Here’s How Much Money Dropbox Saved by Moving Out of the Cloud

Cloud storage and collaboration platform details cost savings that resulted from migrating onto its own platform.
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Amazon's Alexa Takes Open-Source Route to Beat Google Into Cars

Amazon.com Inc. is embracing open-source software in the race to get its voice-based Alexa digital assistant into cars ahead of Google.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Looks to Lure Health-Care Companies to Its Cloud With New Tools

Microsoft unveiled a tool for its Azure service that puts powerful computing resources to the task of gene-analysis for precision medicine – things like tailoring therapies to specific cancers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Manage Software Development Costs

There are several effective ways to manage software development costs without affecting the software quality. It all comes down to how you manage the development process -- while staying mindful of where costs can creep up.
by Boris Shiklo via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Role of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in the Enterprise Cloud

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Standard TimeDuration: 1 hour Now that enterprises have fully embraced the cloud, they must rise to the challenge of managing hybrid, multi-environments. It’s a massive challenge. But with machine
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Report: Human Resources Apps Slip Through IT Department

Human resources apps in the cloud are targeting HR managers and employees, leaving IT out of the procurement conversation, reports say.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Some on High Court Back U.S. in Email Fight With Microsoft

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed support for the government Tuesday in its fight with Microsoft Corp. over whether a decades-old law lets government investigators get digital information stored on overseas servers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Different Folks: Selling Google to the CIO

At home in the CMO’s office, Google finds selling its cloud services to enterprise IT an uphill battle.
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

7 Indexing Tips to Improve SQL Server Performance

SQL Server performance is always one of the most challenging subjects. Indexes are commonly created to gain additional performance from the system, but sometimes they are duplicated, missing, or unused, which can adversely affect database performance
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Are You Ready for GDPR?

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect on May 25, 2018. In contrast to older directives and data protection acts, the GDPR will bring new accountability obligations, increased data protection rights for the EU cit
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Honeywell Exec Dishes on Company’s Smart Building Technology

Datta Godbole, vice president of engineering and CTO at Honeywell Building Solutions, explains the thinking behind the company’s latest smart building technology.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How the American Red Cross Developed a Group Management Solution to Save Lives

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour The way we manage identity today is the result of shifting requirements, mobile users, and distributed environments. The growing complexity of managing groups and acti
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Dropbox Pitches IPO With Promise of Workplace Enlightenment

Dropbox Inc. proclaimed with its leap toward an initial public offering that it’s enabling “a more enlightened way of working.”
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Apple Is Said to Plan Giant High-End IPhone, Lower-Priced Model

Apple Inc. is preparing to release a trio of new smartphones later this year: the largest iPhone ever, an upgraded handset the same size as the current iPhone X and a less expensive model with some of the flagship phone’s key features.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How Samsung’s New Galaxy S9 Compares to the iPhone X

Samsung needs to show it has the hardware and software chops to maintain its leadership in the Android market, while proving Apple isn’t king of smartphone design.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Amazon’s Labor-Tracking Wristband Has a History

Several long-dead pioneers of “scientific management” anticipated this development, even if they might not entirely approve of Amazon’s approach.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

SpaceX Launches Imaging Satellite Plus Own Broadband Demos

The Thursday launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central Coast carried a radar-imaging satellite for Spain’s Hisdesat Servicios Estrategicos SA. The PAZ satellite will orbit the planet 15 times a day and collect information -- including ship tracking and weather data -- for government and commercial customers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Network Builders See Light at the End of Tunnel as 5G Approaches

The message from Huawei , Ericsson and Nokia at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was that 5G is close, with the first commercial networks based on the new technology set to be built later this year.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Tech Takes on Trump as Supreme Court Looks at Data Stored Abroad

The tech industry takes on the Trump administration at the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday in a high-stakes clash over digital privacy and government access to information stored on overseas servers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure is a Mixed Bag for Cybersecurity

As is typical with new technologies, convenience and efficiency are the focus, while security takes the backseat.
by Maria Korolov via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

SPJS Charts for SharePoint updated to v6.1.5.13

I have published a new version of SPJS Charts for SharePoint with a few minor layout changes and a fix for an error when adding a chart to a page and getting an error related to “ZoneId”.  You find the change log here and you can download the files here.

As mentioned when publishing the last update back in December 2017 I have worked on a new version that uses REST to query the datasource. This version will also be able to use a custom datasource built from a query or a static JSON object. This version will soon be published in BETA.

Please post any questions in the forum.

Alexander

by Alexander Bautz via SharePoint JavaScripts

Dropbox, Valued Privately at $10 Billion, Files for U.S. IPO

Dropbox, which was valued at $10 billion in its 2014 funding round, would be one of the biggest U.S. enterprise technology companies to list domestically in several years.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Assessing Security Risks in your Business and Organization

Five technology experts discuss the challenges companies face with assessing security risks and handling the related issues that come with today's constant barrage of security threats.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Windows 10 (Redstone 5) Build Tracker for PCs

We track the history of the development builds released for Redstone 5 which will be the sixth overall feature update for Windows 10.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Amazon’s Labor-Tracking Wristband Has a History

Several long-dead pioneers of “scientific management” anticipated this development, even if they might not entirely approve of Amazon’s approach.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

What to Watch for in Gadgets, Deals From the Biggest Mobile Show

Mobile World Congress, the wireless industry’s biggest conference, begins next week in Barcelona. Here are the big themes likely to dominate the event.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

