Standard Server Architecture that can be adopted for branch Offices
HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 Server
The HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 Server delivers essential features and dense storage in a 2U, 2 socket server. Features like management, networking and serviceability along with different drive cage choices help applications meet their needs, including those with unique storage requirements. Also features enterprise-class uptime and HP Insight Control manageability, and 2 socket Intel Xeon performance.
HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 Server supports HP iLO Management Engine, a complete set of embedded management features supporting the complete lifecycle of the server, from initial deployment, through on-going management, to service alerting and remote support.
High Availability and Efficiency for the Dense Storage Environment:
The HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 Server provides a range of features that ensure data security and high availability. It includes ECC memory protection, TPM, secured bezel, as well as redundant power supply and fan options.
Rack Servers:
1. Can be placed inside standard 19″ racks (one over another, along with network switches, etc.) – space utilization is better than tower servers.
2. Offers decent compute power (multiple options) in a space-saving design (not as much as blade servers, though).
3. Expansion slots to add NICs, HBAs and other interconnecting components & options.
4. May come with built-in storage capacity, can also connect to high-speed external storage (NAS/SAN).
5. Each server is an independent and (mostly) a complete unit.
6. Can coexist with servers made by other manufacturers, in the same rack.
7. Optimum for usage in server rooms, small data centres and Branch office.
Technical Details:
| Product Description: | HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 Base – Xeon E5-2407 2.2 GHz – 8 GB – 0 GB |
| Processor family: | Intel® Xeon® E5-2400 product family; Intel® Xeon® E5-2400 v2 product family |
| Number of processors: | 2 or 1 |
| Processor Main Features | Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel QuickPath Interconnect |
| Cache Memory | 10 MB L3 Cache |
| Cache Per Processor | 10 MB |
| Processor core available: | 10 or 8 or 6 or 4 |
| Form factor (fully configured): | 2U |
| RAM | 8 GB (installed) / 32 GB (max) – DDR3 SDRAM – 1066 MHz – PC3-10600 |
| Storage Controller | RAID ( SATA 6Gb/s ) – PCI Express 2.0 x4 ( HP Dynamic Smart Array B320i) |
| Hard Drive Interface | Raid Array (on Raid 5) |
| Hard Drive Capacity | 3TB |
| Networking | Broadcom 5720 GbE Dual Port |
| DVD Drive | 16X DVD+/-RW Drive |
| Server management: | iLO Management Engine, Insight Control (optional) |
| Power | AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz ) |
| Warranty: | Server Warranty includes three years of parts, one year of labour, and one year of onsite support coverage. |
Hyper-V® Health Check
A scheduled inspection to review your existing Microsoft Hyper-V environment.
Health Check for Microsoft Hyper-V is designed for customers who:
want to enhance their Hyper-V cluster or single installation
want to compare the performance of their environment against Microsoft best practices
have identified performance issues or any other problems
want an assessment from a Microsoft perspective to confirm if their environment is running a supported state
Delivered by highly experienced and accredited engineers (ME), Hyper-V Health Check helps you:
Meet availability goals while improving efficiency
Reduce support costs.
Benefit from practical recommendations.
Overview
Microsoft Hyper-V Health Check is a proactive service that delivers prescriptive problem identification and suggested resolution guidance for selected components within your Microsoft Hyper-V implementation. The Health Check is designed to uncover potential performance and application configuration risks and provide recommendations for any identified issues.
How the Offering Works
Data collection and analysis are key components of a successful engagement. During the Hyper-V Health
Check data is collected and analyzed in depth. This includes the following areas:
Operating System Configuration:
• Driver versions
• Page file
• Memory Dump
• Service Packs and recommended Hotfixes
• Antivirus Exclusions
• Firewall settings
Storage
• Storage type
• Connection
Network:
• Interface
• Configuration
•Virtual switch
Hyper-V Host configuration :
• Capacity planning
• Supportability issues
Virtual Machine
• Configuration
Cluster
• Configuration: Review Validation Report
• CSV / Live Migration implementation
Disaster Recovery
• Backup method
• Restore method
Performance
Detailed performance analysis
We will set up a call to discuss your environment and any areas of concern and the engagement duration.
