In a previous post, I gave an overview of the Windows Server Hybrid Cloud Print solution. This is a solution that enables organizations to support print functionality for MDM-managed BYOD and Azure AD joined devices. Organizations will find this solution useful if they plan to: Leverage existing global printing investments to support BYOD and non-domain joined devices deploy Azure AD joined devices into existing AD and global print environment support MDM managed BYOD support printing while away from the corpnet The solution supports single sign-on user authentication and allows your to leverage your existing authorization processes. I briefly covered this in the previous post. In this article, I will go over the steps for configuring Hybrid Cloud Print using … Read More
Overview of Hybrid Cloud Print Solution
Hybrid Cloud Print is a relatively new feature that is built on the Windows Print Server role in Windows Server 2016. It enables users to discover and securely print to on-premises printers from their Azure AD joined, and MDM managed devices, and from wherever they have an internet access. The solution is built on a Windows print service and discovery service endpoints, both of which are running on IIS services supporting the internet Printing protocol and Mopria Alliance industry printer discovery standard, respectively. For the server-side configuration, you will need to : install the Print Server Windows Server feature Install Hybrid cloud Print through for instance, the PowerShell modules Configure IIS endpoints to support SSL Install and configure SQLite package … Read More
OMS is now Azure Monitor
Microsoft has recently made some branding changes that have resulted in the unification of many of its erstwhile standalone infrastructure and application monitoring services under the Azure Monitor banner. Azure Monitor, which previously was the recommended core infrastructure monitoring tool in Azure for collecting, visualizing, analyzing and responded to events related to metrics and a subset of logs, has now evolved into a comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from your on-premises and cloud (cloud agnostic) environments. I’d like to preface the rest of this article by clarifying what I mean when I say “OMS is now Azure Monitor”, which while technically inaccurate, is arguably an apt assertion. The Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) was a collection … Read More
Reinstate Missing BitLocker recovery tab in ADUC
Quick fix for reinstating BitLocker recovery tab for locating and viewing BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE) recovery passwords stored in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). The tab is enabled by the Active Directory BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer tool, which is an optional feature that is part of the BitLocker Drive Encryption Administration Utilities component of the Remote Server Administration Toolkit (RSAT). You can enable this feature manually through server manager or via PowerShell: Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker-BdeAducExt If you’d also like to install the manage-bde and repair-bde command line tools for BitLocker Drive Encryption, you can install the BDE Administration utilities. Get-WindowsFeature | where{$_.Name -eq ‘RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker’} | Install-WindowsFeature Once the feature is enabled, you can view recovery passwords for computer objects and … Read More
Microsoft OMS Book – The excluded chapter
Writing technology books is a challenging enough proposition as it were. The challenge increases exponentially when one undertakes the writing of a book about a cloud platform, as was the case with my writing the Microsoft OMS book. The challenge with this stems from the fact that I intend for this book to be a technical reference for readers as they work with the OMS platform and underlying Azure services, and as such, the book must, by necessity, reference not just relevant concepts, but also current, and up-to-date content. Admittedly, the nature of the book – publisher’s cookbook format – heightened said need for pertinence, and up-to-dateness of the material, because readers expect to be able to follow along with … Read More
Microsoft OMS Book Published!
Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) Cookbook is now published. I am thrilled to announce that this is now readily available via the publisher’s (Packt) various channels and platforms, including on Amazon in both print, and Kindle format. Amazon now shows the final page count (448). Amazon also shows the print version release date as May 9th, but you should be able to order there as well, and it gets fulfilled in a few days. The Kindle version is available immediately. In this book, I sought to provide a useful guide with current, up-to-date information on a platform that provides incredible value to organizations. As organizations navigate their respective digital transformation initiatives, OMS stands out as a platform that enables them … Read More
Coming soon – Microsoft OMS book
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve finished work on a book on Microsoft OMS and related Azure services. The book is part of the Cookbook series from publisher, Packt, and is titled Microsoft Operations Management Suite Cookbook. The book hasn’t been published yet, but is likely en-route to the presses and will be available in a few days. Those who know me know of my passion for building solutions to provide fundamental business value, and I’m happy to be able to share some ideas about how to accomplish aspects of this core proposition using the Microsoft Azure platform and Microsoft OMS. This project was especially interesting given the spate of releases to the OMS and underlying Azure services, and capabilities … Read More
Speaker at the CSMUG
Last week I presented a session on Hybrid Management with OMS at the Chicago Systems Management Users Group (CSMUG). This meeting was held at the Microsoft Offices (MTC) in Chicago. The presenters for this session were Johan Arwidmark of ConfigMgr fame, System and datacenter management experts, Tom Lilly and Rich Lilly, and me. The meeting was sponsored by 1E. The CSMUG meets several times during the year to collaboratively share knowledge with the community about new products, features and capabilities for systems and enterprise management. Meetings will also feature experts in various technology areas. These experts will be available to field questions, and explore various scenarios and product use cases with attendees. Chicago System Management Users Group (CSMUG) is dedicated … Read More
OMS Agent for Linux – v1.4.4-210
Version 1.4.4-210 of the OMS agent for Linux is now generally available. This update includes a couple of bug fixes, and new features. New Features This agent version updates SCX from v1.6.3-474 in previous GA release to v1.6.3-527. This release also updates OMI to v1.4.2 Fixes DSC resource and module “class not found” error due to DSC OMI provider registration. Azure metadata auto injection. Honoring vmResourceID setting if specified by the user. OMI cron job generating email every minute due to keytab not being present on some distros where cron tab fails. SOURCE: Github Install OMS Agent for Linux-v1.4.4-210 For x86 Architecture (32-bit) systems: cd ~ wget https://github.com/Microsoft/OMS-Agent-for-Linux/releases/download/OMSAgent_GA_v1.4.4-210/omsagent-1.4.4-210.universal.x86.sh sha256sum ./omsagent-1.4.4-210.universal.x86.sh sudo bash omsagent-1.4.4-210.universal.x86.sh –upgrade -w <WORKSPACE_ID> -s <SECRET_KEY> For x64 … Read More
Meet GDPR Compliance requirements with OMS
In April 2016, a European privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was approved and is due to take effect in May 2018. GDPR is being touted as the most important change in data privacy regulation in over two decades, and it imposes new data privacy rules on companies, government agencies, and any organizations that do business in and with the European Union (EU). This is of particular significance because of the positive implications of such a regulation on data privacy, the benefits of the inevitable shift in the way organizations across the region and business partners around the world will now approach data privacy, and because non-compliant organizations could be subject to hefty fines, as is often the … Read More