ITPro SnapShot: What Else Happened This Week? (Feb. 16 - 23, 2017)

ITPro SnapShot offers a short and snappy round-up on the week's industry-related announcements and news around the globe. Here's what happened in the last week.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

HPE Jumps on Surprise Sales Revival, Cost-Cutting Effort

HPE’s earnings report marks a new era for the company under Neri, who succeeded Meg Whitman on Feb. 1, inheriting lackluster sales and increased competition from cloud-computing providers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

IBM's Phil Estes on the Turbulent Waters of Container History

In a recent talk on container history, IBM's Phil Estes explained that the little blue Docker boat hasn't always sailed through calm waters.
by Christine Hall via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Apple Is Said to Plan Upgrades to Popular AirPods Headphones

Apple Inc., seeking to bolster its wearables business, is working on upgrades to its wireless AirPods headphones, according to people familiar with the matter.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

JPMorgan Glitch Gave Customers Access to Others' Online Accounts

JPMorgan’s issue comes a month after Wells Fargo & Co. said an internal processing error caused issues with online payments for certain customers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

SpaceX Launches Imaging Satellite Plus Own Broadband Demos

The Thursday launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central Coast carried a radar-imaging satellite for Spain’s Hisdesat Servicios Estrategicos SA. The PAZ satellite will orbit the planet 15 times a day and collect information -- including ship tracking and weather data -- for government and commercial customers.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The One Infrastructure Initiative

How Automation and Managing Identity Helps Save Lives
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Marketing Cloud Services: What Agencies Need to Know About Security

Agencies are using marketing cloud services to improve client outcomes, but what are they missing when it comes to cloud security?
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Company Intranets Hold Key Role for Many Organizations

With the cloud playing a larger role in many companies and business these days, the valuable role of company intranets is often overlooked. A recent survey shows that companies need to keep in mind the return on investment they can gain from having a robust intranet within their organization.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Azure Container Services (AKS) - Upgrading your Kubernetes cluster

While working a lot with AKS and Kubernetes the last couple of months, I've found it to be a pretty slick experience using the CLI even if it still has some room for improvement.

The question of how to upgrade Kubernetes running in an Azure AKS cluster came up a few times both offline and online, thus I wanted to put a short post together on this topic.

I've redacted any details pointing to my subscription for obvious reasons, and in its place you will see "redacted" instead of the subscription-specific values of my cmds

Get current version of Kubernetes in your Azure AKS cluster

Get-versions: What version of Kubernetes are you on?

First we'll need to figure out what version you're currently on. This is easy:

az aks get-versions -g resourceGroupName -n aksClusterName  

Results will look similar to this, obviously with different version numbers if you aren't on exactly the same as mine. It is also likely that there's a later version than 1.8.7 when you're running this.

{
  "agentPoolProfiles": [
    {
      "kubernetesVersion": "1.7.7",
      "name": null,
      "osType": "Linux",
      "upgrades": [
        "1.8.6",
        "1.7.9",
        "1.8.2",
        "1.8.7",
        "1.7.12",
        "1.8.1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "controlPlaneProfile": {
    "kubernetesVersion": "1.7.7",
    "name": null,
    "osType": "Linux",
    "upgrades": [
      "1.8.6",
      "1.7.9",
      "1.8.2",
      "1.8.7",
      "1.7.12",
      "1.8.1"
    ]
  },
  "id": "/subscriptions/REDACTED/resourcegroups/resourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/aksClusterName/upgradeprofiles/default",
  "name": "default",
  "resourceGroup": "resourceGroupName",
  "type": "Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/upgradeprofiles"
}

We can see that we are running 1.7.7 but there are several upgrades available that we can upgrade to, for example the latest one as of this writing being 1.8.7.

Upgrade Azure AKS kubernetes control and agents to the latest version

First a word of caution. You should -always- ready the release notes, and also do a test-upgrade on a dev/test/pre-prod cluster before doing it with your critical system. But that's just common sense.

(Good place to start: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/releases)

Right, now that that's out of the way, we can start the upgrade:

az aks upgrade -g resourceGroupName -n aksClusterName --kubernetes-version "1.8.7"  

This will give you a prompt to confirm this choice, living on the edge!

Kubernetes may be unavailable during cluster upgrades.  
Are you sure you want to perform this operation? (y/n): y  
 - Running ...

You can optionally use the --no-wait param to not have to sit and wait for it in the console. If you did that, or you want to spin up a new console to check the status, you can do that too.

Verify upgrade

Once the upgrade has finished, you are able to see it directly after your previously issued command, and hopefully it'll look something like this when your upgrade-command has succeeded. (Please note the version numbers now saying 1.8.7 instead of 1.7.7)

Verify Kubernetes upgrade by checking the output of the upgrade command

If you waited in the console for the command to finish, the results will be similar to this:

{
  "agentPoolProfiles": [
    {
      "count": 2,
      "dnsPrefix": null,
      "fqdn": null,
      "name": "nodepool1",
      "osDiskSizeGb": null,
      "osType": "Linux",
      "ports": null,
      "storageProfile": "ManagedDisks",
      "vmSize": "Standard_A4",
      "vnetSubnetId": null
    }
  ],
  "dnsPrefix": "redacted",
  "fqdn": "redacted.hcp.westeurope.azmk8s.io",
  "id": "/subscriptions/redacted/resourcegroups/resourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/aksClusterName",
  "kubernetesVersion": "1.8.7",
  "linuxProfile": {
    "adminUsername": "azureuser",
    "ssh": {
      "publicKeys": [
        {
          "keyData": "redacted"
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "location": "westeurope",
  "name": "aksClusterName",
  "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
  "resourceGroup": "resourceGroupName",
  "servicePrincipalProfile": {
    "clientId": "redacted",
    "keyVaultSecretRef": null,
    "secret": null
  },
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.ContainerService/ManagedClusters"
}

Verify Kubernetes upgrade with get-version command

If you didn't stick around in the console or perhaps used the --no-wait flag, then you can use the get-versions command again as detailed above. It will hopefully now say that there's no upgrades (indicated by "upgrades": null).

