Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium trial is now available. What are you waiting for?

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

Well, for anyone who’s been asking when will it be available, it finally is – as of today, you can activate Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium trial!

All that you need to do is the following:

  • login to your Microsoft Azure subscription
  • go to the Active Directory section
  • click on the directory on which you want to activate trial (or create a new one)
  • go to licenses section
  • click on the TRY AZURE ACTIVE DIRECTORY PREMIUM NOW link

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  • after a few moments, trial with 100 licenses will be activated and it will stay active for 90 days

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How cool is that??? Smile

UPDATE (July 1st, 2014): You can read more about it here. There is also a new, long-awaited feature, AAD Tenant Deletion, and you can find more about it here.

Have a great week ahead!

P.S. If you still don’t have Microsoft Azure (trial or the “paid version”), you can acquire it here.

We’ve moved!

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

So, today I’ve decided to move this blog to another “home” – from now on, it will be located at blog.kaniski.eu.

I’ve decided to consolidate and reorganize things some time ago, and now I’ve finally managed to find the time needed (if Microsoft can change, who am I not to? Smile).

I certainly hope that current (and future) ideas will be better organized this way. As you can see, I’ve created redirection on the previous location, and will leave it there until the domain expires.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for reading!

P.S. I’m also fixing bad links and missing images – if you have something to report, send me an e-mail at [email protected] (yes, the About page is “about to happen” also). Thanks.

Microsoft Azure Backup (WinDays14)

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

Not so long ago (just before the WinDays14 conference in Croatia), I’ve written an article about Windows Azure Backup (now called Microsoft Azure Backup because of a renaming scheme that followed little after the article was sent to be published). This article was written for the special, conference edition of Mreža magazine.

Unfortunately (for some), this article is in Croatian.

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In general, it’s a 2 page Microsoft Azure Backup overview – what can it do, how easy it is to set-up, how it can ease the burden of doing backups, how can it be incorporated into the current backup policy and extend it off-premise, etc.

You can find and read the article using the specialized Windows 8/8.1 app called Bug & Mreža (or direct link) – app created for reading the digital editions of two of our largest IT magazines, Bug and Mreža).

With weekend just around the corner, maybe now is the right time to try Microsoft Azure and, more specifically, the Microsoft Azure Backup feature? Smile

Have a great weekend!

UPDATE (June 14th, 2014): This article was re-published in Mreža magazine, “regular” (not WinDays) edition, July 2014. Makes me proud. Again. Smile
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Adventure of installing the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for PowerShell

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

Well, you know the story – “something needs to be done immediately, usually in the middle of the night, involving PowerShell, and you don’t have all the needed modules installed…”.

The solution seems easy enough – install the required modules, connect to Office 365 and do the job. Yeah… but no! Smile

More specific – I’ve tried to install the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell the other night. In the end, I’ve succeeded, but something kept me awake a little longer than necessary.

I’ve read an article on TechNet, explaining the management of Azure Active Directory using PowerShell. Why? Because I couldn’t do what was needed via the (nice) user interface.

So, instructions said “Install the Windows Azure AD Module” – I’ve downloaded the appropriate installer (Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell (64-bit version)), and started the installation.

Almost immediately, I’ve got an error saying that the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant (version 7.0 or greater) needs to be already installed. OK, I’ve downloaded this piece of software as well (from here), and installed it. “Fortunately” it demands a machine reboot. Rebooted.

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Now I’ve tried to install the Windows Azure AD Module again, and got the same error:

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I must say that I’m little confused at this point, because I was convinced that I’ve installed this just a minute or two ago. Ok, it’s late. No big deal – I’ve ran the installation again, and got the following screen:

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So, it is installed after all. Maybe it’s the wrong version (on the other hand, the TechNet article contains the link to download)? After a few moments of searching, I’ve found the more recent version of this Sign-In Assistant, called Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant for IT Professionals BETA. I’ve installed this version now, and tried to install the Windows Azure AD Module afterwards. Now it finally worked!

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The conclusion – this TechNet article is slightly out-of-date (linked to the wrong version of the Sign-In Assistant, which doesn’t work with the current version of Windows Azure AD Module) and, until this is resolved, you’ll need to install the BETA version from the link provided above (this one).

Cheers!

New novel on the horizon…

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

Mark Russinovich has a new book! Smile

It’s a novel called Rogue Code, third one in the Jeff Aiken series (following the great “Zero Day” and “Trojan Horse” novels), and this one is about the breach in the New York Stock Exchange. How cool is that???

