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anyweb last won the day on September 12
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About anyweb
- Birthday 11/24/1966
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http://www.niallbrady.com
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Sweden
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Modern management of devices with Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager
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take a look at this https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ask-the-directory-services-team/implementing-an-ocsp-responder-part-v-high-availability/ba-p/396882
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well spotted, and here's a tip for everyone to help you find out what these codes mean, start CMTrace.exe (available in the C:\Windows\CCM folder), click on Tools and select Error Lookup in the window that appears, paste in your error code and click on Lookup this helps to reveal the reason why something is failing
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what happens just before the error ? what server version is it ? which ADK is installed ? is it pure WDS or WDS plus some other functionality ?
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Introduction I use Hyper-V in my home and work labs to test a wide variety of things including PKI, SCCM, Intune mangement, Windows Autopilot, Windows 365 Cloud PC and more. My current home lab is in need of a backup solution that I can rely on, because I normally backup manually to an external USB hard disc, and that takes time, and I have to remember to do it. I felt it was time to take a look at VM Backup 9 from Hornetsecurity. I wanted to put it through its paces to see what's changed when I last reviewed the product back in 2018. So, what's new and improved since version 8? The most important new feature is immutability. And if you don't know what immutable is, don't feel too bad, neither did I until I looked it up. Long story short, this is applicable to Ransomware attacks as it keeps your offsite (cloud) backup in an untouched/unchanged state, meaning you have something to restore from in case everything on-premises is encrypted by the Ransomware. This one feature alone is a very very good reason to upgrade (or purchase) this version of VM Backup. Don't believe me? Take a look at this recent case of a company in the Nordics called CloudNordics, which had all their data (and customers data) encrypted for extortion. If they had used VM Backup 9 and used the offsite immutable features, they'd have saved themselves a lot of time and money and better yet, they would have lived up to their self-proclaimed "Nordic Cloud Experts" title. Below are the different parts in the blog post Introduction Download the free trial Installing the software Configuring VM Backup 9 Selecting backup location Select VM's to backup Using Live Chat Taking an on-demand backup Taking a scheduled backup retention policy Restoring a backup Configuring immutable backups Prepare the Storage Account Configure Offsite Location Reports Exporting report data Should you buy it ? Recommended reading Conclusion Download the free trial Signing up for a trial was easy to do, just browse to here and click on the Download your free trial button, within minutes I received clear instructions for getting started, could it really be so easy. I chose the full featured 30-day trial of VM Backup - Unlimited Plus Edition and my goal was to install it and use it for backing up one or more of my virtual machines in my Windows Server 2022 Hyper-V host machine. Interestingly the software still supports Windows Server operating systems back to Windows Server 2008R2, but I really hope no one is still using those unsupported Server operating systems anymore, and for the VMWare fans there is support for those platforms too (except for free VMWARE ESXi). After downloading I got emails informing me how to get started. Step 1: Install and activate your trial right away. Download the installer again here if needed. Step 2: After installing, select your hosts and VMs to be backed up. Step 3: Select Backup destination and start your first backup job. Done. Easy! So, let's see is it really that easy. Installing the software I located the download and double clicked, after accepting the license terms off it went. One thing to note, after installing the software you need to restart your Hyper-V or VMWare ESXi or VMWare vCenter host. When the host restarted I took a look at the copious online help, including preparation documents which listed things like what ports to use for Offsite Backup Server and Antivirus Exclusions. I added the exclusions to my Hyper-V host Antivirus solution (built in Windows Security) Configuring VM Backup 9 Next, I launched the VM Backup, and by default it's pretty plain until you've configured the software. The first thing it wanted me to do was to enter credentials to connect to a VM Backup instance. After doing that and clicking the green Connect button, I was presented with a more feature rich dashboard, and it reminded me that my trial would expire in 30 days. Remember those initial 3 steps in the welcome email? well if you look closely in the left (and more obviously in the middle) node of the dashboard they are highlighted. I've already configured step 1, so let's choose where to store the backups (step 2). These quick steps are designed to get you up and running quickly but if you want more advanced features click on the Get More Backup Features button in the bottom of the dashboard. I like