Azure IP Downloader v1

Azure IP Downloader v1

My firewall recently blocked Microsoft Azure AD Connect which caused issues with syncing to 365. Turns out the issue was that my IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) flagged it as being “suspected RST injection”.

Normally when something like this happens it’s typically the IPS being overly sensitive and I usually can whitelist the specific detection however the IPS is blocking other things correctly that are also flagged as “suspected RST injection” because this is Microsoft Azure I can’t simply just whitelist the IP or a short IP range because there are so many and they can change fairly often.

Microsoft does list some of the IPs for most of 365 on their website however the IPs that were being blocked from my side of things was 52.239.186.132 and 52.239.149.106. Which aren’t in the main lists as they are part of the Azure side of things.

There’s a link on the same page that will take you to a download page for all the Azure IPs. However they update that file weekly. AWS publishes a JSON file of their IPs here.

It’s been years that people have asked for Microsoft to just publish the IPs in a JSON file like how AWS does. There’s a feedback request from 2016 asking for something like that here. Microsoft did make the JSON file available but in a roundabout way.

…

Read More Read More

GPO Export and Import

GPO Export and Import

You’ve spent many hours perfecting your GPO (Group Policy Object) and you have it perfect and you want to import it to another location and well you could look at manually comparing all the settings but no one has time for that. There’s an easier way.

  • Open up Group Policy Management on the server that has the GPO you want to export
  • Right click on your GPO and select Back Up
  • Give it a location to put the backup
…

Read More Read More

Convert a system with VMware Converter

Convert a system with VMware Converter

There are a few ways to convert a system either P2V (Physical to Virtual) or V2V (Hyper V to VMware). This will show you how to convert a system using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client.

Before you start you should check a few things to make the whole process streamlined.

  1. Check that the system is fully up to date (you might get stuck in an update trap if you don’t)
  2. Check that you have remote access to the system (so that if needed you can at least get back into the system easily)
  3. Make a note of the IP configurations (you will likely need to re add them)
  4. If the system a domain member make sure that you know the local admin username and password (this is so that if it fails to talk to the domain you at least have a way back into the system)
  • Install VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client on the system you will be converting.
  • Run VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client as Admin
  • Click on Convert machine
…

Read More Read More

Install VCSA Updates

Install VCSA Updates

Here is how to update VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance specifically version 7) with the web UI

  • Make sure you have a backup of your VCSA. I like to have a backup and a snapshot to be extra safe.
  • Click on you VCSA server
  • Click on the Update tab
  • In Update Planner select the update you want to install and click on Generate Report and select Interoperability. (this will check and make sure everything is compatible in your VCSA setup)
…

Read More Read More

Windows Updates PowerShell Script

Windows Updates PowerShell Script

There have been a lot of critical exploits over the last few months. Really the best way to deal with that is Windows Updates. Now I can hear you complaining that Windows Updates left untamed will just reboot your servers randomly or I don’t want to build WSUS or my RMM doesn’t patch well and it sucks and <insert your excuse here>.

Well I’ve created a PowerShell script that I called DK Win Updates that will help solve the issue. It uses the Windows Update Agent API to search for updates and guess what you can run this as .ps1 file, you could build a scheduled task to run it, you can toss it in your RMM and run it as a script. (if your RMM can’t do that, you should find a new RMM).

…

Read More Read More

Disable Auto Windows Updates

Disable Auto Windows Updates

Auto Windows updates are annoying especially when left untamed as it will automatically reboot the device be it a workstation or a server. I’ve written a script that can mass disable Windows updates across all devices even if they aren’t domain joined.

Technically you could go in and disabled the Windows Update service but that stops all Windows updates. I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Another way would be to bring up Group Policy Editor and go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Updates > Configure Automatic Updates and set that to be disabled.

However that option will work for domain joined devices but what about the non domain joined devices. It doesn’t make much sense to go to each device and manually edit the setting via the Local Group Policy Editor. To solve this issue I’ve written a script that could be ran across all devices including domain joined device and would leave other Windows updates settings in place.

…

Read More Read More