Category Archives: Certification

Oct 11

Flashcard App sets for 70-410 PowerShell and ITIL

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Flashcard Sets for ITIL and PowerShell for 70-410, 411, 412, 417

I have created two flashcard sets at http://www.flashcardmachine.com/, one for ITIL Foundations terms (remember, no acronym memorization is needed for Foundations test).

ITIL – 52 flashcards on the key terms and definitions.

70-410, 411, 412 and 417 PowerShell commands.

You can review these online, or you can download an APP to study them on your phone. The app is

Flashcard Machine ITIL and PowerShell sets

Flashcard Machine flashcards for ITIL and 70-410

called Flashcard Machine, and it’s FREE. To find my two flashcard sets search for these terms on FlashCardMachine.com;

ITIL – ITIL 2011 JL Key Service Management Terms (53 cards)

70-410 PowerShell – 70-410 JL PowerShell Commands (68 cards)

As you can see, I have “JL” in each title so you can make sure you’re getting my sets.

Sep 12

Server 2012 R2 Core, Minimal GUI, GUI

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SO, what are all the options with core?  What is “minimal  GUI”?  How do you move from one to the other?

I wanted to post to outline these options as this understanding will probably be included on several questions in the 70-412 or 70-417 tests.

There are THREE options for the interface on Server 2012.

From the most basic, to the most features, they look like this;

  1. Server Core – always installed and enabled; the baseline feature for all Windows Servers. This includes the fundamental capabilities that cannot be removed and are core to the OS.
    1. What you get; ONLY command prompt (Powershell)
  2. Minimal Server Interface; Server Graphical Management Tools & Infrastructure – functionality for Minimal Server Interface;
    1. What you get; Server Manager and command prompt, and MMC
  3. Server Graphical Shell – equivalent to Server with a GUI
    1. What you get; this is the full GUI interface that most Administrators work with

Link to overview and diagram shown below.

Server 2012 GUI Layers

Server 2012 GUI Layers

 

We are going to demonstrate scenarios with VIDEO

  1. Starting with Server Graphical Shell (normal full blown GUI)
    1. We remove the Graphical Shell, which takes us to MINIMAL SERVER INTERFACE.  Then we return to the Server Graphical Shell.
      1. Link to video going from Server Graphical Shell to Minimal Server Interface, and back. Also looking at the tools in Minimal Server Interface, and how you restart your tools if you close them all and are looking at a black, blank desktop in Minimal Server Interface.
      2. https://youtu.be/O1mNgwzUewQ 
    2. We remove Graphical Shell and minimal interface and go directly to CORE, then we return to Graphical Shell
      1. This command gets you from CORE to Minimal Server Interface; Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
      2. Add this command as well, and you go back to full Server Graphical Shell; Install-WindowsFeatureServer-Gui-Shell 
      3. So, to go from Core back to Server Graphical Shell in one step, this is your command; Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra, Server-Gui-Shell
      4. Link to video going from Server Graphical Shell to Core, and back. Also looking at the tools in Core, and how you restart your tools if you close them all and are looking at a black, blank desktop in Core.
      5. https://youtu.be/sAwOOpuD4mA
Sep 02

70-412 and 70-417 Study Guide List

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Over the past few months I have posted a series of Study Guides targeted at 70-412, which would alsoServer2012TOC be useful for 70-417.  I want to put a hyperlinked Table of Contents here to show what order would be best to review them. These are study guides from the FREE Pluralsight training.

 

 

Here are the hyperlinks;

1) Configure Active Directory

2) Configure High Availability

3) Configure Network Services

4) Configure Continuity and Disaster Recovery

5) Configure File and Storage Solutions

6) Configure Identity and Access Solutions

Other useful links on this effort would be;

MCSA and Build a LAB

Server 2012 R2 – New Features of R2

Sep 02

Windows Server 2012 R2 (70-412) Identity and Access Solutions – Study Guide

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Prepare yourself for the Microsoft MCSA 70-412 exam. This course explores how to implement an advanced DHCP solution, implement an advanced DNS solution, and deploy and manage IP Address Management.

