This book assumes a medium level of expertise on Windows Server and Hyper-V, basic knowledge on cloud computing and networking, and a moderate experience with PowerShell. To evaluate all the recipes in the book, you will need System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager, SQL Server (2016 version is used throughout the book), as a minimum requirement. The book also covers integration with VMware vCenter 6.0; therefore, you need to have it deployed beforehand. Although the recipes provide exceptional step-by-step guides, prepare Windows Azure Pack, Service Provider Foundation, and System Center Operations Manager 2016 media files at least.

Actually, some of the chapters were made in Azure, and you can also use public IaaS services and its free trial to deploy and check some of the explained scenarios. In addition, Azure is required if you plan to protect virtual machines via the Azure Site Recovery service.

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/SystemCenter2016VirtualMachineManagerCookbookThirdEdition_ColorImages.pdf.

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "In addition, it will add the ApplicationFrameworks folder to the library share."

A block of code is set as follow

;SQL Server 2016 Configuration File 
[OPTIONS] 
; SQL Server License Terms 
IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms="True" 
; Setup Work Flow: INSTALL, UNINSTALL, or UPGRADE. 
ACTION="Install" 

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

  ;SQL Server 2016 Configuration File 
  [OPTIONS] 
  ; SQL Server License Terms 
  IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms="True" 
  ; Setup Work Flow: INSTALL, UNINSTALL, or UPGRADE. 
  ACTION="Install" 

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

  Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:SoftwareMicrosoftMicrosoft
  System Center Virtual Machine Manager ServerSetup' -Name      
  VmmServicePrincipalNames -Value "SCVMM/vmm-mgmt01,SCVMM/vmm-    
  mgmt01.rllab.com"

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Launch the SQL Server setup and choose the New SQL Server failover cluster installation option."