Enterprise Microsoft Q&A: Hello for Buttprint

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skipdogg: Nov 29, 2004; Resident SRT-4 Expert

Wrath of the Bitch King posted:

The biggest problem with MS right now, beyond the obvious poo poo, is the lack of documentation. Or BAD documentation.

Pretty sure MS is going to be pushing InTune + AutoPilot pretty hard in the coming years, so if you're an SCCM shop don't be surprised if you see lots of feature updates directed towards MDM and mobility over all else.

Their doc quality went to poo poo after they laid off a bunch of folks a few years ago. It's disappointing

# ? Sep 8, 2017 16:06

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# ? May 29, 2024 05:52

Maneki Neko: Oct 27, 2000

underlig posted:

What are other people using for SPLA monitoring / information gathering?

We're an MSP and the SPLA-licenses are a big part of our monthly billing, but when me and my colleague started nine months ago there was no documentation on how the reporting was done or calculated. All the old technicians left.

There's a powershell-script that polls our AD for mail-accounts, groups them by customer and spits out a big excel-file. The script have bugs/limitations as we've discovered when we decided one month to do a manual count just to be sure, it also takes my collague hours each month to calculate. (I've been "busy" with other stuff at each months end luckily so i've never actually done the report myself).

We got a huge scolding when that manual verification showed a big difference compared the previous report, we also got a huge one last week when i counted our Datacenter licenses and came up with a number that was half of what had been reported for the last 12 months. I did not know that while Datacenter 2012r2 counts two cpus per license, Datacenter 2012r2 through SPLA counts one cpu per license.

I've only ever seen terrible home grown scripts for SPLA tracking. The fact that the rules for SPLA are largely unique to SPLA and that they change from time to time has always ended up requiring us to do at least some kind of manual sanity checking before submitting our monthly usage report.

Sacred Cow posted:

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but, my company is looking to set up some sort of "Windows 10 Desktop on Demand" environment in the cloud. We basically want the ability to stand up about 100 computers with our essential applications in an inclement weather situation like a snow storm that will allow our call center employees to work from home. Afterwards just shut them down and delete the instances. We're already running in Azure but the options are limited to Citrix XenDesktop which has a monthly charge and pretty convoluted pricing. AWS instancing looks like an option but can't seem to find any documentation that doesn't lead to Amazon Workstation services which is monthly and persistent profiles. Has anyone stood up something like this?

We've already thought of giving out cheap laptops with VPN but our accounting department isn't too hot on the idea of buying 100 laptops to keep on standby and only be used a few times a year.

I've seen 3rd parties stepping in to help with this somewhat: https://mycloudit.com/

# ? Sep 11, 2017 16:29

Sacred Cow: Aug 13, 2007

Maneki Neko posted:

I've seen 3rd parties stepping in to help with this somewhat: https://mycloudit.com/

Thanks. I'm adding this company to my findings. The business is demanding a solution sooner then later. These past two hurricanes scared the poo poo out of the owners which uncapped my budget on the project :homebrew:

# ? Sep 12, 2017 16:08

Gucci Loafers: May 20, 2006; Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?

Is there a way to export a users DLs or my own as a non-exchange admin?

I've seen this done before and not just by expanding the S4B contact card.

# ? Sep 13, 2017 16:09

Dans Macabre: Apr 24, 2004

Tab8715 posted:

Is there a way to export a users DLs or my own as a non-exchange admin?

I've seen this done before and not just by expanding the S4B contact card.

how many DLs?

Open one in outlook and do save as...

# ? Sep 13, 2017 18:42

Gucci Loafers: May 20, 2006; Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?

Open the user in Outlook? How exactly?

# ? Sep 13, 2017 19:33

anthonypants: May 6, 2007; by Nyc_Tattoo; Dinosaur Gum

Tab8715 posted:

Open the user in Outlook? How exactly?

Pretty sure they're saying to open the DL in Outlook.

# ? Sep 13, 2017 19:53

Mr. Clark2: Sep 17, 2003; Rocco sez: Oh man, what a bummer. Woof.

