The last couple of months I’ve been playing around a lot with PowerShell and I’ve also been trying to make some nice GUI versions for my script using PowerShell Studio 2012 from Sapien Technologies Inc. While looking for more information how to best use PowerShell Studio 2012 I came across LazyWinAdmin.
LazyWinAdmin is a great tool created by Francois-Xavier C that will save you a lot of time. It provides you with most of the commonly used tools and commands in a very structured and easy to access way. In the picture below you can see what I mean.
For more info on the tool, take a look at the website and be sure to download and test it yourself.
If you want to take a look at other useful tools I’ve found in the past, take a look at my applications list.
Tags: application, Applications, automation, graphical user interface, gui, Powershell, PowerShell Studio 2012, Sapien, Sapien Technologies, Sapien Technologies Inc., Script, tool, tools
Troubleshooting can be very difficult and there are many different approaches and personal preferences. Also the chosen approach can even differ based on the situation.
Even though there is no troubleshooting process that is best in all situations, it is considered a good practice to troubleshoot in a structured manner.
This is why I’ve created a sample ICT troubleshooting flowchart in Visio for companies that:
- Have separate dedicated management teams for various IT disciplines like Windows, Linux/Unix, Database, Backup, Storage, Virtualization and Applications.
- Have both offshore and onshore IT personnel where all tickets are initially routed to the offshore team.
- Uses a ticketing system:
- To log events, incidents, changes, problems, etc.
- To route tickets to various disciplines.
- Use a CMDB.
- Use a change calendar.
Keep in mind that this is a sample troubleshooting flowchart that was only created to provide some structure or inspiration for troubleshooting.
I hope it is useful. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave a message.
PS: If you don’t have Visio, you can download Microsoft Visio Viewer 2013 from Microsoft.
Tags: flowchart, ICT, Microsoft, sample, Troubleshoot, troubleshooting, troubleshooting flowchart, Visio, Visio Viewer
In October 2012 I took the beta exams for Exchange 2013. Since there were no books yet, I created a One Note document with all kinds of notes gathered from various sources including TechNet, blogs and 3rd party tech websites. I totally forgot to post these on my blog back then, but better late then never.
I’ve uploaded the original One Note document and a PDF version and a Word version, because the conversion from One Note to WordPress is not really perfect.
But still it’s up to you to use whatever you prefer. Also since there are now books and video training materials, I would recommend you use these as well for preparation.
Enjoy.
General
- Various
- EAC (web based Exchange Administration Center)
- Set-ServerComponentState to take CAS or Mailbox offline
- Cmdlet enhancements
- Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) –> Exchange Online Protection (EOP)
- EAC Feature Panes info
- Site mailboxes accessible through sharepoint and Outlook 2013, but don’t appear in OWA
- Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW)
What’s New in Exchange 2013
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 2013, 70-341, 70-342, Exam, exam notes, Exchange, Exchange 2013, Microsoft, notes
In the first part of this LAB setup guide, I described the hardware selection process.
In the second part, I described the hypervisor selection and installation.
In the third part, I described VM guest considerations and preparations.
In the fourth part, I described Configuring Server 2012 VM as DC with DNS and DHCP using PowerShell
In the fifth part, I described easily creating (many) proper AD users with PowerShell
In the sixth part, I described creating a local PowerShell v3 Help Repository with PowerShell
In this post I will describe how you can make your lab available over the internet.
When you’ve created your home LAB, you want to be able to use it anywhere. Depending on your situation, one of these options probably best meets your needs.
Examples include the use of:
- Remote desktop connection to your server
+ Easy to configure (enable on server and configure NAT forwarding if appropriate)
– On many enterprise or public networks TCP3389 is blocked by the firewall.
– Connects only to specific server. Even though you access the rest of the network from there.
- VPN connection to your network
- Using your hardware router
+ Connection to network, not just a server.
– No dependency on Windows Server
- Using Windows Server 2008 / 2012
+ SSTP VPN (TCP443), is generally not blocked on enterprise/public networks.
+ Connection to network, not just a server.
– Dependency on Windows server.
– Requires more configuration.
– The root CA certificate for the certification authority (CA) that issued the server authentication certificate needs to be into the store Local Computer\Trusted Root Certification Authorities. For a self-signed certificate, this means that you need to have local admin permissions to add it.Note: DirectAccess is a great feature, but it requires the client to be a member of the domain. And in my case this would limit where I can connect from, therefore I don’t plan to use it. For other situations it might be a better solution though.
- Using 3rd party tools like logmein, teamviewer or VNC
+ Connects only to specific computer.
Since I want to be able to connect from within enterprise environments as well, I chose to use SSTP VPN in Windows Server 2012. The basic steps you have to perform, include:
- On the server, you have to install and configure the VPN service.
- On the server or your own PKI, you would want create and install a machine certificate. You can create a Certificate Signing Request and request a 3rd party public certificate. Alternatively you can create a certificate using your own Certificate Authority, or you could create a self-signed certificate, For creating the self-signed certificate you can use the great PluralSight SelCert tool.
- On the client, you have to make sure the created certificate will be trusted. This means you have to add the certificate to local system\trusted root certificate authority if you’re using a self-signed certificate, which requires local administrator permissions on the client.
