Last sunday I warned about a major vulnerability in Java.
It wasn’t expected that Java would come have an update available this quickly, but it is good that they did. So be sure to update to Java 7 Update 11 : http://java.com
Tag Archives: Windows Server 2012
Free training – Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) hosting 3 virtualization related Jump Starts
Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is hosting 3 virtualization related Jump Starts in January and February:
- Introduction to Hyper-V Jump Start (January 24th, 2013)
- Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start (January 30th, 2013)
- Microsoft Tools for VMware Migration and Integration (Late February)
I’ve attended a couple of Jump Starts including those of Office 365, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 already and I think it’s a great way to quickly get up-to-date about a subject. Also there’s a great team of people working behind the scenes to answer questions and provide more detailed resources. Other attendees often also share their experiences and provide valuable insights.
The links above provide include a course outline and a link to register for the Jump Start.
I hope to see you there.
Security – Major Java vulnerability, don’t become a victim
[EDIT 14-01-2013]
Oracle release Java 7 Update 11 to fix this security issue. Be sure to update: http://java.com/
[EDIT]
Normally when I read about security vulnerabilities, I don’t really get a sense of urgency.
With the current Java vulnerability however, I do feel like people have to act quick because there are so many respected companies and even countries actively taking action:
- Apple has disabled the Java 7 plugin on Macs through its OS X anti-malware system, in order to protect users from a potentially serious security issue
- Cisco: New Java Vulnerability Being Exploited in the Wild
- Mozilla Security Blog: Protecting Users Against Java Vulnerability in FireFox
- United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) suggests disabling Java
Apparently this vulnerability is actively being exploited already and Oracle hasn’t released a Java fix yet. You might want to consider a combination of the options below:
- Updating Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) signatures (Cisco signature)
- Uninstall Java (Windows | Mac OS X)
- Disabling Java only for web browsers
- Disabling Java in specific web browsers
Personally I like the way FireFox is handling the issue because it blocks by default, but allows users to easily override this behavior for specific sites. Also I’m getting quite fed up with all these Java security vulnerabilities lately 😦
I’d like to know what you’ll be doing. Have you or are you going to disable Java ? Which methods will you use ? Why ?
Home LAB – Virtualization and how to enable nested ESXi and other hypervisors in VMware vSphere 5.1
As a passionate ICT person, I work with multiple virtualization products including Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere.
At home I’m running Server 2012 with Hyper-V in my home lab and even though it works perfectly, I miss the option to be able to run multiple other hypervisors beneath it like by example multiple Hyper-V, VMware ESXi or Citrix XenServer instances.
With VMware products like VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation you can enable this with only a couple of minor adjustments as described in these great articles:
For me personally, I’ll stay with my Hyper-V based home server and my Windows 8 Client with Client Hyper-V installed. For testing purposes however, I’ll have to use VMware Workstation 9 on my Windows 8 machine. (even though I have Client Hyper-V installed). This way I can still run other hypervisors when needed.
I still hope though that Microsoft will add a similar feature to Hyper-V in the future.
PowerShell – Determine which Active Directory objects are protected from accidental deletion
In yesterday’s post I showed some commands to protect all or specific Active Directory objects from accidental deletion.
In some situations (by example preparing for a change) you might want to know which objects are protected from accidental deletion and which are not. Also when multiple people make changes in an Active Directory it might prove difficult to keep track of the changes.
To determine the protection status of AD objects, I use a script that checks the ACL of the AD Object. When Everyone is explicitly Denied access, it is protected from accidental deletion.
PowerShell – Protect Active Directory objects from accidental deletion
In a previous blog post I explained how to enable the Active Directory Recycle Bin which allows you to restore deleted active directory object.
But even though it’s great to be able to restore objects, it is even better to prevent accidental deletion. What accidental deletion basically does, is modify the permissions on an AD object to Deny Everyone so you won’t be able to delete it by accident.
More information about protection from accidental deletion can be found in “Preventing Unwanted/Accidental deletions and Restore deleted objects in Active Directory” and “Windows Server 2008 Protection from Accidental Deletion“.
In Windows Server 2012 with all the new cmdlets, it has become much easier to enable protection from accidental deletion.
By example, you could use these commands:
#Get-ADobject class names
get-adobject -filter * | select objectclass | group objectclass
#Protect specific AD object classes from accidental deletion
get-adobject -filter * | where{($_.ObjectClass -eq “container”) -or ($_.ObjectClass -eq “organizationalunit”) -or ($_.ObjectClass -eq “user”) -or ($_.ObjectClass -eq “group”) -or ($_.ObjectClass -eq “computer”)} | Set-ADObject -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $true
#Protect all AD organizational units from accidental deletion
Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -filter * | Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $true
#Protect all AD objects from accidental deletion
Get-ADobject -filter * | Set-ADObject -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $true
Home LAB Setup guide – 02 Hypervisor selection and installation
In the first part of this LAB setup guide, I described the hardware selection process. In this second part I will be describing the hypervisor selection and installation.
Hypervisor selection
First of all, you have to decide on which bare metal hypervisor(s) you wish to use. Personally I prefer Microsoft Hyper-V and VMWare ESXi. Alternatives include but are not limited to Citrix XenServer, Xen, KVM, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. I don’t have much experience with these hypervisors though.
