in technical support roles. I actually didn’t hear any of that stuff on the phone because I immediately told the recruiter YES! before she could explain much of anything.

I did a 10 week crash course that was delivered by a then external Microsoft Certified Trainer named John Weston, who later became my manager some 4 years later. John also inspired me to pursue my own MCT certification (Thank you John!) and I did some moonlighting in the late 90’s teaching Microsoft MCSE NT 4.0 courses while working at Microsoft. Fast forward 16+ years and here we are.

From Shuttle Driver moving mail from building to build, to Technology Evangelist speaking to thousands of people a year.

Wow.

Computing and in particular, Microsoft, have changed my life.

There were a lot of paths I could have taken in life. I was fortunate enough to have chosen to pursue computing early in life and dove in during the 1990’s when computing was something that everyday people were starting to embrace. The Internet was booming, and the industry was hiring like mad. I got my foot in the door and I have thrived since then.

I can’t begin to express just how special my time at Microsoft has been. The countless people I have met (some I have spoken to for years only in email and never met face to face), the technologies I have been exposed to, and the things I have learned. I am proud to have worked for this long with some of the smartest people I have ever known and for one of the best technology companies……evar.

My last 12 years as a Technology Evangelist for Microsoft have given me some of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences a person could ask for. The vendors and customers I have met, the communities I have been a part of, and the friendships I have made. Thank you all for giving me this time and the memories.

-Cheers

Chris E. Avis

personal email – Loper@Lormesa.com

cell phone – 425-647-3440

Industry experts estimate that over 70% of businesses now have more than one virtualization platform in their IT environment. IT pros who are fluent in several platforms have a considerable edge in their technical careers. Here's your chance to expand your virtualization skillset for FREE – and become invaluable to your company, clients and customers.

Join us at this free, one-day technical workshop on Microsoft Virtualization for VMware IT professionals. Experienced Technical Evangelists will guide you through key scenarios and cover equivalent technologies from Microsoft and VMware. Complete all the hands-on labs and you'll walk away ready to build your own lab environment for further evaluation and testing.

This event will help you to:

• Ramp up your knowledge of Microsoft virtualization technologies
• See how your existing VMware skillset translates in a Microsoft environment
• Compare and contrast the key Microsoft and VMware technologies
• Leverage available Microsoft tools to help manage a VMware environment
• Learn more about the upcoming enhancements to Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2

At a high level, as part of this course, you'll learn about the following topics:

• Hyper-V Configuration, Clustering & Resiliency
• Virtual Machine Mobility, Backup & Replication
• Managing Hyper-V with Virtual Machine Manager
• A look at System Center 2012 R2 Preview
• VMware: Management, Integration, and Migration

Session Requirements:
In order to participate in the labs, please bring a modern laptop. Click HERE for more detailed system specs. All participants registering for the event should download Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 Preview.

Modernize your datacenter
Try the new Windows Server 2012 R2 Trial, System Center 2012 R2 Trial, and the FREE Hyper-V Server 2012 R2.

Register now and save your seat for this FREE, full-day event in your local area. For more information or to register, select the city near you.

-Cheers!

---------------

With storage needs in your organizations growing exponentially over the last few years and into the future there are plenty of things you may done in the past to help keep the cost down.  Chances are you bought some kind of fancy SAN, that had all the bells and whistles to help storage work efficiently.  I am willing to bet one of the features your SAN has is data de-duplication.  

Windows Server 2012

With Windows Server 2012 we introduced built-in data de-duplication on a per-volume basis.  You can save a tremendous amount in storage costs with this powerful addition.   Thisde-duplication feature uses data broken into chunks and eliminates duplicates while adding pointers and using advanced mechanisms to provide for and prevent potential data loss. The de-duplication feature also uses a data aging system to ensure that only data that is resident on the volume for greater than 4 days (4 is the default and is adjustable based on your own situation) is de-duplicated to prevent the de-duplication of data that is constantly changing.  If you want to take a look at a fantastic example take a look at post from a previous series which shows a de-deplicaiton from 240GB to 7GB:

31 Days of Our Favorite Things- From 240GB to 7 GB De-duplication with Veeam and Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012 R2

In Windows Server 2012 R2 we improved this feature even more.  In Windows Server 2012 R2, we now support live data de-duplication on VHD’s for VDI.  This means that data de-duplication can now be performed on open VHD/VHDX files on remote VDI storage with CSV volume support. Remote VHD/VHDX storage de-duplication allows for increased VDI storage density significantly reducing VDI storage costs, and enabling faster read/write of optimized files and advanced caching of duplicated data. 

