In this week’s newsletter:
Switch/router buying considerations. More on deployment. I command you to be recovered! Updating PowerToys. OneDrive/SharePoint enhancement. Using Microsoft Security Baselines. DevSecOps in one flowchart. Docker Desktop for Windows (cool trick). Keep those VMs running! Click and launch as Administrator. Going beyond Beyond Meat (FACTOID). Plus lots more — read it all, read it here on WServerNews!
P.S. Summer has arrived and since it’s short and we want to enjoy it to the fullest we’re downshifting WServerNews to bi-monthly issues until the Fall. So get outdoors while you can and have some fun hiking, camping, fishing, whatever — just leave your cellphone and laptop at home 🙂
And don’t forget to eat right and exercise! Have you read the latest issue of our fitness newsletter yet? Check it out at https://techgenix.com/newsletter-category/fititpronews/ and start making the journey from “fat IT pro” to “fit IT pro” which is a road I’m still travelling on. Cheers! –Mitch
Got questions? Ask our readers!
WServerNews goes out each week to more than 200,000 IT pro subscribers worldwide! That’s a lot of expertise to tap into. Do you need help with some technical problem or are looking for expert advice on something IT-related? Ask Our Readers by emailing your problems and/or questions to us at [email protected]
Editor’s Corner
This week’s observations and ruminations from Mitch Tulloch our Senior Editor…
Switch/router buying considerations
We recently had to upgrade part of the backend network in our workplace and the question came up during discussion of what one should consider when deciding whether to use Layer 3 switches or routers. For a good explanation of how switches and routers are similar/different see this article by Lavanya Rathnam on our TechGenix website.
To we researched this further we reached out to some networking experts in the wider IT pro community and came across this observation by Rubens Kuhl:
A switch’s maturity is much more dependent on hardware while a router is much more dependent on software, so I suggest assessing a switch on their own merits, regardless of bad experiences with that vendor in the router realm.
I asked Rubens if he could clarify this further and he replied:
That happens due to complexities and novelties (or lack thereof) of control planes and data planes on switches. A switch data plane is mainly just looking at destination MAC and deciding sending it to a single port or flood all ports of that VLAN. The data plane is usually something that is already made by companies like Broadcom and is very simple to program. A switch control plane is mainly executing very traditional protocols such as spanning-tree, which haven’t changed in ages. Compare that to running dynamic routing protocols, converting RIBs into FIBs for increasing RIB sizes, dynamics etc.; it’s a whole different ball game. And the stakes get higher when services such as NAT, broadband aggregation and others get into the mix.
We thought these were very helpful comments so we’re sharing them with our readers in case any of you are facing a similar challenge of expanding or upgrading your network infrastructure.
More on deployment
A couple of issues ago we shared some helpful resources on the topic of Windows deployment. This week deployment expert Johan Arwidmark announced that his free ebook A Geeks Guide to Windows 10 Deployment has now been updated to cover deploying Windows 10 2004. Read more here:
I command you to be recovered!
There’s a new utility from Microsoft available in the Microsoft Store you might find useful in a pinch. The Windows File Recovery Tool (Winfr) helps you recover your personal data when you’ve erased or corrupted it or even wiped your entire drive. Interestingly, it can only be run from the command line (“Be recovered, O precious lost file!”) as Ed Tittle explains on Win10.guru:
https://win10.guru/command-line-windows-file-recovery-tool-surfaces-at-ms-store/
Updating PowerToys
Ed also has some thoughts about updating the Microsoft PowerToys which are available from GitHub. Those of you who have used these toys or plan on using them should read what Ed says here:
https://win10.guru/thoughts-on-updating-powertoys-preview/
OneDrive/SharePoint enhancement
In the category of This Has To Be The Longest Title For A Tech Article That I’ve Ever Come Across In My Entire Life is this announcement of a soon-to-be-introduced OneDrive/SharePoint feature which we stumbled across on the site of Windows Management Experts:
Did you know: you can enable Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to automatically block external access to new files in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business until those files have been fully scanned for sensitive information (Windows Management Experts)
Just. Wish. They. Were. More. Concise.
Using Microsoft Security Baselines
The Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit is a set of tools that allows enterprise security administrators to download, analyze, test, edit and store Microsoft-recommended security configuration baselines for Windows and other Microsoft products, while comparing them against other security configurations.
