06Jun2016
02Jun2016
Why I have a hard time recommending Exchange on-premises
Not that long ago, picking Exchange on-premises over Office 365 used to be a thing. As in, there were legitimate reasons I might choose to keep a self-hosted Exchange server rather than go to Office 365. However, I think it's time to put those days behind us, once and for all--especially in the...
02Jun2016
Automate the deployment of guest virtual machines with PowerShell
Small businesses often bemoan the cost and complexity of implementing System Center. But who needs System Center when you've already got PowerShell?! In the previous post, I shared a series of snippets / scripts that I use to quickly configure a standalone Hyper-V host, including host name & timezone, storage, networking, and...
30May2016
Automate the deployment of a standalone Hyper-V host server using PowerShell
In this article, I wanted to document a standard, standalone Hyper-V server deployment for a small business using nothing but PowerShell. The best practices for Hyper-V state that the role should be enabled on a server without the GUI (e.g. Core or Nano--although I rarely see this done in a small business setting). Best practices aside, I...
26May2016
Migration path from SBS to Office 365 & Windows Server 2016
So many small businesses adopted Microsoft's Windows Small Business Server (SBS) product--now that the product has been discontinued, these organizations tend to need a little more guidance regarding the migration path forward from SBS 2003, 2008 or 2011. Do I still need an On-premises Windows Server? With the option to move most SBS Server functions...
23May2016
Best Practices: Time synchronization with virtual Domain Controllers
In Hyper-V virtualization, a guest virtual machine has something called "Integration Services." By default, all of these services are pretty much enabled, including time synchronization. However, this can cause big issues if you have virtual Domain Controllers, and your physical host servers are not getting their time from a common, reliable source, such...
19May2016
How to Remove a Legacy Hybrid Exchange Server and migrate to Windows Server Essentials Office 365 Integration
If you performed a Remote Move migration from a legacy system such as SBS 2011 or Exchange 2010, and now you want to remove your hybrid server without losing the ability to sync passwords to Office 365, I have some good news for you: it's totally possible. Update: This is no...
16May2016
How-to Upgrade DirSync to Azure AD Connect (and move to a new server at the same time)
Many a small business using Exchange Online, Office 365 or other Microsoft cloud services has opted to enable Directory Synchronization--this means you can have the same credentials on-premises and in the cloud. Most commonly, this synchronization was achieved with a tool called DirSync. And wouldn't you know it, that tool is now being...
12May2016
Scripting with ISE: Adding new LUN’s, part 2
When we left off last time, we had a small script that: Put an offline disk (disk #1) online Initialized the disk Created a new partition on that disk Formatted a new volume from that partition The script looked something like this: But that's a pretty poor script, because it only runs...
09May2016