The public preview of hosted Virtual Machines in Windows Azure is now available to the general public. This platform preview enables you to evaluate our new IaaS and Enterprise Networking capabilities. Once you have registered for the 90 Day Free Trial and created a new account, you can access the preview directly at this link: https://account.windowsazure.com/PreviewFeatures

If you’ve been to any of my presentations lately, you’ll know that I’m fired up about these new offerings. As I’ve worked through some scenarios for myself and with my customers, I’ve been collecting the resources that helped me to ramp up.

Here’s a collection of links to the items I’ve found most useful:

Core Resources

• Digital Chalk Talk Videos – detailed technical overviews of the new Windows Azure services and supporting technologies as announced June 7, including Virtual Machines (IaaS Windows and Linux), Storage, Command Line Tools http://www.meetwindowsazure.com/DigitalChalkTalks
• Scenarios Videos on You Tube – “how to” guides, including “Create and Manage Virtual Networks”, “Create & Manage SQL Database”, and many more http://www.youtube.com/user/windowsazure
• Windows Azure Trust Center - provides a comprehensive of view of Windows Azure and security and compliance practices http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/trust-center/
• MSDN Forums for Windows Azure http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/preview-support/
• Microsoft Knowledge Base article Microsoft server software support for Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Videos

• Deep Dive into Running Virtual Machines on Windows Azure
• Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks
• Windows Azure IaaS and How It Works
• Deep Dive into Windows Azure Virtual Machines: From the Cloud Vendor and Enterprise Perspective
• An Overview of Managing Applications, Services, and Virtual Machines in Windows Azure
• Monitoring and Managing Your Windows Azure Applications and Services
• Overview of Windows Azure Networking Features
• Hybrid Will Rule: Options to Connect, Extend and Integrate Applications in Your Data Center and Windows Azure
• Business Continuity in the Windows Azure Cloud
• Linux on Windows Azure

Blogs

• Understanding Windows Azure Virtual Machines
• An Overview of Windows Azure Virtual Network
• Virtual Machines and Windows
• Running SQL Server in a Windows Azure Virtual Machine
• Support for Linux Virtual Machines on Windows Azure

In this release of the training kit we have delivered 41 HOLs covering a wide variety of bug fixes and screen shot updates for Visual Studio 2012. We now have 35 Presentations with new content surrounding Windows Azure SQL Database, SQL Federation, Reporting and Data Sync (4) as well as Security & Identity (1); and Building Scalable, Global, and Highly Available Web Apps (1).

Head over to http://aka.ms/WATK and download it now!

The Windows Azure Training Kit June 2012 Update is now available. The June 2012 update includes 42 step-by-step hands-on labs and 20 presentations covering the new Windows Azure features.  Some of the highlights of this update include:

• 12 new hands-on labs for Windows Azure Virtual Machines
• 11 new hands-on labs for Windows Azure Web Sites
• 2 new hands-on labs that demonstrate Windows Azure with Windows 8 Metro-style applications
• New hands-on labs for Node.js and PHP using Mac OS X
• Updated content for the latest Windows Azure SDKs, tools, and new Windows Azure Management Portal
• New and updated presentations designed to support individual sessions to a full 3 day training workshops

Download Now

You can download the training kit here: http://clint.ms/DownloadTheAzureTrainingKit.

Just like past releases, the full training kit package (213MB) is a self-extracting exe that will unpack all of the hands-on labs and presentations to your local machine. You can then browse through the hands-on labs as HTML or the PowerPoint presentations locally. Alternatively, you can download the Training Kit Web Installer (2.4MB) and selectively choose individual hands-on labs or presentations. 

For those of you who have used the Windows Azure Training Kit in the past, you will notice several changes we’ve made in the full package: 

• We have simplified the layout and structure of hands-on labs so that all content is on a single page. While this means we sacrificed a table of contents, it does mean that you can easily print and search through a hands-on lab when browsing the HTML. 
• The HTML version of the hands-on labs no longer include JavaScript. Consequently, you will not receive any browser warnings when looking through an HOL that has been installed locally.
• The setup scripts for the HOLs have been updated to use the new dependency checker that checks to ensure you have the necessary prerequisites and automates any setup steps. The new dependency checker also uses Web PI for the dependency checks.

The Web Installer experience has also been updated. Based on feedback we have changed the behavior of the Web Installer so that no content is selected by default. Users can now select the content they want to install. 

Content on GitHub

We are also now making the training kit content available on GitHub at https://github.com/WindowsAzure-TrainingKit or through the GitHub pages here. All of the hands-on labs included in the kit are written in a simple Markdown format, so they can be viewed on GitHub.com and easily changed directly through GitHub. This will also enable several of field evangelists and community insiders to contribute, improve, or localize the content. Finally, if you encounter any issues with the content, you can simply click on a link in the hands-on lab and log the issues in GitHub.