Manually Sync AD to Azure

 Sync active directory changes to Azure Manually. 

Changes from local active directory to Azure are not instantaneous. Except password resets, all other changes to any property of user accounts or group accounts take up to 30 minutes to be synced to Azure. 

You can speed up the process of getting the changes just made in your local AD to Azure by running a manual sync. 

Login to the Azure AD connect server (often called a sync server) . 

open a PowerShell command window and enter the following command . The command will submit all recent changes to Azure. 

        PS C:\> Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta 

Be sure to include Delta at the end of the command. This tells the syncing command to process changes. Don't run /initial. running with the initial option could cause some complications. 

If you have a large or spread out domain infrastructure such as domain controllers in different locations, it's best to run an active directory syn to sync all the local domain controllers first. 

Replicate and Sync ALL Domain Controllers

This can be done from a normal command prompt with admin privileges. This command will sync all domain controllers. 

 

Run   repadmin /syncall  /APeD  

Please share so others can find this post and solution faster. Thank you

 

 

Display Logged on User Account SID

 

Simple Command Line to Display Logged on SID

A simple method to display the SID of the logged in user domain user account is using a command that's common but not often used. It's been part of the MS Windows operating systems since before Windows 10 and present in server additions as well.    

The whoami command when run without options will display the currently logged in user account If you are providing remote support, this command is helpful if you are remotely accessing the desktop and troubleshooting an issue that requires knowing the user's SID such as user profile issues.  

If your not familiar with the whoami command at all try it out. On a desktop logged in with a Domain account, open a command prompt and then type the command whoami and hit the enter key. The command's output displays just the currently logged in user. 

Run the command again (up arrow) and add the simple option  /user  and it will display the SID of the user like this: 

           C:\>whoami /user 

Display local SID of non-domain user account 

If the user is not a domain account, like a desktop at a remote office or home display the local windows account SID use the following command line 

      

                     wmic useraccount where name='username' get sid

 

  

  

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Veeam Backup Using Azure Storage Blob

Veeam Backup and Azure Storage Blob

Support your company better with offsite backups

  

Veeam Backup Using Azure Storage Blob creates a reliable offsite backup. Support  and protect your company by using this combination of Azure storage and Veeam's capabilities to utilize the storage helps create a reliable recovery scenario that can cover many of the "what happens if" situations. Situations that are not only imaginable by disasters for those that could be caused by the ongoing daunting threats that some from real-world scenarios like from ransomware. 

What if your servers and data was captured ransomware? What do you do? Your backups have also been locked by ransomware and recovery would only be available by an offsite protected copy of your backup data.  To better support your company, maintain an offsite copy of your backups.  

Veeam not only gives it's admins a way to support their company better by having a secure and reliable method to recover from server failures, virtual servers or physical own hardware servers, but also lets you keep a copy in the cloud. 

Chances are you are already using Azure for email through Microsoft 365 online exchange, so access to having a datastore available to have your company survive a crisis is already there. You may have to expand your subscription to include the required amount of storage , but that requires very little effort to do.

Creating storage for Veeam to offsite backups is straight forward. It's a generic generation 2 blob. Nothing fancy, nothing special. Standard performance because it's an offsite backup and won't require high end speed because it's not live data.  The blob is all defaults. You'll just have to give the storage account a name and create a new resource group, and of course select your subscription. The process is simple on Azure. Take note of the key generated for the blob, because that has to be entered into the Veeam configuration. Follow this Veeam guide, it worked for my company:  

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/azure_repository_name.html?ver=110

 Once you have the Azure storage setup, again it is a default storage blob, you need for Veeam configuration: 

To add Microsoft Azure Blob storage, do the following:

To add Microsoft Azure Blob storage, do the following:

1. Specify object storage name
2. Specify object storage account
3. Specify object storage settings
4. Finish working with the wizard

 Not mandatory but after completion, Microsoft has a tool called  Microsoft Storage Explorer. the tool works great to have a a view of all your storage containers and even aces them without a browser. 

Microsoft storage explorer could be downloaded from here, login is not required to download from Microsoft.  

