Tuesday, December 16, 2014

MCSE Studying - Week 29

Overview
Week 29 of my studies was quite a routine week of live, online classroom learning as I continued the 70-412 and 70-414 classes through KnowledgeNet. I also took a little time to start doing a detailed map of all of the 70-410 exam requirements so that I can start seeing where I need to focus my attention.

Cool Stuff
The coolest thing from week 29 was the chance to further cement my knowledge of DNS security. DNS security is accomplished through a variety of means, including randomizing the DNS socket pool, DNS cache locking, and DNSSEC, to name but a few. DNS is definitely one of the critical services that all sysadmins need to know if they want to secure their career.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
I once again failed to come up with a cmdlet to cover this week, so I turned to my peers and took suggestions as to which cmdlet I should cover this week. I know they are relatively simple ones, but I use one of them quite regularly. They are:

Restart-Computer
Stop-Computer

Restart-Computer is one of those cmdlets that I use all the time, usually to reboot a server after using Add-Computer to join it to the domain. The other place I used it was in a script that, among other things, performed a maintenance reboot on a group of computers that were used to display flight schedule information in common areas. The line in the script was:

Restart-Computer -ComputerName DisplayPC01,DisplayPC02,DisplayPC03 -Force -Wait

This had the advantage of forcing an immediate restart of the remote computers, and, at least in the ISE, displayed a status bar showing how many of the computers had successfully restarted. This last part, using the -Wait switch, meant that I would not be returned to the PowerShell prompt until after the computers had rebooted. This saved me the hassle of walking around the building to check and see if they had rebooted.

The second cmdlet, Stop-Computer has similar usage, but instead of rebooting the machine, it will shut it down.

I may actually create a small script to shut down the various training and testing environments in my lab. This would be a time saver, as in the past I have had to shut down as many as 12 servers in order to switch to a different training environment, say, between 70-411 and PowerShell. The script might look something like this:

Stop-Computer -ComputerName PS-Member01,PS-FileServer01,localhost -Force

I'll let you know how that works out.

Stats
Total time studying: 13 hrs.
  • 70-410: 1 hr.
  • 70-412: 6 hrs.
  • 70-414: 6 hrs.
Resources used:

In Closing
The hours spent studying this week were a little lower than I would like. I will need to refocus on carving out the time to study and get back into the books. While I am enjoying having time to study, I am starting to miss having real world challenges to work on. Soon enough, soon enough.

Have a great week everyone!
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Monday, December 8, 2014

MCSE Studying - Week 28

Overview
Week 28 of my MCSE studies was a much better and less chaotic week than the previous few. I started two live KnowledgeNet courses: 70-412 (Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 R2 Services), and 70-414 (Implementing an Advanced Server 2012 R2 Infrastructure). I also finished three chapters in the 70-411 Training Guide, discovering a change to Windows Server 2012 R2 between when the book was published, and when I did the practice exercises at the end of one of the chapters. I won't cover that change here, but I'll put it up on my other blog: The Frozen Geek.

Cool Stuff
The coolest thing from week 28 wasn't anything specific, but just the chance to start learning about Microsoft System Center 2012 R2. Taking the 70-414 course has further cemented the thought that becoming an enterprise systems administrator (2000+ users) is definitely one of the career paths I am going to consider for myself over the next couple of months!

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
I know that in last week's blog post I had said that I would get back on track this week, but I'm afraid that just isn't going to happen. Quite simply, I didn't find a PowerShell cmdlet from last week that was new or cool enough. So, rather than pick a random PowerShell cmdlet, I'll just hold off until next week.

Stats
Total time studying: 17 hrs. 5 min.
  • 70-411: 5 hrs. 5 min.
  • 70-412: 6 hrs.
  • 70-414: 6 hrs.
Resources used:

In Closing
This was a much better week for studying! I must thank my beautiful, supportive wife for kicking my butt into gear on Friday when I really didn't feel like studying. Thanks to her, I got just over 5 hours of study time in the 70-411 Training Guide! It is very important to have someone in you life, whether it be a friend, co-worker, or family member that can keep you on target when pursuing your goals.

Have a great week everyone!
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Thursday, December 4, 2014

MCSE Studying - Week 26 & 27

Overview
It has been an incredibly busy few weeks, so this post is really late. During week 26 of my MCSE studies I completed the three Live Learning courses from KnowledgeNet and attended a live recording of the PowerScripting Podcast. I did not accomplish any studying during week 27 due to the fact that I was working out of town for most of the week. I did, however, manage to get my article on PowerShell written and submitted before the deadline.

Cool Stuff
I think that the coolest thing from week 26 was the live recording of the PowerScripting Podcast for the WMF5 Pre-release Party with Jeffrey Snover and John Slack from Microsoft. It was fantastic to be able to attend a live recording with these two awesome individuals.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
Apologies, but there isn't going to be a PowerShell cmdlet of the week this time. I'll make sure I get back on track for next week though.