These notes are my personal notes from the FREE training on Pluralsight. You can get your FREE signup through technet/MSDN or Dreamspark. The title of this course is exactly the title of this post. These notes are from this specific course only. I use these as a refresher Study Guide. POWERSHELL topics and2012GregShields cmdlets are in purple. I have a few notes with the “DEMO” each time the training included a DEMO just so you can see how many demos there were which were really helpful. Thanks to Greg Shields @ConcentratdGreg, the trainer, contact info at the end.

 

  1. Install and Configure AD Certificate Services. Essentially setting up internal certificate trusts to mirror, and and can negate the need for, external certificates like Microsoft, Verisign, etc.
    1. Install an Enterprise Certificate Authority
      1. The “issuing CA” creates the actual cert file. Issuing CA gets trust from Policy CA, who gets it from a Root CA
      2. Root is typically standalone, offline. Policy CA standalone or enterprise, typically online. Issuing CA typically enterprise online.
      3. Issuing CA is the one doing all the day to day work.
      4. Install CA ROLE, and the Online Responder ROLE2012CertificateServicesRoles
        1. optional web enrollment pieces, or can use the console to manage
      5. Post install configuration; configure active directory certificate services, requires member of local admins for some services, and Enterprise Admin for some.
      6. Decide what TYPE of CA you’re installing. 2012CertificateServicesRolePermissions
      7. Choose a NAME for the CA,  usually combination of server name, domain name. Choose validity period (default = 5 years)
      8. Certificate Templates – basic templates are provided, then when you fill them out with specific information it creates the actual certificate. Some are “available for issue” then there are dozens of additional ones that are not available for issue by default.
      9. refresh GP then root cert should be available through AD. certs are automatically trusted by any computer in the domain
      10. from a client, you can “request a new certificate”, and it automatically enrolls
    2. Configure CRL (certificate revocation list) Distribution Points
      1. when you need to manage expiration due to termination, employee leaving, new job responsibilities, etc.
      2. The CRL location shows up in the “details” tab on the actual cert
      3. set up CRL revocation list locations BEFORE passing out certs
      4.  you can’t delete crl revocations. Think about it, that makes sense.  But when the list gets really long there are ways to make the queries faster.
    3. Install and Configure Online Responder
      • Configure the Online Responder (which also needs a cert) OCSP response signing
      • Revocation Configuration for the Online Responder
      • Online responder downloads a copy of the CRL to make responses
      • enter the URL for the Online Responder in cert templates, and again have this set up prior to issuing any certs or you have to redo them all.
    4. Implement Administrative Separation
      1. Principle of Least Privilege
      2. Read this Technet on Role Based Administration
      3. In the security tab of the CA, set up the right permissions
      4. one additional command; PS certutil -setreg ca\RoleSeparationEnabled 1  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Cc782357(v=WS.10).aspx
    5. Configure CA Backup and Recovery
      1. right click, all tasks, back up and restore recommend private key and logs (checkboxes)
      2. certutil can also do backups (old way)
      3. now of course PS Backup-CARoleService
  2. Manage Certificates
    1. Enrolling for Certificates
      1. instead of “find cert” start with “request”
      2. From IIS, you can create request and complete request from wizard on the right side of IIS.
      3. Example using a PS code signing certificate
    2. Manage Certificate Templates
      Cert tabs
      Certificate Template Tabs
      1. right click / manage, see “code signing certificate”
      2. copy “duplicate” the template, then modify the new duplicate for  use
      3. publish certificate in AD checkbox
      4. compatibility settings
      5. choose encrypt/signature or both
      6. auto renewal can force a different private key
      7. WHAT this cert is going to be  used for is baked in the cert configuration. For this example signing PS, this would be “code signing”
      8. “subject name” is usually the FQDN of the webserver. In this case, we specify the user name for our PS signing cert.
      9. you can configure manager approvals or signatures prior to approval
      10. security tab; read, enroll, auto-enroll.
    3. Implement and Manage Certificate Deployment, Validation and Revocation
      1. now that the template is created, we talk about deployment, validation and revocation
      2. now you have to right click on Certificate Templates, choose new certificate to issue and find the newly created template to issue.
      3. revoke certificate from a right click on the cert. This is PERMANENT and not reversible. Note there is a “HOLD” that can be a temporary hold.
      4. force a CRL update by “publish CRL”
      5. new crl once a week, new delta crl once a day.
    4. Configure and Manage Key Archival and Recovery
      1. there is no default capability to archive keys
      2. archive when enabled happens in AD
      3. KRA Key recovery agent cert can recover keys
      4. copy and modify certificate template
      5. then you “enroll” for the KRA certificate
      6. two commands to recover
        1. PS certutil -GetKey
        2. certutil -RecoverKey
    5. Manage Certificate Renewal
