Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Eric Siron
Email Threats Have Never Been Bigger - 4 Key Cyber Security Report Findings
It’s on the evening news, it’s in your social media, it’s in nearly every vendor presentation you attend, and it’s the theme of most large IT conferences – security. And the security threats to M365 have never been larger. Luckily, Hornetsecurity’s Cyber Security Report 2023 is now out and contains cutting-edge research on the most critical M365 security.
Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to Protect your M365 Tenant
That the world of IT is changing is an understatement, and that it’s changing quicker than it used to is common knowledge, but the ramification of those changes can be hard to perceive when we’re in the middle of the shifting sands. Only a few years ago, having good firewall systems with content filtering and malware inspection was considered state of the art.
Say Goodbye to Free Hyper-V
We’ve got Microsoft MVP Eric Siron for a conversation about the end of Hyper-V Server (the free SKU of Hyper-V). Again, to confirm, we’re talking about the free SKU of Hyper-V. The normal paid SKUs – the well-known role within Windows Server – will be remaining. This announcement came abruptly and was something of a shock to many people. Hyper-V Server was the primary test/dev hypervisor for many organizations, not to mention it was great for licensing in VDI scenarios.
What you Need to Know about Data Loss Protection in Microsoft 365
Data is seen as the “new gold” for enterprise organizations as it is the lifeblood of the business revenue stream. No matter what industry, product, or solution a business offers, most companies have embraced data-driven processes to meet modern business challenges in today’s world. It underscores the importance for organizations to protect their data at all costs. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions provide the capabilities for businesses to protect their data.
Why is Licensing in Microsoft 365 so Complicated?
We’ve got Paul Schnackenburg back to talk about licensing in Microsoft 365. To those that have even glanced at the licensing sections of the Microsoft 365 admin portal it comes as no surprise to find out that licensing in Microsoft 365 is horribly complex. We discuss how we ended up here, what different options are there for licensing in Microsoft 365, frontline workers, and most importantly, which license to choose! For example, did you know that you can mix and match licenses in Microsoft 365?
Use this Identity Checklist to secure your M365 tenant
Protecting identities is a fundamental part of Zero Trust and it’s the first “target” that most attackers look for. We used to say that attackers hack their way in, now we say they log in, using bought, found or stolen/phished credentials. This article will show you why MFA is so important and how to implement advanced security features in Azure AD such as PIM, Password protection, Conditional Access policies (also a strong part of Zero Trust), auditing and more.
What are the Frontline Worker SKUs in M365 and Who are they for?
Much like learning the difference between Formula 1 and Formula 3 cars by reading the proverbial “high-speed racing weekly” to help choose which car or racing format is for you, read on to understand the difference between the various Frontline Workers licenses to help you choose which suits your business. Let’s ensure we have the definition right of Frontline workers.
VMware vs Hyper-V - Hypervisor Throwdown | The SysAdmin DOJO Podcast
Access all Altaro DOJO eBooks, webinars and other members-exclusive content Join 50,000+ IT Pros benefiting from free training Join the DOJO forum community and ask our expert moderators your questions I’m interested in (select at least one):* MSP (Managed Service Providers) Yes, I would like to receive the latest content and other updates from Altaro Thanks for registering and welcome to Altaro's DOJO! You will receive a welcome email shortly, as well as our weekly newsletter.
State of the MSP Industry: What Happened in 2021?
It’s hard to believe a whole entire year has passed us once again. While we’re not usually one to follow the crowd in terms of content creation here on the DOJO, I do see value in doing pieces like these year-end round-ups, reflections… or whatever you want to call them. The point is… it’s been an interesting year for MSPs. It’s been SEVERAL interesting years for MSPs, and I’ve always felt there is value in taking some time to stop, think, and discuss where we’ve been, and where we’re going.
Free eBook download - How to Get the Most Out of Windows Admin Center
Windows Admin Center is one of the most important and powerful tools in a system administrator’s toolbox. But are you harnessing its full potential? In this eBook, Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP Eric Siron, explains the optimal configurations and applications that will enable you to squeeze as much value out of this incredible free management tool from Microsoft.
Free eBook download - How to Get the Most Out of Windows Admin Center
Windows Admin Center is the future of Windows and Windows Server management. Are you using it to its full potential? In this free eBook, Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, Eric Siron, has put together a 70+ page guide on what Windows Admin Center brings to the table, how to get started, and how to squeeze as much value out of this incredible free management tool from Microsoft.
The Ten Commandments of Backup
In honour of the initial publication of The Backup Bible, I’ve extracted the top 10 most important messages from the book and compiled them into a handy reference. The Backup Bible is a free eBook I wrote for Altaro that covers everything you need to know about planning, deploying and maintaining a secure and reliable backup and disaster recovery strategy. Download the Backup Bible Complete Edition now! Plan for the Worst-Case Scenario We have lots of innovative ways to protect our data.
