30Nov2017
26Oct2017
Tutorial: How to Setup Azure Virtual Network with Windows Server Essentials and a Hardware VPN Appliance
Most tutorials on Azure Virtual Network and site-to-site VPN rely on Windows Server's RRAS role to create a quick and dirty VPN connection for demonstration purposes. But in a real world production environment, this is hardly ever the case; the better option by far for reliability and simplified routing is...
28Sep2017
How to perform an Unplanned Failover from Azure Site Recovery
In a previous series, I wrote about Azure Site Recovery, and the new integration tools available in Windows Server 2016, through the Essentials role (enabling some pretty cool new offerings, potentially, for service providers and consultants). ASR for Windows Server Essentials makes setting up Disaster Recovery into the Microsoft Azure...
27Jul2017
How to Encrypt your Hyper-V Guest VM’s using the GUI
Encrypting guest virtual machines is another layer of protection you can add in Hyper-V. Why would an admin want to do this? Because while encrypting the Hyper-V Host itself can protect against stolen physical disks, enabling BitLocker inside your virtual machines protects against stolen virtual disks as well (e.g. if an attacker were...
20Jul2017
How to Encrypt your Hyper-V Host Server using the GUI
Full disk encryption is becoming more important in the SMB. Â I recommend this for every Windows 10 Pro PC, and also for your Windows Servers. Small businesses often have a single physical Hyper-V host server, maybe two. And these are usually located in a network closet or mechanical room, in...
06Apr2017
Bug with Essentials Integration for Azure Site Recovery
Awhile back, I had written a series on all the neat integrations available with Windows Server Essentials (or Essentials Experience, if installing it on top of Standard as a role). Â You may have noticed that I never published an article regarding one of the most exciting features--integration with
08Sep2016
2016 Essentials Integration: Azure Virtual Network, part 2
In the previous post, we enabled the Windows Server Essentials integration with Azure Virtual Network, and configured a virtual network in the cloud with a Site-to-site VPN right from our Dashboard. While we wait for the connection to become active, we can deploy a virtual machine into that network.Step 5:...
06Sep2016
2016 Essentials Integration: Azure Virtual Network, part 1
This is one of the new features I am most excited about in Windows Server 2016 Essentials Experience.  Today we are going to setup a connection to an Azure Virtual Network. With this technology, we have the ability to extend our on-premises server and domain infrastructure into the Microsoft Azure cloud, and run...
01Sep2016
2016 Essentials Integration: Azure Backup
Customers of the late SBS line of products will be familiar with the Essentials Experience backup options for client PC's, and Windows Server Backup to external hard drive, but these days we have a new option with Microsoft Cloud Services integration: reliable offsite backups to the Azure cloud. From the Home screen of the Dashboard,...
29Aug2016