      1. manual non-GPO renewal
      2. in Certificate console, right click on template, “re-enroll all certificate users”
    6. Manage Certificate Enrollment and Renewal to Computers and Users using Group Policy
      1. to auto populate our PS code signing certificate, assigned to our IT group
      2. GPMC, new GPO
      3. user side, public key policies
        1. need certificate enrollment (AD)
        2. auto-enrollment (enable)
        3. auto-renewal   /log expiry events, other options
        4. auto renewal is 80% of cert lifespan, or the expiry of the renewal period
      4.  testing on machine, log in, gp runs, check for PS Signing cert
    7. Configure and Enroll a Hyper-V Replica Certificate
      1. If you choose replication in Hyper-V and select “encrypt”, then it will error as there is no dedicated custom cert
      2. copy and rename a “Computer” template
      3. then make it available for use
      4. now when you go back to Hyper-V Manager it shows up.
  3. Install and Configure AD Rights Management Services
    1. Install a Licensing or Certificate AD RMS Server
      1. RMS servers are referred to as “cluster”, just meaning multiple servers. You can also do a single server cluster. You need to be Enterprise Admin to complete this setup.
      2. If you go to a document on File Server, you go to “protect document” then  “restrict access” to connect to RMS and “get templates”. Will error if you have no RMS set up.
      3. Install Active Directory Rights Management Server ROLE.
      4. Post install configuration is required (yellow alert top right of Server Manager)
      5. RMS is tied to email field in AD properties general/email field. Even if you don’t have email in reality it just pulls from that field.
      6. Store RMS Cluster Key (keep this), password, website.
      7. For location, suggest CName instead of FQDN so you can adapt in the future if the hardware changes.
    2. Manage AD RMS Service Connection Point
    3. Manage RMS Templates
      1. Rights Policy Templates determine what/how you are going to offer to your users.
      2. example; content that Finance group needs to protect
      3. Name policy “Finance Protected Content”, add description.
      4. Tied to the email associated with the finance security group, and you can choose what they can do. Lots of rights / actions, and you can create custom ones as well. view/edit/save/print/save/save as/etc.
      5. you can disallow client side caching; they would have to be online to access the data
      6. define revocation policy; when you revoke the license, you revoke the ability to access that policy, you also provide a url where the policy resides.
    4. Configure Exclusion Policies
      1. you can determine  “Lockbox version exclusion” which is pretty bizarre, read about it on the link.
    5. Backup and Restore AD RMS
      1. what do you have to include in backups?
      2. Configuration DB, directory services DB, logging DB. Either in SQL or the Windows server internal SQL. The internal SQL requires a full server backup. So, from a backup perspective it’s better to use SQL.
      3. server certificate needs to be backed up
      4. cluster key password
      5. export trusted publishing domain
  4. Implement AD Federation Services – focus seems to be on Workplace Join
    1. Configure Workplace Join
      1. understanding Federation
        1. Traditionally, access is controlled by a user ID and login. Or, from AD permissions.
        2. Federation is used when access needs to be provided to users OUTSIDE of your domain. (Partner, merger, acquisition, etc.)
        3. Federation servers handle the federation process between organizations. It’s kind of a bridgehead or gateway for the access request/granting. It does this by generating “claims“.
        4. Relying Party (us) and Claims Provider (them)
        5. This happens from a pair of Trusts from each direction; Claims Provider Trust and Relying Party Trust.
      2. Think also for BYOD situations for non-domain joined devices. Device itself is added to AD.
      3. Typically connect through Web Application Proxy (not on the 412 test)
      4. Settings / network / “workplace” is where you see it.. on your desktop, not the server.
      5. Create a Group Managed Service Account.
      6. Create a certificate for AD FS
        1. domain computers needs to have enroll privileges
        2. Enroll from your AD FS server
        3. This will require entering additional information to enroll the cert; hostname, DNS name, etc.
        4. For non-domain devices, it’s a lot easier if you use a public cert, for access and CRL access which is open to non-domain users on the internet.
    2. Install AD FS
      1. Now create ADFS, create the first server in a federation server farm.
        1. associate to cert
        2. name it, add display name
        3. add service account (use an existing account)
        4. SQL or internal database.
        5. finalize the wizard. now you should be the Relying Party Trust.
    3. Implement Claims based Authentication including Relying Party Trusts
      1. in AD FS console, look under Relying Party Trusts to see the claims options.
    4. Configure Authentication Policies
      1. from PowerShell
        1. Initialize-ADDeviceRegistration
      2. Back in console, enable device authentication in the global policy
      3. This is just using “windows authentication” instead of Forms based, or other options.
    5. Configure Multi Factor Authentication
      1. This is a Authentication Policy in the console
      2. registered/unregistered, intranet/extranet
      3. now test Workplace Join from desktop. You just click “join” and it’s joined. Button changes from “join” to “leave”.