The trouble is, these security baselines are not all that easy to use in real life. To help understand what these baselines can do and how to use them properly, a Premier Field Engineer (PFE) named Tim Katsapas who works at Microsoft is writing a series of helpful blog posts on the subject. The first two posts in this series can be found here on the blog of the Secure Infrastructure team at Microsoft:
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series soon.
DevSecOps in one flowchart
I confess I’m still a little cloudy in my understanding of what DevSecOps is all about. So I looked around for some help and came across this flowchart:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/solution-ideas/articles/devsecops-in-azure
If any of our readers work in this area and would like to share some practical advice and experience concerning it, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]
Docker Desktop for Windows (cool trick)
This tip is for those of you who use Docker for Windows:
Auto Update Docker Desktop for Windows even with no admin rights using a Windows Service (Syst & Deploy)
http://www.systanddeploy.com/2020/06/auto-update-docker-desktop-for-windows.html
Keep those VMs running!
As Thomas Maurer says at the beginning of his blog post:
If you are running virtual machines in Microsoft Azure, and you want to make sure that your servers are protected from downtime, there are multiple things you want to have a look in terms of availability.
Read more if this situation applies to what you administer:
How to set up Disaster Recovery for Azure IaaS VMs (Microsoft Tech Community)]
Got more thoughts about anything in this newsletter?
Email us at [email protected]!
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Tip of the Week
>> Got any IT pro tips you’d like to share with other readers of our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
Click and launch as Administrator
A reader named Jared posted a comment on one of my old tips on our TechGenix website that alerted me to a fabulous keyboard accelerator I wasn’t aware of, namely Ctrl+Shift which, when you hold these keys down and click on a program in Windows, will launch the program using Administrator credentials. You can find Jared’s comment near the bottom of the comments section:
https://techgenix.com/internet-explorer-not-remembering-last-window-size/#comment-3773976
Also check out this blog post on Raymond.cc:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/run-programs-administrator-ctrl-shift/
Admin Toolbox
>> Got any admin tools or software you’d like to recommend to our readers? Email us at [email protected]
PowerShell script to ping and report on computers, export to CSV:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Powershell-Script-to-ping-15e0610a
Plan Explorer helps you quickly get to the root of the toughest SQL Server query problems:
https://www.sentryone.com/plan-explorer
This PowerShell script will list the AD users logon information with their logged on computers by inspecting the Kerberos TGT Request Events (EventID 4768) from domain controllers:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Get-All-AD-Users-Logon-9e721a89
Mailbag
In our final installment of COVID Corner in last week’s newsletter I offered five prognostications concerning how the future is going to play out. These predictions of course are offered “as is with no warranty” so please don’t place any bets on them happening — you’ve been warned!
My predictions drew comments from several readers, one of whom basically agreed with me while the other disagreed. First let’s hear what Steve Weisner from Alberta, Canada had to say:
Mitch, I think your predictions are bang-on, although I wouldn’t even try to hazard a guess as to how the November US Presidential elections will play out. Here are a few tidbits from my own ponderings to add to your predictions:
Sweden’s approach – I’ve been watching this too. With some rounding, they have about 1/3 the population of Canada but have seen about 2/3 the total number of infections and deaths. I expect the vast majority of the pundits, press and politicians will report this as a dismal failure of Sweden’s approach (“twice as bad as Canada!!”), but they won’t be counting the fact that Sweden didn’t lose half a year of (proper) children’s education, didn’t unemploy vast swaths of their population, didn’t kill a to-be-determined number of small/large businesses, and didn’t generate a lifetime worth of government debt in only a few months.
Expert/Epidemiologist Accuracy – I read somewhere recently that a guess from an expert is still just a guess. It would be nice though if they rooted their guesses in the known facts. In general, I have been okay with most of the Alberta COVID-19 responses but they seriously blew it with their modelling and projections about 6 weeks into the lockdown. Their published models clearly show that the ACTUAL hospitalization data to that date was nowhere near their modelling to that date. It’s hard to explain so I’m including an unmodified screen shot from the Calgary Herald ePaper, Page A2, April 29:
Anyone who knows how to read a graph can see that the grey “Actual hospitalizations” up to that date were not tracking like any of the scenarios, and only about 1/3 of even the Low one. I get that even the Actual or Low numbers had tragic results for many people, but how can we be expected to trust any future models when they are not based on reality? Using ACTUAL data up to April 29, followed by the modelling and guesswork for future data, would have made it apparent that these scenarios were not very likely. I’d like to be able to have at least a little bit of confidence in future models that our experts create and that our governments will use for their planning.
