June 2013

PowerShell v4 Desired State Configuration Deep Dive

During my time at Microsoft TechEd many new things were announced. My all time favorite announcement was PowerShell v4. There are many great things coming out with PowerShell v4, things that I haven’t really gotten a chance to dig into much yet. However the one of the few things I have run through would be the Desired State Configuration which I will refer to as DSC throughout this blog.

DSC is a way to manage the configuration for multiple servers utilizing a single script for the deployment. In the example I will use is managing an IIS Configuration across multiple servers. However as the DSC is developed there will be other usability options for this. …

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PowerShell v4 Ping and Telnet Replacement

Note: Article Written on Server 2012 R2 Preview Build, the functionality may change when released.

I have been waiting for years for a good replacement for what Telnet and Ping provide me. I am thrilled to announce today I discovered a legitimate replacement has come down the line! Recently Microsoft released the Preview of Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. Packaged with those is PowerShell Version 4. I have not had a chance to do a deep dive into it yet. However, I have found out that there is a cool new cmdlet called Test-NetConnection.

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How the Microsoft TechEd Experience Changes with #TheKrewe

The last three years I have been extraordinarily lucky that I have been able to attend Microsoft TechEd. Every year I have participated in a group known as #TheKrewe and I have striven to force myself into social situations more and more every year.

What is #TheKrewe?

#TheKrewe 2013 Group Photo
#TheKrewe 2013 Group Photo

“The Krewe is a community organized professional networking group. Our mission is to build a dynamic networking community through various activities and gatherings. The Krewe primarily meets at Microsoft TechEd North America every year where we have The Krewe Meet ‘N Greet the day prior to the opening of the conference. Our group takes Networking to a whole new level, we are all close friends and are open to helping each other in any way possible be it through charitable works or by helping solve a question that has you stumped in your professional life. We are IT people from every level of the career, you may find someone totally new to IT who is just starting off or meet someone who has 20 years’ experience and is an MVP, MCT, MCP and any other abbreviation you can think of.”

– IAMKREWE.ORG

Year 1 Experience

My first year at Microsoft TechEd was in 2011 and I was still a student in college. I had no idea what I was doing attending this conference, I just knew I was excited and I was ready to learn. As the conference approached I realized I wanted to find evening parties as much as possible… after all I was 21 and who doesn’t love free drinks? …

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Summarizing The Microsoft TechEd Experience 2013

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to be sent to Microsoft TechEd by the company I work at. It was such a busy week and another week of catching up with real life I am just now getting around to blogging about TechEd.

Warning: Long blog post!

Welcome_TechEdThis summarization of TechEd does not do a justice to how fantastic the experience is and how much you learn while there. …

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