re: A real-world Q&A about Microsoft Lab Management

Ed Blankenship — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:02:20 GMT

Thanks for the great post!

For required product keys when provisioning a new environment from virtual machine templates, I also mention that if you want to start the trial process (which usually gives you three 30-day periods) you can use the KMS Client Product Keys that are published here: technet.microsoft.com/.../ff793421. This works when you are spinning up a truly temporary environment that you are going to throwaway after using it for development/testing.

Alternatively, you can setup a KMS Server infrastructure to handle Windows & Office activation automatically for machines in your dev & test lab. MSDN subscriptions cover the licensing for dev & test use and KMS is a good infrastructure for handling the activation side of things.

For agents in Visual Studio/TFS 2012, the awesome thing is that Lab Management will push out the agents automatically if you want it to or if you can have them pre-installed in the virtual machine templates to make that process quicker. Be sure to keep the Agents up to date with the latest updates, service packs, etc. if you want to pre-install them.

Ed Blankenship

Program Manager for Lab Management, Visual Studio ALM

Microsoft