Domain controller: LDAP server signing requirements and Simple Binds
Lately I’ve been wondering about the impact of the following setting: Domain controller: LDAP server signing requirements. The documentation (TechNet #1 and TechNet #2 ) spells it out pretty well: This...
View ArticleIDX10311: RequireNonce is 'true' (default) but validationContext.Nonce is null
I’ve been educating myself on the capabilities of OpenID Connect/OAuth in Server 2016. The version I’m currently playing with is based on TP5. I created a small application which consists of a web...
View ArticleProtected Users Group
Earlier this week I’ve been talking to a customer about the “Protected Users” group. You might have seen it appearing when introducing the first 2012 R2 domain controller. Here’s a good explanation on...
View ArticleDirect Access: Windows Internal Database (SQL) High CPU Usage
I’ve got a customer who has deployed Direct Access quite a while ago. Something which we have observed for a while now is that the CPU usage of the servers is rather high. Some details about our setup:...
View ArticleAzure VPN Gateway Sizes
One of the things I’ve been finding very confusing is the VPN Gateway sizing. Especially the mismatch between the pricing table and what the systems show you. Here’s the technical information:Source:...
View ArticleMIM 2016: Failed to Connect to the Specified Database
I ran into another issue after upgrading a FIM 2010 deployment to MIM2016. As part of the OS/Infrastructure refresh I moved the database to a more recent SQL server platform. One of the things I...
View ArticleMIM 2016: no-start-ma when Exporting to Active Directory
Recently I did an upgrade of FIM 2010 to MIM2016 for a customer of mine. I’ve described that process here. We’ve only upgraded our lab environment and are now testing whether everything works as...
View ArticleAzure Management Portal: Properly Remove Co-Adminstrators Permissions
Something I’ve noticed for a while now: whenever I perform an Add-AzureAccount I see more subscriptions being returned than I’d expect. The list I have to choose from in the old portal...
View ArticleMIM 2016: PowerShell Workflow and PowerShell v3
One of the issues of running FIM 2010 R2 on Windows Server 2012 is calling PowerShell scripts from within FIM Portal Workflows (.NET). It seems the workflow code is running .NET 3.5 but uses PowerShell...
View ArticleAzure Quick Tip: Block or Allow ICMP using Network Security Groups
For a while now Azure allows administrators to restrict network communications between virtual machines in Azure. Restrictions can be configured through the use of Network Security Groups (NSGs). Those...
View ArticleFIM 2010 (NOT R2!) Upgrade to MIM 2016
This blog post will assist you in upgrading a FIM 2010 environment to MIM 2016. To be clear: FIM 2010, not FIM 2010 R2. Disclaimer: if you “play” around like I do below, make sure you use one, or more,...
View ArticleADFS Alternate Login ID: Some or all identity references could not be translated
First day back at work I already had the chance to get my hands dirty with an ADFS issue at a customer. The customer had an INTERNAL.contoso.com domain and an EXTERNAL.contoso.com domain. Both were...
View ArticleQuick Tips: Azure: Where did my Public IP go?
Over the past few months I’ve been working more and more on Azure and here is a small tip I’d like to share. I’ve seen various customers that are not aware about the following:Whenever you start the...
View ArticleAzure DSC and Configuration Archive Case Sensitiveness
Lately I’ve been working on my Azure Automation skills. More precisely I want to have a script that is able to create a virtual machine and creates a new Active Directory (domain controller) on it. The...
View ArticleAzure Billing Changes
A bit less technical for once, but a few days ago I noticed several announcements for billing related changes that I though were worth mentioning. And besides that, my personal test subscription got...
View ArticleWorking with PowerShell DSC and Azure VM’s based on Windows 2012
Mostly when I work with Azure VM’s I do the actual VM creation using Azure PowerShell cmdlets. I like how you can have some template scripts that create VM’s from beginning to end. Typically I create a...
View ArticleFederating ADFS with the Belnet Federation
The Belnet federation is a federation where a lot of Belgian educational or educational related institutions are joined to. I’m currently involved in a POC at one of these institutions. Here’s the...
View ArticleSynchronizing Time on Azure Virtual Machines
I’m currently setting up a a small Identity infrastructure on some Azure Virtual Machines for a customer. The components we’re installing consist of some domain controllers, a FIM server, a FIM GAL...
View ArticleProtecting a Domain Controller in Azure with Microsoft Antimalware
I’m getting more and more involved with customers using Azure to host some VM’s in an IAAS scenario. In some cases they like to have a Domain Controller from their corporate domain on Azure. I think...
View ArticleCorrupt Local GPO Files
A while ago I go I looked into a laptop not being able to access anything on the network. As this customer has Direct Access deployed I knew I had to start my troubleshooting with the following...
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