    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/features/storage-explorer/

The tool is not required to access, support, and manage your storage accounts , containers, etc. but can be used to support and manage the setup and offer further insight that's not so quickly attainable using only browser access to Azure or using even the Azure management console tool. 

  

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CentOS 6 Auto Starting Apache httpd Start at Boot

CentOS Auto Starting Apache httpd Automatic Start with System

In the example shown in the image below, Cent OS was accessed through an SSH connection utilizing Putty.

In the image below, the same process or procedure to set Apache httpd to automatically start with the system was done using a VMware console access via vSphere Client.

Auto-start Apache httpd service at boot time 

 The process and steps are simple and straight forward.

Let's look for the status of httpd to see whether is is setup to auto-start with the system during reboot , restarts, etc.
1. Run the command chkconfig --list | grep http  .
       For the output, you will see a series of OFF settings as shown in the accompanying images.

2.  Run the command chkconfig httpd on 
        There is no output to this command.
          If completed successful, ie. no errors, the command prompt is returned on the next line.

3. Run the command from step 1 again to confirm,  chkconfig --list | grep http

      In step 1 we saw a series of OFFs, after set to on we see ONs instead
                   

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Command Line to Find Dell Service Tag HP Serial Number

Command Line to Find Dell Service Tag HP Serial Number

A standard command line window can be used to find a Dell service tag. BCM command line utilities do not have to be installed, neither does DRAC or iDRAC have to be configured or even enabled. It is accomplished using Windows Management built-in functionality. 

Desktops or Servers Service Tag or Serial Number

On an HP system, the serial number can be easily retrieved by starting a command prompt and entering or typing in : WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER  (the command can be upper or lower case). On  Dell system, PC or server,  the same command line will return the service tag of the system for the serial number. 

Command line to get the serial number or service tag of a white-box computer 

On  a "white-box" system you might get the serial number if it has been entered into the field which is queried by the command line to determine the service tag or serial number of the system.  Commonly however, when trying to acquire the serial number using Windows Management the results "To Be Filled by O.E.M." . 

Linux Command line to get the Dell service tag or HP serial number

The ability toe retrieve the service tag or serial number of a system is not limited to Windows operating systems. It is also possible on Linux based systems. On Cent OS or Red Hat Linux for example, the following command line utility can be executed to retrieve the serial number or Dell service tag.

Command To Find Out Dell Service Tag

      # dmidecode | grep -i serial      

or 

      # dmidecode -t 1

You may have to install DMIDECODE first if it is not available. 

This can be done by executing the following: 

       

# yum -y install dmidecode

Display the SID of the Logged User

Not related to serial numbers or service tags however a useful command that's been buried and not widely used since it's unknown is the whoami command . A Windows Command prompt CLI window is all that is needed. If shown this command to fellow techs , experienced techs, that often work with user profiles and windows system registries. They are shocked how quick it is to obtain the logged in user SID. With the need for even PowerShell, just a windows command prompt.
open a command prompt window on any version of windows, and enter 

 

              c:\> whoami /user   

and hit enter.

I have the output of the command to display the SID of the logged in user in this short post.

Whether it's Dell service tag for a server or a desktop, a useful method for helping users or server administrators is by using remote support software. Dell service tag can be obtained easily when you have access to the desktop, Microsoft server or VMware vSphere environment.  Software for PC Support Online for on demand remote access adds a cost effective  and efficient online method for  access.  Dell servers and desktops  can be supported as well as servers and desktops from other major vendors such as HP and HPe. Of course, virtual and physical desktops and all productivity and  user applications such as Microsoft Outlook and the Microsoft's Office 365 products and services. A support tool to backup or just to work in conjunction with your current remote access application https://www.4remotesupport.com.  More than one software support tool is a must and having an alternative for on-demand  Online PC Remote Support Software to remotely access desktops online and provide support only improves the service you provide.  Try for Free. 

How to Remotely Manage AD from a Member Server

How to Manage AD from Member Server

This was once a default option for Windows member servers in an organization's domain. An administrator user in the domain was able to click Start then Run then type in ad.msc and start Microsoft Active Directory Users and Computers from a member server in the domain. This feature was useful indeed and was removed as a default with Windows Server 2008.