 

Sep 01

FREE ebook 70-409

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VEEAM is offering a FREE ebook on the Microsoft 70-409 certification; Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center. This book is by @orinthomas (http://orinthomas.com/) who is a great IT author and trainer, I’ve used a lot of his material. You could study this book, online resources, and use the Second Shot to pick up this cert. Here is the link to the download page on VEEAM; http://go.veeam.com/microsoft-certification-exam

Jul 30

Windows Server 2012 R2 (70-412) File and Storage Solutions – Study Guide

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Prepare yourself for the Microsoft MCSA 70-412 exam. This course explores how to implement an advanced DHCP solution, implement an advanced DNS solution, and deploy and manage IP Address Management.

These notes are my personal notes from the FREE training on Pluralsight. You can get your FREE signup through technet/MSDN or Dreamspark. The title of this course is exactly the title of this post. These notes are from this specific course only. I use these as a refresher Study Guide. POWERSHELL topics and2012GregShieldscmdlets are in purple. I have a few notes with the “DEMO” each time the training included a DEMO just so you can see how many demos there were which were really helpful. Thanks to Greg Shields @ConcentratdGreg, the trainer, contact info at the end.

“Storage” – think more than just file server.

  1. Configure and Optimize Storage
    1. Configure Storage Spaces
      1. local disks
      2. create a Storage Pool
      3. all storage shows up (unused and available) in the PRIMORDIAL POOL
      4. new storage pool wizard
        1. during wizard can allocate “automatic” but can choose “manual” or “hot spare”
        2. leave it as automatic, can set RAID
      5. Then create a disk out of the storage pool. Then can create volumes on those disks as well.
      6. storage tiers checkbox is grayed out as tiering is not set up.
      7. can set simple/mirror/parity (RAID) in this wizard
      8. next button lets you choose thin or fixed provisioning.
      9. after creation, then create a volume on the new disk
      10. can enable data deduplication in next field (have to turn on the ROLE)
        1. general purpose or VDI de-dupe
        2. can choose exclusions, schedule, etc. Throughput optimization.
    2. Configure Tiered Storage
      1. Start with creating a new storage pool. Has the different type disks (SSD and spinning)
        1. (hack to create each with VMware workstation)
          1. Get-PhysicalDisk
          2. Get-PhysicalDisk | ft friendlyname,size,mediatype
          3. can set them in PS to be and appear as SSD or mechanical
          4. Set-PhysicalDisk -mediatype HDD
          5. So essentially you are setting them to have some SSD and some HDD so you can set up tiering.
        2. Now you have a different option in the wizard (Faster tier, Standard tier)
        3. the tiering is handled by the windows subsystem, no mgmt
        4. can set specific files to SSD by PS; Set-FileStorageTier
    3. Implement Thin Provisioning and TRIM
      1. we already talked about creating THIN
      2. tiered is THICK – cannot do THIN tiered
      3. see if THIN provisioning fits your needs
      4. TRIM – file delete notification. reclaim storage space. File Delete Notification is ON by default.
      5. disable file delete notification by registry setting if you want as it does add some overhead.
      6. PS Optimize-Volume
    4. Configure iSCSI Target and Initiator
      1. provides a method for any of the above disks accessible over network
      2. Target = where storage is, Initiator is who needs the storage,
      3. Configure; easier to create the initiator first (the remote network server)
        1. tools/start iSCSI initiator get alert box to start service each time
      4. iSCSI console
        1. quick connect option might not be the best for enterprise use
      5. you have to click the ADVANCED button to choose adapter and initiator IP (critical when using a separate storage network)
      6. at this point, we haven’t create the storage target on the fileserver yet
      7. new iSCSI virtual disk wizard
        1. create new iSCSI disk name, size, dynamically expanding, etc.
        2. next screen asks for target name, and the previously created one shows up. (which is why we created it first)
        3. can enable CHAP authentication
        4. “CONNECT”, then go to ADVANCED to verify IP, network, etc. If you don’t specify the right network, you could end up sending storage traffic over your production network.
        5. the remote server shows the disk just like it was a local disk, needing brought online, format, etc.
        6. PS commands for iSCSI
          1. Connect-IscsiTarget
          2. Disconnect-IscsiTarget
    5. Configure iSNS (Internet iStorage Name Service Server)
      1. used to simplify management of complex and large iSCSI setups (who is that?)
      2. registers initiators
      3. to register targets, you need PS command Set-WmiInstance -namespace root\wmi -Class WT_iSNSServer -Arguments @{ServerName=”actual server name”}
      4. after that, initiators and targets both show in iSNS console
    6. Manage Server Free Space using Features on Demand.2012SpecifyAlternateSourcePath
      1. basically allows you to remove unused roles to save space.
      2. this gives you the Specify Alternate Source Path window (screenshot)
      3. this is a good article to show where it searches.
      4. you can create a “feature file store” and put it on the network. it’s the SXS folder.
  2. Configure Advanced File Services
    1. Configure a NFS file datastore
      1. NFS more interested in computers not users
      2. “Server for NFS” ROLE (under file server)