What To Do When Live Migration Fails On Hosts With The Same CPU
Symptom: You attempt to Live Migrate a Hyper-V virtual machine to a host that has the same CPU as the source, but Hyper-V complains about incompatibilities between the two CPUs. Additionally, Live Migration between these two hosts likely worked in the past. The event ID is 21502. The full text of the error message reads: “Live migration of ‘Virtual Machine VMName‘ failed. Virtual machine migration operation for ‘VMNAME‘ failed at migration destination ‘DESTINATION_HOST‘.
5 Ways the CSP Model Tears Up the MSP Sales Rulebook
It is pretty much a constant that the cloud changes all things. It has completely transformed entire industries since its inception years ago. However, as is so often on technical blogs (such as this one) we get mired into the weeds about how the cloud changes the technical side of the equation, and we stop there. Today I want to discuss the cloud from a slightly different angle. In this article, I’ll be talking about how the cloud (and the CSP Model) changes things for sales teams.
Satya Nadella's Microsoft Ignite 2020 Keynote Breakdown
Keynotes for any company’s primary annual conference serves to share what that company sees in its current climate and how it will provide value to that environment in the coming year. To that end, keynotes necessarily include a mix of cheerleading for the company and product announcements. In his 2020 keynote, Nadella outlined Microsoft’s focal areas and solutions. I extracted the portions that most appealed me as a systems administrator.
Is it Time you Ditched On-Premises Services Completely?
In a previous post, I covered the term CSP (Cloud Solution Provider), and what the differences are between a CSP and an MSP. Since then the question of continuing to offer on-premises services has come up a few times with readers and others in the community. Many seem to be wondering, especially given the current situation with COVID-19 and all. I’d like to address this question specifically in today’s blog post.
Why MFA is No Longer Optional for MSPs
One of the most common types of cyberattacks is one where cybercriminals seek to compromise the victim’s web credentials. Using email-based phishing attacks and increasingly convincing social engineering techniques, victims are tricked into providing their user ID and password for a wide range of cloud-based platforms and applications.
When to Use SCVMM (And When Not To)
Microsoft introduced Hyper-V as a challenge to the traditional hypervisor market. Rather than a specialty hallmark technology, they made it into a standardized commodity. Instead of something to purchase and then plug into, Microsoft made it ubiquitously available as something to build upon. As a side effect, administrators manage Hyper-V using markedly different approaches than other systems. In this unfamiliar territory, we have a secondary curse of little clear guidance.
Hyper-V Quick Tip: How to Choose a Live Migration Performance Solution
Q: Which Hyper-V Live Migration Performance Option should I choose? A: If you have RDMA-capable physical adapters, choose SMB. Otherwise, choose Compression. You’ve probably seen this page of your Hyper-V hosts’ Settings dialog box at some point: The field descriptions go into some detail, but they don’t tell the entire story. Live Migration Transport Option: TCP/IP In this case, “TCP/IP” basically means: “don’t use compression or SMB”. Prior to 2012, this was the only mode available.
What is the Hyper-V Virtual Switch and how does it work?
Note: This article was originally published in June 2018. It has been fully updated to be current as of September 2019. Networking in Hyper-V commonly confuses newcomers, even those with experience in other hypervisors. The Hyper-V virtual switch presents one of the product’s steeper initial conceptual hurdles. Fortunately, once you invest the time to learn about it, you will find it quite simple.
Zombieload - The New Vulnerability MSPs Need to Worry About
Last year we were all dealing from the ramifications of patching the Spectre Meltdown vulnerability. It was many hours of countless “patching maintenance” windows to get all devices in a secure state. This year is the year of Zombieload – a new speculative execution variant that Intel recently reported. The new vulnerability exists so far only on Intel chips leaving AMD and ARM unaffected and can affect chips as old as 2011.
Windows Certification Authority: How to View, Revoke, and Approve
In previous articles, you saw how to create a multi-tier PKI deployment. You then saw how to set up certificate templates to simplify certificate request operations. After that, we worked through some examples of requesting certificates. In our final installment, we will cover the common operations of a certification authority. You will learn how to view current certificates and revoke them. We will also demonstrate manual approval of pending certificate requests.
Announcing Altaro Office 365 Backup - Available Now
Update: Altaro Backup Software now comes with full 24/7 support across all our products at no extra cost! Our support promise is to be available for all our customer needs round the clock, with a guaranteed 24/7 call response of less than 30 seconds direct to a product expert – no entry-level agents or passing you around.
Free eBook download - How to Get the Most Out of Windows Admin Center
Windows Admin Center is the future of Windows and Windows Server management. Are you using it to its full potential? In this free eBook, Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, Eric Siron, has put together a 70+ page guide on what Windows Admin Center brings to the table, how to get started, and how to squeeze as much value out of this incredible free management tool from Microsoft.
