Experiences with the new AWS Application Load Balancer

29th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

Originally posted on Andrew’s blog @ cloudconsultancy.info

Summary

Recently I had an opportunity to test drive AWS Application load balancer as my client had a requirement for making their websocket application fault tolerant. The implementation was complete windows stack and utilised ADFS 2.0 for SAML authentication however this should not affect other people’s implementation.
The AWS Application load balancer is a fairly new feature which provides layer 7 load balancing and support for HTTP/2 as well as websockets.… [Keep reading] “Experiences with the new AWS Application Load Balancer”

Site Delivery with AWS CloudFront CDN

29th of November, 2016 / / 1 Comment

Nowadays, most companies are using some sort of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve the performance and high availability of their sites, those include Azure CDN, CloudFlare, CloudFront, Varnish, and so on.
In this blog however, I will demonstrate how you can deliver your entire website through AWS’s CloudFront. This blog will not go through other CDN services. This blog also assumes you have knowledge of AWS services, DNS, and CDN.
What is CloudFront?

Amazon CloudFront is a global content delivery network (CDN) service that accelerates delivery of your websites, APIs, video content or other web assets.

… [Keep reading] “Site Delivery with AWS CloudFront CDN”

Automate the archiving of your CloudHub application logs

24th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

CloudHub is MuleSoft’s integration platform as a service (iPaaS) that enables the deployment and management of integration solutions in the cloud. Runtime Manager, CloudHub’s management tool,  provides an integrated set of logging tools that allow support and operations staff to monitor and troubleshoot application logs of deployed applications.
Currently, application log entries are kept for 30 days or until they reach a max size of 100 MB. Often we are required to keep these logs for greater periods of time for auditing or archiving purposes.… [Keep reading] “Automate the archiving of your CloudHub application logs”

Forcing MFA in Amazon Web Services

24th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

Many organisations will want to enforce MFA for an added security layer for their users. As each service is different, in some cases enforcing MFA may not be as easy as it sound.
In AWS, an administrator cannot simply “tick” to enable MFA on all users (as of this writing). However, MFA can be enforced on API calling, to “force” a user to setup MFA. Think of it as a backdoor, to forcing or enabling MFA on all your IAM users.… [Keep reading] “Forcing MFA in Amazon Web Services”

Using Azure Functions with the Lithnet MIIS Automation Powershell Module to query your Microsoft Identity Manager Metaverse

16th of November, 2016 / / No Comments

This is the 2nd blog continuing on from this post which is an introduction to using Azure Functions with the Lithnet FIM/MIM Powershell Modules. If you haven’t read that one please do so to get up to speed before this one as it has more detail around the setup.

Overview

This post details similar functionality to the first post but with integration to the FIM/MIM Synchronisation Server and the FIM/MIM Metaverse rather than the FIM/MIM Service.… [Keep reading] “Using Azure Functions with the Lithnet MIIS Automation Powershell Module to query your Microsoft Identity Manager Metaverse”

Automate Secondary ADFS Node Installation and Configuration

1st of November, 2016 / / No Comments

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

Introduction

Additional nodes in an ADFS farm are required to provide redundancy incase your primary ADFS node goes offline. This ensures your ADFS service is still up and servicing all incoming requests. Additional nodes also help in load balancing the incoming traffic, which provides a better user experience in cases of high authentication traffic.

Overview

Once an ADFS farm has been created, adding additional nodes is quite simple and mostly relies on the same concepts for creating the ADFS farm.… [Keep reading] “Automate Secondary ADFS Node Installation and Configuration”

Ubuntu security hardening for the cloud.

Hardening Ubuntu Server Security For Use in the Cloud

26th of October, 2016 / / 1 Comment

The following describes a few simple means of improving Ubuntu Server security for use in the cloud. Many of the optimizations discussed below apply equally to other Linux based distribution although the commands and settings will vary somewhat.

Azure cloud specific recommendations

  1. Use private key and certificate based SSH authentication exclusively and never use passwords.
  2. Never employ common usernames such as root , admin or administrator.
  3. Change the default public SSH port away from 22.
… [Keep reading] “Hardening Ubuntu Server Security For Use in the Cloud”

Are There Sufficient Standards in Cloud Computing Today?

26th of October, 2016 / / No Comments

The hybrid cloud may be a hot topic with adoption growing faster than ever but should we be concerned about a lack of established standards?

What is the Hybrid Cloud?

Private clouds, whether owned or leased, generally consist of closed IT infrastructures accessible only to a business which then makes available resources to it’s own internal customers. Private clouds are often home to core applications where control is essential to the business, they can also offer economies of scales where companies can afford larger, long term investments and have the ability to either run these environments themselves or pay for a managed service.… [Keep reading] “Are There Sufficient Standards in Cloud Computing Today?”

How to export user error data from Azure AD Connect with CSExport

24th of October, 2016 / / 1 Comment

A short post is a good post?! – the other day I had some problems with users synchronising with Azure AD via Azure AD Connect. Ultimately Azure AD Connect was not able to meet the requirements of the particular solution, as Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) 2016 has the final 5% of the config required for, as I found out, a complicated user+resource and user forest design.
In saying that though, during my troubleshooting, I was looking at ways to export the error data from Azure AD Connect.… [Keep reading] “How to export user error data from Azure AD Connect with CSExport”

Azure networking VNET architecture best practice update (post #MSIgnite 2016)

11th of October, 2016 / / No Comments

During Microsoft Ignite 2016 I attended a few Azure networking architecture sessions. Towards the end of the week, though, they did overlap some content which was not ideal. A key message was there though. An interesting bit of reference architecture information.
Of note and relevant to this blog post:

  • Migrate and disaster recover Azure workloads using Operations Management Suite by Mahesh Unnifrishan, Microsoft Program Manager
  • Review ExpressRoute for Office 365 configuration (routing, proxy and network security) by Paul Andrew, Senior Product Marketing Manager
  • Run highly available solutions on Microsoft Azure by Igal Figlin, Principal PM- Availability, Scalability and Performance on Azure
  • Gain insight into real-world usage of the Microsoft cloud using Azure ExpressRoute by Bala Natarajan Microsoft Program Manager
  • Achieve high-performance data centre expansion with Azure Networking by Narayan Annamalai, Principal PM Manager, Microsoft

Background

For the last few years there has been one piece of design around Azure Virtual Networks (VNETs) that caused angst.… [Keep reading] “Azure networking VNET architecture best practice update (post #MSIgnite 2016)”