Web Application ADFS integration error: Invalid Cryptographic Algorithm

9th of July, 2018 / / No Comments

Introduction

In this post I will be talking about invalid cryptographic algorithm exception in web application. We have a multi-tenant single sign on asp.net application which connected with different identity provider to enable single sign on experience.

Background

Single sign-on multi-application scenario has been a soughed feature lately to make the user experience seamless across applications. In this case web application (service provider) was integrating with the ADFS 2.0 client hosted on Windows server 2012 R2 to implement single sign on experience for the end user on their network.… [Keep reading] “Web Application ADFS integration error: Invalid Cryptographic Algorithm”

IT Service Management (ITSM) – Continual Service Improvement (CSI)Process and Approach

29th of June, 2018 / / No Comments

Continual Service Improvement (CSI) Process

To define specific initiatives aimed at improving services and processes, based on the results of service reviews and process evaluations. The resulting initiatives are either internal initiatives pursued by the service provider on his own behalf, or initiatives which require the customer’s cooperation. (from ITIL).

Continual Service Improvement (CSI) Purpose, Goals and Objectives

  • Continually align IT services to changing business needs
  • Identify and implement improvements throughout the service life cycle
  • Determine what to measure, why to measure it and define successful outcomes
  • Implement processes with clearly defined goals, objectives and measures
  • Review service level achievement results
  • Ensure quality management methods are used

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Continual Service Improvement (CSI) Values

  • Enables continuous monitoring and feedback through all life cycle stages
  • Sets targets for improvement
  • Calculates Return on Investment (ROI)
  • Calculates Value on Investment (VOI)

Business Value of Measurement

Consider the following factors when measuring process or service efficiency.… [Keep reading] “IT Service Management (ITSM) – Continual Service Improvement (CSI)Process and Approach”

Cloud Operations – Key Service Operation Principles – Consideration

23rd of June, 2018 / / No Comments

Below are some good IT Service Management Operational Principles to consider when migrating applications into Cloud.  These will help to align your operational goals and organisation’s strategic initiatives.

Principle #1

Organisation’s IT Service Management will govern and lead all IT services utilising strategic processes and technology enablers based on industry best practices.

Implications / Outcomes

  • The selected process and technology will be fit for purpose
  • Suppliers and Service Partners will be required to integrate with strategic processes and technologies
  • Process re-engineering including training will be required
  • Everyone uses or integrates with a central platform
  • Process efficiency through effective process integration
  • Reduced operating cost
  • Ensures contestability of services for Organisation

Principle #2

Contestability between IT Service providers is a key outcome for service management across IT@Organisation, where it does not have a negative impact on the customer experience.… [Keep reading] “Cloud Operations – Key Service Operation Principles – Consideration”

IT Service Management (ITSM) – Process Maturity Evaluation

15th of June, 2018 / / No Comments

ITSM Process Maturity Evaluation

Why are we doing this?

It is useful to measure Service Management process maturity for a number of reasons:

  • To understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing processes.
  • As a guide to planning continual process improvement.
  • As a mechanism to measure the impact of process improvement activities.

What is it?

The Process Maturity Evaluation is a method of assessing the current state of Service Management processes and procedures, it needs to:

  • Have the right balance between detail and effort.
… [Keep reading] “IT Service Management (ITSM) – Process Maturity Evaluation”

Standard Operational Checks for IT Service Management Processes – Once Implemented

10th of June, 2018 / / No Comments

Why Operational Process Checks are Required in Service Management?

  • In order to sustain and measure how effectively we are executing our processes, we require to have process operational checks once implemented.
  • This will allow us to identify inefficiencies and subsequently to improve the current Service Management processes.
  • These checks will also provide input into Continual Service Improvement (CSI) Programme.

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Operational Checks for Service Management Processes – Once Implemented

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Standard Guidelines

  • The operational process checks will be managed by IT Service Management
  • Through process governance meetings, agreement can be established on who will update a section of a process or the whole document.
… [Keep reading] “Standard Operational Checks for IT Service Management Processes – Once Implemented”

Automate network share migrations to Sharepoint Online using ShareGate PowerShell

7th of June, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Sharegate supports PowerShell scripting which can be used to automate and schedule migrations. In this post, I am going to demonstrate an example of end to end automation to migrate network Shares to SharePoint Online. The process effectively reduces the task of executing migrations to “just flicking a switch”.

Pre-Migration

The following pre-migration activities were conducted before the actual migration:

  1. Analysis of Network Shares
  2. Discussions with stakeholders from different business units to identify content needs
  3. Pilot migrations to identify average throughput capability of migration environment
  4. Identification of acceptable data filtration criteria, and prepare Sharegate migration template files based on business requirements
  5. Derive a migration plan from above steps

Migration Automation flow

The diagram represents a high-level flow of the process:
 

The migration automation was implemented to execute the following steps:

  1. Migration team indicates that migration(s) are ready to be initiated by updating the list item(s) in the SharePoint list
  2. Updated item(s) are detected by a PowerShell script polling the SharePoint list
  3. The list item data is downloaded as a CSV file.
… [Keep reading] “Automate network share migrations to Sharepoint Online using ShareGate PowerShell”

Back up API Management Service to blob storages by calling Azure API from .Net App

31st of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Recently I am setting up some Azure API management services and thinking about how to automate the process of backing up and restoring API management configurations in case of disaster recovery scenarios.
I understand there are many ways to do that. I will start with a C# app first and show you how I achieved to back up the Azure API management service’s configurations to a blob storage via API calls.
Creating Azure AD Application for Token Authentications

  1. Login Azure AD and navigate to the App registrations
  2. Create a new application registration
  3. Fill in the application name and select Native for the application type
  4. Enter a URL for the URL redirection field
  5. Complete the app registration
  6. Go to settings -> Add “Windows Azure Service Management API” as required permissions

Windows Azure Service Management API
Once finish the steps above, you will have Azure App Id & redirect URL, we will use these values to retrieve the authtoken to access azure environment.… [Keep reading] “Back up API Management Service to blob storages by calling Azure API from .Net App”

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”

Proactive Problem Management – Benefits and Considerations

17th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

IT Service Management – Proactive Problem Management

The goal of Proactive Problem Management is to prevent Incidents by identifying weaknesses in the IT infrastructure and applications, before any issues have been instigated.

Benefits

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  • Greater system stability – This leads to increased user satisfaction.
  • Increased user productivity – This adds to a sizable productivity gain across the enterprise.
  • Positive customer feedback – When we proactively approach users who have been experiencing issues and offer to fix their problems the feedback will be positive.
… [Keep reading] “Proactive Problem Management – Benefits and Considerations”

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”