Thanks Steve, it’s nice to meet someone who knows I’m right 🙂
On the other side of the coin (and planet) come these observations from Craig Hollins in Australia with my responses inserted:
Hi Mitch, couldn’t help but comment on your covid predictions. Many are simply not borne out in other parts of the world (OK, in this little neck of the woods anyway).
Argh. Ok go ahead…
#1 – I think we’re headed for a period of deflation. Consumption and production of essential items (food, medicines etc) will remain pretty much as they are now but discretionary items will be put on the wish list. Vendors will be discounting to move stock.
Perhaps, but I don’t think that will last. My guess is that we’ll see volatile swings between inflation and deflation over the next couple of years. Want to buy stock in my fortune-telling company?
#2 – I disagree on the oil industry. It might have a few last gasps left in it but its days are numbered. Public transport in Perth is back to normal levels, as are the usual traffic problems. We have bounced back from the restrictions very quickly and I can’t see any reason why other countries won’t follow in a similar vein.
That’s not what we’re seeing here, I think our transit industry is facing collapse, at least here in Winnipeg, Canada, though that will probably change when winter comes.
#3 – If you want to see how a pandemic should be handled then you really can’t go past Australia or New Zealand. Getting the public to comply with restrictions is possible if it’s well communicated, consistent, makes sense and enforced. Most of the world was listening to consenting views and didn’t know which advice to follow. We weep when we look at the death toll in the US and most of the rest of the world for that matter. Has it damaged our economy? Yep but no more than other comparable economies (even Sweden’s) but we are now clean (except for one city anyway) and recovering with very few casualties. At present Canada has had more deaths than Australia has had cases. Sweden with less than half of Australia’s population has had 50 times more deaths.
Spoken like a typical Aussie (P.S. we Canadians are basically the same) — heh. OK I haven’t taken a close look at how Australia and New Zealand have handled the crisis, but my odds are still on Sweden coming out ahead over the long run. And I mean looking back on the situation two years from now. Take a look at what epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency of Sweden says as reported in this article on Gulf News:
I think I basically agree with him on this.
#4 – Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The second wave will come as a result of human complacency as learned in San Francisco in 1919.
Yes but as someone with a scientific training and background (in Physics though, not in Biology) my question still is why does a second wave happen when winter arrives? I’m just curious.
#5 – I agree that Trump or no Trump the US response to any second wave will be similar. This is not due to any leadership or lack thereof — rather the US is so divided as a nation now that everything that happens is political. It beggars belief that wearing a face mask is deemed to be a left wing act — as if the virus cares for how you vote.
The whole world is divided these days, and COVID is making it worse — much worse.
BTW, great series of articles on making Win10 faster.
You’re welcome!
And now it’s time for us to move on so sorry but we won’t be fielding or sharing any more COVID comments from readers. Let’s get back to some fun stuff (Factoids) which is what we have in store for you next!
Factoid – Going beyond Beyond Meat
Fact: Tim Hortons removes Beyond Meat offerings from remaining locations
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tim-hortons-beyond-meat-1.5444703
Question: For those of you who don’t live here in Canada, Tim Hortons is the essence of what it means to be a Canadian. There’s even a Wikipedia article about it. Timmies as it’s affectionally called is where most of us Canadians spend our free time when we’ve got nothing better to do that put on more weight. Well personally I’m a Starbucks dude, something I picked up on the West Coast after several visits to the Microsoft campus in Redmond. But getting back to our Factoid, my question for you is this: How many of our readers actually *like* Beyond Meat burgers or sandwiches? And how many of you find them bland and unappetizing as I did when I tried one last week for the first time?