What’s the big deal?

You can find out by checking out the full original article here -

Why Windows Server 2012 R2: Reducing the Storage Cost for your VDI Deployments with VHD De-duplication for VDI

-Cheers!

The iSCSI Target Server functionality in Windows Server 2012 R2 can help us achieve this.

iSCSI Target Server enables you to network boot multiple computers from a single operating system image that is stored in a centralized location. This improves efficiency, manageability, availability, and security. iSCSI Target Server can boot hundreds of computers by using a single operating system image. in addition to this great feature, there are some other enhancements given to us with an update with Windows Server 2012 R2 -

In this article, I am going to show you how to leverage the iSCSI Target Server functionality to quickly deploy a large number of Windows Server 2012 R2 Servers. I will not be diving deeply into the technical aspects for this though. if you want deeper information on this, there are some great blogs posts I will be referencing at the bottom of this article.

Let’s get Started!!   Here is what we are going to do -

Enable iSCSI Target

Configuring the iSCSI Initiator to Logon to the iSCSI Target

Format the iSCSI Disk and use it for storage

(I will also try to show the PowerShell commands that do each of the steps we perform in the GUI)

Enable iSCSI Target

From the Server Manager on Windows Server 2012 R2, select the “Add roles and features” option - The iSCSI Target Server is available as a role service under the File and Storage Services role in Server Manager -

Select the iSCSI Target Server. This will provide a pop-up for any additional roles or services that have to be enabled to support the iSCSI Target Server -

*** Do this with PowerShell ! *** - Add-WindowsFeature FS-iSCSITarget-Server

Once you complete the wizard, in Server Manager, verify that you have the File and Storage Services management pane and drill to the iSCSI management section -

As we see here, everything looks to be in place. Now we have to create some shared storage. To do this we will -

Create an iSCSI LUN

On the iSCSI management pane, select “To create an iSCSI virtual disk, start the New iSCSI Virtual Disk Wizard” link near the center of the window. This will launch the iSCSI Virtual Disk wizard. The first thing we do is select the physical drive location where we will store the iSCSI LUN. If you want to use a custom path, select the button at the bottom of the page - 

Next, we provide a name for our iSCSI Virtual Disk. As we type, notice that the wizard will automatically fill in the path for us. If you don’t like this path you will have to return to the previous page and select the “Type custom path” button at the bottom of the page -

Next, we are asked to specify the size of the iSCSI Virtual Disk. In Windows Server 2012 R2, we have some new options that deserve some attention -

Fixed Size – Pros: Better performance for high disk I/O applications       Cons: immediately creates a .VHDX file of the size specified

Dynamic Expanding – Pros: minimal disc space consumed at creation      Cons: reduced performance for high disk I/O applications

Differencing – Parent-Child relationship. Allows use of a parent disc that remains unchanged and child disks that build upon the parent.

For our demo, I am going to select Fixed -

*** Do this with PowerShell ! *** - New-IscsiVirtualDisk h:\iSCSIVirtualDisks\iSCSITarget.vhdx –size 150GB

The next stage of the wizards walks us through assigning the virtual disc to an iSCSI Target. In my case, I do not have any existing targets, so I have to create a new one -

Next, we give the iSCSI Target a name -

Clicking “Add” on this next page will let us add specific iSCSI initiators or browse for the iSCSI Initiator. Using the default “Query initiator computer…” option, we can browse for our server name in Active Directory and then let the wizard create the IQN for us (IQN = iSCSI Qualifier Name)

Next, let’s provide some security/authentication for this iSCSI initiator connection. Here we are prompted for the type of CHAP authentication we wish to use. We can authenticate in bound initiator connections and/or have the initiator authenticate the target.

Important – There is no way to retrieve this information once it has been set. If you lose this information, you will have to reset it. Also, you cannot use the same password for CHAP and Reverse CHAP

All Done!   Now we have the summary screen. Just verify that you have everything in order then Create!

