Options to consider for SharePoint Framework solutions deployment

19th of October, 2018 / / No Comments

There are various options to package and deploy a SharePoint Framework solution and as part of packaging and deployment process, the developers have to identify a best approach for their team. Sometimes it becomes a nightmare to plan the right approach for your solution, if you haven’t weighed the options properly.

Working at multiple implementations of SPFx solution for sometime now, I have been able to get an idea of various options and approach for them.… [Keep reading] “Options to consider for SharePoint Framework solutions deployment”

Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Applications via API with PowerShell

19th of October, 2018 / / No Comments 
Update: Oct 2019. Managing IdentityNow Applications is now easier using the SailPoint IdentityNow PowerShell Module.

The SailPoint IdentityNow Request Center comes pre-populated with 130 Applications (as shown below) that by default are visible to users in the Dashboard and can be requested via the Request Center. Whilst this is great the majority are not often applicable and you need to configure each individual application to remove visibility and requestablity. You could of course ask your IdentityNow Support representative to do this for you, or you could manage it yourself.… [Keep reading] “Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Applications via API with PowerShell”

WorkdayAPI PowerShell Module

Obtaining Workday HR Supervisory Hierarchy, Provisioning Flags and Photos with PowerShell

18th of October, 2018 / / No Comments

A few weeks back I posted this regarding using PowerShell and the Granfeldt PowerShell Management Agent to interface Microsoft Identity Manager with Workday HR. The core of this functionality is the WorkdayAPI PowerShell Module which I forked from Nathan and added additional functionality.

New WorkdayAPI PowerShell Module Cmdlets

This post details additional functionality I’ve added to the WorkdayAPI PowerShell Module. Updates include the following additional cmdlets;

Get-WorkdayWorkerProvData

Implementations of Workday obviously vary from organisation to organisation.… [Keep reading] “Obtaining Workday HR Supervisory Hierarchy, Provisioning Flags and Photos with PowerShell”

Step-by-step: Using Azure DevOps Services to deploy ARM templates with CI/ CD – Part 1

17th of October, 2018 / / 4 Comments

In this blog, we will see how to get started with Azure DevOps for an Infrastructure background person.

We will familiarize ourselves with deploying your Azure resources with ARM templates by using Azure DevOps with Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD).

I have made this entire post into two parts for easier understanding:

Part 1: Creating your first project in Azure DevOps

Part 2: Enabling the first project in Azure DevOps for Continuous Integration (CI) / Continuous Deployment (CD).… [Keep reading] “Step-by-step: Using Azure DevOps Services to deploy ARM templates with CI/ CD – Part 1”

A Lean Approach to UX design – ASOS case study – Part 1 of 2

17th of October, 2018 / / 2 Comments

The double diamond seems to be a popular method of approaching design thinking for most UX designers. Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver. But often clients and stakeholders start to run for the hills when they realise that the discover phase involves time consuming user research, research that the client believes they don’t need to do because “they already know their users”. A lean approach to user experience design may be an easier way to sell design thinking to a client as it involves starting with assumptions and creating hypothesis that may solve a problem, then testing these hypotheses with real users in a short time frame.… [Keep reading] “A Lean Approach to UX design – ASOS case study – Part 1 of 2”

Replacing your Secure FTP Server with Amazon Simple Storage Service

14th of October, 2018 / / 1 Comment

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

Introduction

What if I told you that you could get rid of most of your servers, however still consume the services that you rely on them for? No longer will you have to worry about ensuring the servers are up all the time, that they are regularly patched and updated. Would you be interested?

To quote Werner Vogel “No server is easier to manage than no server”.

In this blog, I will show you how you can potentially replace your secure ftp servers by using Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).… [Keep reading] “Replacing your Secure FTP Server with Amazon Simple Storage Service”

User Psychology and Experience

11th of October, 2018 / / No Comments

Often times when designing a product or solution for a customer, in planning and concept development, we might consider the user experience to be one of two (or both) things:

  1. User feedback regarding their interaction with their technological environment/platforms
  2. The experience the user is likely to have with given technology based on various factors that contribute to delivering that technology to them; presentation, training, accessibility, necessity, intuitiveness, just to name a few.

These factors are not solely focused on the user and their role in the human – technology interaction process, but also their experience of dealing with us as solution providers.… [Keep reading] “User Psychology and Experience”

Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Roles via API and PowerShell

11th of October, 2018 / / No Comments 
Update: Oct 2019. IdentityNow Roles can be easily managed using the SailPoint IdentityNow PowerShell Module.

Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Role Groups typically involves leveraging the SailPoint IdentityNow Portal for the creation and on-going management. That’s because the API for Roles is not published or documented.

What happens then if you have many to create, update/manage? How does the IdentityNow Portal use the non-published undocumented API’s to create and manage them? I’ve worked it out and am documenting it here in the interim until the API’s get versioned and published.… [Keep reading] “Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Roles via API and PowerShell”

Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Governance Groups via the API with PowerShell

9th of October, 2018 / / No Comments 
Update: Oct 2019. Governance Groups can be easily managed using the SailPoint IdentityNow PowerShell Module.

In this post I detail the management of SailPoint IdentityNow Governance Groups using the IdentityNow v2 API as the functions associated with Governance Groups is not currently detailed in the v2 API Documentation here (9 Oct 2018).

In order to interact with the v2 API you will need to use Basic Authentication which I detail in this post here.… [Keep reading] “Managing SailPoint IdentityNow Governance Groups via the API with PowerShell”

Set up Accounts and secure passwords to run automation workloads in Azure Functions

5th of October, 2018 / / No Comments

In some of my previous blogs here, we have seen how we could use Azure Functions to to automate processes and SharePoint workloads.

Most of these jobs run using elevated or stored privileged accounts as the Azure Function is in a different context than the user context. There are various ways we could setup these accounts. Some of these approaches are below:

  1. Azure AD Service Accounts
    • Suitable for all operations
    • Need access to resource
    • Reusable across multiple workloads
  2. Azure AD Apps
    • Suitable for Graph Access
    • Need exact permissions set up
    • Might need Tenant Admin authentication
  3. SharePoint App Accounts
    • Suitable for SharePoint workloads.
… [Keep reading] “Set up Accounts and secure passwords to run automation workloads in Azure Functions”