Email your answers to [email protected]
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Conference Calendar
>> Got an IT conference or event happening that you’d like to promote in our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
Microsoft Inspire – July 21-22, 2020 (Virtual)
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire
Midwest Management Summit – July 26-27 in Bloomington, Minnesota
https://mmsmoa.com/registration/mms-2020-at-moa.html
Black Hat – Aug 1-6 (Virtual)
https://www.blackhat.com/us-20/
Connect IT – Aug 24-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Data Center World – Aug 24-27 in San Antonio, Texas
https://tmt.knect365.com/data-center-world/
SharePoint Fest – Aug 24-28 in Seattle, Washington
https://www.sharepointfest.com/Seattle/
Infosecurity Belgium – Sept 9-10 in Brussels, Belgium
SPTechCon – Sept 14-17 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Microsoft Ignite – Sept 21-25 (Virtual)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite
VMworld – Sept 28 (Virtual)
https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/index.html
Black Hat – Sept 29 – Oct 2 in Singapore
https://www.blackhat.com/asia-20/
Infosecurity Denmark – Sept 30 – Oct 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Midwest Management Summit – Oct 11-15 in San Diego, California
https://mmsmoa.com/registration/mms-2020-midway-edition.html
European Cloud Summit – Oct 20-22 in Frankfurt, Germany
https://www.cloudsummit.eu/en/
European Azure Conference – Oct 27-29 in Nice, France
https://www.europeanazureconference.com/
Infosecurity Netherlands – Oct 28-29 in Utrecht, Netherlands
European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference – Nov 9-12 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
https://www.sharepointeurope.com/
DevOpsCon – Nov 30 – Dec 3 in Munich, Germany
Podcast Corner
Virtual Desktop for Work at Home with Grant Becker (RunAsRadio)
Network Modeling With Open Source pyNTM (Heavy Networking)
https://packetpushers.net/series/weekly-show/
Wi-Fi Capacity Planning (Clear To Send)
When is Free Advisory Free? – Selecting a Data Center Provider (The CTO Advisor)
https://www.thectoadvisor.com/podcast
Why Microsoft’s steep E5 license pricing is a national security risk (Risky Business)
https://risky.biz/netcasts/risky-business/
Microsoft 365 Network Monitoring Goodness (Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast)
https://www.msclouditpropodcast.com/
Citizen Development With Mike Fitzmaurice (Microsoft Cloud Show)
http://www.microsoftcloudshow.com/podcast
New on Techgenix.com
Shadow IT returns with a vengeance during COVID-19
Like the sequel to a bad horror movie, Shadow IT has returned with a vengeance because of COVID-19. Should businesses fear it more than the virus?
https://techgenix.com/shadow-it-returns-covid-19/
Review: Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365
As Microsoft Office 365 grows in popularity, users need solutions to back up Office 365 data. Here’s our review of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365.
https://techgenix.com/veeam-backup-microsoft-office-365/
PsychOS: A retro-styled Linux distro for your old PCs
PsychOS, an all-new retro-themed Linux distro, offers many advantages but is primarily meant for old 32-bit powered machines.
https://techgenix.com/psychos-linux-distro/
Amazon joins the no-code party with AWS Honeycode
Low-code / no-code app creation is hot, and Amazon wants in on this trend. With this in mind, the tech giant has unveiled AWS Honeycode.
https://techgenix.com/aws-honeycode/
How to easily backup Windows PCs while working at home
With so many people working from home, the logistics of data protection are challenging. One solution: A regular backup of your users’ personal Windows PCs.
https://techgenix.com/backup-windows-pcs/
Fun videos from Flixxy
Texas Cheer Athletics Wildcats
Texas Cheer Athletics Wildcats soar high with their amazing cheer routine at America’s Got Talent 2020.
https://www.flixxy.com/texas-cheer-athletics-wildcats-americas-got-talent-2020.htm
‘All About That Bass’ — Postmodern Jukebox
Performed by Postmodern Jukebox, Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’ in the style of PMJ ft. Kate Davis.
https://www.flixxy.com/all-about-that-bass-postmodern-jukebox.htm
Luggage Handling
He’s got places to go, but a pesky suitcase keeps on getting in his way.
https://www.flixxy.com/luggage-handling.htm
Bertrand Russell – Message To Future Generations
With everything going on at the moment this feels very relevant. Wise words of a great thinker – Bertrand Russell.
https://www.flixxy.com/bertrand-russell-message-to-future-generations.htm
More articles of interest
It’s time to dismiss these 7 DevOps collaboration myths
DevOps is taking root in IT organizations across the globe — but that doesn’t mean it’s well understood. Misconceptions persist, but they can be conquered.
VMs vs. containers: What Windows admins need to know
VMs have high resource overhead, but they’re dependable. Containers can scale dramatically, but they require a different mode of management. Which is right for your workloads?
How to fix 8 common remote desktop connection problems
When the connection between a desktop and its host fails, it’s time to do some remote desktop troubleshooting. Check firewalls, security certificates and more if a remote desktop is not working.
DRaaS market faces multiple challenges in 2020
Difficult times are creating a strong DRaaS market, yet providers must still deal with many critical issues over the next several months, such as supporting growing customer base.
Send us your feedback!
Got feedback about anything in this issue of WServerNews? Email us at [email protected]