the colour scheme in the dashboard as it's clear what is completed (in green), what is not yet completed (in blue) and what is currently highlighted (in orange). Whoever programmed this user interface was thinking about making everything as clear as possible, well done. Next, I chose step 2 and for my first test backup, I would backup to an external USB NVMe drive, so I selected Physical Drive from the choices available (you can add more later). scrolling down and clicking Next, I chose the external USB based NVMe drive, created a folder and was done. My new backup location was now confirmed by clicking on Finish. Next, in addition to adding my VM's by dragging and dropping them to the backup location, I could see that the user interface was giving me good advice about being able to store backups at up to two more offsite locations for disaster recovery purposes and those backup locations support a variety of WAN/Internet based solutions such as: Microsoft Azure storage accounts Amazon S3 Wasabi cloud storage We'll cover offsite backups further down in this blog. I selected a few virtual machines for my first test and clicked Save Changes. But initially the VM's I selected and dragged to the white space location under my backup location didn't do anything. Using Live Chat After talking with the 24/7 live chat (impressive feature) It was clear why, I was dragging the VM's to the clear white space under the backup location, instead of dragging them on top of the backup location. Once I had realized that I need to drag the VM's I wanted to backup directly onto the backup location listed, I was able to continue successfully, I also learned that the version of the free trial was not the latest version and I could download an update from https://www.altaro.com/vm-backup/download_update.php Side note: I wish all free trial software from all companies had this 30-day live chat built in, it was very impressive, very instant. Super. One small feedback though, was I was initially advised to do some PowerShell commands to basically stop the all the Hornet services and then restart them 60 seconds later, all good except that once those services were stopped that also closed the dashboard including the live chat. Taking an on-demand backup Now everything was in place for taking the first backup. You can do scheduled backups or on-demand backups. To do an on-demand backup, you simply click on Backups (Step 3) and then select the virtual machines that you wish to backup from your selection and finally click on Take Backup. The current backup status will be shown in percentage for each VM that it's backing up. and after some time, you can see if the backup was successful or not on each VM. for more info about completed backups, click the + symbol to the right of that backup and you'll get info about when it was taken, and the compression used. While waiting for the backup to complete (and I have to say it was WAY faster than I expected, by a long shot), I noticed a temp checkpoint taken on the current VM being backed up. within approximately 20 minutes, my entire ConfigMgr Technical Preview lab (hundreds of gigabytes) was completed. Unbelievably fast! and way faster than the manual backup method I normally use (selecting the VM's in hyper-v and then right click, export). I'm impressed! Not only that, it saves on space big time using great compression. Look at the compression of this 252GB VM, compressed down to 81GB. Impressive! Taking a scheduled backup To schedule backups you can do it in a variety of ways. You can do it directly from the Backups settings drop down and select schedule settings. From there you can select VM's to backup and either drop them into the pre-defined backup schedules or click Add Backup Schedule to create a new schedule. Doing that gives you the flexibility to set your own settings. then drag your VMs to that new schedule and save settings, done! To review the scheduled backup status, go back to Backups and expand the details of the vm's you selected to backup on a schedule. delightfully simple to use! Retention Policy You can decide how long you want your backups to be retained via the Retention Policy option. It's very flexible as you can see here, and the default retention policy is 2 weeks. If you want something else, use the provided options or create your own. Restoring a backup Restoring a backup is usually something needed when you have a major problem with an existing virtual machine that either cannot be fixed, or you want to restore to a previous state. To access the Restore functionality, click on Restore in the left side menu, it'll reveal all available restore options. You can restore a VM as a clone, restore its virtual disk, restore files from the backup, exchange granular restore or even boot from the backup. That's a great selection of restore options! I chose to Restore VM as Clone, selected the location to restore from: Next, choose which virtual machines you want to restore. I chose to restore the clone to a directory I created called D:\RestoredVMs. And after clicking Restore I was informed that I could view the restore process via the dashboard. and after a few minutes the VM was listed in Hyper-V. Easy! One thing I did notice was that the clone did not contain any of the checkpoints (snapshots) that were present in the original VM. I chatted with Live Chat support about this, and they said this is normal, when the backup is taken it takes a temporary snapshot of the VM and that is used for the backup, so that when you restore, you are restoring that point in time. If you want to go further back in time, use previous