Powershell -DomainMode and -ForestMode

When you use PowerShell to install a new forest. The values for -DomainMode and -ForestMode are the following:

     -- Windows Server 2003: 2 or Win2003
     -- Windows Server 2008: 3 or Win2008
     -- Windows Server 2008 R2: 4 or Win2008R2
     -- Windows Server 2012: 5 or Win2012
     -- Windows Server 2012 R2: 6 or Win2012R2

You can use the numeric value or you can write it in text as shown above.

Azure IaaS Cost Estimator Tool

Until now, when evaluating datacenter compute resources and estimating costs in the cloud has been a challenge. Typically we’re looking at a physical or virtual machine configuration such as CPU size, memory, disk space and so on. However, there are other resources that are more difficult to estimate such as bandwidth usage, storage transactions, and estimated future capacity.

Imagine having 50, 100, or more servers. Performing estimates for 100’s of servers would not only be time consuming, it would be difficult because we’re only looking at a snapshot in time. We know over the course of a day or week a server’s consumption model of resources will change. We may end up missing critical information that could end up in underestimating the cost of a VM or service in the cloud. Underestimating resources could lead to unexpected charges. Not an ideal situation when we’re looking to either reduce costs or migrate resources to the cloud.


You will find the tool and more information here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/cbernier/archive/2014/08/05/microsoft-azure-iaas-cost-estimator-tool.aspx

Azure AD Connect

Microsoft created the Azure AD Connect to help you easily connect your on-premises Windows Server Active Directory to your tenant in Azure Active Directory with only 4 clicks!

To learn more visit our documentation at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn776280.aspx and the Active Directory Team Blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2014/08/04/connecting-ad-and-azure-ad-only-4-clicks-with-azure-ad-connect.aspx.