Microsoft Cloud for SMB

MicrosoftCloudforSMB

Last year I did a little research project about Microsoft’s public cloud and how it cloud affect Small and Medium sized businesses. So I created a paper which should help Microsoft partners to decide how they can improve their services and solutions by using the Microsoft public cloud. I the paper I focused on Microsoft Office 365 and Windows Intune. This should be for the partner which do infrastructure solutions like Active Directory, Exchange and PC Management.

MicrosoftCloudforSMBdoc

You can download this paper from my Windows Live SkyDrive.
The paper includes a lot of text copied from Microsoft documents and websites, and research I did by myself. All the sources should be marked, but if you find anything which is not marked please feel free to contact me.

Install CentOS on Windows 8 Hyper-V

For some courses at KTSI we need a CentOS to test some Linux spesific things like Apache and other stuff. The good thing, Windows 8 got Hyper-V and Hyper-V supports CentOS.

With Version 3.2 oft the Linux Integration Services Microsoft fixed also a bug which occurred in Windows 8.

  1. First download CentOS
  2. Download the Linux Integration Services Version 3.2 for Hyper-V
  3. Start Hyper-V Manager and create a new Virtual Machine
  4. Install CentOS 6.x
    centos hyper-v
  5. Reboot the virtual machine
  6. Login as root
    centos hyper-v
  7. Mount the Linux Integration Services ISO from step 2
  8. Now run the following commands in the virtual machine
    sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media
    sudo /media/install.sh
    

    centos hyper-v

  9. After you the Installation is completed you have to reboot the virtual machine again
    centos hyper-v
  10. done ;-)

 

Change Office 365 password expiration policy

office365

The default password expiration policy of Office 365 is set to 90 days. That means that users have to change their password every 90 days. I think basicly this is a good and secure policy but maybe your company has other security policy or for some other reason you have to deactivate this. We can change this setting through PowerShell with the MicrosoftOnline PowerShell Module.

  1. First connect to Office 365 via PowerShell more on this here
  2. Now you can use the following cmdlet
    Set-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName user@contoso.com –PasswordNeverExpires $true

 

SCVMM Snapshot Reminder with Powershell

Hyper-V

I have created a small Powershell Script which will you remind of existing VM Snapshots. You can use this and create a scheduled task for example each morning and it will send you an email with all existing VM snapshots or checkpoints. The Script uses the Powershell Commands of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 but should also work with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012.


# Check for Virtual Machine Manager Snapin
$PSSnapin = Get-PSSnapin | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager" }
if($PSSnapin -eq $null)
{
	Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager
}

# Connect to SCVMM Server
Get-VMMServer localhost

# Get Snapshots
$snapshots = Get-VMCheckpoint

# Check for existing Snapshots
if ($snapshots.count -gt 0){

	# Create the List of Snapshots
	$info = $snapshots | Format-Table VM, AddedTime, Name -auto | Out-String 

	# Mail Configuration
	# ==================

 	# Configuration
	$emailFrom = "user@mydomain.com"
 	$emailTo = "user@yourdomain.com"
 	$emailSubject = "VM Snapshot Reminder"
 	$emailMessage = "You have still some snapshots: `n `n" + $info + "`n Greetings your SCVMM Server"
 	$smtpServer = "mail.server.com"
 	$smtpUserName = "username" # This could be also in e-mail address format
 	$smtpPassword = "password"
	$smtpDomain = ""

	# SMTP Object
	$smtp = New-Object System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
	$mailCredentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential
 	$mailCredentials.Domain = $smtpDomain
 	$mailCredentials.UserName = $smtpUserName
 	$mailCredentials.Password = $smtpPassword
 	$smtp.Credentials = $mailCredentials  

 	# Send E-Mail
 	$smtp.Send($emailFrom, $emailTo, $emailSubject, $emailMessage)
 }

Change Windows Intune Console language

Windows Intune Logo

Windows Intune takes the Browser language as language of the Windows Intune Administrator Console. To change the language in the Windows Intune console you have to change the language setting of your browser. Internet Options –> General Tab –> Appearance Section –> Language Button and choose you the language which you prefer as language in your administrator console.

IE language setting