      3. New NFS Sharing tab on share properties
      4. incoming client settings, permissions (which machines)
      5. by DEFAULT all machines have read access, and root access is disallowed.
      6. PS NfsShare, Get-NfsShare, etc.
    2. Configure file access auditing
      1. 50 new sub-categories, but same way to set up as previously
      2. Group Policy or local security policy
      3. 9 different original policies. Audit Object Access. Typically this is how we used to turn this on
      4. “Advanced Audit Policy Configuration”
      5. SACL; auditing view on file/folder properties, now you can also add CONDITIONS.
    3. Configure BranchCache
      1. transparent; cache documents in remote locations. I.E., branch offices. Bandwidth was historical a reason. Used to need Enterprise Windows versions, limiting it’s use. Now any version of Windows 8 works. Turn it on and don’t think about. File server, web server, or BITS data.
      2. First access of document initiates the copy to the branch.
      3. Distributed Mode (stores on desktop machine) or server based Hosted Mode.
      4. file is split into chucks that are hashed then only changed chunks are updated.
      5. One piece only does files, different piece does Web and BITS. These are in different places in FEATURES
      6. Turn it on via GPO, choose hash type, configure client side “turn on branch cache”, set hosted cache server name, set cache expiration, etc.
      7. You can pre-populate bia PS Publish-BCFileContent, Export-BCCachePackage
  3. Implement Dynamic Access Control (DAC) DAC is supposedly heavily represented on 70-412 and 70-417 tests. Here is a great example and scenario about how to use DAC in a real-world situation, from the Microsoft Storage Team; http://mints4.rssing.com/chan-3739609/all_p2.html
    1. Addresses file permissions getting lost/changed during file moves. New security requirements also drive this advancement in security.
      1. needs to have characteristics set in AD
      2. Also settings on file servers.
      3. Scenario; you can filter all documents for SSN, and then disallow anyone from viewing such document unless the user is in certain group, site, etc.
      4. Can filter and scan files as they are updated (SSN added to file that did not previously have one)
      5. Think big IF THEN statement; IF this user is in FINANCE group, AND user is in DENVER, then allow read/write/etc.
      6. DAC scans documents regularly to keep up with changes.
    2. Configure User and Device Claim Types
      1. Install File Server Resource Manager ROLE (screenshot)2012FileServerResourceManager
      2. CLASSIFICATION tab in properties on your file server now.
      3. Active Directory Administrative Center (different from ADUC) has DAC
        1. Trying to get steps in order here;
        2. create claim types in ADAC for USERS
        3. Resource properties for files set up in ADAC / DAC console. Some examples built in are; Personal Use, Project, Intellectual Property, Immutable (?), Department, Compliancy, Personally Identifiable Information, etc. Then there are different values; NOT PII, Public, Low, Moderate, High, and you can create/edit values. These are set up then used later in AD to apply to files and folders
        4. Resource property lists ( add resource property to global) This is just a container of resource properties. Grouping these makes it more manageable to attach to documents. To use this, use PS Update-FSRMClassificationproperyDefinition, which enables the property list. Now it shows up on folder/share/file “Properties” as a new TAB. Users aren’t going to use this manually very much so you have to use server options; screen templates, file screens, classification management. This is the first step to determine what type of content you’re looking for in files / folders. You can scope to specific types of files; user files/ backup files, application files, etc. Scope this down to only the ones interested in, or you can get into resource issues. After picking scope, then choose the TYPE of classifier; for this a “content classifier” which looks at file content. Then you set the content classifier to “high, low, etc.” to apply that to hits that it finds. then you build the classification parameters which are detailed search expressions. you can look up the patterns on the internet or wherever like this one for SSNs.  Now schedule to determine when and how often it searches. Check-box ” enable fixed schedule” then choose the times/dates/recurrence. You CAN force it to “run now” to see if it works. It allows logging and post scan reports. When if finds a HIT, then it actually will show as an updated “properties” tab on the file. You also can configure email request assistance and notification for remediation.
        5. Create new central access rule. This is in ADAC / DAC to set up how you want to apply the settings above to control access based on the detail above. Generally apply to “authenticated users” , they get access when certain defined conditions exist; user is in Kansas City, and belongs to HR, etc.
        6. Create central access policy is how the rule above gets applied to file servers. Then use Group Policy to deploy. New GPO for DAC policy. This would apply to File Servers. Then go back to properties on the share/folder and there is a “Central Policy” tab that you have to choose the policy.
        7. I guarantee this is a test question that MS uses. Keep in mind test questions are random so it might not be on EVERY test, but it’s on one I took.
    3. Implement Policy Changes and Staging
    4. Create and Configure Resource Properties and Lists
    5. Configure File Classification
    6. Perform Access Denied Remediation
    7. Create and Configure Central Access Rules and Policies
Jul 23