You will see a nice flow of the process as well. In may case it only took about 5 seconds to create so don’t look away if you want to see this screen!

Since I created mine as a Fixed Disk, the system will begin allocating the disk and zeroing it out in the background. You can check the progress of this from File and Storage Services –> iSCSI page -

We will need to wait for this process to complete before we move on to the next phase -

Configuring the iSCSI Initiator to Logon to the iSCSI Target

Note – The iSCSI Target and iSCSI Initiator should be two different machines. I am using a single machine for ease of capturing screen shots.

If you are using Windows Server 2012 R2, the iSCSI Initiator is built-in. You don’t even have to add it in as a role of feature. Simply select it from Server Manager and the Tools drop down -

If this is the first time you have chosen this option, you will receive a pop-up asking you to confirm the start of the iSCSI Initiator Service. Select “Yes” to continue -

After a few seconds, you will see the iSCSI Initiator Properties screen. Here we can provide or discover all the information to connect to our previously created Target. if you know all of the information, you can provide it on the Targets tab. Otherwise, use the Discovery Tab to find all available targets you can connect to. On my Discovery Tab, I am clicking Discover Portal and providing the name of the iSCSI Target Server we worked with earlier -

After clicking okay, I am back at the Discovery Tab and I see my server listed -

Next, click on the Targets Tab, and we see all of the  discovered targets at the IP address we used on the Discovery Tab. In my case I was doing some troubleshooting and alternate configurations so I have two targets to select from.

Choose the appropriate Target, then click the Connect button -

If you configured the selected target with CHAP authentication, you will need to select the Advanced button to provide the appropriate credentials. Once you have provide any credentials, click OK and then you will return to the Targets Tab where you should see the selected iSCSI Target listed as “Connected”

We now have an iSCSI initiator connected to an iSCSI Target!  Next up -

Format the iSCSI Disk and use it for storage

This iSCSI target will show up as a disk under File and Storage Services –> Volumes –> Disks

From here we can format, assign a drive letter and begin using it as we would any other kind of disk. It is actually very simple to do this from within the Volumes section of the File and Storage Services manager. This will launch the New Volume wizard that will walk you through creating the volume. When complete, you will have a new volume that you can identify as being an iSCSI disk by looking at the Bus Type Column in File and Storage Services –> Volumes –> Disks -

From here, check out the disk from Explorer and verify you can access your disk by adding and removing files to it.

And that’s it!   We have now shown how to use the iSCSI Target and iSCSI Initiator within Windows to use iSCSI for remote remote data storage and access.

Part 2 will be showing how to use a similar process to boot a diskless machine directly from an image stored as an iSCSI Target from and how this can be used for mass server deployment while reducing storage and power requirements.

What’s New R2?: iSCSI Target Server updates – Part 2: Fast, Easy Mass Server Deployments

Also – If you would like to see more PowerShell based configuration for iSCSI work, please check out Keith Mayer’s Blog Post

Step-by-Step: Speaking iSCSI with Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V - Become a Virtualization Expert in 20 Days!

-Cheers!

Here is an excerpt of his article -

PKI is heavily employed in cloud computing for encrypting data and securing transactions. While Windows Server 2012 R2 is developed as a building block for cloud solutions, there is an increasing demand for IT professionals to acquire proficiency on implementing PKI with Windows Server 2012 R2. This two-part blog post series is to help those who, like me, perhaps do not work on Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) everyday while every so often do need to implement a simple PKI for assessing or piloting solutions better understand and become familiar with the process. I believe the most effective way to learn AD CS is to walk through the process, build a test lab, practice and learn from mistakes. You can download Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs from https://aka.ms/R2 and build a simple AD environment with Hyper-V like the following to test out these steps.

The following six steps form the core process of implementing PKI. The common practices are to first build a root CA with a standalone server, followed by configuring a subordinate CA on a member server for issuing certificates, while securing the root CA by taking it offline and bringing it back online only when issuing a subordinate CA certificate. Notice Part 1 include the first four steps, while the rest are in Part 2. All descriptions and screen captures are based on Windows Server 2012 R2.