I have been tasked with creating some kind of 'Document approval workflow' in Sharepoint. I know nothing about Sharepoint. Exactly how screwed am I?

# ? Sep 13, 2017 22:56

anthonypants: May 6, 2007; by Nyc_Tattoo; Dinosaur Gum

Mr. Clark2 posted:

I have been tasked with creating some kind of 'Document approval workflow' in Sharepoint. I know nothing about Sharepoint. Exactly how screwed am I?

Online or on-prem?

# ? Sep 13, 2017 22:58

BangersInMyKnickers: Nov 3, 2004; I have a thing for courageous dongles

You can probably figure it out but if they're heaping Sharepoint dev on your plate too I would either demand a lot more money or start looking for a different job because gently caress That

# ? Sep 13, 2017 22:59

The Fool: Oct 16, 2003

Mr. Clark2 posted:

I have been tasked with creating some kind of 'Document approval workflow' in Sharepoint. I know nothing about Sharepoint. Exactly how screwed am I?

This product has been a lifesaver: https://www.infowisesolutions.com/ufapp.aspx

# ? Sep 13, 2017 23:02

Mr. Clark2: Sep 17, 2003; Rocco sez: Oh man, what a bummer. Woof.

anthonypants posted:

Online or on-prem?

Online.
And yeah, I'm worried about becoming a sharepoint admin/developer because of this. Hopefully this is just a one-off.

# ? Sep 13, 2017 23:03

nexxai: Jul 17, 2002; quack quack bjork; Fun Shoe

Mr. Clark2 posted:

Hopefully this is just a one-off.

lmfao

# ? Sep 13, 2017 23:04

anthonypants: May 6, 2007; by Nyc_Tattoo; Dinosaur Gum

Mr. Clark2 posted:

Online.
And yeah, I'm worried about becoming a sharepoint admin/developer because of this. Hopefully this is just a one-off.

Check this poo poo out https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/
There's also an O365 version of Google Forms/SurveyMonkey/et al but I don't know if everyone has access to it yet. It started off as education-only and I think it's still in preview. https://forms.office.com

# ? Sep 13, 2017 23:09

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

BangersInMyKnickers posted:

You can probably figure it out but if they're heaping Sharepoint dev on your plate too I would either demand a lot more money or start looking for a different job because gently caress That

# ? Sep 13, 2017 23:15

skipdogg: Nov 29, 2004; Resident SRT-4 Expert

Mr. Clark2 posted:

Online.
And yeah, I'm worried about becoming a sharepoint admin/developer because of this. Hopefully this is just a one-off.

Famous last words

# ? Sep 14, 2017 00:41

Sudden Loud Noise: Feb 18, 2007

Cool! Graph API allow for quick and incredibly simple creation of mobile apps in Intune.

Oh God! Uploading app content into azure storage programmatically is the least intuitive thing ever!

# ? Sep 14, 2017 04:09

orange sky: May 7, 2007

Sudden Loud Noise posted:

Cool! Graph API allow for quick and incredibly simple creation of mobile apps in Intune.

Oh God! Uploading app content into azure storage programmatically is the least intuitive thing ever!

What language are you using to interact with Graph API?

# ? Sep 14, 2017 17:32

Sudden Loud Noise: Feb 18, 2007

orange sky posted:

What language are you using to interact with Graph API?

PowerShell.

Compared to the SCCM SDK it's the simplest process ever.

Drastically reducing capabilities makes things easier! Who would have guessed?

# ? Sep 15, 2017 16:54

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

Microsoft have updated Intune to use the Azure portal, and not gotten around to updating their documentation yet (which is becoming annoyingly typical). Any ideas how to push firewall policies to Win10 clients? The docs keep mentioning policies, but the only policies in the Azure portal version of this product are compliance policies, which are checks rather that config items.

# ? Sep 15, 2017 23:22

Briantist: Dec 5, 2003; The Professor does not approve of your post.; Lipstick Apathy

Sudden Loud Noise posted:

Drastically reducing capabilities makes things easier! Who would have guessed?