{
  "agentPoolProfiles": [
    {
      "kubernetesVersion": "1.8.7",
      "name": null,
      "osType": "Linux",
      "upgrades": null
    }
  ],
  "controlPlaneProfile": {
    "kubernetesVersion": "1.8.7",
    "name": null,
    "osType": "Linux",
    "upgrades": null
  },
  "id": "/subscriptions/redacted/resourcegroups/resourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/aksClusterName/upgradeprofiles/default",
  "name": "default",
  "resourceGroup": "resourceGroupName",
  "type": "Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/upgradeprofiles"
}

Enjoy & thanks for reading.

by Tobias Zimmergren via Zimmergren's thoughts on tech

Azure Container Services (AKS) - Getting Started with AKS and a private Azure Container Registry

This article will talk a little bit about how to get started with the new Azure Container Services (AKS). In recent months I've put quite some efforts into AKS and put it through the ring of fire and rigorous tests. So far, so good.

With my R&D I've found some gotchas and had to figure quite some things out, but in the end the setup and configuration is pretty straight forward - and the preview of AKS has significantly improved since I started using it.

In this post I will cover:

• Ramp up with pre-requisites (Azure CLI, AKS CLI, Logging in to Azure CLI, etc..)
• Creating a private repository with Azure Container Registry (ACR)
• Enable Admin Access to the ACR
• Tagging your image and prep to push it to your new repository using the credentials mentioned above
• Create an AKS Cluster using the Azure CLI
• Connect and browse your cluster using the Azure CLI and the Kubernetes Dashboard
• Define a Deployment in YAML which describes our simple container setup
• Scale nodes in and out using the Azure CLI

Pre-requisites

Install Azure CLI & AKS CLI

Installing the Azure CLI can be done in a few ways, and depends on your preference and also on which operating system you're rolling with.

Read here for the latest instructions for your operating system: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/install-azure-cli?view=azure-cli-latest

Login to Azure CLI

Once you've installed the Azure CLI to your machine, we can start using it. We'll need to login to Azure before we can do anything else, so let's do that right away.

Run this command:

az login  

You will get some instructions to visit aka.ms/devicelogin and enter a code, which you'll see in your cmdline interface. Once this is done, it will look similar to this:

C:\Code\Containers (develop)  
λ az login
To sign in, use a web browser to open the page https://aka.ms/devicelogin and enter the code A4P4WJGME to authenticate.  
[
  {
    "cloudName": "AzureCloud",
    "id": "GUID (redacted)",
    "isDefault": true,
    "name": "CloudAwesome Subscription",
    "state": "Enabled",
    "tenantId": "GUID (redacted)",
    "user": {
      "name": "tobias.zimmergren@REDACTED.onmicrosoft.com",
      "type": "user"
    }
  }
]

Creating an Azure Container Registry

We've successfully logged into our Azure subscription using the CLI. Time to create our Azure Container Registry. We can do this in various ways, including from the CLI or from the Portal. Since we'll be using the CLI for most of the things in this post, that's how I'll demo it.

Run this command with your desired variables for name and resource group:

az acr create --name MyFantasticRegistry --resource-group MyContainerRegistryResourceGroupNameHere --sku Basic --admin-enabled true  

NOTE: I'm also setting the flag --admin-enabled true, which will ensure that we can access the ACR using the admin credentials which we'll get in the next step.

Please note, if you don't have a resource group to put the container registry in, you can create one easily like this:

az group create --location westeurope --name MyContainerRegistryResourceGroupNameHere  

Get the Azure Container Registry Admin Credentials to access the cloud registry

There's multiple ways to get the Admin credentials for your ACR, but the easiest is using the CLI and then it's using the Portal. I'll show both approaches here, and you'll use the one that best fits your preference.

2018-01-23: Updated info about Role Based Access Control and ACR

After I wrote the draft for this post, an update was published in the Docs about support for RBAC (Role Based Access Control), so you can essentially assign the Reader role of the ACR repo to your current account, and you'll be able to pull and push using your own credentials.

When you log in with az acr login, the CLI uses the token created when you executed az login to seamlessly authenticate your session with your registry. Once you've logged in this way, your credentials are cached, and subsequent docker commands do not require a username or password. If your token expires, you can refresh it by using the az acr login command again to reauthenticate. Using az acr login with Azure identities provides role-based access. - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-registry/container-registry-authentication

Also, using this approach we can skip the creation of a docker secret containing the credentials. So, probably a better choice to do things with the RBAC approach now. The following sections are still here in case you're keen on using the other approaches, of course.

Get ACR admin credentials using CLI

(Only do this if you didn't do the RBAC approach)

In order to continue with the simplicity of using the Azure CLI, we can with a single command get the credentials (username/passwords) for the Azure Container Registry. Here's the CLI cmd:

az acr credential show -n myfantasticregistry  

The output will be showing your username and passwords in clear text in the console like this:

{
  "passwords": [
    {
      "name": "password",
      "value": "REDACTED"
    },
    {
      "name": "password2",
      "value": "REDACTED"
    }
  ],
  "username": "myfantasticregistry"
}

Make a note of the credentials, you'll need it in the next steps.

Get ACR admin credentials using the Azure Portal

(Only do this if you didn't do the RBAC approach)

If you're more inclined on using the Azure Portal, you just go to your Azure Container Registry and select Access Keys and then copy the Username and Password/Password2.

Login to your Azure Container Registry then Tag and Push your image to ACR

In this post I will not elaborate on how to build your docker images.

First off, remember the username/password I mentioned in the previous step? This is where you'll use them.

docker login myfantasticregistry.azurecr.io --username USR --password PASS  

If you've built your docker image locally, you should be ready to tag it and then push it.

docker tag yourthing/yourimage:version myfantasticregistry.azurecr.io/yourthing/yourimage:version  
docker push myfantasticregistry.azurecr.io/yourthing/yourimage:version  

NOTE: In production I'm using VSTS and build automation for things like this, but for the sake of demonstrating it, it's a bit easier to do it cmdline from the local box.

Create an Azure Container Service (AKS) using the Azure CLI

Next up, where the fun begins! We'll set up our AKS cluster through the Azure CLI and it's pretty straight forward. Follow along for the ride.

Create Resource Group for AKS

We'll need to specify a resource group to put our AKS in, and since I like organized boxes of functionality and separation of concerns, I'll be creating a new resource group using the Azure CLI:

az group create --location westeurope --name MyResourceGroupName  

Create AKS Cluster using Azure CLI

Next up, create the AKS cluster and specify the resource group name you created above. I've specified that I want the D2_v2 VM size and that the name of the cluster should be MyAksClusterName. As always I get good performance in westeurope so I'll continue to use that.

az aks create -g MyResourceGroupName -n MyAksClusterName --location westeurope --node-vm-size Standard_D2_v2  

While I've redacted some sensitive details, the response after it's done should look something like this:

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/GUID/resourcegroups/MyResourceGroupName/providers/Microsoft.ContainerService/managedClusters/myaksclustername",
  "location": "westeurope",
  "name": "myaksclustername",
  "properties": {
    "accessProfiles": null,
    "agentPoolProfiles": [
      {
        "count": 3,
        "dnsPrefix": null,
        "fqdn": null,
        "name": "nodepool1",
        "osDiskSizeGb": null,
        "osType": "Linux",
        "ports": null,
        "storageProfile": "ManagedDisks",
        "vmSize": "Standard_D2_v2",
        "vnetSubnetId": null
      }
    ],
    "dnsPrefix": "myaksclustername-redacted-0f24e6",
    "fqdn": "myaksclustername-redacted-redacted.hcp.westeurope.azmk8s.io",
    "kubernetesVersion": "1.7.7",
    "linuxProfile": {
      "adminUsername": "azureuser",
      "ssh": {
        "publicKeys": [
          {
            "keyData": "ssh-rsa REDACTED"
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "servicePrincipalProfile": {
      "clientId": "REDACTED (guid)",
      "keyVaultSecretRef": null,
      "secret": null
    }
  },
  "resourceGroup": "MyResourceGroupName",
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.ContainerService/ManagedClusters"
}

Connecting to your AKS Cluster using the Azure CLI

Normally I want to start by getting the credentials to the cluster, which you can do like this:

az aks get-credentials -g MyResourceGroupName -n MyAksClusterName  

This gives you a connection to the AKS cluster, and you should be ready to launch the dashboard to check things out. This is a good first step to ensure things look good, and to familiarize yourself with how Kubernetes look and work.

The output of the command usually looks like this:

> az aks get-credentials -g MyResourceGroupName -n myaksclustername
Merged "myclustername" as current context in C:\Users\tobia\.kube\config  

Connect to Kubernetes Dashboard using the Azure CLI

Still pretty straight forward. Run this command and you'll be up and running:

az aks browse --resource-group MyResourceGroupName --name MyAksClusterName  

It will let you browse your new AKS cluster through the Kubernetes Dashboard:

Creating a Docker Registry Secret to be used in the Cluster (If you -didn't- do the new RBAC approach)

(You only need to do this if you didn't do the RBAC approach)

Since we're going to connect to a privately-hosted repoistory, we'll need to ensure we can set that connection up. If you did not do the RBAC approach for some reason, here's the details to manually set the connection up by creating an image pull secret.

kubectl create secret docker-registry pull-secret-1 --docker-server=myfantasticregistry.azurecr.io --docker-username=USERNAME --docker-password=PASSWORD --docker-email=tobias@zimmergren.net  

Please note that in the above command, the name of my secret is pull-secret-1 for the sake of clarity. Make a note of whatever you enter here, as it'll be needed in the yml file when we define the services.

