New URL for this blog moved to carlosvargas.com
New year and new URL. I finally move this blog to http://carlosvargas.com so all the new updates will go in the new website.
Calculate MD5 and base64 hash of a text string
I was trying to convert some text to MD5 or base64 encoding. Here are a couple of powershell functions that can help with that task Function to convert to Base64 Function to convert to MD5 Here is the rest of the script to put it all together
Active Directory Auto-Replication Script
While working in my lab I found that my replication between sites was not working as fast as I needed. So I created a script to trigger the repadmin command every 5 minutes. Create Auto-Replication.ps1 file Open Notepad or your favorite powershell editor Type this line: 1..2094|foreach {start-sleep -s 5;cmd /c repadmin /syncall /AeP} Save…
Configure Network Cards for your Windows Server 2012 or Hyper-V 2012 server
In order to manage the network card via PowerShell you need to use the NetAdapter and NetTCPIP modules. Import Modules Open a PowerShell Window Import the module: Import-Module NetAdapter Report of Ethernet Cards To create a simple report of the current Network Cards type the following command in your PowerShell Window. get-netadapter | Select-Object Name,…
How to enable PowerShell Web Access
Windows 2012 include a very nice feature called PowerShell Web Access. This feature allows you to access a powershell session via a web browser. Steps to enable and configure PowerShell Web Access Open PowerShell Session Install the PowerShell Web Access Feature Install-WindowsFeature -Name WindowsPowerShellWebAccess -IncludeManagementTools -Restart After server reboot, configure the web application. Install-PswaWebApplication -UseTestCertificate…
Exchange Management Shell for Windows 2012 Server Core
While working with my new Exchange 2013 environment. I decided to remove the GUI to reduce the load. And after the reboot I lost my Exchange Management Shell. I can still access the new Exchange Admin Center via the web address https://servername.domain.com/ecp but now I cannot run any scripts via the Exchange Management Shell. Here…
Installation of Exchange 2013
Microsoft release Exchange 2013 Preview last week. Here are some notes from my first installation. Active Directory The current version of Exchange 2013 do not support upgrade from Previous versions. This feature will be added later. A new AD forest was created with Windows Server 2012 core. (Instructions) OS Installation The Exchange environment was build…
Get a list of the Windows Server 2012 Firewall Rules
Here is a quick way to get a report for the Windows Firewall rules in Windows Server 2012. Enabled Firewall Rules Get-NetFirewallRule | Where-Object {$_.Action -eq “Allow”} | Format-Table -Property DisplayName Disabled Firewall Rules Get-NetFirewallRule | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -eq “False”} | Format-Table -Property Displayname
How to create a new AD Forest with Windows 2012 Server Core
Here is a quick guide on how to build a new forest (domain controller) with Windows 2012 Server Core. 1. Login to your Windows 2012 Server Core. 2. Configure Server Name and Assign Static IP Address with Sconfig.cmd 3. Add Active Directory Server Role Open a PowerShell Window Import-Module ServerManager Add-windowsFeature AD-Domain-Services Restart-Computer 4. Login…
Get IOPS per Process
Here is a quick one line to get how many IOPS each process is using. Get-WmiObject Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process | Select Name, IOReadOperationsPerSec, IOWriteOperationsPerSec, IOReadBytesPerSec, IOWriteBytesPerSec
Carlos Vargas 