When Software Attacks!

Creating Azure Virtual Networks using Powershell and XML

I’ll be honest, I expected this task to be easier than it is. What I’m working on is some powershell that we might use as part of automated build processes that will create a new Virtual Network in an Azure subscription. What I’m after is to add a new network to the existing configuration. There aren’t many powershell commands for Azure virtual networks. The two we need to use are get-azureVnetConfig and set-azureVnetConfig.

Posted by Rik Hepworth on Monday, March 3, 2014

Dealing with AD sync issues in an Azure hybrid deployment

I’ve been building demo environments for Tech.Days Online for the past few days. I had been blogging as I built, but then I hit problems and time pressure meant I had to pause my series on building the hybrid network. I will pick up the remainder of those posts in the near future but in the meantime, I want to give you all the heads up on one of my problems.

Posted by Rik Hepworth on Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Building an Azure IaaS and on-premise hybrid environment Part 2: DC and servers in the cloud

This is part 2 of a series of posts bout building a hybrid network connecting Windows Azure and on-premise. For more background on what the goals are, and for information on how to create the Azure Network and connect the VPN tunnel between on-premise and cloud see part 1. Creating a DC on our Azure Network I’m going to create a new VM on Azure using the VM gallery. One important point when doing this is that you should add a second drive to the VM for domain controllers.

Posted by Rik Hepworth on Monday, November 4, 2013

Building an Azure IaaS and on-premise hybrid environment Part 1: The plan and Azure Network Connection

I’ve been meaning to build a test lab to kick the tyres of Windows Azure Networks for a while. Two things combined together to make me get it done, however: First was the need to build exactly that for a customer as part of proof-of-concepts; the second was an invitation to present at Tech.Days Online on the subject. I’ve built and rebuilt said lab a few times now. I am about to build it again in order to have a demo environment for Tech.

Posted by Rik Hepworth on Sunday, November 3, 2013

Connecting Azure Network Site-Site VPN to a SonicWall Appliance

I am with a customer this week, building a test Azure Network+IaaS/Azure AD/Office 365 environment. We struggled to get the site-site VPN connection up for a while and there wasn’t a great deal on the greater internet to help, save for a couple of posts in a discussion forum by the marvellous Marcus Robinson. We finally got it working when we found a tech note from SonicWall, published just a few days ago on the 7th October.

Posted by Rik Hepworth on Monday, October 28, 2013

Speaking at UK Tech.Days Online 2013

I’ve been supporting the great team of evangelists at Microsoft with their UK Tech.Days events for some time now. I am chuffed to bits that they have asked me to contribute to the fantastic UK Tech.Days Online event. If you haven’t heard about it, go look at the agenda right now! Three days of great content on the latest technologies covering client, server, cloud and dev. The whole thing will be streamed live thanks to the wonder of the internet and includes a live interview with Steve Ballmer.

Posted by Rik Hepworth on Saturday, October 26, 2013