When deploying Windows clients or servers, you can use OS images to deploy customized and patched operating system installations in a uniform and seamless way. The challenge comes not from creating images initially, but from servicing them. The PowerShell module OSDBuilder simplifies this task.

The post Automate offline servicing of Windows images with the PowerShell module OSDBuilder first appeared on 4sysops.

Learn how to perform core administrative tasks on the Azure Cosmos DB using Azure PowerShell.

The post Interact with Azure Cosmos DB with PowerShell first appeared on 4sysops.

The various removable storage media, which can be connected to a PC via plug-and-play, pose a risk of data theft or infection with malware. Admins can prevent the installation of such devices via Group Policy. A recently introduced setting now allows whitelisting of the approved peripherals.

The post Restrict installation of (USB) devices using Group Policy first appeared on 4sysops.

VMware implemented containers with VMware Integrated Containers (VIC) back in early 2019. Shortly afterward, VMware Tanzu was released, which significantly improved container management. This post gives an overview of the container technology from a VMware admin's point of view.

The post Containers and VMware vSphere first appeared on 4sysops.

To avoid cost surprises in Amazon's cloud, you can leverage AWS Cost Anomaly Detection. This step-by-step guide explains how to configure AWS Cost Anomaly Detection.

The post AWS Cost Anomaly Detection: A step-by-step guide first appeared on 4sysops.

Get familiar with Azure Status dashboard, Azure Service Health, Service Health Alerts, Azure Resource Health, and Azure Resource Graph to ensure you're never surprised by a planned or unplanned outage that could affect your Microsoft Azure deployments.

The post Azure health services: Track Microsoft cloud outages and maintenance first appeared on 4sysops.

Windows Server 2022 will be available in two main editions: Standard and Datacenter. In addition, Microsoft will introduce a new edition for Azure. Windows Server Essentials will no longer be a separate SKU, and there is a new OS for hyperconverged systems.

The post Windows Server 2022: Comparison of editions and features first appeared on 4sysops.

Until now, with each new version of Windows Server LTSC, Microsoft released a corresponding version of the free Hyper-V Server. However, this will no longer be the case with Windows Server 2022. Instead, Microsoft now directs users to Azure Stack HCI.

The post Microsoft will not release a free Hyper-V Server 2022 first appeared on 4sysops.

With ESXi 7.0 Update 2, VMware has introduced a new way to boot the ESXi installer by using native UEFI HTTP. What is it? It is a way to boot the ESXi installer over the network but without setting up the whole PXE infrastructure (PXE server, TFTP, and DHCP).

The post How to install ESXi 7.0 U2 directly from an HTTP server via a UEFI HTTP boot first appeared on 4sysops.

As workers transition to remote environments, they need to have a mobile device management (MDM) platform uninhibited by connectivity to the corporate network. Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that provides effective MDM and mobile application management (MAM).

The post Enroll Windows 10 machines in Microsoft Intune and manage them using the MDM interface first appeared on 4sysops.

The Amazon CloudWatch Agent enables you to collect metrics, custom metrics, and logs from within Windows and Linux EC2 instances. This step-by-step guide explains how to install and configure the Amazon CloudWatch Agent on EC2 instances.

The post Install and configure Amazon CloudWatch Agent on EC2 instances first appeared on 4sysops.

Learn how to customize your PowerShell console to display meaningful metadata in your Windows command shell with Powerline.

The post Powerline: Customize your PowerShell console first appeared on 4sysops.

Privileged Access Management is increasingly important with the rise of account compromise and the resulting data breaches. Securden’s new Unified PAM solution offers an all-in-one solution for PAM in the enterprise.

The post Securden's new Unified Privileged Access Management first appeared on 4sysops.

VMware vSphere 7 Update 2 has introduced a new feature called Precision Time for Windows. It's a completely new protocol that is worth looking at because it offers strict time accuracy and precision for time-sensitive virtualized applications.

The post Precision Time for Windows and VMware vSphere 7 Update 2 first appeared on 4sysops.

Azure policies are becoming increasingly popular, as they provide a wide range of management capabilities over Azure resources. Not only do they allow us to enforce policy rules to control Azure resources, but they can also enable us to automatically evaluate compliance and remediate noncompliant resources. In this post, we will look at how to manage Azure Policy using PowerShell for common tasks, including creating policy definitions, managing policy assignments, and reporting compliance status.

The post Manage Azure Policy using PowerShell first appeared on 4sysops.

GPOZaurr and other tools help you with consolidation in the short-to-medium term, but as you move forward, there are other changes you can make that will make things much simpler and easier to manage. To make a significant difference to these user KPIs, there are two areas that must be concentrated on—folder redirection and loopback policy processing. This is my third post in my series about Group Policy consolidation.

The post Consolidating Group Policy, part 3: Loopback policy processing and folder redirection first appeared on 4sysops.

Without much ado, Microsoft has released Windows Server 2022. The number of innovations is not impressive, but there are some interesting features among them. However, two of them are reserved for the Azure edition. The focus is on security, with additional improvements for SMB and Hyper-V.

The post Windows Server 2022 released: Overview of new features first appeared on 4sysops.

When a new domain controller (DC) is installed remotely, the initial replication traffic for synchronizing all directory objects can be significant. However, bandwidth can still be limited for businesses maintaining remote locations. Using the "install from media" (IFM) option significantly reduces the amount of data replicated after setting up a new DC.

The post Install a secondary domain controller using Install from Media (IFM) first appeared on 4sysops.

Creating custom ESXi images is useful when you need to add custom drivers to your installation ESXi ISO. Previously, there were third-party tools that are no longer maintained. However, since vSphere 6.x, VMware has offered its own utility, which is built into vSphere, called ESXi Image Builder.

The post Using ESXi ISO image builder with VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2 first appeared on 4sysops.