backups based on your retention policy as per the drop down below (default was 2 weeks of backups). Taking immutable backups The killer feature in VM Backup 9 is the ability to take backups to immutable storage to protect your data from ransomware. To take offsite backups using immutable storage you first need to configure your Cloud providers storage account, enable it for immutable storage and then configure offsite locations in VM Backup 9. Prepare the Storage Account In this blog post I'll cover the steps needed to configure an Azure storage account for immutable storage in VM Backup 9. Using an account that has permissions needed, sign in to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com and search for Storage Account, click Create, make sure to select Standard Performance from the options selected. Be aware of Azure storage pricing when choosing your redundancy options, you can review them here. In the example below we've selected Locally-redundant storage (LRS) as it's the lowest cost option. In production environments, you may want to upscale that to use Geo-redundancy but at a higher cost. Next and very importantly, you need to select Enable Version-level immutability support in the Data Protection tab of the wizard. This will also select Enable versioning for blobs. If you fail to do this then you'll have to start over (ask me how I know ;-)). Once done, click through the remainder of the wizard and select Create. Once the resource is created and finished deploying, select Containers from within the Storage Account. Next click on + Container to create a new container in your Storage Account. I selected the default option of Private (no anonymous access) and gave it a name of vmbackup9container which we'll need later. After creating the new container, take note of the Access key or Shared Access Signature (SAS) depending on your preference. The more secure option is Shared Access Signature (SAS). To generate the Shared Access Signature (SAS) select all options as shown below and click on Generate SAS and Connection String. Take note of the Connection String and SAS Token. Configure Offsite Location After configuring your Cloud Providers storage account above, you'll need to configure an offsite backup location in VM Backup 9. To add an offsite backup location capable of immutable storage, click on Backup locations, click on Add offsite Location and then select the provider of your choice (three are offered, Azure, Amazon and Wasabi). I've highlighted them below in the green box. As we've already configured our Azure Storage Account for this, select the Cloud Backup to an Azure Storage Account option. Next, enter your Container name, paste in the Connection string, flip the Enable Immutable Backups for Azure Blob Storage option and select the number of days to protect those backups. Finally, click on Test Connection to verify it's all working. If you did all the steps listed above correctly (hint: check the Data Protection tab) then it should connect successfully. After clicking Finish you'll see your immutable storage option listed. As with other backup locations, you need to drag and drop virtual machines to that location in order for them to be backed up safely. After dragging some virtual machines to the offsite location, you'll see a popup similar to this. Click Proceed to continue or edit your configured storage options in Azure. Once done, you'll see your selected virtual machines listed in that offsite (and immutable) location. Fantastic ! Once done, click on Save Changes and you'll be prompted to enter a Master Encryption Key. Enter a Master Encryption Key and click Save. You'll then be prompted to re-authenticate including entering the Master Encryption Key. Reports The reports in VM Backup 9 are based around two operational states. Operation history Errors history Using those reports you can fine tune the type of data you are interested in. and the time frame. You can also click on details about a specific historical event. The error history will of course show errors occurring during Backup/Restore operations, but I found the details of what the error was, lacking in just that, details. But... if you click on the VM Name listed in that column, you get the actual details of the problem. This is not intuitive to me, it should be the other way around, clicking on Details should tell me everything about the problem or link to the additional details. Note, you can schedule reports to be emailed in the Notifications tab. Exporting report data The built in reports provide historical information about operations, but if you want to export data using Powershell follow the advice here, which will allow you to export data in TXT format for use elsewhere. $VMBackupEvents = get-winevent -FilterHashtable @{Logname='Application';ID=5000, 5001, 5002, 5003, 5004, 5005, 5007} -MaxEvents 1000 | Format-List $VMBackupEvents > C:\AllVMBackupEvents.txt Should you buy it ? VM Backup 9 is available to buy in a variety of different options. You can choose a subscription model or perpetual. The pricing page helps you figure out which option is best for you and when I looked at it the prices seem fairly reasonable for what you get. To answer the question though, should you buy it ? well, if you are in any way worried about Ransomware and how it can affect your data, then you should buy this product and use it's immutable storage backup options, it could save you from the same embarrassment that CloudNordics went through. Related reading VM Backup 9 - https://www.altaro.com/vm-backup/ Download your free trial - https://www.altaro.com/vm-backup/download.php