For those who often deploy Windows Server 2016; must have noticed the anoying warning in Server Manager about a stopped service named Downloaded Maps Broker (MapsBroker). Although this service is set to ‘Automatic (Delayed Start)’ it does not start automatically as shown in the following screen-capture: [Read more…]
Useful links for Microsoft Azure
As you might have noticed Microsoft Azure is full of features, dashboards, documentation and more. Personally I think they are doing a very well job on that part. In my days working with Azure I have collected some links that might be useful to you. Below you find a few examples: [Read more…]
SkyKick Cloud Backup (for Office 365)
I recently had the opportunity to implement a PoC (Proof-of-Concept) of SkyKick Cloud Backup for a customer. SkyKick Cloud Backup is an online backup service for Office 365. My experience so far; it is an absolute winner! The initial configuration took me no more than 5 minutes. After a backup is made; doing a single item restore is done in seconds!
So if you are looking for a backup solution for your Office 365 subscription; this is one of these online services that I can highly recommend. One more reason for me to share what it has to offer. I will also tell you how to get it, since this service is only available through Microsoft Partners. [Read more…]
My first FlexPod! (Part 6 – System Center)
This is part 6 and also the last part of the following blog series:
- My first FlexPod! (Part 1 – Introduction)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 2 – Hardware Overview)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 3 – Hardware Configuration)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 4 – Quality of Services)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 5 – Hyper-V Cluster)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 6 – System Center)
If you haven’t read the previous part, then I recommend you read them. On the other hand this will be a short one, because there is not that much to tell. Although the title of this blog is about System Center I want to show you three topics.
Partner Ecosystem Software:
Cisco has a partner ecosystem with software for management of Cisco UCS. When you go to the Cisco support page you can download a lot of tools/add-ins. [Read more…]
My first FlexPod! (Part 5 – Hyper-V Cluster)
This is part 5 of the following blog series:
- My first FlexPod! (Part 1 – Introduction)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 2 – Hardware Overview)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 3 – Hardware Configuration)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 4 – Quality of Services)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 5 – Hyper-V Cluster)
- My first FlexPod! (Part 6 – System Center)
I hope part 1, 2, 3 and 4 where informative to you. In this part it is time to talk about an actual Hyper-V Cluster on UCS Blade Servers. Hosting a Hyper-V Cluster on UCS is not rocket science. The deployment is just as straightforward as with other brands. The only difference is that you are (more) flexible with your network configuration and you have the benefits from stateless computing, if that is what you want.
In our case we had eight physical UCS B200 M3 Blade Servers available as specified in part 2. When you have pre-configured UCS Manager with all pools and policies that are required, you are ready to create a Server Profile. You can then assign the new Server Profile to a physical server (equipment), boot it and begin installing the Operating System. [Read more…]
Sender ID Framework (highly recommended)
As we all know, e-mail is a very important part of our daily lives. At least, during our daily job. When we talk about e-mail it is clear that the number of SPAM messages is increasing. Apart from the fact that SPAM is annoying, it is also a potential threat. By means of SPAM; spoofing and phishing is often used to steal someone’s identity. It can harm the reputation of the domain owner. SPAM can also consumes unnecessary bandwidth and affect overall performance of a mail server.
Anti-SPAM:
Of course we often use Anti-SPAM filters. A disadvantage of Anti-SPAM is that it sometimes marks e-mail messages as SPAM while it isn’t, with the risk losing legitimate e-mail. And every now and then an unwanted SPAM message gets through. This is why we constantly have to be kept up-to-date with Anti-SPAM definitions. Fortunately, more and more is done in terms of legislation against SPAM. But the harder we fight against SPAM it will never solve the problem entirely.
If you zoom in on SPAM then there is something that is not so noticeable; it’s always the receiver that needs to protect themselves against SPAM. Right?
The fact is, the owner of a domain can definitely do something about it. A very good method is using the Sender ID Framework (SIDF). From my own experience, I can highly recommend Sender ID Framework! It is very easy to apply, and it is totally free. Unfortunately, the Sender ID Framework is somewhat underexposed. This is a shame, because it works very well. With this blog I hope to bring the Sender ID Framework to your attention. Are you an administrator of an e-mail server, are you responsible for inbound and outbound communication for you company or are you using e-mail in other way, then I highly recommend you to read this blog. [Read more…]