Logical Steps

• Build a standalone root CA
• Create an enterprise subordinate CA
• Deploy certificate templates
• Enable certificate auto-enrollment
• Set certificate revocation policies
• Configure and verify private key archive and recovery

Yung continues on to describe in detail how to implement PKI for the Enterprise in his full article which can be found here -

Enterprise PKI with Windows Server 2012 R2 Active Directory Certificate Services (Part 1 of 2)

Cheers!

*App Builder Rewards is open to US residents, age 18 or older. See official terms and conditions for details.

The IT Professional community in San Francisco is sponsoring a two day event on all of the new Hyper-V features found in Server 2012R2.

Register for this Friday’s TechDays: Windows Server 2012 Virtualization with Hyper-V – Oct 11th
Link to register for November’s Hyper-V Deep Dive November 14-15.

About the event
This event is for IT Professional who are looking for in-depth technical information about Microsoft’s Hyper-V in Server 2012R2, Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), managing Hyper-V with Powershell, remote direct memory access (RDMA), clustering, high availability, site to site or extend replication, public/private cloud, Windows Server Gateway, SMB 3.0, vSANs, Gen2 VMs, compression for faster replications, VM Cloning, disk tiering, Linux support, Hyper-V/VMware coexistence, managing a VMware servers with Microsoft tools.

Our in-depth discussion about virtualization would be incomplete if we didn’t discuss the hardware, (servers, disk subsystems, and network infrastructure), needed to support virtualization platforms.  Along those line we will also discuss the third-party add on solutions Hyper-V and VMware can use to provide a robust fault tolerant solution for your data center.

Who should attend?
Anyone who wants to have an in-depth technical knowledge of Microsoft’s Hyper-V, Windows Storage Server and would like to know how Hyper-V compares to VMware in terms of performance and price.  IT Pros, IT Managers, CIOs, CTOs, VMware administrators, Storage Administrators.  Our goal is to make you an expert in Hyper-V in two days.

Techdays are IT Pro community events for IT Pros by IT Pros.  Do not think for one minute this is a commercial for Microsoft products, it won’t be.  This event will contain highly technical talks about Hyper-V; what works, what’s still being developed, and will include presentations on performance, best practices and tips from users of Hyper-V.

Presenters
Aidan Finn – Author, Microsoft Virtualization MVP, Hyper-V blogger  http://www.aidanfinn.com
Paul Ferrill – InfoWorld author, Virtualization blogger http://www.infoworld.com/author-bios/paul-ferrill
Doug Spindler – Microsoft Virtualization MVP, College IT Professor, IT Pro Community leader http://www.pacitpros.org
Microsoft MVPs
Members of Microsoft’s Hyper-V development team

Hours
Thursday November 14, 9am-4pm
Friday November 15, 9am-4pm

Location
Microsoft San Francisco Office
835 Market Street, Suite 700
San Francisco, CA 94103

Snacks and beverages
Snacks and beverages will be provided throughout the two days.  San Francisco has hundreds of restaurants within a few blocks of the event for every palate and budget.  Rather than offer a limited selection of meal choices we thought you would enjoy your visit to San Francisco if you made your own arrangements for meals.

Hotel
We’ve reserved a block of rooms at Hotel Union Square from November 13-16.  Use Group Code BOOT 13.  https://gc.synxis.com/rez.aspx?Hotel=55680&Chain=13483&group=BO OT13

Travel
Airports – SFO and OAK.  Both airports are serviced the Bay Area’s metro system called BART.
http://techdays.org/travel-arrangements

Link to registration

Starting Monday, it will be easier for government organizations to realize the benefits of secure cloud computing.

Microsoft received notice that Windows Azure was granted the FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB) Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO). Windows Azure is the first public cloud platform, with infrastructure services and platform services, to receive a JAB P-ATO

The Federal government is moving to the cloud, and early on it recognized that, although each agency by law must still authorize and approve the mandated security controls, a streamlined process would be ideal so that individual agencies would know which cloud vendors and services had already been vetted by a central “board” of key agencies. This is what the JAB is. The FedRAMP JAB is comprised of representatives from the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

Securing a P-ATO from the JAB ensures that when government agencies have a need for an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Platform as a Service (PaaS), they know that Windows Azure has successfully met the necessary security assessments. This not only opens the door for faster cloud adoption, but helps agencies move to the cloud in a more streamlined, cost-effective way.