Verify secret using kubectl

In order to verify that the secret was successfully created, you can verify it:

kubectl get secret pull-secret-1 --output=yaml  

Verify secret using the Kubernetes dashboard

To visually confirm that the secret was added, you can see it from the dashboard (use the aforementioned az aks browse command above to access it) - in the left nav you can see there's a Secrets menu option. Click it to see the secret being added to the cluster:

Define a Deployment and get our service running

In order to get our image into a service and running, an easy way in Kubernetes is to create a deployment. I'll not go into details about the deployments here since it's documented pretty well already. Take a look here: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/deployment/

My sample application is defined like this:

apiVersion: apps/v1beta1  
kind: Deployment  
metadata:  
  name: main-worker
spec:  
  replicas: 2
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: main-worker
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: main-worker
        image: myfantasticregistry.azurecr.io/yourthing/yourimage:12121
        env:
        - name: MyEnvironmentVariableExample
          value: "This is the value of the environment variable. Magic."
      imagePullSecrets:
      - name: pull-secret-1

Please note in the above simple Yaml file that I've specified the imagePullSecrets property, with one secret defined which has the same name as the secret I just created above. This enables the pods that are launched through this deployment to access the private repository using the credentials you've provided when creating the secret. But again, this is not required if you've chosen the more up-to-date RBAC approach.

Deploy the new service (YML file) to your cluster

Now that you've created this yaml file, simply create the deployment by executing the kubectl create command and point to the file:

kubectl create -f yourfile.yml  

It'll execute instantly and then you'll be able to see it either through the Kubernetes CLI, or directly in the Kubernetes Dashboard.

Summary

Well, that's a wrap for this time. It's not too tricky to get up and running with AKS, and since I started writing this post there's already been quite some enhancements including support for RBAC for the Azure Container Registry and also several new updates to Kubernetes and AKS, which you can upgrade to. A separate post will detail how to upgrade an AKS cluster.

by Tobias Zimmergren via Zimmergren's thoughts on tech

Data Protection, Disaster Recovery, and Ransomware Protection with DRaaS

Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Data protection and availability are more important than they have ever been. Businesses today need 24x7x365 availability, they need the ability to quickly recover th
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Why multi-cloud is the new cloud

Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Enterprises operating under growing workload requirements and compliance standards are seeing the value in adopting a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy. Gartner estimates
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Challenge Is on: Multi-Way Number Partitioning with T-SQL and SQL CLR

The challenge is known as multi-way number partitioning. Given a set of numbers S, representing quantities or weights, and a number of desired partitions, k, divide the quantities into k partitions such that the quantities are as evenly distributed among the partitions as possible.
by Itzik Ben-Gan via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Essential PowerShell for Office 365 Now Available for Pre-Order

I am excited to announce that my second book is now available for pre-order on Amazon and this one is called “Essential PowerShell for Office 365”. Here are some details about the book:

Take your Office 365 skills to the next level. Master PowerShell for Office 365 to stay competitive in today’s world of highly sought after cloud management skills. With expert guidance, IT pros will learn how to leverage the muscle of PowerShell to automate many advanced administrative tasks not otherwise accessible in the Office 365 Admin Center. You will discover how to unlock configuration options and automate tasks in order to free up valuable time and resources.

This book is your companion to administering Office 365 with PowerShell. You will learn time-saving techniques such as how to streamline administrative tasks, and how to manage users, licenses, and Office 365 services. Expert and MVP Vlad Catrinescu introduces each chapter with an overview and basic fundamentals, such as how to connect to your required service in Office 365, so that you have a solid foundation for success. Benefit from learning the theory behind PowerShell for Office 365 and put your knowledge to practice with numerous hands-on code examples.

What You’ll Learn

• Manage users in bulk
• Export data such as user lists and groups
• Create and manage Office 365 groups
• Manage Exchange online distribution lists, mailboxes, and contacts
• Configure Skype for Business settings
• Perform compliance searches directly from PowerShell

Who This Book Is For

Any IT pro who needs to manage Office 365 or one of its services such as Exchange, SharePoint, or Skype for Business. Readers should have a basic knowledge of PowerShell and the Office 365 service they want to manage.

How can I get it?
Get it on Amazon at the following links:

• Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/2FsqX8y
  
• Amazon.ca: http://amzn.to/2GuDycC
  
• Amazon.fr: http://amzn.to/2EkGJTI
  
• Amazon.uk: http://amzn.to/2DMXxFM
  
• Amazon.de: http://amzn.to/2FrCR2z
  

Or you can also find it at Apress over here: https://www.apress.com/us/book/9781484231289#aboutBook

I really hope that this book will come in useful for you, especially as more organizations are moving to the cloud, being able to manage your Office 365 tenant using both using the UI for basic stuff, and PowerShell for advanced stuff will be a key skill! Let me know if you bought the book, and please share this with your networks!

The post Essential PowerShell for Office 365 Now Available for Pre-Order appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

Cyber Hacks Cost Up to $109 Billion in 2016, U.S. Estimates

The report details the range of threats that U.S. entities face from actors, including corporations and countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

New Security Exploit Found for Meltdown and Spectre Vulnerability

Researchers from Princeton University and NVIDIA have discovered a new security exploit for the Meltdown/Spectre CPU vulnerability.
by Christine Hall via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Siemens and Prominent Partners Unveil Cybersecurity Framework

Joined by the likes of Airbus, Allianz, Daimler and IBM, the industrial giant signed a cybersecurity framework called a “Charter of Trust” to help safeguard the industrial IoT.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Developer Platforms Must Listen to Developers to Grow: Study

A thriving ecosystem of dedicated developers is needed for developer platforms to be successful.
by Todd R. Weiss via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Developer Platforms Must Listen Better to Developers to Grow: Study

A thriving ecosystem of dedicated developers is needed for developer platforms to be successful.
by Todd R. Weiss via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Siemens Teams With Airbus to IBM in Cyberattack Defense Plan

Siemens AG is joining with companies including Airbus SE and IBM to try to counter large-scale hacking attacks that threaten to cost $8 trillion in damage over the next five years.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google Buys Xively to Expand in Market for Connected Devices

