I have a number of test platforms which I use, and last week I started one which had been offline for a number of months. It consists of two Hyper-V Virtual Machines, each running Windows Server 2012 R2. These servers are configured as ADDC in the same domain and the last time I used them all was working as expected. However, upon firing them up I noticed a few errors with Active Directory Replication, the problem? My Active Directory Domain Controllers were tombstoned.
Tech Note: Activating Windows Server 2012 Evaluation Edition
Microsoft makes a lot of their enterprise-grade software available to the IT community as evaluation editions. This allows you to download a fully featured copy of the software and test it within your environment for a period of time before purchasing the fully licensed product.
Certs: 3.3 Configuring Site Level Fault Tolerance (70-412)
Hyper-V Replica is a Server 2012 & 2012 R2 feature that allows you to create a replica of a virtual machine running on Hyper-V on either of the platforms. If the primary VM fails, you can failover to the replica VM. Thus Hyper-V Replica can provide fault tolerance for a VM even if the entire host site should go offline.
The Telephone Interview
A few months ago, I had a telephone interview for a senior networking position. The interview lasted for approximately forty-five minutes, three of us were on the call, me, the company’s technical director and an existing network engineer at the company.
Certs 1.3 – Install & Configure Network Services (Network+)
This section covers crucial network services everyone uses in today’s networks, such as DHCP, DNS & NAT.
Blog: AWS Summit London – Preview
On Wednesday 28th June I will be attending the AWS Summit in London. I’ve been interested in AWS and what it can offer for a while now, and this should be a superb opportunity to learn more about the platform and services it offers, from the industry experts.
Blog: Building a Plex Media Server
If you’re anything like me, you have a considerable amount of downloaded content (music, tv shows, movies) stored away on a desktop PC. Over the years this library has grown considerably and back in the day before the plethora of mobile devices we now own, having this only available on the desktop was fine. However, in 2017 this ‘stuff’ needs to be accessible on all your devices.
Tech Note: .NET Framework 3.5 Feature Install Fails on Windows Server 2012 R2
This was an annoying little issue I came up against when trying to install .NET Framework 3.5 on a Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machine.
The normal procedure is to use Server Manager | Add Roles & Features and select .NET Framework 3.5 features from the list, see below
Blog: 2016 Review
2016 was the second full year for TechSupportPro | UK, and a very productive one it was. With a trip to Leeds, UK, I attended a Microsoft tech day, and got my first look at Windows Server 2016. I tested my first wearable device, a Microsoft Band 2 and I also got a first look at Windows 10 Mobile. 2016 was one to remember.
Certs 1.2 – Network Services & Applications (Network+)
VPN – Site to Site / Host to Site / Host to Host
Protocols
- IPSec – Provides authentication & data encryption – Operates at the network layer
- GRE – Generic Routing Encapsulation, encapsulates the data, operates at network layer & is a CISCO technology.
- SSL VPN – Main use is eCommerce, uses cryptography (secure authentication & communications)
- PTP / PPTP – Port 1723 UDP, Point to Point, layer 2, PPTP has been largely replaced by L2TP with IPSec.