Apple

# ? Sep 18, 2017 23:22

Dans Macabre: Apr 24, 2004

I don't know where else to ask this: can someone explain to me how xendesktop offline mode actually works? Like, it's clearly not a VM running right?

# ? Sep 20, 2017 20:25

BangersInMyKnickers: Nov 3, 2004; I have a thing for courageous dongles

Most VDI software has some kind of mechanism where you can check your desktop VM image out from the server and run it locally on a laptop if you're going to be someplace without reliable internet service, then check it back in and merge the images when you're done. Sounds a lot like that.

# ? Sep 20, 2017 20:31

Potato Salad: Oct 23, 2014; nobody cares

It synchs your online application data with locsl offline vms, should you have elected to deploy this way

# ? Sep 20, 2017 20:33

Internet Explorer: Jun 1, 2005

That sounds like a loving nightmare and there is no way I would deploy such a thing.

# ? Sep 20, 2017 20:56

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

It just seems like something that will cause endless problems when a C-level insists on having two laptops, or a laptop and a desktop, and can't wrap their head around how syncing handles conflict resolution. And all they can tell you is "this has always been a problem and you never manage to fix it :argh:

# ? Sep 20, 2017 21:07

Dans Macabre: Apr 24, 2004

Thanks everyone

Internet Explorer posted:

That sounds like a loving nightmare and there is no way I would deploy such a thing.

Completely agreed

# ? Sep 20, 2017 21:33

angry armadillo: Jul 26, 2010

We have never really had any software on our network for deploying software updates quickly but now we are starting to look it. I'm talking about the latest version of Java, Flash, PDF reading software etc.

SCCM has been mentioned which would be nice, but I do recall reading this forum and a number of people singing the praises of some alternative software on this forum.

Does anyone know what I am talking about and could they tell me the name of that software as I cannot for the life of me remember

If that doesn't make any sense, we are looking for software to deploy everything

any suggestions that I can pass on for the procurement people to look at. We are currently a sub company of a global company -the global company have a person employed to program something that takes care of all this. The big company have said they wont do it for us, so we have identified a need!

# ? Sep 21, 2017 12:43

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

PDQ Deploy is a thread favourite

# ? Sep 21, 2017 14:28

Wrath of the Bitch King: May 11, 2005; Research confirms that black is a color like silver is a color, and that beyond black is clarity.

If you have money, SCCM. If you don't, PDQ.

# ? Sep 22, 2017 17:28

Potato Salad: Oct 23, 2014; nobody cares

Wrath of the Bitch King posted:

If you have time, SCCM. If you don't, PDQ.

# ? Sep 23, 2017 01:45

Zero VGS: Aug 16, 2002; ASK ME ABOUT HOW HUMAN LIVES THAT MADE VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS ARE WORTH MORE; Lipstick Apathy

I'm setting up a new server for work which requires:

- 2 vCPU
- 8GB RAM
-1TB of storage
- Win Server 2016
- SQL Express 2016

and I have to set it up on either AWS or Azure.

Is the pricing comparable for either? I would prefer to use AWS, I just wanted to be sure that Microsoft doesn't do some deep discount for putting Windows Servers on Azure or anything.

When I use pricing calculators for either site, they ask me if it is SQL Standard or Web but don't mention SQL Express. Or is Express some kind of free tier?

Lastly is there a cheaper way of doing 1TB of storage on AWS than EBS? Should I be using S3 (even though it blew the gently caress up a year ago)?

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:14

Methanar: Sep 26, 2013; by the sex ghost

Zero VGS posted:

I'm setting up a new server for work which requires:

- 2 vCPU
- 8GB RAM
-1TB of storage
- Win Server 2016
- SQL Express 2016

and I have to set it up on either AWS or Azure.

Is the pricing comparable for either? I would prefer to use AWS, I just wanted to be sure that Microsoft doesn't do some deep discount for putting Windows Servers on Azure or anything.

When I use pricing calculators for either site, they ask me if it is SQL Standard or Web but don't mention SQL Express. Or is Express some kind of free tier?