Xively sells software for managing Internet-of-Things devices such as smoke alarms and water heaters. That may help Google score new corporate customers like large manufacturers that rely on connected hardware and sensors.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

ITPro SnapShot: What Else Happened This Week? (Feb. 9 - 16, 2017)

ITPro SnapShot offers a short and snappy round-up on the week's industry-related announcements and news around the globe. Here's what happened in the last week.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Dell EMC Designs New VxBlock Converged Infrastructure "for All Workloads"

VxBlock System 1000 includes wider choice of storage arrays, data protection, compute
by Christine Hall via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

PTC ThingWorx Picks Microsoft's Azure as Preferred IIoT Cloud

Azure’s reach and understanding of the industrial market led to the company’s decision to choose it as its preferred IIoT cloud platform.
by Courtney Bjorlin via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

What to Know About 3 Cloud Computing Companies Acquired This Week

Three cloud computing companies have changed hands this week. Here's what you need to know.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Worried About Amazon, Companies Run Into Google's Arms

Executives hunting for allies to protect them from Amazon's Empire have landed on Google and Microsoft Corp.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Elon Musk's Broadband-From-Space Plan Clears Crucial U.S. Hurdle

U.S. regulators advanced SpaceX's application to launch a low-orbit constellation of satellites and join a jostling field of operators trying to cash in on broadband service from space.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Mobile Healthcare Technologies Improving Patient Care: Study

By 2022, some 97 percent of nurses and 98 percent of doctors in hospitals will be using mobile healthcare technologies to treat patients, the study says.
by Todd R. Weiss via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Open Source 101: A Beginner's Way to Learn Open Source

Those afraid the average open source conference will be over their heads might want to learn open source with Open Source 101.
by Christine Hall via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Is Open Source RISC-V Ready to Take on Intel, AMD, and ARM in the Data Center?

Open source startup SiFive introduces a single board computer running Linux on the open RISC-V architecture. Is the data center next?
by Christine Hall via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Join me at SharePoint Conference North America and save 50$

As you have probably seen it all over Social Media the past few months, the SharePoint Conference is coming back to Las Vegas in May 2018! This promises to be an amazing conference, with all sorts of announcements, deep dive technical sessions and of course great networking!

There will be over 50 Speakers at the event, some of which you can probably recognize from the picture below, and even if the conference has SharePoint in its name, it will cover Office 365, Planner, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Flow, Yammer, and almost all the products in Office 365 that interreact in a way or another with SharePoint!

I will personally be doing two sessions, here are the titles:

PowerShell all the things

Know the basics of PowerShell for Office 365 but want to take it further? In this session, we will look at some awesome real-life examples of how PowerShell can make our life as an admin easier, and at quite a few things that cannot be done from the User Interface! This session requires you to have basic knowledge of PowerShell for Office 365.

Three Must-Have SharePoint Workflows with Microsoft Flow

Process automation is one of the most wanted benefits that SharePoint offers. In this session, we will use Microsoft Flow and look at three real-life examples of processes that you can automate by using Microsoft Flow!

I am also talking a bit about what I cover in both those sessions, in the video below!

 

 

If you register before February 26^th, not only will you get the cheapest price available, but if you also register for a workshop you can get an awesome gift such as Xbox One S/X or a Harman Kardon Invoke!

In addition, if you sue the code VLAD when registering, you will save an extra 50$ , so make sure you register as soon as possible to get the cheapest price at https://sharepointna.com !

Leave a comment and don’t forget to like the Absolute SharePoint Blog Page   on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter here  for the latest news and technical articles on SharePoint.  I am also a Pluralsight author, and you can view all the courses I created on my author page.

The post Join me at SharePoint Conference North America and save 50$ appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

IBM-Microsoft Spat Elevates Diversity to Tech-Secret Level

International Business Machines Corp. called foul on Microsoft Corp.’s hiring of its chief diversity officer in a case that elevates recruiting and promotion of an inclusive workforce to the level of safeguarding proprietary technology.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Solving SQL Server Performance Issues Caused by Problematic SQL Queries – The Tools You’ll Need

Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour The added time it takes to process problematic SQL queries costs significant money. So does the effort to resolve and improve those queries unless you use effective t
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Kaspersky Says Telegram Flaw Used for Cryptocurrency Mining

Hackers have been able to exploit a vulnerability in the Telegram messaging app’s desktop client to earn units of cryptocurrencies such as Monero and ZCash, according to Kaspersky Lab.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Enterprise Data Protection with Backup and Disaster Recovery to the Azure Cloud

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Protecting and backing up your data is an essential part of your business. Data is the enterprise’s most critical asset and protecting that data is the IT administrato
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How CDNs Can improve Mobile Application Performance

Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Two to four seconds. That’s about as long as many consumers will wait for web pages to load before abandoning your page, research shows. Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

DFFS Package updated to v4.4.3.38

I have released a new version of the DFFS package (v4.4.3.38) with a few bugfixes and some new functionality.

You find the change log here and the files in the download section of the user manual.

Please post any comments in the forum.

