Excel: Calculate Cost, Margin, Sell Price
KB ID 0001835 Problem Occasionally at work I need to work out what the sale price / retail price will be for something would be (given that I know the cost and the % margin). That’s easy to work out. But sometimes I get given the sell / retail price and I know the margin used, and I then must work out what the cost will be. Ordinarily if it’s a quick question I’ll just use and online margin calculator. But if I have a LOT of...
Delegate LAPS Administration
LAPS Administration KB ID 0001834 Problem I saw this asked on a forum this morning and, went to test the answer (and create an article if successful), to find out the posted answer and most of the info I found online was for Microsoft LAPS and not the newer Windows LAPS. Windows LAPS Laps Administration Let’s say we have an OU called Computers (with my computers in) and I want to grant read permissions to LAPS password to a security...
What are IOPS?
What are IOPS KB ID 0001833 My IOPS History I was on a call this morning where the IOPS (Input / Output Operations Per Second) were being discussed. I have a love / hate relationship with IOPS insofar as they are ONLY any use when you are comparing apples with apples, and more importanly (which is the bit we don’t talk about) that we have defined what an apple is. Because one mans Golden Delicious is another mans Bramley cooking...
Disabling IPv6
Disabling IPv6 KB ID 0001832 Problem Stop! Why do you want to disable IPv6? I see this regularly in forums, with other unusual statements like “If you’re not using it disabling it” or “It’s just another attack vector, disable it.” Well unless you’re running Windows XP and Server 2012 you’re using IPv6. If something does not work and disabling IPv6 fixes it, then it’s usually...
Windows Remote VPN no DNS
VPN no DNS KB ID 0001402 Problem I’ve been setting up a VPN solution on the test bench as I’m looking at Always On VPN. When I noticed that I had a problem with my remote VPN connections on Windows. They would connect fine but I could not resolve any FQDNs for my domain? VPN no DNS Solution By default, all (Windows) VPN connections are ‘Force Tunnel’ (this means they have the option ‘Use default gateway...
Manually Update Windows Trusted Root Certificates
Manually Update Windows Trusted Root Certificates KB ID 0001831 Problem These days your trusted root certificates are simply updated with Windows Update, but what if your servers have no internet access? In this example I will manually update the root certs by downloading them on a machine WITH internet access then importing on another machine that has not. Bear in mind: If none of your machines have internet access they cannot check...
VMware: PowerCLI Errors
PowerCLI Errors KB ID 0001830 Problem I was doing some work recently and tried to connect to my vCenter server and was greeted with this. PS C:\Users\administrator.PNL> connect-viserver vc-70.pnl.com connect-viserver : Object reference not set to an instance of an object. At line:1 char:1 + connect-viserver vc-70.pnl.com + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Connect-VIServer], NullReferenceException +...
Windows: Copy User Membership to Another User
Copy User Membership KB ID 0001828 Problem If you have a lot of user groups and simply want to copy/clone one users group membership to another user, then with PowerShell that’s quite simple to do. Solution: Copy User Membership Here I have two users ALane who is a member of a few groups and APatel who is simply a member of domain admins. Although we can see above what groups ALane is a member off let’s prove that will...
Windows: Migrate DHCP HA
Migrate DHCP HA KB ID 0001826 Problem I got an email last week. “Hi thanks for your video. I have two win 2012 DC DHCP on a failover/load balance config and want to migrate to new Win 2022 VMs. What’s the exact procedure? If it’s a single VM it’s easy but I’m not sure about if it’s on a failover setup.” Well migrating the domain controller element I’ve covered before. Migrate From Server...
Deny RDS
Deny RDS KB ID 0001825 Problem Way back when I started doing tech (in the days of Novell 4 and NT4), my mantra was, if you must deny something then you’ve done something wrong. Now I work for a UK based MSP that offers SPLA licensing to clients. Unlike typical RDS licensing, With SPLA this requires every ‘capable’ AD user that ‘can’ RDP onto a server (regardless of it’s a Session Host RDS Server or...