Showing posts with label IT» Systems and Infrastructure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IT» Systems and Infrastructure. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 May 2022

Password Policies and Recommendations


As per Microsoft baseline recommendation, good practice to fine tune password lockout threshold from 15 invalid logon attempts to 10 invalid logon attempts

 





Minimum is password length is 8 characters as per Microsoft guidelines (Password policy recommendations - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs)

Windows security baseline recommend configuring a threshold of 10 invalid sign-in attempts

Account lockout threshold (Windows 10) - Windows security | Microsoft Docs

 

Check Group Policies applied to a User Account and Computer

 

Resultant Set of Policy

There is a built-in tool called “Resultant Set of Policy” (RSoP) that simulates the policy settings applied to computers and users using Group Policy. It acts as a query engine that polls existing policies based on site, domain, domain controller, and organizational unit, and then reports the results of those queries.

To launch Resultant Set of Policy, press Win + R to fire up the Run dialog box, type rsop.msc, and press Enter.











The tool fires up and scans the active policies and displays them within the tool. You will still need to go through the folders to find out each active policy applied to the account and computer.














GPResult

Alternatively, there is also a command line called GPResult that you can also use to collect active Group Policy settings. Simply open a Command Prompt and run the following command.

gpresult /scope user /v

This is to search and show all the active policies applied to the current user. To find all policies applied to the PC, run the following instead in an elevated Command Prompt window.

gpresult /scope computer /v

Even more, you can use GPResult to gather Group Policy information applied to certain user account from a remote computer, such as below:

gpresult /c computername /u username /p password /user targetusername /scope user /r

Or, all Group Policies applied to a remote computer:

gpresult /c computername /u username /p password /scope computer /r

Note that the switch /r is to display RSoP summary data while /v is to display verbose policy information.


Monday, 24 May 2021

Some of the worst cable management hell and why is it important

 

Cables here, cables there, cables everywhere! 

Before I discuss solutions to help you get more organized, let’s look at some examples of horrible cable management. Be warned: some of these examples may just make you cry; 


Can you find the hidden equipment in this mess?







One of the leading Data Centre I visited had this bad cable management and we had to wait for another two weeks to decommission riverbed wan accelerator appliance! Guess what. To pull out the customer appliance they obviously had to plan for a production downtime.

If you dread walking into your server room to troubleshoot a network issue because of bad cable management or worse, dread having to give higher-ups a tour of your facilities, then it’s about time to straighten up your cable management system.

Some internet glimpses for some of the worst cable hell/ wiring ever seen.


 

Here are some things you can do now to avoid joining the terrible cable management hall of fame photos I just highlighted above.

Proper cable management will not only support existing infrastructure, but will also allow to accommodate future growth. 

Consider these tips for your next project:

  • Before purchasing or installing cable products, determine the amount of cabling and connections required. Be sure to allow room for access and growth.
  • Be sure to follow industry standards, such as ANSI/TIA and ISO/IEC, as well as any federal, state or local regulations. This will help ensure a safe, failure-free installation that will minimize system downtime.
  • Plan for change by organizing cable properly and labeling cable that may need to be quickly and easily identified. Also, try to avoid blocking access to equipment inside and outside the racks.
  • Be sure to use sweeping 90-degree bends when transitioning from the pathway support to the racks.
  • Density is very important in data center cabinets and racks, so keep in mind how many rack spaces are being utilized with horizontal wire managers.
  • Select a vertical cable manager that can accommodate all of the cable feeding from the horizontal managers. Use waterfalls and spools to help manage multiple cables and to help with maintaining proper bend radius on copper and fiber cables.
  • Using a 50% cable fill when selecting vertical and horizontal cable management. This allows sufficient space for maintaining cable bend radius for patch cords.

Efficiency

Making our installations more efficient is one of the most beneficial tasks a person should consider. Not only does it save time but can decrease issues down the line. This is the plus side of proper cable management. Cable management is the organization of electrical or optical cables in a cabinet or an installation. The term comes from the goal of planning. Cable installations vary from job to job but for the most part you can see how difficult it is to properly situate each cable to make it easy to work with. Problems can happen down the line with too many cables around each other with possible issues of unplugging or identifying which cable is the cause. This is why cable management is very crucial to a smooth work place and installation.

Safety

Proper cable management can increase safety measures in the work place. Fire is a cause for concern after cable installation and loose cable can become tangled with each other possibly creating a spark. This spark can then turn into a fire damaging your network, data center and building and ofcoure financial loss! There is also the chance of someone coming by where the cables are installed and tripping or catching on the cables resulting in an injury. You never know what might happen and it's best to keep a clean and organized setup

Air Flow

An important aspect to cables longevity is the abundance of air flow during installation. The more air flow the better is the goal when cable is connected/running. This increases energy efficiency as well. Keeping temperatures low and consistent is beneficial to cables structure and performance. Increased temperatures can damage the cables jacket and do harm to its inner workings. Keeping your cables tied together and out of the way will open up airways to get to the cables to prevent temperatures from possibly increasing surrounding the cables.