Best regards,
Alexander

by Alexander Bautz via SharePoint JavaScripts

Oracle Cloud Services Double Down on Machine Learning

In an event in New York on Monday, Oracle executives demoed new automation capabilities in Oracle cloud services.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Software Reshuffles Gartner’s Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Pecking Order

As HCI becomes less of a hardware play, some vendors lose and others win dominant positions on the latest Magic Quadrant.
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Oracle Cloud Services Double Down on Machine Learning

In an event in New York on Monday, Oracle executives demoed new automation capabilities in Oracle cloud services.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp IPhone Software

Instead of keeping engineers on a relentless annual schedule and cramming features into a single update, Apple will start focusing on the next two years of updates for its iPhone and iPad operating system.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google's Next Android Overhaul Is Said to Embrace IPhone `Notch'

Google is working on an overhaul of its Android mobile software for a new generation of smartphones mimicking Apple Inc.’s controversial new "notch" at the top of the iPhone X.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Join me at the North American Collaboration Summit and Save 50%

In just a few weeks, I will have the pleasure of travelling to Branson, Missouri for the North American Collaboration Summit, previously known as SharePointalooza! The North American Collaboration Summit is a great, and affordable conference happening on March 2^nd and 3^rd with 50 speakers, including 31 MVPs, and 6 Regional Directors / Microsoft Employees!

If you register at the following link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sharepointalooza-the-north-american-collaboration-summit-tickets-37160124934?discount=catrinescu which includes a special discount code, you can save an extra 50% on the two-day conference pass, meaning that a ticket to a 2-day conference, with 50 amazing speakers, is only 32.50$ ! That is, hands down the cheapest conference of 2018, and if your boss didn’t approve your past conferences due to budget reasons, there is no way this one will not be approved!

If you want to learn more about the conference, you can view all the speakers, and schedule at the following link: http://collabsummit.org/ ! My company, Valo Intranet is also a platinum sponsor, so make sure to come see us and win great prizes! Are you joining me in Branson? Drop a line in the comments and I am looking forward to see you!

 

Leave a comment and don’t forget to like the Absolute SharePoint Blog Page   on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter here  for the latest news and technical articles on SharePoint.  I am also a Pluralsight author, and you can view all the courses I created on my author page.

The post Join me at the North American Collaboration Summit and Save 50% appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

Heptio's Craig McLuckie On Kubernetes Orchestration's Start at Google

Heptio's co-founder and CEO sits down with ITPro Today and talks about how the Kubernetes orchestration platform got started at Google.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

To Create an Agile Company, Find Workers with an Agile Mindset

Agile business practices aren't just for business processes. The best employees today have an agile mindset.
by Todd R. Weiss via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

ITPro SnapShot: What Else Happened This Week? (Feb. 2 - 9, 2017)

ITPro SnapShot offers a short and snappy round-up on the week's industry-related announcements and news around the globe. Here's what happened in the last week.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Developers: Show Your GitHub Project to Attract Job Offers

IT executives want to see more than your job experience and resume, says a new HackerRank study. They also want to see your GitHub project work.
by Todd R. Weiss via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Criminals May Ditch Bitcoin for Litecoin, Dash, Study Says

In the next six to 12 months, the most widely used digital coin is poised to lose its spot as a dominant payment method on the dark web, according to a study by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Its biggest competitors? Litecoin and Dash.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Configuring Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2016

Configuring Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2016

In this article, I will give a step-by-step walk through of the process for configuring SharePoint 2016 Forms Based Authentication “out of the box” without an add-on such as Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM). Doing this will also allow us to highlight the limitations of a “basic” SharePoint FBA web application that can be overcome with a professional-grade add-on like ExCM.

In the screenshots below, you can see the changes we need to make to begin configuring FBA:





In the second screenshot, notice that I have used the “best practices” of assigning a dedicated service account as my Application Pool Identity, as well as renaming my content database from the default cryptic string of characters to one more concise and descriptive.

Now that we have created a new Web Application with dual authentication, let’s navigate to the site and see what it looks like:



As you can see, it requires us to choose our authentication method before continuing any further. This page is called the multi-auth selector page and only appears on a web application where multiple authentication providers have been configured – in this case both Windows Authentication and Forms-based Authentication.

Now that we have created our web application, it’s time to decide on a Membership Provider and make the appropriate edits to our web.config files. For this post, I am going to use the SQL Membership Provider, for a couple of reasons. First, it is a more secure way to store external users than Active Directory. Second, since we recommend using SQL with ExCM, I thought it would be a nice way to show you the limitations of the SQL Membership Provider with default settings and how ExCM improves upon them.

First, we need to create our SQL database. SharePoint 2016 uses version 4.0 of the .NET Framework, so we need to use the corresponding “asp reqsql” application to ensure compatibility and create the proper database structure needed to store information for ASP.NET membership, profiles, and roles. You can find the utility in the following location:



Once we launch it, we see the following screens:





In the following screen, we need to specify both our SQL Server name (and instance if applicable), as well as the name for our FBA database. We can simply type directly over the “<default>” name that initially appears. In my case, SQL is installed on this local box and I have chosen to call my database “ExtranetDirectory:”



Now we can just continue clicking “Next” and then “Finish” until we see this screen:



Now that we have created our database, we need to grant the appropriate access to the App Pool Identities for both the STS and Content Sites. We know that we are using the “sp app pool” for our Content Site because we chose it when creating our Web Application. In some cases, we may be using the same account for all Application Pools, but that’s not always the case. To double-check, we need to open up IIS Manager and the click on “Application Pools:”



As we can see, “AWBIKES\sp_farm” is being used for the STS service, so we’ll need to add two accounts (AWBIKES\sp_app_pool and AWBIKES\sp_farm) to our created “ExtranetDirectory” database in SQL Management Studio.
SharePoint 2016 requires a minimum of SQL Server 2014, which is what I am using in this environment.