Improve Efficiency
An experienced engineer will review the existing implementation to detect and document Hyper-V best practices.
Save time and money
Obtain proactive, sound advice to help avoid expensive downtime due to performance issues
Requirements/Deliverables
The Health Check is an integral part of your product implementation lifecycle for Hyper-V. It includes the following deliverables:
Detailed Implementation Information:
A report is provided detailing diagnostic information and application configuration settings. This report will offer significant detail about your implementation and its underlying infrastructure. It focuses on the Microsoft Hyper-V host configuration and virtual machines configuration supporting infrastructure only.
Component Scorecard:
A user-friendly scorecard is delivered, detailing the health of each component reviewed, including a rating of Good, Fair, or Poor to help determine next steps in resolution. The scorecard focuses on the Microsoft virtualization business system and support infrastructure.
Recommendations and Conclusions:
An analysis is completed on performance and preferred practices with Microsoft recommendations
Active Directory-Based Network Security
What I can do for your organization?
Active Directory Security focusing exclusively on change auditing to meet the need for this rising security technology, fast detection of security incidents, easy assessments of security, detailed forensic analysis of changes and reliable continuous compliance, while improving business continuity, decreasing system downtime and establishing accountability.
File Server Security – automating organization userdata protection and management: making sure that the right employee is granted access to shared userdata at all times, all employees are monitored, and abuse is caught.
Granny sells bed for grandson’s studies
A grandmother sold her bed so her grandson could register to study at the Durban
University of Technology, in South Africa.
Sibiya, 70, sold her bed for R2 000 and also used some pension money to pay for her grandson’s registration. The university found sponsors to give Sibiya cash to help with the running of her household.
Her grandson, Sandiso Shange, 18, would study information technology at the university. His father died 18 months ago. Sibiya lived off her pension.
This young man has the best Gogo, we need more people like her. This is a positive contribution into much needed skills in the telecommunication industry.
I’m *crying*, relating to this story.
Truly amazing, Well done Gogo MaSibiya, IT industry loves you! God bless!
How To Install Exchange 2013 On Windows 2012 R2 Server Step by Step
This guide provides basic steps for installing the necessary Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system prerequisites for the Microsoft Exchange 2013 Mailbox and Client Access server roles on a single Windows 2012 R2 Server.
This guide comes with comprehensive functional components that are required to deploy Exchange 2013 and based on practical design principles that have been tested by Geneva Sibanda in his line of work as designer and implement new solutions based on business requirements of practical IT solutions for top blue-chip companies listed at Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
NB: For Microsoft Exchange 2013, there have been major architectural changes to the Exchange server roles. Instead of the five server roles that were present in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010, in Exchange 2013, the number of server roles has been reduced to two: the Client Access server and the Mailbox server.
This guide is for administrators who install, configure, and It assumes that you have the following skills and knowledge:
Assumed Knowledge and proficiency in the following Microsoft server technologies:
• Active Directory Domain Services
• Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
• Microsoft Exchange 2010/2007/2003/2000 or 5.5
• Microsoft Networking
• DNS
• Windows PowerShell
Before you being to install Exchange 2013 make sure that your Active Directory Environment meets the following requirements:
The functional level of your forest is at least Windows Server 2003, and that the schema master is running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or later.
• Your Windows 2012 R2 Server OS is indeed fully installed and no stories.
• IP Address Statically Assigned.
• You must first join the server to the appropriate internal Active Directory forest and domain.
• For security reasons, Install the latest Windows updates on your Windows 2012 R2 Server.
After you’re satisfied with the listed above, complete the following steps to install the Remote Tools Administration Pack. After you’ve installed the Remote Tools Administration Pack you’ll be able to use the server to prepare Active Directory.
1. Open Windows PowerShell in Run as Administrator mode, and run the following command.
2. The Remote Tools Administration Pack.
Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS
Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation
Now go ahead and run command
Restart-computer
After you’ve installed the operating system roles and features needed on your Windows 2012 R2 Server, download and install the following software in the order shown:
1. Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
2. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit
3. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit
Active Directory Preparetion:
Now we need to get Active Directory Environment ready for the Exchange 2013 installation.
In your powershell window navigate to the directory location of the Exchange 2013 installation files.
