Giddy-up! Step-by-step Instructions for Building a Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Lab

Even though the phrase "giddy-up" (or giddyap, as it was first postured) originated in 1897 as a term to command a horse to move ahead, and is used a lot in Western movies, because I'm such a huge Seinfeld fan I attribute it more to Cosmo Kramer. So, when I see something cool or valuable, I either say it out loud in my best Kramer voice or I hear Kramer saying it in my head. Nevertheless, when I saw that Microsoft had released a test lab guide for Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview, Kramer's voice began bouncing around in my head like a bullhorn on a foggy day (I could hear him, but I couldn't see him).

Microsoft does a great job with their test lab guides. The most recent one prior to the Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview release was the one on June 20, 2013 that covered Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Network Virtualization with System Center 2012 R2 VMM. Microsoft is moving steadily along toward the public release of R2 so it's great to see this test lab guide available so early in the process to help get accustomed to the forthcoming changes. Yes, there are changes. Our own Sean Deuby talked about the changes even recently in Microsoft moves on: Features removed or deprecated in Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview, which is another example of why staging a lab instance of Windows Server 2012 Preview is so important.

You can grab the new test lab guide from here: Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Test Lab Guide

Giddy-up!