Additionally, since Microsoft datacenters were also evaluated as part of the JAB review process, other Microsoft cloud services are ultimately better aligned to meet these security controls as well.

This is super exciting news for public sector agencies wishing to leverage Windows Azure for data storage and production workloads! 

There is a little bit more to the post which you can find here -

Windows Azure cloud services achieve critical federal security milestone 

-Chris

This morning I checked it to see if anything popped up over night.  The only issue I saw were some System Event Log entires complaining that the integration services were different version between the host and the clients -

Networking driver in Gallifrey loaded but has a different version from the server. Server version 5.0  Client version 4.0 (Virtual machine ID F752825A-C87F-45E6-A80B-B35BE70E7505). The device will work, but this is an unsupported configuration. This means that technical support will not be provided until this problem is resolved. To fix this problem, upgrade the integration services. To upgrade, connect to the virtual machine and select Insert Integration Services Setup Disk from the Action menu.

I forgot about updating those so I performed those updates this morning. and gave the Hyper-V host another reboot for good measure.  All is well.

Keep in mind that the machine I did this in-place upgrade on had the following roles and Features

AD Domain Services (the machine is my “primary” DC)

Hyper-V (yea, yea, yea…..I shouldn’t have Hyper-V on a DC. I accept server donations)

DNS

File and Storage Services.

I don’t have a high use network nor do I have any unusual AD integrated apps that update the schema or add objects. But the server has been my production AD server for over 2 years now. I have added and removed software to it during that time and made a number of other tweaks over time. I am still amazed that it was so smoothly.

-Chris

I generally encourage people to not upgrade production servers in-place because of my experience doing so back in the Windows Server 200 days. Of course now, taking a production server offline for a lengthy upgrade is usually not acceptable. We can mitigate this somewhat in the world of virtualization by upgrading a replica VM of a production server while leaving the original up and running. But I primarily wanted to see if the in-place process was improved at all and to see if I could complete it successfully. There certainly are some advantages to doing in-place, the biggest being that I don’t have to migrate any data or settings. I also don’t have a second physical box any longer on which to build a second machine. So for me, in-place seems like a good option.

So here are some details on my home server environment -

Home built server

Intel Core i7 Quad Core

32 gigs RAM

Hardwar RAID with a bunch of drives for storage.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise – Roles: AD Domain Services, DNS, File Services, Hyper-V

 

In preparation for the in-place upgrade, I did the following -

Complete patch-up through Windows Update

Backed up the entire server

Shut Down all running virtual machines

I then launched Windows Setup and after providing the basic information, I was notified that I needed to update my Schema. I opened an Administrative CMD prompt, then ran the following from the Windows Server 2012 R2 source media -

f:\support\adprep\adprep /forestprep

f:\support\adprep\adprep /domainprep

No errors there so I restarted Windows Setup and continued through to the file copy phase. Now I am just waiting on things to copy and start rebooting -

About 15 mins later I started the reboot phases. These lasted another 30 minutes before I was presented with the standard Ctrl+Alt+Del Logon! (total of 44 minutes for the upgrade to complete)

I logged in via an RDP session (since that is how I normally admin this server) to check out critical services and event logs -

The only issue in the event logs pertained to the Net.Tcp Listener Adapter -

The Net.Tcp Listener Adapter service depends on the Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

Sure enough, the Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service was disabled. I set to automatic, started, then started the Listener. Once that was resolved, my Dashboard was all green -

Almost seems too good to be true!  I decided to clear the event logs and reboot just to make sure everything was good.  The server still came up with no issues.

The last thing I need to verify is that my virtual machines come back online. As you can see below, I have a few test and production machines I still use on the home network -

Azjol-Nerub is a production web server

Gallifrey is a production Domain Controller

The rest are test machines that aren’t normally running.

Both of the productions machines started up and I was able to remote into them with no issues.  I am not sure what to think of how smoothly the in-place upgrade process went. I have only performed a handful of in-place upgrades in Windows CLIENT machines  in the last 12 years. I much prefer a clean install. But after this upgrade going so smoothly, I may have to re-think the advice I give.

I will be monitoring the install and will follow-up if any unexpected issues pop up.

-Cheers!

11:37AM