FREE eBook From VEEAM for 74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center

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You can get a FREE eBook Study Guide from VEEAM by downloading the book. Providing an email address is required to download the book. It’s 150 pages and looks like it could prepare you to pass this test.

This is written by Orin Thomas, the fantastic trainer and author that does some work on Pluralsight. Orin works as an author and has written more than a thirty IT textbooks. He is the convener of the Melbourne System Center, Security, and Infrastructure Group and a MicrosoftSecurity MVP. He also works as an author for PluralSight. Follow him on twitter @orinthomas.

 

Chapter 1: Virtual Machine Settings
The first thing you need to grasp when studying for the 74-409 exam is
the basics of virtual machine (VM) settings. You’ll need to understand how
dynamic memory and smart paging work when VMs are starting, restarting and
operating. You’ll need to understand the difference between generation 1 and
generation 2 VMs. You’ll need to know the conditions under which Enhanced
Session Mode and RemoteFX can be used. You’ll also need to understand
resource metering and VM guest integration services.

Jul 15

List of FREE courses on Pluralsight

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Course subscriptions

Jul 11

Windows Server 2012 R2 (70-412) Continuity and Disaster Recovery – Study Guide

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Prepare yourself for the Microsoft MCSA 70-412 exam. This course explores how to implement an advanced DHCP solution, implement an advanced DNS solution, and deploy and manage IP Address Management.

Videos at the bottom (WinRE)

These notes are my personal notes from the FREE training on Pluralsight. You can get your FREE signup through technet/MSDN or Dreamspark. The title of this course is exactly the title of this post. These notes are from this specific course only. I use these as a refresher Study Guide. POWERSHELL topics and2012GregShieldscmdlets are in purple. I have a few notes with the “DEMO” each time the training included a DEMO just so you can see how many demos there were which were really helpful. Thanks to Greg Shields @ConcentratdGreg, the trainer, contact info at the end.

All, or nearly all, sections include DEMOS so I’m not notating that separately.2012TrainingRecommendedOrder

These training courses should be preferably taken in this order (screenshot).

