Christos Polydorou

Active Directory query. Every Windows administrator has had the need to get a list of objects using some kind of criteria to create a report or update them in one batch. Fortunatelly, Microsoft provides a PowerShell module to interact with Active Directory as part of the RSAT tools and this module is installed by default on the Domain Controllers. The commands in this module interact with the Domain Controller using the Active Directory Web Services. But what if you are not logged on to a Domain Controller or you don't have RSAT installed? There is a way to query the Domain Controller and get the information you want, without the limitations of the Web Services and in a much faster way using .NET. First, we have to create a DirectorySearcher object and configure it's LDAP filter. Calling any of the find methods will return the results for the specified filter. On the following example, I'm using FindOne() to get my account. Keep in mind that you can configure t...

Writing your own queries for OMS is great, it gives you the flexibility to get the data in the exact form you want it and full control over the data to return, not to mention the ability to create an alert using the very same query.  There are however solutions that can be added to your workspace that already have logic and display reports in form of charts or lists. Adding a solution is a matter of seconds, although may of them require and automation account (that's pretty straight forward, don't worry!). You just have to browse the solution gallery from the OMS portal and hit the add button. The first solution I've added to my workspace was Update Management. This solution provides statistics about the update status of your Windows and Linux computers. The first two charts display information about the Windows and Linux computers that have been assessed: The information here is scoped to the computer level as opposed to the next two that show statisti...

Microsoft Exchange is a product that relies on the .NET Framework heavily. The Exchange Server Supportability Matrix  describes the .NET requirements for each Exchange Server version among other requirements and compatibility with other software. When updating Exchange, you have to check if your current .NET version is supported and if not upgrade it. Moreover, there might be post installation steps - e.g. security update installation - that you have to take. In case you're skipping a few CU levels, you might not be able to update directly to the desired CU level. For example, if you are currently on CU 12 and want to update to CU 17, you have to update to CU 15, update the .NET Framework to version 4.6.2 that is supported by CU 15 and CU 16 and later and then update to CU 17. Another task regarding the .NET Framework is to block the installation of feature versions that are not supported by your Exchange version. This is accomplished by updating the ...

Yet another of my PowerShell modules has been published on the Powershell Gallery. This time it's the CPolydorou.7Z module. This module contains functions to create, extract, test and update and archive along with a function to list it's contents. The supported files are 7z, BZip2, Exe, GZip, Tar and Zip. Let's take a quick look at the functions! New-7ZFile Create a archive from a file or folder and save it to the specified location. You can create an encrypted file, adjust the thread used for the compression and split the archive into multiple files. Get-7ZFile List the contents of an archive. Extract-7ZFile Extract the contents of an archive file to a specified folder. Test-7ZFile Test the integrity of an archive file. Update-7ZFile Update an archive file by adding new items or removing existing ones. Have fun!

You can use the following ADM file to disable Java updater. Just copy the colored text into an ADM file and add it to your policy object. CLASS MACHINE CATEGORY !!Java         POLICY !!Checkforupdatesatstart  KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy"             EXPLAIN !!Checkforupdatesatstart_Help                 VALUENAME "EnableAutoUpdateCheck"                     VALUEON NUMERIC 1                     VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0         END POLICY         POLICY !!EnableJavaUpdater             KEYNAM...