Characteristics that could influence your choice of hypervisor:
- Supported hardware.
- Performance of the hypervisor.
- Features of the hypervisor. By example when using Transparent Memory Page Sharing, it requires less memory when you run many highly identical systems on a host.
- Footprint / attack surface.
- Supported methods for running the OS. By example run from USB stick.
- Price (many hypervisors have free versions available, compare features).
- Support (for a home lab probably not that important).
- Available documentation / study resources.
- How active the community behind it is.
- Supported VM / guest operating systems.
- Ease-of-use.
- Availabilty of downloadable virtual appliances (VMWare) or pre-prepped environments (Microsoft) without having to (try and) convert them.
Everyone needs to determine which hypervisor best meets their needs. Personally I mainly work with Microsoft software and decided to use Hyper-V 3.0 in Windows Server 2012. It’s convenient for me to be able to easily load pre-prepped environments that are provided by Microsoft (in Hyper-V format). I also run Client Hyper-V on my Windows 8 laptop, which makes it easier for me to take my VM’s with me. I do plan to keep up with VMWare developments as well though, so I will create a bootable USB flash drive to boot in VMWare from time to time.
Hypervisor installation
- Before installing the hypervisor, make sure that virtualization related settings are enabled. The names of these settings may differ. Examples are Intel VT (Virtualization Technology), AMD-V and Hardware DEP (Data Execution Prevention), EM64T, Execute Disable Bit. During installation you will get prompted normally though if you have forgotten to enable these.
- There are often many options with regards to the installation. By example do a GUI install or a scripted/CLI install. Or install/run from normal harddisk or flash drive. With Server 2012 Hyper-V you can choose to run it in Windows Server 2012 core or in the GUI version. I chose to use the Server 2012 GUI Hyper-V installation because I’m not sure if my raid management software will work from within the core version.
- Installation of the hypervisor is normally pretty straight forward. But before you install, read the documentation.
- For VMWare ESXi installation, check their knowledge base article.
- For Hyper-V 3.0 installation on Server 2012 it’s basically installing Windows Server 2012 and adding the Hyper-V 3.0 role. Check this blog post for a step-by-step guide.
- After you’re done installing, you still need to configure the settings to meet your requirements. Preferrably you’ve already created and documented your own design.
- Don’t forget to configure hardware monitoring if possible. In my case I’ve configured my raid controller management software to send e-mails when storage related issues are detected.
- Think about and implement a strategy for backing up and recovering your hypervisor. There are numerous programs for backing up and most are free for personal use. I have no personal experience with specific products, but VeeAm has a good reputation and I’ll be trying if for my lab. Also if you’re a Microsoft Certified Professional, you can get a free NFR license for Veeam Backup & Replication v6.5 for Hyper-V. The same is true if you’re a VMWare Certified Professional (VCP).
In the next post I will describe the VM guest preparations, installations and storage strategy.
Summary of 1st Dutch PowerShell User Group (DuPSUG) meeting
General
Last Friday I attended the first Dutch Powershell User Group meeting in Eindhoven at Master IT Training and it was great. There were a lot of knowledgeable and passionate people and the interactive sessions were great as well. Thanks go out to all attendees, but especially to the ones presenting and organizing the event.
The fact that we were asked to leave the building (because it was getting pretty late and they wanted to lock up), also stresses the passion of all attendees because. If this wasn’t the case we probably would’ve stayed a lot longer.
Be sure to check out the Dutch PowerShell User Group (DuPSUG) website and Twitter on a regular basis for articles and future events. Ed Wilson also wrote a post of the meeting on the “Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog”.
Photos
Sessions
Below are the sessions with some info about the speakers and their sessions. I also added notes I took and other information I looked up afterwards. If you come across any errors or have comments, please leave a reply so I can fix it.
70-417 exam preparation materials – Upgrading to MCSA Server 2012
For those looking to upgrade their existing certification to MCSA Server 2012 by passing the exam “70-417 Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012”, be sure to check out these resources:
- Windows Server 2012 Upgrade Jump Start video recordings (70-417)
- Windows Server 2012 Upgrade Jump Start Q&A Chat Transcript day 1 (70-417)
- Windows Server 2012 Upgrade Jump Start Q&A Chat Transcript day 2 (70-417)
- http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13763.windows-server-2012-early-experts-70-417-resources-for-preparation.aspx
- http://www.enduria.eu/preparation-resources-for-the-exam-70-417/
- Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge
Also consider using the Prometric discount offer for those who intend to upgrade to MCSE.
For those looking for articles with more detailed information on (specific) Server 2012 features, take a look at one of my previous posts.
Free knowledge session about Hyper-V 3.0 (Server 2012) on the 12th of November
For those interested in Hyper-V 3.0 (Server 2012), check out the New Horizons website:
http://www.newhorizons.nu/site/special_events/Gratis_kennissessie_Hyper-V_in_Windows_Server_2012/
They’re hosting a free knowledge session on the 12th of November starting at 17:30 CET in Eindhoven.
blog.bjornhouben.com 