  1. Configure and Manage Backup Solutions
    1. Configure Windows Server Backups FEATURE
      1. Compared to NT backups, this focuses on VOLUMES.
      2. Pretty fully featured technology today.
      3. If you want to do Bare Metal backups, you need to check that along with System State, System Reserved, and probably the C or OS drive.
      4. Advanced settings
        1. excluded files
        2. VSS settings
          1. copy vs. full (are you using some other backup application, if so you use COPY)
      5. Destination
        1. local volume
        2. remote shared folder
        3. Optimize backup performance = types of backups (full, incremental, etc.)
      6. POWERSHELL WB = Windows Backup
      7. Get-WBJob
      8. Stop-WBJob
      9. Get-WBVSSBackupOption
    2. Configure Azure Backups
      1. designed to just get a back up into the Cloud
      2. Create “Backup Vault” tied to subscription and choose location
      3. Download Vault credentials, and download and install Azure Backup Agent
      4. Is now called MICROSOFT Azure Backup NOT Windows Azure Backup
      5. set up encryption; Microsoft cannot recover data
      6. Azure looks almost the same as a Windows backup. File and folder; just data, not system restore.
    3. Configure role-specific backups
      1. Backup Operators is the default, maybe too many permissions for many cases; can shut down system.
      2. Create your own role for backup files and directories and restore files and directories
    4. Manage VSS settings using VSS Admin
      1. extended from original design (previous versions for users) to now include backups (quiescence)
      2. VSS writer (specific by vendor for the application, Exchange, Oracle, AD, SQL, etc.
      3. the VSS requester is the partner to the writer
      4. PS vssadmin list writers
      5. vssadmin list providers
      6. vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=c: /on=f: /maxsize=20% set location for VSS
      7. vssadmin create shadow /for=c:     create vss shadow copy, very quick nearly instantly
      8. vssadmin can remove, revert, etc.
  2. Recover Servers (restore)
    1. individual file or folder recovery
      1. backup from – choose location, then choose files and folders (other choices volumes, applications, system state, or virtual machines)
      2. can put back in same, or different location
    2. Bare metal server recovery
      1. boot into WINRE (WINdows Recovery Environment) and also here; Tom’s Guide; when to use RE
        1. one option is to use shutdown command shutdown /r /o /t 02012NewShutdownSwitches (Check out Windows 8 new shutdown switches here)
        2. the /o is a new switch
        3. This is a gui based windows recovery console. Allows you to find the system image, install drives, connect to network locations to find image. Do you want to repartition drives.
        4. Don’t even need DVD media.
        5. Here is a link to a video of the WINRE console.
        6. The F8 replacement is WINRE
        7. msconfig – set what startup you get for NEXT boot to boot into safe mode, AD repair, etc. In case boots are so fast you can’t see F8
        8. you can also boot to windows DVD
        9. From WINRE you can boot to command prompt view, and you can manipulate unmounted drive (OS is not mounted). You can tell because command prompt is on the X drive which is the WINRE OS
          1. startrep (start repair scan)
          2. bootrec (boot record repair) Fixmbr, Fixboot, ScanOS, RebuildBcd
          3. Advanced boot options (looks like the F8 options)
            1. safe mode, with networking, with command prompt, boot logging, debugging, low-resolution video, last known good, disable restart, disable early launch anti-malware etc., etc.
        10. Configure the boot configuration data store
