Reason # 42 to Attend TechDays 2011: Hands-On Labs

Article
10/19/2011

One of the elements added to TechDays 2011 that I am most excited about is the addition of instructor-led hands-on labs at the event. This is directly as a result of your feedback asking us for more content where you can actually play with the technology. We will have 9 labs on site and an additional 40+ labs that you will be able to take advantage of from the luxury of your home or workplace using only an Internet connection.

Before I get to the labs you will be able to take advantage of at TechDays 2011, I do want to spend a little time explaining how they will work. The labs themselves are hosted remotely at one of our partner organizations. When you take part in a hands-on lab at TechDays 2011 you will be accessing a remote server using an internet connection using your own computer.

So, here’s the first important point – in order to take part in a hands-on lab at TechDays 2011, bring your notebook computer with you. The system requirements are pretty straight-forward to make it work. You will need a Windows-based computer with the following characteristics:

.NET Framework 3.5 installed
RDP 7.0 Client
Internet Explorer 8 or later
CredSSP enabled.
XPS Viewer.

Also, to install the one-click lab client you will need to have administrator permissions on your computer but once it is installed you can run all of the labs as a standard user.

So, which hands-on labs will we have a TechDays? Here is the list along with registration links to reserve your spot. Remember, in order to reserve a spot for a hands-on labs, you must already have your TechDays ticket. If you have not yet registered, go to www.techdays.ca and register for TechDays now and then the lab you want to experience for that hands on feel! Just click on the lab title to reserve your spot – and don’t forget to bring your registration form with you to TechDays!

ARCILL201 Introduction to Test Planning with Microsoft Test Manager 2010

In this lab, you will learn how to create and configure a new Test Plan in Microsoft Test Manager 2010. This test plan can be used, for instance, to test the new release of your software. Next, you will learn how to add test suites and existing test cases to a test plan and finally, you will learn how to create a new requirement and add that requirement to your test plan. You will also learn how to create a new test case for the new requirement.

CLDILL200 Introduction to Windows Azure

In this hands-on lab, you will explore the basic elements of a Windows Azure service by creating a simple GuestBook application that demonstrates many features of the Windows Azure platform, including web and worker roles, blob storage, table storage, and queues.

DATILL301 Bare Metal Business Intelligence Part 2

In this Hands-On Lab you will configure the integration of SQL Server Reporting Services in Sharepoint 2010 by enabling Reporting Services and configuring a Report Library. Next you will configure SharePoint 2010 for PowerPivot and test the PowerPivot Client in Excel 2010. Finally you will configure PerformancePoint and enable a Business Intelligence Center.

DATILL402 Bare Metal Mission Critical Part 2

This lab discusses the various options available in SQL Server 2008 R2 database mirroring configurations and demonstrates how to configure and maintain a database mirroring solution. By the end of this lab, you will understand:

· The benefits of database mirroring.

· How to configure database mirroring in high-performance mode.

· How to configure database mirroring in high-availability mode.

· How to manage database mirroring configurations

DEVILL301 Building a LightSwitch Control Extension

In this Hands-on Lab you will be walked through the creation of a LightSwitch custom control. This control will be used to display an address in a Silverlight BingMapcontrol. Through this process you will learn the solution structure that is required to create LightSwitch extensions, the various interfaces that should be implemented to make the custom control similar to a native control, and how to package this extension as a VSIX installer.

MGTILL305 Getting Started with System Center Orchestrator

The objective of this lab is to provide a basic overview of the Orchestrator architecture and functionality, and an introduction to the process of creating and running runbooks.

By the end of this lab you will:

· Understand the basic Orchestrator architecture

· Be able to build, test, and monitor simple runbooks

VIRILL300 Getting Started with System Center Virtual Machine Manage 2012

In this lab, you will explore System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 Beta. This lab is designed to walk you through a configured VMM infrastructure to help you understand the new concepts, terms, UI elements, and configuration tasks. You will accomplish this by exploring the three key elements: Clouds and Services, Fabrics, and the Library. Clouds and Services are collections of virtual workloads which provide services on slices of infrastructure. The fabric is a collection of hardware based resources including virtualization hosts, storage, and network devices which provide the physical implementation of clouds and services. The library is a collection of predefined objects which are the building blocks for clouds and services

VIRILL301 iSCSI Software Target 3.3 - Enabling Hyper-V Storage on Windows Server 2008 R2

This lab will help you learn how Windows Server 2008 R2 provides economical, highly-available storage that can scale to meet any business requirements. The exercises in this lab include:

Exercise 1: Managing iSCSI LUNs. In this exercise you will learn how to manage iSCSI LUNs in the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. You will learn how to manage iSCSI LUNs using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target console and Windows PowerShell™ cmdlets.

Exercise 2: Using iSCSI LUNs with Virtual Machines. In this exercise you will learn how to connect virtual machines to iSCSI LUNs using three different methods. You will use the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator to connect to the iSCSI LUNs you created in the previous exercise.

Exercise 3: Booting Virtual Machines from iSCSI LUNs. In this exercise you will learn how to boot diskless virtual machines directly from iSCSI LUNs. You will use a network boot program to connect to an iSCSI LUN and initiate the boot process for Windows Server 2008 R2 from the iSCSI LUN.

Exercise 4: Deploying a Highly-Available Microsoft iSCSI Software Target. In this exercise you will learn how to make the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target highly-available using Windows Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2. You will observe how an iSCSI LUN can be accessed continuously without interrupting a script running in the active cluster node.

WINILL201 Using SketchFlow for Windows Phone

In this lab you discover principles of good UX design. You also discover how to start and build your prototype using the SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone. Along the way, you find out how to add sample data, and customize the look and feel of your data. You also find out how to add interactivity with objects that you create right in Expression Blend, or that are imported from other sources, such as Adobe Illustrator.