MSP Insider: How to Establish Close Relations with Microsoft
With technology advancing at a pace faster than any organization can support, managed services are becoming commonplace and the industry is booming. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) offer ongoing outsourced support for a client, whereas professional services usually only complete a single project.
Magic in PowerShell Scripts Lets Evil Win
When my daughter was younger, my family would gather around the television and watch the series Once Upon a Time. Of its dominant recurring themes, one oft-repeated line in particular stands out: “Magic always has a price.” In the show, when the characters used non-trivial magic, some sort of dire consequence was sure to follow (plot allowing, of course). Their takeaway: never use magic without a willingness to pay the price. That lesson works for PowerShell scripters, too. What PowerShell “Magic”?
4 Methods for Reducing Excessive Customer Monitoring Email Alerts
Monitoring and alert notifications are the bread and butter of Managed Service Providers. Without a proper monitoring solution in place, a Managed Service Provider would have an extremely difficult and almost impossible time managing their client’s IT Infrastructure. Naturally, with monitoring come email alerts. And the more you monitor the more email alerts you will have to put up with right? Wrong.
Free PowerShell Script for Hyper-V: Detect MAC Address Conflicts
<# .SYNOPSIS Locate conflicting Hyper-V virtual network adapter MAC addresses. .DESCRIPTION Locate conflicting Hyper-V virtual network adapter MAC addresses. With default settings, will scan the indicated hosts and generate a report of all adapters, virtual and physical, that use the same MAC in the same VLAN. Skips physical adapters bound by a virtual switch or team as these generate false positives. .PARAMETER ComputerName Name of one or more hosts running Hyper-V.
7 Supported Platforms for Running Containers
This post continues our series on The Definitive Guide to Containers for MSPs. In part 1 of this series we talked about the concept of containers, what they are, and some examples of what they can be used for. In today’s post, we’re going to be talking about the various platforms that containers can run on, and where/when you should consider running your containers on a particular platform.
MSP Tools Comparison Guide 2018 [infographic]
During our last webinar 5 Essential Tools That Keep Successful MSPs Ahead of the Game, we ran down the best tools MSPs need to use to run an efficient and profitable business in 2018. We received a lot of feedback about the webinar and the tools so we’ve compiled the list into a handy infographic to make it easier for MSPs to know which tools they need to consider. Enjoy! (be patient, it might take time to load) Click here to download the infographic Watch the On-Demand Webinar
Hyper-V Quick Tip: How to Enable Nested Virtualization
Q: How Do I Enable Nested Virtualization for Hyper-V Virtual Machines A: Pass $true for Set-VMProcessor’s “ExposeVirtualizationExtensions” parameter In its absolute simplest form: Set-VMProcessor <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true Set-VMProcessor has several other parameters which you can view in its online help.
How to Architect and Implement Networks for a Hyper-V Cluster
We recently published a quick tip article recommending the number of networks you should use in a cluster of Hyper-V hosts. I want to expand on that content to make it clear why we’ve changed practice from pre-2012 versions and how we arrive at this guidance. Use the previous post for quick guidance; read this one to learn the supporting concepts. These ideas apply to all versions from 2012 onward. Why Did We Abandon Practices from 2008 R2?
How to Change Virtual Switch & VLAN During Hyper-V Live Migration
Luke wrote a fantastic article that detailed how to use Compare-VM to Live Migrate a Hyper-V virtual machine to a host with a different virtual switch name. What happens if you need to change the VLAN as well? Turns out, you can do so easily. We start out the same way that we would for a standard migration when switch names don’t match.
Comparing Hyper-V Generation 1 and 2 Virtual Machines
The 2012 R2 release of Hyper-V introduced a new virtual machine type: Generation 2. The words in that designation don’t convey much meaning. What are the generations? What can the new generation do for you? Are there reasons not to use it? We’ll start with an overview of the two virtual machine types separately. The word “legacy” often invokes a connotation of “old”. In the case of the Generation 1 virtual machine, “old” paints an accurate picture. The virtual machine type isn’t that old, of course.
Using ISOs and Arrays
In a previous article, we covered the GUI methods for connecting ISOs to virtual machines. Using PowerShell for the same task can be a little bit tougher at first. In order to follow along, you’ll need to have an ISO. If you’re going to be mounting the ISO from remote storage, you’ll also need to have configured security appropriately. The previous article covered both of these topics, and they will not be repeated here. The very first thing you must is decide what to connect the ISO to.
Configure Constrained Delegation
function Set-VMHostADDelegation{ <# .SYNOPSIS Sets Active Directory delegation on specified hosts for SMB transfers and/or Live Migration. .DESCRIPTION Sets Active Directory delegation on specified hosts for SMB transfers and/or Live Migration. .PARAMETER TargetHost One or more Active Directory computers that will be added to the allowed delegate list of the source host. Can be supplied as a string array or an array of Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.ADComputer.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Eric
Contact Eric, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack