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Diagnosing Disk Performance Issues

Disk performance issues can be hard to track down but can also cause a wide variety of issues.  The disk performance counter available in Windows are numerous, and being able to select the right counters for a given situation is a great troubleshooting skill.  Here, we'll review two basic scenarios - measuring overall disk performance and determining if the disks are a bottleneck.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Diagnosing Failed RDS Broker Role

A while back, we received a support case regarding a Windows Server 2016 box that was set up with an all-in-one RDS configuration where a single server is both the broker and session host.  At some point after the build engineer handed the box off to the client, the RDS roles basically stopped working.  Let's walk through the troubleshooting process and final resolution.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

PowerShell Core

PowerShell 5.1 is the latest release of the original PowerShell.  Starting with version 6.0, PowerShell is now referred to as PowerShell Core.  PowerShell Core 6.0 is cross-platform - supported on macOS, Linux, and Windows - and built on .NET Core instead of the traditional .NET framework.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Hung Server Troubleshooting

When a server hangs, it can oftentimes be difficult to find the root cause.  There are a variety of potential factors, and narrowing it down can be tough.  Here, we'll review the general process for troubleshooting a hung server.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Azure News - June 2019

Summary of recent Azure updates, including Azure Bastion and Azure to Azure ASR improvements.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Diagnosing Slow Page Loads due to CRL Checks

Recently, a support ticket was opened for an issue where a couple of websites were slow to load after blocking outbound internet access from a VM.  The IP addresses of these websites were whitelisted, but the browser would hang for about 30 seconds before they'd load.  In the end, we found that the SSL certificate CRL check process was causing the hang.  Let's take a look at the diagnosis process and how we discovered the root cause.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Attack Surface Analyzer

Attack Surface Analyzer is an older tool that Microsoft has recently updated and re-released as v2.0.  This tool tracks changes to files, services, network ports, certificates, registry, and local user accounts.  Although it is primarily for Windows, it is an open source product available for macOS and Linux as well.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Windows Update SHA-1 Deprecation

Another upcoming security change to Windows is the transition to SHA-2 code signing certificates for Windows Update.  This change will require updates to allow Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2 to continue receiving updates after July 2019.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

Changes to Cross-forest Kerberos Delegation

Microsoft is planning to introduce a security update in July 2019 that will alter the way Kerberos delegation across forest trusts work.  If ignored, this update could negatively impact applications that rely on unconstrained delegation across a forest trust.

Mitchell Grande by Mitchell Grande

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