Automating Azure Instrumentation and Monitoring – Part 3: Custom Metrics

One of the core data types that Azure Monitor works with is metrics – numerical pieces of data that represent the state of an Azure resource or of an application component at a specific point in time. Azure publishes built-in metrics for almost all Azure services, and these metrics are available for querying interactively as well as for use within alerts and other systems. In addition to the Azure-published metrics, we can also publish our own custom metrics.… [Keep reading] “Automating Azure Instrumentation and Monitoring – Part 3: Custom Metrics”

Use Azure AD Apps to connect with Office 365 and Cloud Services securely

Azure AD apps provide a faster and secure way to connect to the Office 365 tenancy and carry out automation tasks. There are many advantages of using Azure AD apps and could be used to authenticate for various Microsoft services such as Graph, Office 365 Management Api, SharePoint etc.

In this blog, we will look at the steps to set up an Azure AD app for Office 365 Management API, however the steps are mostly the same for other Office 365 services too.… [Keep reading] “Use Azure AD Apps to connect with Office 365 and Cloud Services securely”

Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part6

Security Translation – Local Profiles and things to consider for end user experience

The last bit of any migration project is to keep the end user experience as simple and smooth as possible. So, by now we have successfully migrated the groups, migrated the users keeping their mailboxes intact and providing them access to all their resources using SID history. As the last bit of the migration I would like to discuss about few things that should be considered from an end user’s perspective to make their experience good when they login to the new domain.… [Keep reading] “Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part6”

Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part5

Users Migration

The gun seems to be pretty much loaded with all the ammunition, ready to fire? Probably not yet …

Here I want to discuss about few basic things that are easily missed and can cause the migration to fail or go wrong. Few things worth noting down before getting into the migration:

  • Make sure you have a plan to provide the permissions of file shares that built-in groups in source domain have access to.
[Keep reading] “Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part5”

Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part4

Active Directory Groups

Now that we have got our both the AD environments ready to start the migration and installed all the required tools, let’s start moving the objects over. To ensure that we have the proper security structure in place before users are migrated to target domain, we’ll be dealing with Active Directory groups before migrating any of the user objects.

So, what is an AD group? How is the security structure controlled by these groups?… [Keep reading] “Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part4”

Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part3

Installation and configuration of ADMT tool and Password Export Server

Now that we have got our active directories in both source and target domain ready for migration, let’s install the tools required for migration.

ADMT Migration Account

The ADMT service account needs to have administrative rights in both source and target domains. It’s a good idea to create a user specifically for the ADMT Migration, however you may still use an existing user if desired. A single service account will be used for the entire migration:

  • In the target domain, create an administrator account

Target Domain:

  • In the source domain add the same user to the built-in Administrators group (it can’t be added directly to domain admins group).
[Keep reading] “Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part3”

Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part2

Configuring source and target domains

In the previous post of this series I discussed about the tasks involved in migrating a user from a domain to another in a hybrid exchange environment. Now let’s get down to the nitty-witty of migration.

Before getting into moving the users across to target domain, there are few things that need to be installed and configured in both source and target domain. Let’s start by looking at the configuration steps for source and target domains.… [Keep reading] “Active Directory User Migration in Hybrid Exchange Environment Using ADMT – Part2”

Retrieve Office 365 Audit logs using PowerShell and store in Azure table for quick retrieval

To create custom reports for Office 365 events, we could use the Audit logs from Security and Compliance center. The process is quite simple and could be implemented easily using PowerShell. In this blog, we will look at the steps for the same.

Later we will also see how we could store this data in a Azure Storage Table, so it is easy to fetch the data available.

Steps to fetch data from Office 365 Audit log using Exchange Online PowerShell

The first step in the process is to import the commands from Exchange online PowerShell.… [Keep reading] “Retrieve Office 365 Audit logs using PowerShell and store in Azure table for quick retrieval”

Asynchronous Logic Apps with Azure API Management

One of the many great features of Logic Apps is its support for long running asynchronous workflows through the ‘202 async’ pattern. Although not standardised in any official specification as far as I know, the ‘202 async’ pattern is commonly used to interact with APIs in an asynchronous way through polling. In summary, this pattern informs an API consumer that an API call is accepted (HTTP status 202) accompanied by a callback URL where the API consumer can regularly check for an actual response payload.… [Keep reading] “Asynchronous Logic Apps with Azure API Management”

Low-Cost Rate Limiting for Azure Functions APIs with API Management’s Consumption Tier

Azure Functions can be used as a lightweight platform for building APIs. They support a number of helpful features for API developers including custom routes and a variety of output bindings that can implement complex business rules. They also have a consumption-based pricing model, which provides a low-cost, pay-per-use pricing model while you have low levels of traffic, but can scale or burst for higher levels of demand.

The Azure Functions platform also provides Azure Functions Proxies, which gives another set of features to further extend APIs built on top of Azure Functions.… [Keep reading] “Low-Cost Rate Limiting for Azure Functions APIs with API Management’s Consumption Tier”