  

For administrators that are looking to enable remote management of Active Directory from a member server there is a simple way to add this functionally to a member 2008 and 2008 R2 server in the domain. It is done by installing Remote Server Administration Tools for AD DS. 

Remotely Access Active Directory from Another Server

When an administrator installs Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) on a member server to create a new or additional domain controller, tools that are used to manage AD DS are installed automatically. To  manage Active Directory domain controllers remotely from another server or a Windows desktop operating system that is not a domain controller, Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) can be installed on a member server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008. RSAT can also be installed on a computer that is running running Windows 7 or Windows 8. The Active Directory Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) component that's used to access and manage AD Directory Services is Active Directory Domain Services Tools.

Installing Remote Server Administration Tools for AD DS

Active Directory Domain Services Tools on a member server

Open Server Manager on the member server and click Add Features.

In Features, check the box to expand Remote Service Administration Tools and Role Administration Tools:

Windows Server 2008 member server: 

Expand Active Directory Domain Services Tools, and then click Active Directory Domain Controllers Tools.

Windows Server 2008 R2 member server: 

Expand AD DS and AD LDS Tools, then expand AD DS Tools, and then click AD DS snap-ins and command-line tools.

Click Next and then click Install. The setup wizard will install the necessary files and create the shortcust to manage Active Directory (AD) from this member server.  

The Active Directory Domain Services Administration Tools are available on the Administrative Tools menu.

In some cases even before a reboot of the server is performed , you can run the active directory suers and computers management console AD.msc by clicking Start > Run > then typing AD.msc , then click open. 

Installing Active Directory Domain Services Tools on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows 8

Windows 7 and Windows 8 does not ship with RSAT installation files as does Windows Server 2008. To install RSAT on Windows 7 or Windows 8, you must first download the RSAT installation package. See Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 and Windows 8 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167131   

Faster Active Directory Replication - Decrease Intersite Replication Interval to Seconds

Enable Fast Domain Controller Replication

Active Directory Intersite Replication Interval Enable Faster AD and DNS updates

Enable Faster Active Directory AD and DNS Replication Updates Between Sites 

Although for some newer administrators making changes to Active Directory could be a nerve rattling proposition, making this change to speed up active directory replication can only be accomplished using this method. Using the standard GUI Microsoft Management Consoles to make the change to speed up Active Directory replication is not possible. The best result of using administrator consoles will be to increase domain replication between domain controllers to 15 minutes. These large time values were instituted into Active Directory at version 1 because inter-site connections during that era of computing and networking were much lower in bandwidth with the most common being frame-relay or 56k circuits. Since then, inter-site connections and the Internet speeds have increased tremendously so faster domain controller replication is possible even over wan links. This and many other Microsoft domain related issues can often be addressed remotely using online computer support software. That's software that provides remote control of servers and desktops online through the web. Access can also be accomplished on the LAN but often over the web.   Online desktop support application are often agent based but can also be on-demand.  

Fast Intersite Replication Interval - Speed up DC Replication, Updates are in Seconds 

To enabled faster Intersite Replication, to nearly the speed of intra-site or LAN replication, use ADSI Edit.

Start ADSI edit and go to
   Configuration > then Sites > Inter Site Transports > IP. 

Note this setting cannot be enabled for SMTP InterSite links.

Unless it has been renamed, right click on  the default Intersite link and choose properties. Then scroll down to the options line. Double-click and change the value to 1 if it has a value .

 Zero is the default unless this option has been previously modified.  Once changed to 1, click OK twice to save and close the properties window.

Force a replication using Sites and Services so this setting get pushed/pulled to the other domain controllers.

Faster AD DNS Replication Updates Between Sites and Domain Controllers. 

Test by creating a test account in AD, I use 123, 1234, 111, etc., just so the test account was at the top of the list in AD users and computers. Check your other domain controller or controllers for the new account. You will see it appear in 15 seconds or less. I was getting an average of about a 2 second delay for the test account to appear. Delete the account from the other domain controller and see it get removed in less than 15 seconds on the original domain controller you were working from.