How to setup offsite copies to an Azure Storage Account - https://help.altaro.com/hc/en-us/articles/4416905929617 Hornetsecurity VM Backup v9 with Immutable Cloud Storage - https://nolabnoparty.com/en/hornetsecurity-vm-backup-v9-with-immutable-cloud-storage/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost Ransomware affects CloudNordic, wipes all servers and customer data - https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/23/ransomware_wipes_cloudnordic/ Conclusion VM Backup 9 is a user friendly, yet powerful tool to backup your Hyper-V and VMware based host VM's to various locations, be it on-premises or offsite in the cloud. If you are afraid of Ransomware (you should be) and you have virtual machines hosting business critical software, then you should seriously consider this backup solution as a viable option. The recent fiascos 2 cloud-based companies went through should make you wake up and pay attention. Simply having backups today is not enough, you must also have immutable backups! Using the backup/restore functionality was easy to use, this really is very nicely thought-out software, designed for the end user/admin in mind and not a rocket scientist. You are initially exposed to the basic functionality but it's quite easy to expand your options and add more abilities/customization to your backups/restores. The only thing I missed was the ability to capture a VM's checkpoints, that's something that Hyper-V can do via an export so why can't we also have that option in VM Backup ? The Support provided with this software is second to none. I cannot fault the 24/7 Live Chat, it's the best I've seen from any company anywhere, and you get through to real humans (not AI BOTS!) instantly. That in itself is an awesome feature! Thanks for reading, Cheers niall
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Introduction This is Part 9 in a new series of guides about getting started with Windows 365. This series of guides will help you to learn all about Windows 365 in a clear and insightful way. This series is co-written by Niall & Paul, both of whom are Microsoft Enterprise Mobility MVP’s with broad experience in the area of modern management. At the time of writing, Paul is a 7 times Enterprise Mobility MVP based in the UK and Niall is a 13 times Enterprise Mobility MVP & a Windows and Devices for IT MVP based in Sweden. In this series we aim to cover everything we learn about Windows 365 and share it with you to help you to deploy it safely and securely within your own organization. In Part 1 we introduced you to Windows 365, selecting the right edition with the level of management that you need, choosing the plan that suits your users needs at a cost you can afford, or modifying the configuration to make it more suited to your individual needs, purchasing licenses and saving money for your organization via the Windows Hybrid Benefit. In Part 2 you learned how to provision an Azure Ad joined Cloud PC and take a look at the different network options available when provisioning an Azure Ad joined Cloud PC. In Part 3 you learned about the steps needed to successfully provision a Hybrid Azure Ad Joined Cloud PC. In Part 4 you saw the many different ways you can connect to your Cloud PC from many device be it Android, Mac, Windows, Linux or iPhone and you learned that not all connection options have the same abilities. In Part 5 we covered the management capabilities of your Cloud PCs and explained the different options available depending on which version (Business versus Enterprise) that you purchase. In Part 6 we looked at the built in configurable backup technology in Windows 365 which is known as Point-in-time restore, which gives the admin (or user) the ability to restore Cloud PC's to an earlier time before a problem such as a Ransomware incident occurred. In Part 7 we looked at the ability to use Windows Autopatch to patch your Cloud PC's with ease and covered how to allow access to admins without licenses, enrolling into Windows Autopatch, the Readiness assessment tool, device registration and moving devices between deployment rings. Finally we looked at Windows Autopatch reports and the overall User Experience. In Part 8 we looked at the long awaited Windows 365 Boot feature and showed you how to configure and use it. In this part we'll look at another new feature, which is finally in public preview, called Windows 365 switch. Below you can find all parts in this series: Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 1. Introduction Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 2. Provisioning an Azure Ad Joined Cloud PC Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 3. Provisioning a Hybrid Azure Ad Joined Cloud PC Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 4. Connecting to your Cloud PC Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 5. Managing your Cloud PC Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 6. Point in time restore Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 7. Patching your Cloud PCs with Windows Autopatch Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 8. Windows 365 boot Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 9. Windows 365 switch <- you are here Getting started with Windows 365 - Part 10. Windows 365 offline In this part we'll cover the following: Introduction to Windows 365 switch Prerequisites Enabling Windows 365 switch Using Windows 365 switch Recommended reading Windows 365 switch in action Troubleshooting Summary Introduction to Windows 365 Switch Windows 365 switch was released to public preview August 8th, 2023. Windows 