PS C:\Software\Exchange\ex13> .\setup /Preparead /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /OrganizationName:”ESGNET”
Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Unattended Setup
Copying Files…
File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation.
Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED
Setup will prepare the organization for Exchange 2013 by using ‘Setup /PrepareAD’. No Exchange 2010 server roles have been detected in this topology. After this operation, you will not be able to install any Exchange 2010 servers.
For more information, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.NoE14ServerWarning.aspx
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Organization Preparation COMPLETED
The Exchange Server setup operation completed successfully.
PS C:\Software\Exchange\ex13>
PS C:\Software\Exchange\ex13> .\setup /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Unattended Setup
Copying Files…
File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation.
Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Extending Active Directory schema COMPLETED
The Exchange Server setup operation completed successfully.
PS C:\Software\Exchange\ex13> .\setup /Preparedomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Unattended Setup
Copying Files…
File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation.
Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Prepare Domain Progress COMPLETED
The Exchange Server setup operation completed successfully.
PS C:\Software\Exchange\ex13
GUI Installation
Now the fimiliar wizard based Exchange 2013 installation, the following are the steps you would run through.
1. Browse to where the setup files are located and double-click on setup.exe
2. On the Check for Updates? page, choose whether you want Setup to connect to the Internet and download product and security updates for Exchange 2013. If you select Connect to the Internet and check for updates, Setup will download updates and apply them prior to continuing. If you select Don’t check for updates right now, you can download and install updates manually later. We recommend that you download and install updates now. Click Next to continue.
3. The installation will check for Updates
No updates found! Click Next to continue.
Click Next to continue.
4. The Introduction page begins the process of installing Exchange 2013 into your organization. It will guide you through the installation. Several links to helpful deployment content are listed. We recommend that you visit these links prior to continuing setup. Click Next to continue.
5. On the License Agreement page, review the software license terms. If you agree to the terms, select I accept the terms in the license agreement, and then click Next.
6. On the Recommended settings page, select whether you want to use the recommended settings. If you select Use recommended settings, Exchange will automatically send error reports and information about your computer hardware and how you use Exchange to Microsoft. If you select Don’t use recommended settings, these settings remain disabled but you can enable them at any time after Setup completes.
7. On the Server Role Selection page, choose whether you want to install the Mailbox role, the Client Access role, both roles, or just the Management Tools on this computer. You can add additional server roles later if you choose not to install them during this installation. An organization must have at least one Mailbox role and at least one Client Access server role installed. They can be installed on the same computer or on separate computers. The management tools are installed automatically if you install any other server role.
Select Automatically install Windows Server roles and features that are required to install Exchange Server to have the Setup wizard install required Windows prerequisites. You may need to reboot the computer to complete the installation of some Windows features. If you don’t select this option, you must install the Windows features manually. However, in my setup Windows Server roles and features that are required to install Exchange 2013 are already installed, but for strange reasons I selected this option anyway.
8. On the Installation Space and Location page, either accept the default installation location or click Browse to choose a new location. Make sure that you have enough disk space available in the location where you want to install Exchange. Click Next to continue.
9. If this is the first Exchange server in your organization, on the Exchange Organization page, type a name for your Exchange organization. Click Next to continue.
10. If you’re installing the Mailbox role, on the Malware Protection Settings page, choose whether you want to enable or disable malware scanning. If you disable malware scanning, it can be enabled in the future. Click Next to continue.
11. On the Readiness Checks page, view the status to determine if the organization and server role prerequisite checks completed successfully. If they haven’t completed successfully, you must resolve any reported errors before you can install Exchange 2013. You don’t need to exit Setup when resolving some of the prerequisite errors. After resolving a reported error, click back and then click Next to run the prerequisite check again. Be sure to also review any warnings that are reported. If all readiness checks have completed successfully, click Next to install Exchange 2013.
12. Exchange Installation in progress.
13. Congradulations! Your Exchange 2013 has completed successfully. On the Completion page, click Finish.
14. If you checked the button to “Lauch Exchange Administration Center after finishing Exchange 2013 setup.” The following login EAC page will open for you to type-in your login details.
Remember to Restart the Server after Exchange 2013 has completed.
