Prepare for the course

• 1. Redeem your Digital Microsoft Official Courseware (DMOC)
• 2. Create a Microsoft account
• 3. Create or reuse a GitHub account
• 4. Enable an Azure subscription
• 5. Enable Online lab host
• 6. Create a new organization in Azure DevOps
• 7. Enable Parallel jobs using Azure Subscription

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1. Redeem your Digital Microsoft Official Courseware (DMOC)

To activate your DMOC, you will need to access Skillpipe, the digital courseware reader.

To access Skillpipe:

1. Click on: https://www.skillpipe.com.
2. If you are new to Skillpipe, please register and create an account
3. To redeem your digital courseware, access the main menu, click on the ”+ Add” button and enter your license code.
4. When prompted, you must accept the License Agreement before you can access or use the courseware.
5. End User License Agreement: The courseware is licensed, not sold, and is governed by the License Agreement accompanying the courseware.

Video Instructions.

2. Create a Microsoft account.

1. Open your Internet browser in new Private window or InPrivate window.
2. Create a new e-mail account on Outlook.com.

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3. Create or reuse a GitHub account

If you already have a GitHub account, you can use the existing one.

• Create GutHub account
  1. Go to https://github.com/join
  2. Type a user name, your email address, and a password.
  3. Choose Sign up for GitHub, and then follow the instructions.

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4. Enable an Azure subscription

• Azure Pass
  • The Training Center will provide the Azure Pass Voucher.
  • Free 15-day or 30-day.
  • No credit or debit card required.
  • Azure Pass limitations.
  • WARNING:
    • Azure pass cannot be activated on your business/organization account.
    • Azure pass cannot be activated on an account that has already used or tested any Azure subscription.
    • The training center does not provide a replacement Azure Pass.
  • How to redeem
    1. Open your Internet browser in new Private window or InPrivate window.
    2. Log in with the new Outlook account created earlier at https://outlook.live.com/owa/.
    3. Go to https://www.microsoftazurepass.com/Home/HowTo?Length=5 and follow the steps.

       WARNING: Do not close the browser or refresh while the Azure Pass is being activated. Either of these options will cancel your Azure Pass.

    4. Extra: Enable Visual Studio Dev Essentials (https://my.visualstudio.com/).

  
  

• Azure Free Account (You’ll have 30 days to use it)
  1. Use the new Microsoft account.
  2. Requires a credit or debit card, depending on the country.
  3. Go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/.
  4. Select ‘Free account’ and follow the steps.
     • Azure free account FAQ.

  
  

• Azure Free Account through Visual Studio Dev Essentials
  1. Use the new Microsoft account..
  2. Enable Visual Studio Dev Essentials (https://my.visualstudio.com/).
  3. Select ‘Azure Free account’ and follow the steps.
  4. Upgrade to pay-as-you-go.
     • Azure free account FAQ.

  
  

• Lab Hoster Azure Cloud Slice or Cloud Express Pass
  • Alternative to using Azure Passes, you will receive Azure credentials from within the lab environment.
  • The access is limited to resources required for the lab.
  • Each lab can be launched up to ten times.
  • The labs can not be saved and later resumed.

  
  

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5. Enable Online lab host

Labs are run through an Authorized Lab Hosters(ALHs) for Microsoft Official Curriculum.

The trainee does not choose which lab hoster he wants to use, this decision is made by the training center.

Testing the Lab hoster Environment

• go deploy
• Skillable
  • Lab Orientation & Connectivity Check
• Xtremelabs
  • Lab with multiple vms
  • Lab with steps and self assessments

Troubleshooting

• Use Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or another HTML5 compliant browser
• Ensure you aren’t connected to a VPN at the same time
• If you are on a corporate network, make sure your IT department doesn’t have any firewall rules that would block access
  • [go deploy][https://docs.godeploy.it/general/connectivity-requirements]
  • Skilable
  • XtremeLabs
• If there is an issue with your local network configuration, a simple reboot may resolve it
• Lab host service status and active incident
  • go deploy
  • Skilable
  • XtremeLabs
• Testing Internet Connectivity
  • A http://www.speedtest.net/ test should be carried out by selecting London or New York.
  • Ensure there is a latency of less than 200ms.
  • A latency of less than 150ms will give the best lab experience.

Can I use my own device?

• Yes, you just have to prepare your machine with all the necessary software. See the list of required software.
• However, it has the disadvantage that the instructor cannot help you directly. The Lab host provides functionality where the instructor directly interacts with your lab environment.

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6. Create a new organization in Azure DevOps.

1. Open a browser and navigate to https://portal.azure.com, then search at the top of the Azure portal screen for Azure DevOps. In the resulting page, click Azure DevOps organizations.
2. Next, click on the link labelled My Azure DevOps Organizations or navigate directly to https://aex.dev.azure.com.
3. On the We need a few more details page, select Continue.
4. In the drop-down box on the left, choose Default Directory, instead of “Microsoft Account”.
5. If prompted “We need a few more details”, provide your name, e-mail address, and location and click Continue.
6. Back at https://aex.dev.azure.com with Default Directory selected click the blue button Create new organization.

   Note: The organization name must be unique in the Azure DevOps universe

7. Accept the Terms of Service by clicking Continue.
8. If prompted “Almost done”, leave the name for the Azure DevOps organization at default (it needs to be a globally unique name) and pick a hosting location close to you from the list.

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7. Enable Parallel jobs using Azure Subscription

This is necessary to enable parallel jobs and this change will take 3 hours.

1. Open a browser and navigate to (Azure DevOps)[https://aex.dev.azure.com/me]
2. Click Organization settings in the bottom left corner.
3. At the Organization settings screen click Billing (opening this screen takes a few seconds).
4. Click Setup billing and on the right-hand side of the screen select the Azure subscription and click Save to link the subscription with the organization.
5. Once the screen shows the linked Azure Subscription ID at the top, change the number of Paid parallel jobs for MS Hosted CI/CD from 0 to 1. Then click the SAVE button at the bottom.
6. In Organization Settings, go to section Security and click Policies.
7. Toggle the switch to On for Third-party application access via OAuth

   Note: The OAuth setting helps enable tools such as the DemoDevOpsGenerator to register extensions. Without this, several labs may fail due to a lack of the required extensions.

8. Toggle the switch to On for Allow public projects

   Note: Extensions used in some labs might require a public project to allow using the free version.

9. Wait at least 3 hours before using the CI/CD capabilities so that the new settings are reflected in the backend. Otherwise, you will still see the message “No hosted parallelism has been purchased or granted”.
10. OPTIONAL: you can validate these new settings have been successfully applied by creating and triggering a build pipeline. To do this either talk to the instructor or create a demo project into the newly created organization with billing enabled, using Azure DevOps Demo Generator.

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