26May2016
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
Scripting with ISE: Adding New LUNs, part 1
In this series, we are getting familiar with Windows PowerShell ISE. My hope is that thru working in this application, more IT professionals will come to view PowerShell as a truly accessible (and indispensable) tool. Remember that the point of technology should include making your job easier--to allow you to leverage...
05May2016
How to teach yourself PowerShell using ISE
There is no reason to be afraid of PowerShell. I know a lot of IT generalists out there have avoided learning it, or, when they do run into a situation where it is required (since not everything is exposed to the GUI interfaces these days), they steal a snippet from...
21Apr2016
Should I Supercharge Office 365 with the Enterprise Mobility Suite?
Hello! Now that I have amassed a few different posts that outline differences between Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) and the built-in features that are included with certain Office 365 plans, I thought it would be nice to summarize our findings in one place. If you are having trouble deciding whether or not...
18Apr2016
How to Use Azure as a DR Site
Hyper-V Replica (HVR) has been available since Windows Server 2012, bringing easy and affordable DR to the SMB space. Using HVR, virtual machines can be replicated over secure, higher-latency (but reliable) links across the Internet. However, until recently, many SMB's did not have a place to replicate to. Building a DR site requires...
14Apr2016