Monitoring Interface Status on Palo Alto Firewall

In this scenario I had a pair of Palo Alto Firewalls that were providing firewall services as a perimeter pair of firewalls acting in an active/passive cluster. Due to our internal network configuration, use of OSPF etc. the interfaces (ports) on the passive firewall were set to be down/disabled when that firewall was not active. […]

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Microsoft Exchange 2016 – Version Store Out of Memory Error

The Microsoft Exchange 2016 ESE database engine manages the database engine and database files that make up the Mailbox Databases on the Microsoft Exchange server; it reads and writes data to and from the database and manages the database files through background management tasks. The Exchange databases are based on the JET database engine and […]

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Finding gMSA Accounts with Custom Search in ADUC

To find gMSA (Group Managed Service) Accounts i.e. group managed accounts and if your ADUC doesn’t have this as an option you can use a “Custom Search” and click “Advanced”, then use the following string in the “Enter LDAP query:” https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/5340/using-group-managed-service-accounts-with-sql-server/

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Multi-Factor (MFA/2FA) Authentication for HPE Nimble Storage using Okta

The HPE Nimble Storage array can be managed via a Web Interface, SSH Console or API, you can Active Directory (or LDAP in later NimbleOS version) integrate the array for management access. At the time of writing MFA or 2FA is not natively supported, however I believe it is on their roadmap to add SAML […]

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Extreme Networks X695 to Dell S5148F-ON Switch – 10Gbit SFP+ Intermittent CRC Errors

I recently came across an odd problem with the links from our Extreme Networks X695 switches to some Dell S5148F-ON switches, the X695 was running: 30.7.2.1, the Dell switch 10.4.3.6C1. Essentially what started the oddity was a transceiver failure. The equipment has been in production for a few months, all was working well. Suddenly a […]

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Microsoft Active Directory Trusts Explained

Microsoft Active Directory uses the concepts of “domains”, a domain is the outer edge of a security compartment; within a domain, user accounts, computer accounts and resources are authenticated and share a common authentication source. There is also the concept of a “forest”, a forest is a collection of domains, in the most basic configuration […]

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