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Showing posts from 2014

What is DirectAccess?

DirectAccess, introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2, is a remote access feature allowing connectivity to corporate network resources without the requirement of Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections. DirectAccess at the time only supported domain-joined Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate edition clients. Windows Routing and Remote Access Server (RRAS) will continue to provide traditional VPN connectivity for legacy clients, non-domain joined clients, third party VPN clients and site-to-site server connections. RRAS in Windows Server 2008 R2 must be deployed and managed separately from DirectAccess as it cannot coexist on the same edge server. In 2012, DirectAccess offered with Windows Server 2012 R2 combines the feature and the RRAS role service into a new unified server role. This new Remote Access role allows for centralized configuration, administration, and monitoring of both VPN-based remote access services and DirectAccess.  Windows Server 2012 R2 DirectAccess also

Cool Things you can do with PowerShell

Be very cautious while trying these steps Yes, this is a tool worthy of the name. PowerShell can easily cause massive configuration changes, positive or negative: so protect yourself and establish a test environment for your learning experiences. Also consider using the "-confirm" parameter to test configurations before execution for certain commands. Number 1: Report all of the USB devices installed PowerShell is Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) aware. From PowerShell, you can make a WMI call to retrieve the USB devices installed in a local or remote system: gwmi Win32_USBControllerDevice -computername SERVER1 |fl Antecedent,Dependent This will apply a filter to bring back the antecedent and dependent fields from the SERVER1 computer. Should you want the full export, you can omit the pipe and filter statement to have a comprehensive export of the USB devices on a system. I have found this useful to maintain a report for servers that have a USB license devi

Benefits of PowerShell Scripting

PowerShell scripting is an entirely new language for server admins who are comfortable in a graphical user interface. You don't have to go it alone. Start by working with an experienced admin's scripts. Generic-purpose scripts will help you adapt the structure and language for your own tasks. Study examples of the script in use. While learning about PowerShell scripting from your peers, familiarize yourself with these universal tips for server administration from the PowerShell interface. Learn how to search for all available commands and refine your list to the ones that you need for a given task. Think about ease of maintenance and error handling when you write scripts. And enjoy the satisfaction when you figure out a script that accomplishes the task at hand in half as many steps as your first attempt. Until recently, GUI was the name of the game for Exchange Server admins. PowerShell cmdlets and scripts are the future of Exchange management, and important change

Ensure security of your network

Whether you are using a wired router or a wireless one, if it is not configured properly, both of them could pose potential security risks. The common notion that wireless routers or networks are not secure or less secure is true, but only in circumstances where it is used right out of the box without correctly configuring its security settings. If your wireless network is ‘unsecured’ or ‘open’, an intruder can easily gain access to your internal network resources as well as to the Internet, all without your consent. Use following steps to ensure security of your network. Configure stronger encryption Enable Wireless protected access (WPA) and ideally WPA2. This provides much stronger encryption for securing your communications than WEP, which hackers can easily crack. Use a strong password Even WPA2 can be cracked by the bad guys if you don't use a secure password. You won't have to type your password very often, but it could prevent bad guys from watching

3 main differences between cloud and on-premises storage

Cloud storage and on-premises storage are two great options for storing, serving, and protecting data   but there are three main differences that one must be aware of before choosing between these two: availability, data protection and   performance. To set start with, cloud storage, means hosted object stores like Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon S3, and AT&T Synaptic Storage. While on-premises storage, are all file-oriented storage including NAS, clustered NAS, unified storage, and object storage. Although there are clear technological differences between on-premises storage, many of those differences are erased when deployment is considered. 1>        Cloud storage is highly available as compared to many on-premises storage deployments, with much less complexities. Cloud storage is an attractive choice for data, as prices continue to drop down and the services are getting mature. The advantage of pay-as-you-go versus investing in physical infrastructure and then

Few things you should know before moving to Microsoft Office 365

There is a lot of excitement & rush in small and Medium businesses about Microsoft Office 365.Here are our few things one should know before moving their business to Office 365: WHAT IS OFFICE 365? Office 365 is the same Office you already know and use every day. And then some. Because Office 365 is powered by the cloud, you can get to your applications and files from virtually anywhere—PC, Mac, and tablets—and they're always up to date. Same goes for updates to features—you get them automatically. OFFICE 365 SECURITY Your people and your data are your most important assets and so, as you consider Office 365 for your productivity needs, we want to do our best to answer your top questions upfront. The Office 365 Trust Center is the place where we share our commitments and information on trust-related topics. Office 365 ensures security with: 1. Built-in security Service-level security through defense-in-depth Customer controls within the service Security hardening

Hazards of PST Files

A HIGH SECURITY RISK  PST files are very portable; they can be removed from Outlook and copied or moved to other Outlook client with ease.  They can be protected using password, however internet is filled with several of programs that can crack these passwords.  This puts your data and intellectual property on high risk. UNRELIABILITY CAUSES PRESSURE ON IT SUPPORT PSTs are not designed to hold large email data yet people keep dumping emails into them  Once they crosses recommended size between 1 to 1.5 GB  they often get corrupt.  Power outages, System crash or inadvertently closing the PST disconnects it from the Outlook  profile. It’s then usually overlooked or lost, creating orphaned PST which is invisible to SUpport teams. They can still contain valuable information that needs to be preserved. These files become major call drivers of an IT departments daily helpdesk calls.  FAILURE TO MEET COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS PST is just a container file a

Get More power with Hyper-V VMs

Maximum supported configuration for Hyper-V VMs? Microsoft focused on developing Hyper-V to further extend its maximum supported configurations in Windows Server 2012. The latest version supports more memory and virtual processors, and has new features to compete with leading virtualization vendors, such as VMware. This all means Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) in Windows Server 2012 are more scalable than in previous versions. Memory: Hyper-V virtual machines can be configured with a maximum of 1 TB of memory. It is important to note that Hyper-V hosts must have more than 1 TB of RAM available before the VMs can be configured. Since Windows Server 2012 hosts support up to 4 TB of memory, it is now possible to configure VMs with 1 TB of RAM. Virtual processors: Hyper-V allows you to configure a maximum of 64 virtual processors (vCPUs) for a VM. Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 hosts support 2,048 vCPUs. Maximum hard-disk size:  For Hyper-V VMs using VHD files, a max

How virtualization reduces cost for small & medium business

If you are a small & medium business owner, there are many short and long term advantages from virtualization and you don't need a big budget which makes virtualization attractive in today's economic climate. >> Add more business resources (application, database) without increasing the number of physical hardware servers you have to worry about. No matter how well you are prepared, it's tough to anticipate when your business may need to accommodate an inflow of new human resources or new clients that could put a pressure on your technology resources. Now with virtualization you can consolidate your multiple servers into fewer, more powerful servers and get tasks done efficiently. Get a solid disaster recovery option. Virtualization allows a small & medium business to create ongoing back-up snapshots image of a database or business application that can be replicated in more than one place. If the main piece of hardware fails, the application

Difference between Exchange 2013 on-premises, Online, office 365 and Windows Azure Powershell

Difference between  Exchange 2013 on-premises,  Office 365 and Windows Azure Powershell  The Exchange Online is able to manage the users and permission of Exchange service.  The Office 365 (Windows Azure AD) is to manage the whole Office 365 service. Windows Azure can use to manage users, domain and other things which will  affect  the  whole  Office  365  service. It  is  not  able  to  be  used  to  manage  Exchange  service,  Lync  service  and SharePoint service.  To manage Exchange service, you need to use Exchange Online PowerShell to perform the activity.