 Diagnosis

Correct cable management can make life easier when going back to troubleshoot the problem with your cable. Organizing your network with various colors can help you trouble shoot problems down the line and can help in managing future additions. Plus, you'll get major props from others for a well managed setup.



Tuesday, 6 April 2021

Review/ Change Logon Server and Correct Erroneous Time


Change your logon server on your PC

1. open CMD in elevated mode.

 


C:\Users\rinith> echo %logonserver%

result (before change):

\\adc-dhcp

syntax: set logonserver=//servername

this sets the new logon server (pref. PDC)


C:\Users\rinith> set logonserver=//pdc2020

check the logon server again...

C:\Users\rinith> echo %logonserver%

result:

//pdc2020

  


Change Client Node Time and sync to the DC

c:>time

c:>echo %logonserver%

result: 

\\pdc2020

Set time as that of you logon server

c:>net time %logonserver% /set /y

this will update the client time same as that of domain controller time

c:>time

corrected time displays  

Friday, 26 March 2021

Command line to list users in a Windows Active Directory group?


The ability to administer and maintain up-to-date user lists and groups is critical to the security of an organization.

Using the GUI

There are a number of different ways to determine which groups a user belongs to. First, you can take the GUI approach:

1.     Go to “Active Directory Users and Computers”.

2.     Click on “Users” or the folder that contains the user account.

3.     Right click on the user account and click “Properties.”

4.     Click “Member of” tab.

Using the Command Line 

gpresult /V

You’ll get output that looks like this (I’ve truncated it to only include the group info):



  





Another command line to export to an output file

dsquery group -name ‘groupname’ | dsget group -members | dsget user -display >> outputfilename.txt


Thursday, 14 May 2020

Time sync reference client-server

Domain clients stopped syncing time with PDC

This morning, few users started reporting time miss-match between current time and laptop time/ member server time. 

try this command for syncing w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /update executed from PDC, primary domain controller. Also make sure that the timeserver is fetching time from time.windows.com

To determine if a domain member is configured for domain time sync, examine the REG_SZ value at HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\Type. If it is set to "Nt5DS" then the computer is synchronizing time with the Active Directory time hierarchy.

Also, check from client machine via cmd prompt
net time \\’your domain name’

To check what was the last successful sync time
w32tm /query /status 

to see if there is time mismatch.

Friday, 10 January 2020

Export Your SSL Certificate w/Private Key Using the DigiCert Certificate Utility


Exporting Your SSL Certificate from a Microsoft Server for Importing to Another Microsoft Server or Apache server

SSL Certificate Export Instructions (PFX Format)



Monday, 16 December 2019

Creating a CSR


Use the instructions on this page to create your certificate signing request (CSR) and then to install your SSL certificate in IIS 8 on Windows Server 2012 or IIS 8.5 on Windows Server 2012 R2.
Step 1: Create Your CSR in IIS 8 or IIS 8.5 on Windows Server 2012
1.     From the Start screen, find Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and open it.
2.     In the Connections pane, locate and click the server.
3.     In the server Home page (center pane) under the IIS section, double-click Server Certificates


4.     In the Actions menu (right pane), click Create Certificate Request

5.     In the Request Certificate wizard, on the Distinguished Name Properties page, provide the information specified below and then click Next.
Common name:
The fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) (e.g., www.example.com).
Organization:
Your company’s legally registered name (e.g., YourCompany, Inc.).
Organizational unit:
The name of your department within the organization. This entry will usually be listed as "IT", "Web Security", or is simply left blank.
City/locality:
The city where your company is legally located.
State/province:
The state/province where your company is legally located.
Country/region:
The country/region where your company is legally located. Use the drop-down list to select your country.

6.    

7.     On the Cryptographic Service Provider Properties page, provide the information specified below and then click Next.
Cryptographic service provider:
In the drop-down list, select Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider (unless you have a specific cryptographic provider).
Bit length:
In the drop-down list, select 2048 (unless you have a specific reason for using a larger bit length).
8.    

9.     On the File Name page, under Specify a file name for the certificate request, click the  …  button to specify a save location for your CSR.
Note: Remember the filename and save location of your CSR file. If you enter a filename without specifying a location, your CSR will be saved to C:\Windows\System32

10.   When you are done, click Finish.
11.   Open the CSR file using a text editor (such as Notepad), then copy the text (including the -----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- and -----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- tags) and paste it into the DigiCert order form. 

12.   After you receive your SSL certificate from DigiCert, you can install it.