Azure AD Domain Services

4th of December, 2017 / / No Comments

I recently had what I thought was a rather unique requirement from a customer.
The requirement was to build Azure IaaS virtual machines and have them joined to a managed domain, while also being able to authenticate to the virtual machines using Azure AD credentials.
The answer is Azure AD Domain Services!
Azure AD Domain Services provides managed domain services such as domain join, group policy and Kerberos/NTLM authentication without the need for you to deploy and  manage domain controllers in the cloud.… [Keep reading] “Azure AD Domain Services”

Migrating VirtualBox VDI Virtual Machines to Azure

5th of April, 2017 / / 4 Comments

Overview

Over the years I’ve transitioned through a number of laptops and for whatever reason they never fully get put out to pasture. Two specific laptops are used semi-regularly for functions associated with a few virtual machines they hold. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve been a big proponent of VirtualBox. It’s footprint and functionality aligned with my needs. The downside these days is needing to sometimes carry two laptops just to use an application or two contained inside a Virtual Machine on VirtualBox.… [Keep reading] “Migrating VirtualBox VDI Virtual Machines to Azure”

Exchange Server 2016 in Azure

23rd of February, 2017 / / 13 Comments

I recently worked on a project where I had to install Exchange Server 2016 on an Azure VM and I chose a D2 sized Azure VM (2 cores, 7GB RAM) thinking that will suffice, well that was a big mistake.
The installation made it to the last step before a warning appeared informing me that the server is low on memory resources and eventually terminated the installation, leaving it incomplete.
Let this be a warning to the rest of you, choose a D3 or above sized Azure VM to save yourself a whole lot of agony.… [Keep reading] “Exchange Server 2016 in Azure”

Exchange Server 2016 install error: “Active Directory could not be contacted”

23rd of February, 2017 / / No Comments

I recently worked on a project where I had to install Exchange Server 2016 on an Azure VM and received error “Active Directory could not be contacted”.
To resolve the issue, I had to complete the following steps;

  1. Remove the Azure VM public IP address
  2. Disable IPv6 on the NICipv6-disabled
  3. Set the IPv4 DNS suffix to point to your domain. If a public address is being used it will be set to reddog.microsoft.com by default.dns-suffix

Once done the installation could proceed and Active Directory was contactable.

Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator

16th of March, 2015 / / 5 Comments

Originally posted in Lucian’s blog over at lucian.blog.

Whether you’re wanting to deploy a new workload in Microsoft Azure, wanting to extend an existing workload via a hybrid scenario or like me wanting to use Azure outside of work to gain more knowledge and experience, the pay-as-you-go charge model can often times intimidate and even deter many from using a cloud service like Azure. From a lab or dev point of view, it is all well and good to dabble in Azure at the various tiers of engagement, but at the end of the day you could be left with a credit card bill allot larger than expected. Enter the Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator where you can accurately estimate your potential usage for any given service.

2015-03-16-APC-001

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Highly Available SQL 2012 across Azure VNET (Part 2)

5th of August, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Part 1 can be found here.

In this Part 2 we will discuss:

  • Create DC on Azure and confirm VNET to VNET connectivity
  • SQL VMs
  • Configure WSFC and lastly configure AAG

DC and Connectivity VNET to VNET

First thing first, we need VMs for the Domain Controller (DC) and SQL Server 2012. I will use my script below to create few VMs

I created 2 DC , one on each VNET: AZSEDC001 and AZUSDC001
I registered both as DNS on Azure.… [Keep reading] “Highly Available SQL 2012 across Azure VNET (Part 2)”

Windows Azure Virtual Machine Domain Provisioning with PowerShell

27th of July, 2012 / / 5 Comments

Windows Azure Virtual Machines preview allows persistent Virtual Machines which retain the same private addresses on reboot. This means that Active Directory can easily run in Azure without worry of the Domain Controller IP changing. This also means that Virtual Machines running in Azure that can be joined to your on-premise Active Directory using a site-to-site IPsec VPN. The Azure VMs then act like a branch network with full connectivity. I covered setting up TMG 2010 as a VPN endpoint (instead of using Cisco or Juniper hardware devices) for Windows Azure Virtual Network in a previous post.… [Keep reading] “Windows Azure Virtual Machine Domain Provisioning with PowerShell”

Windows Azure Virtual Network VPN with TMG 2010

25th of July, 2012 / / 25 Comments

Microsoft announced Windows Azure Virtual Network and Windows Azure Virtual Machines in June 2012 to provide IaaS ‘Hybrid Cloud’ functionality.

What this allows is persistent Virtual Machines (which retain the same private addresses) running in Azure that can be joined to your on-premise Active Directory using a site-to-site IPsec VPN. The Azure VMs then act like a branch network with full connectivity and you can add Domain Controllers in the Azure Virtual Network.

This is still a preview release and Microsoft currently only support specific Cisco and Juniper devices that have been tested.… [Keep reading] “Windows Azure Virtual Network VPN with TMG 2010”