        11. multi boot menu to offer recovery options (not multi os boot)
          1. bcdedit
          2. bcdedit /export c:\save (export and save config)
  3. Configure site level fault tolerance
    1. Configure Hyper-V Replica, including Replica Broker and VMs
      1. Replica is NOT failover clustering
      2. provides a way to keep another copy of VM files (usually at remote site)
      3. Replica CAN work with failover clusters
      4. Replica is NOT OS specific; you can set it up with just shell VM, no OS to prove it
      5. Kerberos – not encrypted traffic, requires trusted AD
      6. certs – encrypted, no trusted domain needed
      7. set up on each VM individually
      8. configure frequency
      9. can also set up scheduled recovery points
      10. VSS for application consistent recovery points
      11. you can do the initial replication via external media, network, choose other machine, etc.
      12. set failover TCP/IP
      13. on the TARGET location server there is “test failover” under network adapter in Hyper-V Manager
      14. PLANNED failovers all start from the SOURCE location
      15. UNPLANNED start from Destination location (thought is that the source location is down, or offline)
      16. Adding Replica to Failover Cluster, need to
        1. Need to add the Hyper-V Replica Broker ROLE
    2. Configure Multi Site Clustering, including network settings, Quorum, and Failover Settings
    3. Configure Hyper-V Replica Extended Replication
      1. create a second replication site
      2. this is initiated from the TARGET location of the original source.
      3. most other stuff is the same
    4. Configure Global Update Manager
      1. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn265972.aspx#BKMK_GUM
      2. When a state change occurs such as a cluster resource is taken offline, the nodes in a failover cluster must be notified of the change and acknowledge it before the cluster commits the change to the database. The Global Update Manager is responsible for managing these cluster database updates. In Windows Server 2012 R2, you can configure how the cluster manages global updates. By default, the Global Update Manager uses the following modes for failover cluster workloads in Windows Server 2012 R2:
    5. Recover a Multi Site Failover Cluster
      1. make sure you can support the IP and network configuration in the failover site
      2. same Cluster Manager is used to manage stretch (multi site) clusters
      3. configure preferred owners to deselect the DR site
      4. QUORUM
        1. node and file share is preferred
        2. even number of hosts per location preferred
        3. Force start without a quorum; https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh270275.aspx
Jul 11

Installing Hyper-V Role in VMware Workstation; error Hyper-V cannot be installed: A hypervisor is already running

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This quick post and video shows how to get past the Hyper-V cannot be installed: “A hypervisor is 2012HyperVErroralready running” error when trying to install the Hyper-V Role on a server running as a VM on VMware Workstation. This is common in a virtual lap scenario for certification study.

To resolve this issue, change the guest OS type to Hyper-V.Caution: Hyper-V functionality inside VMware Fusion is experimental and is unsupported.To change the guest OS type to Hyper-V:

  1. Shut down the virtual machine.
  2. Click Virtual machine > Settings.
  3. Select General and change the guest OS type to Hyper-V (unsupported).
  4. Select Processors & Memory in the Settings.
  5. In the Advanced options of Processors & Memory, select Enable hypervisor applications in the virtual machine
  6. Reboot the virtual machine to enable Hyper-V.

The video is here