After you install Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, it is recommended that you verify the installation by running the Get-ExchangeServer cmdlet and by reviewing the setup log file. If the setup process fails or errors occur during installation, you can use the setup log file to track down the source of the problem.
That’s it! I hope this guide was helpful!
In the next guide I will go through the Exchange 2013 Post-Installation Tasks, to help you configure your new Exchange 2013 for real world use.
Enter Product Key and Configure Mail Flow and Client Access
How do I change timezone on Ubuntu Server
I recently moved some of my Ubuntu Dedicated Web Hosting Servers from offshore data centres to my Johannesburg Data Centre, and I needed to change the time zone to be in sync with South Africa Standard Time of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+2).
Howto?
To accomplish this task, simply execute ‘dpkg-reconfigure tzdata’ to change time zone on Ubuntu Server.
sibanda@jhb-dh:~# dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Select – Africa – move your cursor to OK – then Press ENTER, scroll to the bottom of the city list and select Johannesburg then Press ENTER.
Current default time zone: ‘Africa/Johannesburg’
Local time is now: Sun Feb 9 12:30:46 EST 2014.
Universal Time is now: Sun Feb 9 17:30:46 UTC 2014.
There you have it!
Active Directory Security Checklist
As the very foundation of your organization’s security, your Active Directory is an extremely high-value organizational IT asset. It is most likely the largest and most critical distributed system in your enterprise. Along with disaster recovery, Active Directory® security is at the top of the list of topics that IT executives worry about protecting in an enterprise computing environment. Active Directory plays a critical role in the IT infrastructure, and ensures the harmony and security of different network resources in a global, interconnected computing environment.
But there’s a lot you can do to enhance your Active Directory security, and you’ve probably already taken some steps. What follows is a list of tips you can use to help you make your Active Directory environment more secure.
Active Directory Security Checklist
The following checklist is provided to help you assess and maintain the security of your Active Directory deployments:
1. Ensure that the logical (forest, domain and trust-relationship) structure of your Active Directory is conceptually secure.
2. Ensure that all Active Directory configuration (e.g. Schema, Replication, FSMOs, Backups) data is sound and secure.
3. Ensure that adequate Active Directory management, security and disaster-recovery plans are in place and implemented.
4. Ensure that adequate physical, system and network security is provided for all Domain Controllers and admin workstations.
5. Ensure that the number of IT personnel who possess unrestricted administrative access in Active Directory is minimal.
6. Ensure that all non-administrative tasks (e.g. password resets) are delegated based on the principal of least privilege.
7. Ensure that IT personnel can audit (assess and verify) all administrative delegations (effective access) in Active Directory.
8. Ensure that auditing mechanisms are in place to capture the enactment of all admin/delegated tasks in Active Directory.
9. Ensure that all applications and tools used by IT personnel are trustworthy (i.e. verifiably safe, reputable and secure).
10. Ensure that security and effective-access audits are performed on a regular basis to consistently ensure security.
There you have it!
How to protect a VPS from DDOS attacks
What is DDoS attacks
(DDoS attack) In computing, a denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users.
How to protect yourself from DDoS:
There are many Operating System level solutions to protect against application and transport-layer DDoS attacks, like SYN cookies, Hardware firewalling Appliance like Fortinet product range to iptables based firewall, etc.
However, to protect your VPS against a full bandwidth flood to DNS amplification attacks to brute-force Layer 7 attacks, and these attacks range from 1Gbps to 300Gbps bandwidth floods. Unfortunately there is little you can do, as it is a function of your VPS provider to employ proper DDoS protective measures.
One good solution (which will also help you to protect your VPS from a range of online threats from spammers to SQL injection to DDoS) is to point your domain at an advanced DDoS protection provider like Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/
CloudFlare will give you insight into what’s happening to VPS and reveal the source of the IP address trying to DDoS attack you.
There you have it!
How to create mysql database, using mysqladmin
What is MySQLAdmin?
mysqladmin is a client for performing administrative operations. You can use it to check the server’s configuration and current status, to create and drop databases, and more.
Howto?
gen@en-01# mysqladmin -u sibanda -p create sibdb
Enter password:
It is recommended that If you create a new database it’s good to create user with permissions only for the database you are creating (if anything goes wrong you won’t compromise root user login and password).
Hope you find this helpful.