365 switch provides a new way of quickly flipping between a Local PC and your Cloud PC by simply clicking on the task view icon without the need to use https://windows365.microsoft.com or the Windows 365 app, this is great for bring-your-own device (BYOD) scenarios when you connect from your own Windows device to a secure company owned Cloud PC Prerequisites Windows 365 switch has the following prerequisites, these may change when it becomes Globally Available later this year. Windows 11 (Enterprise or Professional) on the local and Cloud PC Enroll into the Windows Insider Program (beta or dev channel) - Windows 11 Build 22631.2129 (or higher) on both the local and Cloud PC Windows 365 Cloud PC license Most likely these the second requirement will be dropped once Windows 11 23H2 ships (we are guessing here). Enabling Windows 365 Switch 1. Join the Insider beta channel on your Cloud PC. You can do this manually or automated. Manual Method In Windows Settings, select Windows Update, and select the Windows Insider Program. Click Get started to start a 4 step wizard. In there, connect using a live account and select the Beta Channel (dev works too, but beta is recommended). Once done, you'll need to restart the device to enable the Windows Insider Preview. After the restart, use Windows Update to update the device, this might take a few downloads, so verify exactly which build is being downloaded... so that the build version is greater than or equal to Windows 11 Build 22631.2129 Automated method Another option for this is to create an update ring in Intune, to forcefully update your Cloud PC and Local PC to the Insider Preview Beta Channel. Keep in mind that you'll need to also to configure sending optional diagnostics data to On. 2. Install a local PC using the Insider beta channel Repeat everything in the above step on your Local PC to get it into Windows Insider Preview and on to the correct build. Please Note: Make sure to login to that Local PC using the same user who is licensed to connect to the Cloud PC. 3. Download and install the latest version of the Windows 365 app On your Local PC, download the Windows 365 app from the store. open the Windows 365 app and make sure you have version 1.3.177.0 or newer, you can see the version number by clicking on the settings icon in the Windows 365 app as shown below. Once installed, we need to wait, that's right wait a few hours until the Windows 365 app is ready for Switch. How will you know it's ready ? well it will list more (or less) options in the Windows 365 app. Below are the options you'll see when Windows 365 Switch is NOT available yet and below are the options you'll see when Windows 365 Switch is available, a new option Add to Task view is now available. Using Windows 365 Switch Once the option shows up in your Windows 365 app, you can pin the app to the taskbar or add to task view. After adding it to task view you can use Windows 365 Switch in a variety of different ways. First, by clicking on the task view button directly. It will show you current desktop and your Cloud PC. When you click on your Cloud PC, it will switch to your Cloud PC instantly, however.... the first time it connects will take a few moments. after entering your credentials (for haadj) To get back to your local PC, click on task view in the Cloud PC and select Local Desktops... Windows 365 switch in action Here's a video of Windows 365 Switch in action Keystrokes You can also use key strokes either on your touch enabled monitor or touch pad (three finger swipe from the base of the screen or base of the touchpad) or using the following key combinations. Switch to Cloud PC CTRL + Windows key + right cursor key Switch to Local PC CTRL + Windows key + left cursor key Recommended reading Windows 365 switch public preview release - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/windows-365-switch-now-available-in-public-preview/ba-p/3891857 Windows 365 switch documentation - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365/enterprise/windows-365-switch-overview Windows 365 switch known issues - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365/enterprise/windows-365-switch-known-issues Windows 365 switch AMA - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-events/windows-in-the-cloud-learn-everything-about-windows-365-switch/ec-p/3888084#M3121 Windows Insider Preview builds - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-226212129-and-226312129/ar-AA1eHoo Learn Everything you wanted to know about Windows 365 switch - Troubleshooting On the Local PC, in the logged on users profile look at their temp folder, it's hidden in the appdata but you'll find it. Summary Windows 365 switch provides yet another way of quickly accessing your Cloud PC in a way that is quick and easy (once everything is in place). This is still in public preview so some caveats are in place like using the Windows Insider Preview releases and other drawbacks such as only being able to access one of your Cloud PC's. Once you have it working however, it's quick and painless and the attraction is easy to see. We did have some issues however, including enrolling an Autopilot PC as User A (BYOD user) and then connecting to the Cloud PC via the Windows 365 app as user user B (licensed user). The connection worked, but the Windows 365 Switch part did not. We have raised this point with the Product Group, let's see what they say. Also, the 'wait for some hours' thing is not something we want to see in production (Global Availability). Consultants cost money and waiting for a feature to appear is not an option. Let's hope that is also fixed.