Azure Active Directory Synchronization Tool: Password Sync as Backup for AD FS Federated Domains

9th of July, 2014 / / No Comments

Kloud has helped many Australian businesses leverage Microsoft cloud services such as Office 365, Intune and Microsoft Azure and most have implemented Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) to provide a highly available Single Sign-On (SSO) user experience. In mid-2013, the Windows Azure Active Directory Synchronization Tool was updated to support password synchronisation with Azure Active Directory, which provided an alternative way to leverage on-premises authored identities with Microsoft’s cloud services.

Password synchronisation is a feature of the Azure Active Directory Sync Tool that will synchronise the password hash from your on-premises Active Directory environment to the Azure Active Directory.… [Keep reading] “Azure Active Directory Synchronization Tool: Password Sync as Backup for AD FS Federated Domains”

Microsoft Azure Cross Platform Command Line Step by Step

24th of June, 2014 / / No Comments

Microsoft Azure is not just about Windows, Microsoft Azure also supports Linux workloads. Spinning up Linux VMs in Microsoft’s fabric offers alternative options for open-source technologies with Microsoft Azure services.

Microsoft also provides Azure Cross-Platform Command-Line Interface (X-Plat CLI) which is a set of Open-Source, Cross-Platform commands for managing Microsoft Azure platform. X-Plat CLI has few top-level commands which correspond to different set of Microsoft Azure features. Typing “azure” will list each of the sub commands.… [Keep reading] “Microsoft Azure Cross Platform Command Line Step by Step”

Microsoft Antimalware for Azure is Now in Preview

14th of June, 2014 / / No Comments

Microsoft Antimalware for Azure Cloud Services and Virtual Machines is a new cloud service that detects and remove viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Administrators can configure alerts to detect when malicious software attempts to install or run on a Microsoft Azure workload. The service is currently in preview.

I was really excited when I heard this new service announced at TechEd North America. Microsoft Antimalware for Azure addresses a major gap in the market. There is a legitimate need to protect IaaS and PaaS workloads running on Azure from viruses and other malware.… [Keep reading] “Microsoft Antimalware for Azure is Now in Preview”

Education institute improves productivity and reduces costs with Microsoft Azure and Office 365

12th of June, 2014 / / No Comments

Customer Overview
Principals Australia Institute (PAI) provides quality professional learning, leadership development and support to principals and school leaders. PAI’s programs and services help build effective, inspirational and sustainable leadership in Australia’s 10,000 government, Catholic and independent primary and secondary schools.

Business Situation
PAI expressed a desire to improve productivity, manage costs and reduce overall risk to its business. Kloud worked with PAI IT staff to provide a roadmap towards a set of IT reforms that delivered on these goals.… [Keep reading] “Education institute improves productivity and reduces costs with Microsoft Azure and Office 365”

Microsoft Azure Multi-Site VPN

10th of June, 2014 / / 24 Comments

Recently I had the opportunity to assist an organisation which has physical offices located in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney replacing their expensive MPLS network with a Multi-site VPN to Azure.

This worked well for the customer as they no longer have any server infrastructure on premises. Each branch office requires access to the virtual infrastructure hosted within their Azure VNET.

The solution provides each office connectivity to the VMs and other services hosted within Azure, as well as a means of inter-site connectivity to PC’s and other services located within the branch offices on the rare occasion where this may still be required.… [Keep reading] “Microsoft Azure Multi-Site VPN”

Downloading Azure Friday videos from Channel 9 with one line of PowerShell

23rd of May, 2014 / / No Comments

As it’s Friday, I’ve set myself the challenge of downloading all the Azure Friday videos from the Channel 9 website with a single line of PowerShell. If you’re not familiar with this fantastic series, Scott Hanselman talks to the actual engineers who build Microsoft Azure to discuss cloud development in small bite-sized episodes. It’s great, and soon you’ll be able to watch it offline from the comfort of your own mobile device.

Here goes.

First, I’ll need to get a catalogue of all the video titles and their corresponding download links. … [Keep reading] “Downloading Azure Friday videos from Channel 9 with one line of PowerShell”

How to install Magento on Azure Websites

23rd of May, 2014 / / 10 Comments

This blog explains in a step-by-step how to install (fresh install or migrate) a Magento package into Azure websites

Background

1. What is Magento?
Magento is an eCommerce software platform used by some of the world’s leading brands. More details could be found here on Magento.

2. Why install Magento on Azure?
There is a long list of reasons of why would somebody wants to migrate to the cloud, but few of these reasons could be 1) Cost saving 2) Load Balancing 3) Scalability 4) Less maintenance.… [Keep reading] “How to install Magento on Azure Websites”

Bad Request: Internal Load Balancer usage not allowed for this deployment

20th of May, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Microsoft released a number of new networking features for the Azure platform this week:

  • Multiple Site-to-Site VPNs
  • VNET-to-VNET Secure Connectivity
  • Reserved IPs
  • Instance level Public IPs
  • Internal Load Balancing

Announcement details can be found on Scott Gu’s blog post

Internal load balancing (ILB) was a much needed networking feature that will enable the design of highly available environments in hybrid infrastructure scenarios. Until now, 3rd party solutions were required to load balance workloads in IaaS virtual machines when accessed by on-premise (internal) clients across the site-to-site VPN.… [Keep reading] “Bad Request: Internal Load Balancer usage not allowed for this deployment”

Are My Cloud Services Vulnerable to “Heartbleed”?

16th of April, 2014 / / No Comments

I have been receiving questions from a number of customers about the “Heartbleed” vulnerability that has been widely reported by the media.  Many customers are concerned as to whether they are at risk by using cloud services from Microsoft and other providers.  There a reasonable concern with any IT service when it comes to security.  Your provider should be able to answer simple questions about whether a service is vulnerable or not to Heartbleed and what steps are being taken to mitigate the risk.… [Keep reading] “Are My Cloud Services Vulnerable to “Heartbleed”?”

New backup to Azure feature in SQL Server 2014

10th of April, 2014 / / No Comments

SQL Server 2014 went RTM a couple of weeks ago and today it hits general availability for on-premises users via MSDN download, and for the cloud, where you can now spin one up as a VM from the Azure image gallery.  So let’s saddle up and take Microsoft’s new Pegasi workhorse for a flying gallop through the hybrid cloud. Giddyup!

Installation

First to download the SQL Server 2014 Developer Edition (x64) from MSDN.  It’s a hefty 2.6 GB image, meaning it’s time to put the new Kloud HQ 100 Mbps fibre link through its paces… four minutes later and we’re done, nice. … [Keep reading] “New backup to Azure feature in SQL Server 2014”