Creating Organizational Units, and Groups in AD with GUID

27th of September, 2016 / / No Comments

A recent client of Kloud, wanted to have the chance to create new organizational units, and groups, automatically, with a unique ID (GUID) for each organizational unit. The groups created needed to share the GUID of the OU.

In this blog, I will demonstrate how you could achieve the aforementioned, through a simple PowerShell script, naturally.

Before you start however, you may have to run PowerShell (run as Administrator), and execute the following cmdlet:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
This is to allow PowerShell scripts to run on the computer.… [Keep reading] “Creating Organizational Units, and Groups in AD with GUID”

Azure API Management Step by Step – Use Cases

23rd of September, 2016 / / No Comments

jorge-fotoUse Cases

On this second post about Azure API management, let’s discuss about use cases. Why “Use Cases”?                  

Use cases helps to manage complexity, since it focuses on one specific usage aspect at the time. I am grouping and versioning use cases to facilitate your learning process and helping to keep track with future changes. You are welcome to use these diagrams to demonstrate Azure API management features.

API On-boarding is a key aspect of API governance and first thing to be discussed. … [Keep reading] “Azure API Management Step by Step – Use Cases”

Create a Replica Domain Controller using Desired State Configuration

20th of September, 2016 / / No Comments

Originally posted on Nivlesh’s blog @ nivleshc.wordpress.com
Welcome back. In this blog we will continue with our new Active Directory Domain and use Desired State Configuration (DSC) to add a replica domain controller to it, for redundancy.
If you have not read the first part of this blog series, I would recommend doing that before continuing (even if you need a refresher). The first blog can be found at Create a new Active Directory Forest using Desired State Configuration
Whenever you create an Active Directory Domain, you should have, at a minimum, two domain controllers.… [Keep reading] “Create a Replica Domain Controller using Desired State Configuration”

Azure AD Connect – Multi-valued Directory Extensions

16th of September, 2016 / / No Comments

I happened to be at a customer site working on an Azure project when I was asked to cast a quick eye over an issue they had been battling with. They had an Azure AD Connect server synchronising user and group objects between their corporate Active Directory and their Azure AD, used for Office 365 services and other Azure-based applications. Their intention was to synchronise some additional attributes from their Active Directory to Azure AD so that they could be used by some of their custom built Azure applications.… [Keep reading] “Azure AD Connect – Multi-valued Directory Extensions”

Azure Functions or WebJobs? Where to run my background processes on Azure?

14th of September, 2016 / / 14 Comments

functionsvswebjobs-icon

Introduction

Azure WebJobs have been a quite popular way of running background processes on Azure. They have been around since early 2014. When they were released, they were a true PaaS alternative to Cloud Services Worker Roles bringing many benefits like the WebJobs SDK, easy configuration of scalability and availability, a dashboard, and more recently all the advantages of Azure Resource Manager and a very flexible continuous delivery model. My colleague Namit previously compared WebJobs to Worker Roles.… [Keep reading] “Azure Functions or WebJobs? Where to run my background processes on Azure?”

Mobile Application Management (MAM)

13th of September, 2016 / / 6 Comments

The biggest challenge for BYOD devices is data security and leakage, a common method to enforce data protection is through Exchange ActiveSync and/or Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools such as AirWatch, Intune and others.

Both ActiveSync and MDM comes with the option of device wipe and enforcing device PIN. If the device is lost or the employee is terminated, the company could remote wipe the device to protect its data. While device wipe is great from the company’s perspective, it is almost always met with resistance from the employees because everyone fears the company has the power to wipe their personal data such as photos and contacts from their own personal devices.… [Keep reading] “Mobile Application Management (MAM)”

Leveraging the Microsoft Graph API with PowerShell and OAuth 2.0

13th of September, 2016 / / 4 Comments 
Update Oct 2019: See this post for simplifying oAuth Authentication to Microsoft Graph using PowerShell and the MSAL (Microsoft Authentication Libraries)

Background

Microsoft Graph is the evolvement of API’s into Microsoft Cloud Services. For me not being a developer, a key difference is interacting with with Graph API using OAuth 2.0 via PowerShell. Through a number of my previous posts I’ve interacted with the Graph API using client libraries such as the Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory library. This post details using PowerShell to talk directly to Graph API and managing Authentication and Authorization using OAuth 2.0 and Azure WebApp.… [Keep reading] “Leveraging the Microsoft Graph API with PowerShell and OAuth 2.0”

Azure API Management Step by Step

9th of September, 2016 / / 3 Comments

jorge-fotoIntroduction

As a speaker and cloud consultant, I have learned and received a lot of feedback about Azure API management platform from customers and community members. I will share some of my learnings in this series of blog posts. Let’s get started!

apim-image

APIs – Application programming interfaces are everywhere! They are already part of many companies’ strategies. But how could we consolidate internal and external APIs? How could you productize and monetize them for your company?… [Keep reading] “Azure API Management Step by Step”

Create a new Active Directory Forest using Desired State Configuration

8th of September, 2016 / / 9 Comments

Originally posted on Nivlesh’s blog @ nivleshc.wordpress.com

Desired State Configuration (DSC) is a declarative language in which you state “what” you want done instead of going into the nitty gritty level to describe exactly how to get it done. Jeffrey Snover (the inventor of PowerShell) quotes Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation to describe DSC – it tells the servers to “Make it so”.

In this blog, I will show you how to use DSC to create a brand new Active Directory Forest.… [Keep reading] “Create a new Active Directory Forest using Desired State Configuration”

Applying Business Rules to Profile Photos Using Microsoft Cognitive Services

7th of September, 2016 / / No Comments

A customer I am working with at the moment is in the (very) early stages of discussion around the gathering and application of profile photos across their internal systems. In this particular case, we are considering that the photos themselves do not exist. Sure, there are ID card photos of startled staff taken on day one of their employment, but people being people, they would rather not be forever digitally represented by their former selves – particularly not the version of themselves which had an ID photo taken in a poorly lit un-used meeting room 7 years ago before they got that gym membership.… [Keep reading] “Applying Business Rules to Profile Photos Using Microsoft Cognitive Services”