Utilising Azure Text to Speech Cognitive Services with PowerShell

7th of June, 2018 / / No Comments

Introduction

Recently I’ve been building an IoT Project that leverages Azure Cognitive Services. A couple of the services I needed to use were for converting Text to Speech and Speech to Text. The guides were pretty good from Microsoft, but not obvious for use with native PowerShell. I’ve got it all working, so am documenting it for myself for the future but also to help anyone else trying to work it out.

Accessing the Cognitive Services Text to Speech API

Azure Cognitive Services Text to Speech is a great service that provides the ability as the name suggests, convert text to speech.… [Keep reading] “Utilising Azure Text to Speech Cognitive Services with PowerShell”

Implementing Azure API Management with the Lithnet Microsoft Identity Manager Rest API

30th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Introduction

Earlier this week I wrote this post that detailed implementing the Lithnet REST API for FIM/MIM Service. I also detailed using PowerShell to interact with the API Endpoint.
Now lets imagine you are looking to have a number of Azure Serverless features leverage your Rest API enabled Microsoft Identity Manager environment. Or even offer it “as-a-Service”. You’ll want to have some visibility as to how it is performing, and you’ll probably want to implement features such as caching and rate limiting let alone putting more security controls around it.… [Keep reading] “Implementing Azure API Management with the Lithnet Microsoft Identity Manager Rest API”

Utilizing Sharegate migration Templates for Network share migrations

29th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Sharegate supports PowerShell based scripting which can be used to automate and schedule migrations. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate the use of pre-created migration templates to initiate migration tasks in Sharegate using PowerShell scripts. In one of my previous project, we were migrating network shares to SharePoint Online using Sharegate as the migration tool of choice.

Based on our discussions with business divisions and IT department, the following requirements were identified for most of the divisions:

  1. Office documents, PDFs, Image files will be migrated
  2. Include only documents modified after a date for e.g.
… [Keep reading] “Utilizing Sharegate migration Templates for Network share migrations”

Deploying an Active Directory Forest using AWS CloudFormation

27th of May, 2018 / / 1 Comment

First published at https://nivleshc.wordpress.com

Introduction

Wow, it is amazing how time flies. Almost two years ago, I wrote a set of blogs that showed how one can use Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates and Desired State Configuration (DSC) scripts to deploy an Active Directory Forest automatically.
For those that would like to take a trip down memory lane, here is the link to the blog.
Recently, I have been playing with AWS CloudFormation and I am simply in awe by its power.… [Keep reading] “Deploying an Active Directory Forest using AWS CloudFormation”

Some advanced ADFS 4.0 branding customization

23rd of May, 2018 / / No Comments

As you are aware that you can use some of the PowerShell commands to update the logo, banner/illustration images as well as home, privacy and other links of the ADFS 4.0 home realm discovery or sign in page. Below is an example of doing so
Set-AdfsWebTheme -TargetName custom -Logo @{path=”P:\Theme\Logo\logo.png”}

The above command would update the current logo image on the custom theme.
Set-AdfsGlobalWebContent -HomeLink https://{www.YourWebsite.Com}/ -HomeLinkText Home

Above command would update the “Home” link on all pages of your ADFS theme.… [Keep reading] “Some advanced ADFS 4.0 branding customization”

Creating your own PowerShell modules for Azure Automation – Part 2

23rd of May, 2018 / / 1 Comment

In my previous article I explained the basic steps for creating a PowerShell module that you can upload to Azure Automation. Now, being pedantic by nature, I see a lot of scripts of really poor quality and as I write modules quite regularly, I want to share some useful tips to turn a rubbish module into something significantly better.
Previously, I wrote a basic module that looks like this:

You can run the module by using the command new-compliment -name “someone”.… [Keep reading] “Creating your own PowerShell modules for Azure Automation – Part 2”

Creating your own PowerShell modules for Azure Automation – Part 1

23rd of May, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Creating a PowerShell module is an easy way to create scripts you can use over and over again. If you Google  this you’ll find that to create a module is as simple as creating a PowerShell Script with the psm1 extension. However, that won’t work for Azure. Azure loads modules automatically, so you need to write your module to load automatically as well. To ensure a module loads correctly, you’ll need to create a module manifest file.… [Keep reading] “Creating your own PowerShell modules for Azure Automation – Part 1”

Exporting IoT Device Information from Azure IoT Hub(s) using PowerShell

22nd of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Introduction

I have a number of Azure IoT Hubs each with a number of devices configured on them. I wanted to export the details for each IoT Device. This can’t be done via the Azure Portal (May 2018) so I looked to leverage the Azure.IoTHub New-AzureRmIotHubExportDevices cmdlet.
Now the documentation for New-AzureRmIotHubExportDevices is a little light on. When I was running the New-AzureRmIotHubExportDevices I kept getting the error ‘Operation returned an invalid status code ‘InternalServerError’.… [Keep reading] “Exporting IoT Device Information from Azure IoT Hub(s) using PowerShell”

Notes From The Field – Enabling GAL Segmentation in Exchange Online

17th of May, 2018 / / 1 Comment

First published at https://nivleshc.wordpress.com

Introduction

A few weeks back, I was tasked with configuring Global Address List (GAL) Segmentation for one of my clients. GAL Segmentation is not a new concept, and if you were to Google it (as you would do in this day and age), you will find numerous posts on it.
However, during my research, I didn’t find any ONE article that helped me. Instead I had to rely on multiple articles/blogposts to guide me into reaching the result.… [Keep reading] “Notes From The Field – Enabling GAL Segmentation in Exchange Online”

Removing Specific Azure Tags – PowerShell

17th of May, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Azure Tags

You apply tags to your Azure resources to logically organize them by categories. Each tag consists of a name and a value. For example, you can apply the name “Environment” and the value “Production” to all the resources in production.
After you apply tags, you can retrieve all the resources in your subscription with that tag name and value. Tags enable you to retrieve related resources from different resource groups. This approach is helpful when you need to organize resources for billing or management.… [Keep reading] “Removing Specific Azure Tags – PowerShell”