Lastly is there a cheaper way of doing 1TB of storage on AWS than EBS? Should I be using S3 (even though it blew the gently caress up a year ago)?

Consider using the SQL PaaS rather than VMs.

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:18

Gucci Loafers: May 20, 2006; Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?

Express is free but the database has size limitations.

Azure Windows VMs have licensing included in price which makes things easier.

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:18

Walked: Apr 14, 2003

Zero VGS posted:

I'm setting up a new server for work which requires:

- 2 vCPU
- 8GB RAM
-1TB of storage
- Win Server 2016
- SQL Express 2016

and I have to set it up on either AWS or Azure.

Is the pricing comparable for either? I would prefer to use AWS, I just wanted to be sure that Microsoft doesn't do some deep discount for putting Windows Servers on Azure or anything.

When I use pricing calculators for either site, they ask me if it is SQL Standard or Web but don't mention SQL Express. Or is Express some kind of free tier?

Lastly is there a cheaper way of doing 1TB of storage on AWS than EBS? Should I be using S3 (even though it blew the gently caress up a year ago)?

You're not going to use RDS for SQL Express. So you'd just provision an EC2 instance and install SQL Express yourself. RDS is a nice option to reduce overhead administration if you can budget it, but that's be SQL Standard

EBS is going to be the way to go for block storage really. If you're storing objects like images, S3 is a good option. But based on your questions you probably want an EBS volume.

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:18

anthonypants: May 6, 2007; by Nyc_Tattoo; Dinosaur Gum

Zero VGS posted:

I'm setting up a new server for work which requires:

- 2 vCPU
- 8GB RAM
-1TB of storage
- Win Server 2016
- SQL Express 2016

and I have to set it up on either AWS or Azure.

Is the pricing comparable for either? I would prefer to use AWS, I just wanted to be sure that Microsoft doesn't do some deep discount for putting Windows Servers on Azure or anything.

When I use pricing calculators for either site, they ask me if it is SQL Standard or Web but don't mention SQL Express. Or is Express some kind of free tier?

Lastly is there a cheaper way of doing 1TB of storage on AWS than EBS? Should I be using S3 (even though it blew the gently caress up a year ago)?

I would imagine they don't include SQL Express since it's free.

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:19

The Fool: Oct 16, 2003

Azure compute pricing includes all os and cal licensing for windows vm's.

Also, if you really needed sql express, you would install it as an application in your vm.

~~I might come back and write more when I get back to my desk.~~

Edit:

Unless there is a specific reason you need SQL Express, you should just provision the SQL PaaS from either provider. It'll be cheaper per month and easier to manage.

The Fool fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Sep 29, 2017

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:20

Zero VGS: Aug 16, 2002; ASK ME ABOUT HOW HUMAN LIVES THAT MADE VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS ARE WORTH MORE; Lipstick Apathy

It says AWS does not require Windows CALs either if you spin up a Windows Server AMI:

https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/

The Fool posted:

Unless there is a specific reason you need SQL Express, you should just provision the SQL PaaS from either provider. It'll be cheaper per month and easier to manage.

I guess the app wants Server 2016 because it also requires IIS. So, IIS and SQL Express. It technically only requires 80GB storage, but we also need about 1TB worth of video recording history.

# ? Sep 29, 2017 21:43

The Fool: Oct 16, 2003

Zero VGS posted:

It says AWS does not require Windows CALs either if you spin up a Windows Server AMI:

https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/

I guess the app wants Server 2016 because it also requires IIS. So, IIS and SQL Express. It technically only requires 80GB storage, but we also need about 1TB worth of video recording history.

Azure pricing calculator, if it helps.

# ? Sep 29, 2017 23:02

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# ? May 29, 2024 05:52

Maneki Neko: Oct 27, 2000

Zero VGS posted:

It says AWS does not require Windows CALs either if you spin up a Windows Server AMI:

https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/

Correct, AWS is likely reporting usage via SPLA, which doesn't require CALs.

# ? Oct 1, 2017 22:43

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