Latest Posts

Reducing unplanned work

27th April 2016 2 Comments

Through the duration of my career, projects have brought about some of my most stressful days.   Earlier this year I read The Phoenix Project ( http://itrevolution.com/books/phoenix-project-devops-book/ ). This book has been mentioned at pretty much every DevOps event I've attended. One part of the book that resonated with me was the discussions around "unplanned work".  The past ten years of my life would have been so different if I had never had to deal with unplanned work.   Sometimes things go wrong – which leads to unplanned work. Some unplanned work is hard to avoid, such as power failures,…
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DevOps

DevOps Days London Hackathon Prep – Stepping out of my comfort zone.

12th April 2016 0 Comments

DevOps Days London is fast approaching. The main conference runs from Tuesday 19th – Wednesday 20th April 2016, however, on Thursday 21st April there is a one day Hackathon which Microsoft is supporting. From the DevOps Days London website:  "This isn’t a traditional Hackathon, we are looking to test the principles of DevOps against the clock and at the same time attempt to build a production quality Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that could facilitate the giving of small (micro) donations to a variety of charities so easy it becomes a way of life. The concept is to create a facility…
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Azure, DevOps

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Build 2016: Day 1 Keynote – At a glance

31st March 2016 0 Comments

I’ve been looking forward to hearing the announcements that will be made at Build, especially it is the first Build since I’ve been a Microsoft employee. Unfortunately I’m not in San Francisco this week so this blog post was written from my living room while watching the keynote. I have outlined the key themes without going to go into a great deal of detail as many of the topics discussed are outside my area of expertise and there have been many more comprehensive blog posts written already about each specific area (I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel). Windows 10 Anniversary Update…
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Azure, Build, DevOps

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Introduction to Azure Resource Manager Templates for the IT Pro

25th February 2016 0 Comments

The Problem Conflict between software development teams and IT operations is familiar to many of us. As IT professionals we are often faced with support tickets for applications that are: Sluggish Don’t install Randomly stop working This could happen randomly, or more commonly occurs after an application update. Have you ever escalated an issue to the application developers or vendor and had a reply the lines of “You have installed it incorrectly” or “Your hardware is incorrectly configured? It a situation that I have been in a number of times in the past and the resolution to the conflict is often a…
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Azure, DevOps, PowerShell

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PowerShell function to enable WinRM over HTTPS on an Azure Resource Manager VM

12th February 2016 9 Comments

You may have seen my previous posts detailing how to enable WinRM over HTTPS on an Azure Resource Manager VM. I have now collated all the different bits of script and creates a single PowerShell function. The function is called Configure-WinRMHTTPS, and is as follows: Once the function is loaded you must login to Azure. Then the function can be executed: My next post will cover submitting the function to the PowerShell Gallery.

Azure, PowerShell, Windows Server

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Create a Custom Script Extension for an Azure Resource Manager VM using PowerShell

12th February 2016 18 Comments

Following on from my previous two posts regarding WinRM over HTTPS the next stage was to automate the steps that needed to be carried out inside the Azure VM. In my original post I had a mix of PowerShell, command prompt and copy and paste! Andy Slowey provided me with the following PowerShell to optimize the WinRM over HTTPS server side configuration: In search of going one better, I decided to find a way to avoid the need to use RDP so that the whole process could be automated. Scripts can be executed within an Azure VM without logging into…
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Azure, PowerShell, Windows Server

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Create a Network Security Group Rule using PowerShell

11th February 2016 0 Comments

My last post, http://www.techdiction.com/2016/02/11/configuring-winrm-over-https-to-enable-powershell-remoting/, covered enabling WinRM over HTTPS on an Azure VM. After forwarding the steps to colleagues it was pointed out that some of the steps could be simplified with some PowerShell. My next couple of posts will cover how different parts of my initial process could be automated, starting with creation of the network security group rule. I want to say thanks to Andy Slowey, Technology Specialist at Microsoft Research who suggested some improvements, carried out some testing and ironed out some of the bugs in my PowerShell. The PowerShell below creates the network security group rule for…
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Azure, PowerShell, Windows Server

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Configuring WinRM over HTTPS to enable PowerShell remoting

11th February 2016 7 Comments

Note: After making this post I created some additional posts describing how to automate this process further using PowerShell. The final post in the series is here: http://www.techdiction.com/2016/02/12/powershell-function-to-enable-winrm-over-https-on-an-azure-resource-manager-vm/ which includes a function to carry out the below without the need to log onto the server or portal. PowerShell remoting allows machines to be remotely managed using PowerShell. PowerShell remoting is commonly used with virtual machines running on Azure. When we create a classic/service manager VM on Azure it is automatically configured with a WinRM endpoint so that we can connect using PowerShell remoting. However, if we create a VM using Resource…
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Azure, PowerShell

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Connecting Azure App Service to VNet using Point to Site VPN using PowerShell

4th February 2016 6 Comments

It is possible to connect Azure App Services that are on Standard and Premium plans to a virtual network using a point to site VPN. Unfortunately although it is reasonably straightforward in the portal there isn’t much documentation around on how to do this using PowerShell. In response to a forum post, https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/2417fc64-e8d3-4b15-a493-7524f7d4961e/join-a-web-app-to-a-vpn-in-azure-through-powershell-script I created the connection with some help from https://resources.azure.com/.  The solution isn’t a work of art but hopefully enough to put people on the right track. First you need an existing VNet with P2S configured. If you haven’t done that already I suggest reading my previous post – http://www.techdiction.com/2016/01/12/creating-a-point-to-site-vpn-connection-on-an-azure-resource-manager-virtual-network/ Then use…
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Azure, PowerShell, Uncategorised

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Creating a Point to Site VPN connection to an Azure Resource Manager Virtual Network

12th January 2016 19 Comments

I have been helping out on the MSDN forums and came across a post where a user was struggling to create a Point to Site (P2S) VPN connection to an Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Virtual Network – https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/azure/en-US/567b968e-aa50-4ee4-b554-af09c54a40e0/routing-in-azure-between-pointtosite-and-sitetosite-networks?forum=WAVirtualMachinesVirtualNetwork. At the time of writing it is not possible using the portal. I had a look at the ARM PowerShell commands and found the command Set-AzureRmVirtualNetworkGatewayVpnClientConfig  but failed to find any documentation. I set about the task of working out how to do this. Gateway Subnet The Virtual Network Gateway must connect to a subnet named GatewaySubnet. I created this using the…
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Azure, PowerShell

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