Test Drives

The Windows Server 2008 test drive allows you to try the latest release from Microsoft instantly. By simply logging onto our test-drive environment using your Web browser, you will be able to experience Windows Server 2008 first hand. You can explore the product on your own, or follow along with a number of guided exercises and videos.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Test Drives will be released Q4 CY2009

Test drive demonstrations are simple: No complex setup or installation is required to try out 10-15 minute activities within Windows Server 2008, running in the full-featured virtual lab. Plus you can also walk through step-by-step using the training videos.

Application Anywhere

Enabling a Remote Workforce

This demo illustrates how the collection of tools and technologies in the Windows Presentation Virtualization scenario enable companies to deploy and manage remote workforces. The demo contains demonstrations of TS Gateway for internal desktop and application access, TS Web Access as an internal application portal functioning on top of TS Gateway, and TS RemoteApp. The goal is to show how seemless the experience is for the remote user who wants to run applications and tools using Presentation virtualization.

Dynamically Increasing Web Site Capacity

This demo shows you how the new features of IIS and Windows Server 2008 can allow you to dynamically add capacity to a web site, but adding additional web servers. The demo shows how you can configure IIS 7 shared configuration, and then configure a web server to use that shared configuration from a script. This allows you to double the capacity of your website in one command line command.

Allowing External Users to Manage IIS7 Web Applications

Web servers are one of the services that most often are in need of remote administration by an external consultant. Many companies outsource web development activities and as a result, need to grant external users access to both manage content and configuration on their web servers. IIS 7 includes a new management service which addresses this need and TS RemoteApp provides a secure way to make management tools available outside the firewall. This demo shows how you can configure the management service, work with feature delegation, and connect to IIS Manager from outside the firewall using TS RemoteApp.

High Availability

Creating a Highly Available Infrastructure

This demo shows how easy it is to create clusters using Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering. For added value, the cluster is created using the Microsoft ISCSI Software Target and initiator that is included with Windows Server 2008. The cluster nodes are running on Server Core, and are configured from a remote computer using WinRM. Cluster validation reports are demonstrated, as well as the process of actually creating the cluster and performing some basic tasks. Finally, the command line tools that can be used to automate a cluster are shown.

Management

10 cool things to do with the Powershell

This demo shows some of the neat things you can do with PowerShell with regards to server administration. There are 10 demos you can run through ranging from simple queries for services to enumerating information in Active Directory. Some of the scripts use lists of computers, some prompt for a computername. Each script shows a different thing you can do with PowerShell to quickly create administration scripts.

Server Core Remote Management

This demonstration highlights the benefits of Server Core, with its low overhead, and highlights how it is easy to manage Server Core with the new management tools and technologies included in Windows Server 2008.

Security and Policy Enforcement

Securing Branch Office User Accounts

In this demo you will see several ways that user accounts in a branch office can be secured. Branch offices traditional are a place of high risk for domain controllers. Placing domain controllers in branch offices good for functionality and productivity, but bad for security. This demo shows how you can place a domain controller in a branch office, and take measures to make those branch office accounts more secure. The demo uses a combination of BitLocker, RODC, Fine Grained Password Polices using a tool from Special Operations Software, and Admin Role Seperation to achieve this goal.

Virtualization

Server Virtualization with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

In a production environment, having a server which averages only 5% CPU utilization costs time and money. Windows Server 2008 provides key virtualization functionality Hyper-V, which enables you to consolidate multiple server roles as separate virtual machines running on a single physical machine. This walk through shows you how Windows Server Hyper-V can help reduce server sprawl, while still ensuring your IT reliability.

Presentation Virtualization with Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services

Terminal services allow both remote and internal users securely access business applications, where ever they are. New enhancements include Terminal Services Gateway to support secure communication through firewalls, RemoteApp which enables remoting of individual application windows instead of the whole desktop, and Terminal Services Web Access allowing you to use web pages to access remote applications. This walk through shows how using these scenarios, you can provide terminal server access to all your employees easily.

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