Stats
Total time studying: 19 hrs. 30 min.
  • PowerShell: 1 hrs. 30 min.
  • 70-411: 6 hrs.
  • 70-413: 6 hrs.
  • 70-341: 6 hrs.
Resources used:


In Closing
The details of the past couple of weeks have largely escaped me, probably due to the heavy workload. and the fact that I have been quite tired. I will be getting back on track this coming week and will hopefully be able to add some more details in my next post.

Have a great week everyone!
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Monday, November 17, 2014

MCSE Studying - Week 25

Overview
During week 25 of my MCSE studies I have continued the three Live Learning courses from KnowledgeNet and listened to three episodes of the PowerScripting Podcast. Progress this past week was not as high as the previous week as I was working for a part of the time.

Cool Stuff
To be perfectly honest, I do not think there was anything that really stood out as being really cool. There was a lot of information learned, but there was no single item that stood out above the rest.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
This week , I'll choose a cmdlet related to the ones from Week 23: Get-ADForest and Get-ADDomain. This time however, instead of just viewing the Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) role holders, we'll actually change the role holder:

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole

I think this cmdlet just about takes the record for the longest cmdlet name.

Let's cover two possible usage scenarios:

Transfering a FSMO role to another Domain Controller
In this case, we are going to move the FSMO role of 'PDC Emulator' to a Domain Controller called DC01.contoso.com, while both online and available:

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity dc01.contoso.com -OperationMasterRole PDCEmulator

or, alternately, using the number for the role instead of the name, and dropping the -Identity, since this parameter is positional:

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole dc01.contoso.com -OperationMasterRole 0

Seizing a role from another Domain Controller
In this second example, we are going to seize the role of RID Master from a failed Domain Controller that cannot be recovered, and moving it to a Domain Controller called DC05.contoso.com

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity dc05.contoso.com -OperationMasterRole RIDMaster -Force

In this case, the addition of the -Force switch seizes the role from a failed Domain Controller.

As always, be sure you understand the implications of transferring FSMO roles prior to starting, and always take care not to bring a failed Domain Controller back online once you have seized a role from it.

For more information on this subject, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:
Flexible Single Master Operation Transfer and Seizure Process

Stats
Total time studying: 16 hrs. 45 min.
  • PowerShell: 3 hrs. 45 min.
  • 70-411: 6 hrs.
  • 70-413: 6 hrs.
  • 70-341: 1 hr.
Resources used:


In Closing
I did not get to spend quite as much time studying as I would have liked, but there were circumstances that required me to take some time off. This coming up week should be a little better, provided I get enough sleep. I also need to look at booking at least one exam, probably 70-410, before the end of the year. In addition to my studies, I also have an article on PowerShell to finish writing before the end of the month. It's going to be another busy week!

Have a great week everyone!
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Sunday, November 9, 2014

MCSE Studying - Week 24

Overview
Week 24 of my MCSE studies has been quite busy. I enrolled in, and attended three Live Learning courses from KnowledgeNet, finished another chapter in the 70-411 Training Guide, and listened to two episodes of the PowerScripting Podcast. I am quite tired, but I've have had a great week!

Cool Stuff
The coolest thing was not chosen because of it's wonderful new features, it's flashy new GUI, or even it's new wonderfully feature-rich command line tools. In fact, it has none of those things. It was chosen, because I finally understand how it works after more than a decade of searching for a clear answer. What did I learn? How the No-refresh Interval and the Refresh Interval affect DNS Aging and Scavenging.

In a nutshell, here's the grossly simplified explanation of how I now understand it works:

  1. The DNS client registers it's name with the DNS server, which adds it to the DNS zone and time stamps the record.
  2. During the No-Refresh Interval (7 days by default), the DNS server will not allow the client to refresh it's time stamp if there aren't any changes, but it will allow the client to update the record and the time stamp if there are changes.
  3. The Refresh Interval (7 days by default) starts as soon as the No-Refresh Interval expires. During this period, the client can refresh it's DNS record, and resets the time stamp.
  4. During the next scavenging interval, the DNS server compares the current time with (Time stamp+No-Refresh Interval+Refresh Interval). If the value of the calculation is less than the current time, the record is removed from the zone.
This is the link to the TechNet article that made everything clear for me:
Understanding Aging and Scavenging

If you find any errors in my understanding, by all means, feel free to correct me before I write this transaction to the database of my long-term memory.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
This week I think I'll choose a pair of useful cmdlets that are related to DNS Scavenging.