I must say that I’ve really enjoyed reading the first two novels, so I can’t wait this one to arrive. Well, I love to read… and not only the “technical stuff”. I’m also happy that I’ve got the first novel (from and signed by Mark personally – thanks again, Mark).

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You can find more details and pre-order/order info here.

Happy reading!

P.S. Mark, keep them coming! Smile

P.P.S. If you have something to read, please, send it over here… Smile

UPDATE (June 18th, 2014): It’s here! Smile I’ve received my copy today – can’t wait to start reading!

Installing the KB2920189… successfully!

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 1 Comment

The other day, I’ve written about an issue with installation of update KB2920189 for Windows Server 2012 R2 (post called [TIP] Latest “Patch Tuesday” & errors installing update). So, the problem I was facing was failing installation on Generation 2 virtual machines, with Secure Boot enabled.

Actually, you can overcome this problem easily by reading the documentation before it happens or… with PowerShell after (OK, you can use GUI also, but who uses it nowadays?)! Smile

As I’ve already mentioned, all you need to do is just one thing – install the BitLocker feature on your server.

(yes, “-Restart” is optional – if you want, you can restart your server manually, of course)

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After that, BitLocker is installed, and you can successfully install the KB2920189 also.

Second (not official) approach on installing this update on Generation 2 virtual machine, as I’ve written in the mentioned post, is to uncheck Secure Boot, install the update, and then check the Secure Boot option again.

This can be easily done using the following script:

We can now install this “problematic” update as the Secure Boot feature is disabled:

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…and Secure Boot is enabled again (“nothing” happened)!

Of course, you can do all of this manually, but then again – why do we have PowerShell? Smile

Cheers!

P.S. I’m no PowerShell expert… just like to automate some things. Smile

Latest “Patch Tuesday” – errors installing update

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 1 Comment

Latest “Patch Tuesday” (May 13th, 2014) has brought us a pack of updates (you can read all the details about them here and here), but one of them was making trouble for me. The update I’m talking about is called “Security Update for Windows Server 2012 R2 (KB2920189)”. You can read more about this update in KB2920189.

I’ve tried to install it on a number of my Hyper-V virtual machines (Generation 2), but the update keeps failing with error 800F0922:

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ISSUE:
This error and its cause is described in KB2962824. In short, this update expects that the BitLocker feature is installed (not enabled or used, but installed) – in my case, the problem was Secure Boot, which is enabled by default on Generation 2 virtual machines.

RESOLUTION/WORKAROUND:
You can install the BitLocker feature on your Windows Server 2012 R2 servers before installing this update, or you can switch the Secure Boot off, install the update and switch it back on (I’ve decided to do the latter).

After switching the Secure Boot off, installing the update and switching it on again, the update installed successfully:

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Have fun!

Software-Defined Networking with Windows Server and System Center Jump Start

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 0 Comment

Free online event with live Q&A with the networking team: http://aka.ms/SftDnet
Wednesday, March 19th from 8am – 1pm PST

Are you exploring new networking strategies for your datacenter? Want to simplify the process? Software-defined networking (SDN) can streamline datacenter implementation through self-service provisioning, take the complexity out of network management, and help increase security with fully isolated environments. Intrigued? Bring specific questions, and get answers from the team who built this popular solution!

Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 are being used with SDN implementations in some of the largest datacenters in the world, and this Jump Start can help you apply lessons learned from those networks to your own environment. From overall best practices to deep technical guidance, this demo-rich session gives you what you need to get started, plus in-depth Q&A with top experts who have real-world SDN experience. Don’t miss it!

Register here: http://aka.ms/SftDnet

Check out the www.MicrosoftVirtualAcademy.com for other free training and live events.

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: High availability and performance tuning

By Tomica Kaniski in Other, Review 0 Comment

Not so long ago, I’ve got yet another book from Packt Publishing – “Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: High availability and performance tuning“, written by a fellow MVP, Marius Sandbu.

As someone who is not an Configuration Manager expert, I’ve really enjoyed reading this book.

Why? Because it provides great reference list of all the things that make Configuration Manager deployment highly available (from Active Directory and SQL to the Configuration Manager components), packed in a great format (not too long, about 150 pages), and well-written. It also provides, from my perspective, high-level steps that can be taken to fine-tune your deployment – an aspect of the deployment which is usually forgotten.

I would recommend this book to anyone that needs to learn about the principles of high availability and performance tuning of Configuration Manager – it’s not a long read, it will save you some time and certainly help you get started right away! However, if you need deep-down information about specific component, in a “Bible” format, you’ll need to grab at least one additional book…

You can order this book here.