Powershell Garbage Collection

Chad

You might think PowerShell is a simple high level scripting language so who cares about low level things like garbage collection?!? You would be mostly right, I have a complex script that processes alot of data, creates and destroys a lot of variables. How do you address it when you create and destroy lots of data in memory? Add in the following line after Remove-Variable and clearing up memory add in the following line to kick off a garbage collection Now after the process use to fall over, it is now using way less memory.

Identifying on prem Active Directory password reuse

Chad
Please keep your passwords to yourself

It all started this morning when looking into a security issue with a vendor which had directed their all the contactors to all use the same password for the accounts we had created for them, effectively making them username only authentication. I belive their heart was in the right place not wanting the overhead of dealing with helpdesks, password resets, or using self service password reset tools. However, this created an issue when one of the accounts was compromised, thus effectively compromising all the accounts that use the same password at this vendor. Now off to uncovering how prevalent this behavior is with both our other partner companies we work with as well as internally. Spoiler: It is a lot…. Read moreIdentifying on prem Active Directory password reuse

Cell Phone Forwarding

Chad

I don’t like voicemail at the best of times. I would like a single voice mailbox, since I am already using Lync for most of my calls and Exchange UM as my voicemail provider.  I would like to also use that same voicemail box for my cell phone. As it turns out there is a defined standard for programing the call forwarding on modern cell phones (see table below) I can set my cell phone to forward to my desk/Lync number; when I am busy; if I do not answer the call; and if I am out of coverage. This way if I do not answer my Cell phone my Lync/ Desk number rings and ultimately rolls over to my voice mail. client. Assuming… Read moreCell Phone Forwarding

Exchange 2013 Issue

Chad

Microsoft is aware of a new issue impacting Exchange 2013 running on any version of windows. Impacted user may see delays in email delivery or slow response times including disconnected users. This because of too many objects pinned on the .NET Framework 4.5 garbage collector heap. It causes heap fragmentation in addition to an increase in CPU and memory usage by the garbage collector. There is a work around: For Exchange Server 2013 that is installed in Windows Server 2012 Install the Hotfix from KB2803755 (needs a reboot) Create the COMPLUS_DisableRetStructPinning environment variable, and set the value of the variable to 1. Create a DWORD value of the DisableRetStructPinning entry at the following registry subkey, and set the DWORD value… Read moreExchange 2013 Issue

Domain Controller DNS Check PS script

Chad

We do not use Microsoft DNS at my company. The main reason is the size of the company and the ways roles are delegated. It could work but the network team runs DNS and it is their call, so customized BIND it is. My 100+ domain controllers are allowed to make dynamic updates to the BIND servers but on occasion I see this break down. So I figured I’d share my script I use to confirm all the records when needed. The following requires Powershell 3, ActiveDirectory management module, and to be run as your enterprise admin account (if you have multiple domains in your forest.

PKI and large CRL’s

Chad

Came across an interesting item the other day.  In the enterprise PKI services I saw our LDAP CRL publishing failing.  Apparently, this was due to the CRL being larger than 10MB in size. This happened when there are more than 250,000 revoked certs.  I was able to identify the problem of run away cert generation and revocation however I was still left with a large CRL 🙂 It turns out LDAP attributes are limited to 10MB. Active Directory is not a blob storage device and should be used for storage of more than more than 5MB of data in a single attribute. to correct the issue there are a few ways.  the easiest/ more secure method would be to renew the Certificate Authority Certificate… Read morePKI and large CRL’s

Windows 8.1 & Skydrive Sync issue

Chad

After setting up my new Surface Pro 2 with Windows 8.1 I notice that Skydrive wasn’t syncing. After troubleshooting it for the past few days I have finally found the cause of my issue.  One of the My Documents Group Policy Objects (GPOs) was conflicting with Skydrive. The offending object was the “Prohibit User from manually redirecting Profile Folders” setting. User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Desktop   Once I setting to “Not configured” or “Disabled” updated the policy on my surface, logged off and back in Skydrive was working perfectly syncing and accessing all the files.  

Lync 2013 Meetings and IE 11

Chad

Working with IE 11 we noticed that we were seeing issues joining Lync meetings when sharing PowerPoint slides.  The Lync Client\LWA Stage would just sit at the “Loading” and never display the presentation. Looking at the UCCAPI logs on the client this error message is logged: <diagHeader>54020;reason=”The WAC presentation failed with a critical error After working with Microsoft support on this issue it was determined to be a known bug in in the Office Web Apps servers. The fix was released on October 17th at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2825686/en-us Issues that this hotfix package fixes Assume that Microsoft Lync 2013 is installed on a computer that is running Windows 8.1 or that has Windows Internet Explorer 11 installed. The computer is in an… Read moreLync 2013 Meetings and IE 11

Issues with iOS7 and iPhone 5S

Chad

It has come to my attention that there are some issues with using the Lync 2013 mobile client on the new iPhone 5s’. It seems when performing any video calls from the mobile device either to another mobile client, desktop client, or conference a digital static is transmitted instead of your video. See my screen shot attached to this post. Microsoft is now aware of this issue and is escalating it internally.  Hopefully it will be an easy fix but I would guess apple will need to get involved so it may take a while until we see a fix. UPDATE 10/11/2013 : There was an update to the Lync 2013 mobile client released to the app store today that correct this…. Read moreIssues with iOS7 and iPhone 5S