- On the client, you have to set-up the VPN connection to the server. Preferably you want to connect by DNS name. For your home lab you can also utilize dynamic DNS services like by example no-ip.com or alternative solutions.
For some more information, you can also take a look at this:
Tags: CA, certifcate, certificate, certificate authority, direct access, ICT, lab, no-ip, PKI, PluralSight, public certificate, remote access, routing and remote access, Routing and Remote Access Services, RRAS, self-signed certificate, SelfCert, sstp, sstp vpn, VPN
With PowerShell it is relatively easy to reverse a string:
$str = “gnirtsdesrever”
$str[-1..-($str.length)] -join “”
Some of you might ask: Why would anyone want to do this ? Well, since the start of the year Usenet DMCA takedowns have begun to occur automatically, very quickly and very often. This means many movies and TV series on Usenet / News Groups are being taken offline very quickly.
Counter measures to prevent takedowns by uploaders include:
- The use of encrypted links to NZB files.
- The use file names that make it harder to find copyrighted files.
As you can probably guess, some just reverse the file names. The PowerShell script I’ve created will automate reversing the file names for files in the specified folder that match the specified file name filter.
I hope it is useful for you as well.
PS: Someone else on usenet had the same idea as me and created a VBS that will add a right-click menu option to explorer. I’ve added this in the same location as my PowerShell script as well.
Tags: automation, File, File rename, Powershell, Rename, Script, Scripting, Windows
At the companies I’ve worked for , disk space on the system disk ran out on a regular basis for some systems and caused a lot of monitor calls. These kind of boring repetitive tasks are always the ones you want to automate.
So when I came across the great blog post “Weekend Scripter: Use PowerShell to Clean Out Temp Folders” on the “Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog”, I wanted to post it on my own blog as well. The blog post also describes the process of creating the script very well, which is very convenient for those who are relatively new to PowerShell to scripting and want to learn how to do it better.
If you want to take it even a step further, you could automate it even more. By example by automatically running the clean script when an event is generated that the disk is running out of space. You can configure this using by example:
Or you could use PowerShell remoting to do it on many systems at the same time. This could come in handy by example when after WSUS patching the content in “C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download” is not deleted automatically.
Tags: automation, clean, disk full, disk running out of space, disk space, Event, Powershell, SCOM, Script, Scripting, System Center Configuration Manager, temp, temporary, temporary files
Like many other people I’m continuously looking to improve. For me this includes, but is not limited to:
- My technical skills as an ICT professional.
- The balance between work and personal life.
- Health and happiness.
- Soft skills.
The last three categories are purposely very broad. Because of this, there are many books available that can help you improve. The books I’ve read or plan to read can be found on my website http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/Lists/Books. I hope it might inspire you to read some of them.
PS: Besides the books, there are also great online resources you might want to look into. I personally really like Seth Godin’s blog.
Should you know of any other great resources, please leave a comment.
Tags: balance, Book, books, e-book, e-books, happiness, happy, ICT, life, personal development, personal life, professional, self improvement, skills, technical skills, work
For some time now, I’ve been playing indoor soccer with friends and colleagues on a weekly basis. To do so, we rent a location and split the costs. Because the people and the number of people vary, it is tedious work to keep track of who needs to pay how much. Especially because not everyone can/will pay at the same time.
Since I’m lazy, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet to help with that:
http://bjornhouben-web.sharepoint.com/Lists/Files/DispForm.aspx?ID=18
Here’s what it looks like (click for full image):
It is easily customizable, so I hope it is useful to you as well.
Tags: calculate, cost, Excel, indoor soccer, Office, soccer, spreadsheet
As you might have already read by now, TechNet subscriptions are going to disappear. For more info take a look at this blog post and the Subscriptions retirement FAQ.
The most important stuff:
- TechNet Subscription are sold through the TechNet Subscriptions website until August 31, 2013.
- Subscribers may activate purchased subscriptions through September 30, 2013.
- The TechNet benefits portal and the subscriber downloads page will remain available for non-Volume Licensing subscribers through September 30, 2014.
- Alternatives mentioned by Microsoft are:
- MSDN subscriptions
- Windows Azure.
- Technet Evaluations (time limited).
- Technet Virtual Labs.
I personally think this is not a good way to go because the TechNet software is used by many people to increase their skills (often even for a large part in their own time). Because of this, Microsoft products can add even more valuable for companies. Making it harder to get the required software and to keep it running for a longer time will probably scare people away or it will steer them towards hacked/cracked versions.
Basically if you want to have access to non time limited versions of enterprise products of Exchange, Lync, Sharepoint, System Center, etc. you need to take a $6000+ MSDN subscription. Currently I’m paying for TechNet Pro myself which costs 375 euro and I will take a Technet Subscription for this last year. I hope that Microsoft will have come to its senses by then and has provided a proper alternative. For now I would like to ask everyone that feels the same to sign the petition to get a decent TechNet alternative.
Tags: ICT, Microsoft, MSDN, subscription, Technet, Technet Evaluations, Windows Azure
blog.bjornhouben.com 