After launching Management Studio, expand “Databases,” then “ExranetDirectory,” then “Security,” and right click on “Users” to select “New User:”



From the next screen, we need to select the “User Type” drop down and choose “Windows User:”



I will use “AWBIKES\sp_app_pool” for both the User name and Login name:



Next, we need to click on “Membership” in the left hand menu and place a check by each item that ends in “_FullAccess.” There are five in total:



Once that’s complete, we click on “OK.” We can now see our newly added user listed:



In this particular case, I do not need to add “AWBIKES\Administrator” because that account is a Database Owner (dbo) for all databases and already has the necessary permissions. If you are unsure if a particular account has the appropriate access, simply go ahead and attempt to add them. If they already exist as a “dbo” you will see an error similar to this:



Simply click “OK” and move on to the next step…editing the web.config files. Yippee!!

To successfully deploy FBA, we need to edit at least two web.config files. Those are the Security Token Service (STS) and the Content Site. The Central Administration file is optional and is only necessary if we need to resolve FBA names from within Central Administration. Let’s start with the STS file.

** IMPORTANT: MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR EXISTING WEB.CONFIG FILES FIRST!!!**

Since we are only doing “out of the box” FBA, the edits to both files will be very minimal. I think the easiest way to navigate to the correct location of the web.config files is to open IIS Manager, right click on the appropriate site and select “Explore:”





Here is what we need to add to the STS file:

<system.web>
<membership>
<providers>
<add name="Ext" connectionStringName="ExtranetDirectory_Connection" applicationName="/" passwordFormat="Hashed" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresUniqueEmail="True" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="True" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="10" passwordAttemptWindow="10" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordStrengthRegularExpression="" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
</providers>
</membership>
<roleManager>
<providers>
<add name="ExtRole" connectionStringName="ExtranetDirectory_Connection" applicationName="/" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
</providers>
</roleManager>
</system.web>

See the screenshot below for placement area:



Now let’s make the appropriate edits to the Content Site web.config. Using the method described above, we can navigate to the Content Site folder and find the file. Here are the necessary edits based on our configuration:

<add name="Ext" connectionStringName="ExtranetDirectory_Connection" applicationName="/" passwordFormat="Hashed" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresUniqueEmail="True" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="True" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="10" passwordAttemptWindow="10" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordStrengthRegularExpression="" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
<add name="ExtRole" connectionStringName="ExtranetDirectory_Connection" applicationName="/" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />



<connectionStrings>
    <add name="ExtranetDirectory_Connection" connectionString="Data Source=SharePoint1;Initial Catalog=ExtranetDirectory;Integrated Security=SSPI" />
  </connectionStrings>

Additionally, if we want to be able to resolve partial username matches in the People Picker we also need to add the following line in the <PeoplePickerWildcards> section:
<add key="Ext" value="%" />
See the screenshots below for placement areas:





Once all of our edits are made, we save the files. Optionally, we could perform an IIS reset at this point to ensure that our site has loaded the most recent versions.

We are now ready to begin adding some FBA users to our database. This is where things get tricky when using SharePoint’s “out of the box” FBA. There simply is no easy way to add or manage users…and there is NO WAY to allow users to register themselves or perform any type of self-service (reset passwords).

Of course, this is what ExCM has addressed so well for hundreds of companies around the world in SharePoint 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016.   It allows us to create users manually through the UI, by invitation, and by anonymous (self) registration. ExCM also provides users with many self-service features while also providing additional security elements for our site. Of course, this blog post is primarily about “out of the box” FBA, so let’s look at our options for adding users to the SQL database we created.

The first option is to add users directly from within the SQL Management Studio. Basically, we would perform the same steps as previously mentioned when we added our App Pool Identity as a user to the database. However, this can be very tedious and time consuming if we want to create several users at once. There are many screens to click through and we would have to repeat the same process for each new user.

For this example, I am going to use our Import\Export utility that was covered in a previous blog post to add several new FBA users from the ACME Corporation at once. No need to cover the steps again here, but here is what my import data looked like before exporting it as a CSV file:



Now we’re ready to test FBA authentication on our site. I will just use my ACME username from the screen shot above. After we navigate to the site, we need to select “Forms Authentication:”



Then, SharePoint’s out-of-the-box forms-based login page is presented and we enter our credentials and click “Sign In:



TIP: It is possible to replace the very basic (and ugly J) out-of-the-box SharePoint FBA sign-in page with a much nicer custom sign-in page, if you have access to ASP.NET development resources. Or, if you implement our ExCM add-on, you will be able to save time and resources by using our custom sign-in page that has many nice features and can be fully branded for your organization. Here is an example:



If you try to sign in using the form at this point, you would get this:



As you can see, we basically receive an “access denied” error because my FBA account does not yet have any permission on the site. (With ExCM, we could have created our user and assigned permissions all at once.) In this instance, we must login to the site and “share” it with our new FBA users:





Notice above that since I added the “Ext” People Picker entry in the web.config file I was able to just type “matthew” and then find my FBA user.

Now if I sign out of the site with the System Account and try my FBA user again, I see this:



So there you have it…”out of the box” FBA configured and working in SharePoint 2016.

One more point -

We've got some great SharePoint extranet demonstration videos SharePoint extranet demonstration videos on our main website that show the business user and administrator experience if you were to include Extranet Collaboration Manager into the mix along with "out-of-the-box" FBA.

by noreply@blogger.com (Mark Lewis) via SharePoint Solutions Blog