Get-DNSServerScavenging

This cmdlet, when run by itself, will get the current DNS server's scavenging settings, including NoRefreshInterval, RefreshInterval, ScavengingInterval, ScavengingState, and LastScavengeTime. You can add the -ComputerName parameter to run it against a remote DNS Server.

Set-DNSServerScavenging

This cmdlet will allow you to set the properties for aging and scavenging on the local, or a remote DNS server. Say for example, you wanted to turn on aging and scavenging on a DNS server named titan-dc01 for all zones hosted on that server, with a scavenging interval of 1 day.

Set-DNSServerScavenging -ComputerName titan-dc01 -ScavengingState $true -ScavengingInterval 1.00:00:00 -ApplyOnAllZones

Easy!

Stats
Total time studying: 24 hrs. 35 min.
  • PowerShell: 2 hrs. 45 min.
  • 70-411: 10 hrs. 20 min.
  • 70-413: 5 hrs. 30 min.
  • 70-341: 6 hrs.
Resources used:


In Closing
It has been a fantastic week for studying! I have had a great time, and learned a lot. I did tire myself out, but it was totally worth it.

I decided to take a couple of extra courses this month. The first being for exam 70-341, Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. I decided to take this one, since I have absolutely no knowledge of Exchange Server. This was due to the fact that I have spent the last 14 years in a Lotus Notes/Lotus Domino Server environment.

The second course is one I will need for my MCSE, and that is the 70-413: Designing and Implementing a Server 2012 R2 Infrastructure. This is a course that is heavy on design and sometimes tests the limits of my understanding of Windows Server. I did have a fun experience with this course on Tuesday; I was the only student in class. I did enjoy this, but I am glad a few more students were there on the Thursday class, so there was a little more discussion and interaction.

I am looking forward to next week's studies, and the chance to get back into the field. I have a small job to do over the next couple of weeks, and I am looking forward to getting out of the house and doing some work in a production environment vs. a lab.

Have a great week everyone!
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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Six Months of Blogging

It has been almost six months since I started posting to my blog on a regular basis, which to be honest, is longer than I thought I would make it. Most of my posts have been of a fairly technical nature, but some have not. Those posts of a personal nature have allowed me to express myself in a way that I did not know I needed. I have discovered that I have enjoyed writing, and I intend to keep on writing, whether it be technical writing, or just the jumbled, somewhat chaotic musings of my own consciousness.

I am also amazed and humbled that so many people have taken the time to read what I have been writing. When I began posting to my blog, I did not expect to have so many people read it, as I had primarily started it for my own satisfaction. Knowing that there a so many people out there reading my blog encourages me to continue my writing.

So, to all of you out there around the world, thank you for taking the time out of your day to stop by. It means a great deal to me.

Have many wonderful days!

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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

MCSE Studying - Week 23

Overview
While it would not be fair to say that week 23 of my MCSE studies came completely off the rails, it did come close. The week started out reasonably well, but starting Thursday, there wasn't any progress at all. I did manage to complete Chapter 2 in the 70-411 Training Guide. I also attended two Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) events, "PowerShell for Active Directory Jump Start", and "Modernize Your Data Center Jump Start".

Cool Stuff
The coolest thing I learned from last week was not simply one thing. I attended the MVA "PowerShell for Active Directory Jump Start" hosted by Ashley McGlone and Jason Helmick. It was an amazing event! I had a great time learning all sorts of new PowerShell tips, tricks, and skills throughout the morning.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
This week's PowerShell cmdlet is actually two that I learned about during the MVA event, and learned a new trick with today:

Get-ADForest

and

Get-ADDomain

These useful cmdlets display information about the Active Directory Forest and Domain. More specifically, I learned today how to get the Flexible Single Master Operator (FSMO) roles from these cmdlets. Simply use the cmdlets with Format-Table:

Get-ADForest | Format-Table -Property DomainNamingMaster,SchemaMaster

 Get-ADDomain | Format-Table -Property RIDMaster,PDCEmulator,InfrastructureMaster

Once you hit 'Enter', you will be rewarded with a neat table of which Domain Controllers hold each of the FSMO roles.

Stats
Total time studying: 9 hrs. 40 min.
  • PowerShell: 3 hrs. 10 min.
  • General MCSE: 4 hrs. 10 min.
  • 70-411: 2 hrs. 20 min.
Resources used:


In Closing
The end of last week was a little chaotic with various priorities from my personal life demanding my time. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind taking time away from my studies when required, and last week, it was definitely required. That being said, it is necessary to re-focus next week and continue on with my studies.

Wow! Next week is already shaping up to be a very busy week for studying. I have found three live, instructor led courses that I want to take, and I still need to continue on with the 70-411 Training Guide, and the "Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches" book. I expect I will be quite tired, but a lot more knowledgeable by the end of the week.

Have a great week everyone!
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