by Arjan | Jul 4, 2016 | Tech Field Day, Tech Field Day 11
During Tech Field Day 11 we had presentations from a lot of awesome companies. Some of them I knew, but others were new to me, and that while some of these already exist for multiple years. The first of these “older”companies was Netwrix.
When writing a couple of VMware designs in which compliancy was a big deal, I learned that a good auditing tool is a must have as the auditors will not approve anything if they you didn’t provide them with the right answers and tooling needed to be compliant. A tool like Netwrix can help a lot with this.
Netwrix History
So during Tech Field Day 11 I was pleased to see Netwrix do a great job at explaining where they came from and what they do. A couple of points that were told in this first presentation:
• The company is founded in 2006 (that’s right the company celebrates it’s 10th anniversary this year)
• The founders Michael Fimin and Alex Vovk, who both worked at Quest software before starting Netwrix.
• The company has no venture funding.
• The company has over 200 employees across the globe, and;
• They have over 7000 customers worldwide
But it might be better if you just watch part 1 of the presentation first:
Who is Netwrix? from Stephen Foskett on Vimeo.
Netwrix Auditor Platform capabilities
The Netwrix auditor platform can help you audit and monitor multiple systems and application, the following are usable by default:
- Microsoft Active Directory
- Microsoft Exchange Server
- Microsoft Office 365
- Microsoft Sharepoint
- Microsoft SQL server
- VMware vSphere
- Windows File Server
- EMC
- NetApp
- Windows Server
Some of these are on-premises only, but a couple of them are also hybrid cloud capable, meaning you can audit your applications both on- and off-premises. Through the use of RESTful API’s both in and out bound you can leverage even more, but that is for a later blogpost :D.
Other TFD11 delegates on Netwrix
As always a couple of my TFD11 delegates also wrote some articles on Netwrix. Here are the articles already in the open (I’ll try to keep it updated, but I can’t promise anything :D):
Julian Wood (@julian_wood) wrote a great preview, the Tech Field Day 11 Preview: Netwrix
As well as Alaister Cook (@DemitasseNZ) did an introduction: TFD11 introduction: Netwrix
A small section on Netwrix can be found in the write-up by Drew Conry-Murray () at PacketPushers.net: Tech Field Day Goes To 11
And last but not least, Mark May () wrote a piece right after the presentation (showoff ;-P) called: Breaking down silos between security and operations
And as always, all Netwrix information and videos are available at the Tech Field Day site: Tech Field Day Netwrix
As already mentioned I’ll try to keep this post updated if people will write more on Netwrix, and I will also try to do a part two and three on Netwrix, but first I want to write a couple of post on other companies presenting at TFD11.
by Arjan | Oct 27, 2015 | Veeam, VeeamOn
So after a long day of travel on sunday (Amsterdam-Detroit and Detroit-Las Vegas) I arrived in Las Vegas late in the evening and fell into a deep sleep as soon as I hit the rather large bed in the Aria Resort and Casino, where the #VeeamOn2015 is held. I really like the venue in the way that it is an awesome resort where everything you need is in the same building(s) and if you need something it’s just a short 5 minute (or a little longer) walk. A esbig surprise was waiting for me when I entered the room and found a great gift (See picture). I actually had a discussion in the plane with the dutch guy (Ikea filmcrew) about this awesome headphones.. So a big thanks Veeam!
Monday at VeeamOn2015
So on monday after a good night sleep I went to the conference location to pick up my pass as well as a backpack and meet with a couple of guys. As I’m a foreigner with a big jetlag I decided to really take it easy this (Partner)day, and give myself the time to adjust.
I did went to the Grand opening of the Expo Lounge, to meet with peers and enjoy some great food and drinks. Always great to meet with people like Vladan Seget (blog: ESX Virtualization), Andrea Mauro (blog: vInfrastructure) and Joep Piscaer (blog: VirtualLifeStyle). Those three guys are all Veeam Vanguards and if you don’t know what that is, my suggestion is that you start reading more about this program here.
#VeeamON2015
Evening in Vegas
In the evening I decided to make the best of my time here in Sincity and did a walk over the strip to see the fountains, take pictures of all the crazy stuff in this town, before heading to my room to do a Skype call with the homefront and get a (not so) good night sleep.
Day 1 of VeeamOn2015 is already started and I’ll be writing another blogpost on that asap 
by Arjan | Nov 27, 2010 | RemoteFX
So in part 1 and part 2 we installed a Hyper-V host and a Remote Desktop Session Host both with Server 2008 R2 SP1. This means we are ready to rumble.
Sorry to be the partypooper but that’s not exactly true, yet. Let’s see what i mean:
When examening my Hyper-V host and selecting the settings for my WINSRRDSH01 server. I see there is a RemoteFX Video Adapter option but it’s greyed out. So what should we do to be able to add (and use) RemoteFX?
There are a couple of needs for this, but let’s start with the obvious, the Hyper-V host. On the host we must do four things to enable RemoteFX:
- Make sure SP1 RC for Windows Server 2008 R2 is installed. (If you didn’t already, download it here. And install it)
- Add the Remote Desktop Services / RemoteFX role
- Use GPedit.msc to set RemoteFX compression
- Set Windows Firewall
So let’s check or set them step by step:
Make sure SP1 RC for Windows Server 2008 R2 is installed
- Go to Start and right click on Computer in the menu click on Properties. In the screen you’ll see if SP1 is installed:
If you didn’t install SP1 by now, do so by following this link.
Add the Remote Desktop Services / RemoteFX role
Go to start go to administrative tools and click Server Manager. The Server Manager window will open:
Go to Roles and on the right side click on Add Roles:
The Before you begin screen will show, click Next. The Select Server Roles window will show. Select Remote Desktop Services and click Next:
The Remote Desktop Services role will show. Click Next:
The Select Role Services window will Show. Click RemoteFX, there will be a Add Roles Wizard popup (click Add Required Role Services) and click Next:
The Confirm Installation Selections window will show. Click Install:
And after install the Installation Results window will show. Click close, and on the reboot window clik yes:
After reboot log back in and let the installation continue. The Installation Results window shows. Click close:
We’re almost there, just a couple more changes and we’re ready to try RemoteFX….
Let’s begin with giving our RDS Host a RemoteFX 3D video adapter. In the Server Manager go to the Hyper-V host and right click on the RDS vm, click settings.
Click Add Hardware select the RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter and click add:
The RemoteFX 3D video adapter will be added, you can then choose the maximum monitors and resolution options (for me 1 monitor 1280 x 1024). Click Apply:
Just to be sure memory will not be a bottleneck we’ll set dynamic memory (see this post for more info). Select Memory, select memory and set Maximum RAM. Click OK:
On the host, the guest and the client, the following firewall settings must be changed, Remote Desktop – RemoteFX select all 3 (just to be sure ;-)):
The last settings need to be made on the RD Session Host and the client computer. First the RDSH go to start, run and enter gpedit.msc press enter:
In the Group Policy Editor Console go to Computer Settings, Administrative templates, Windows Components, Remote Desktop Services, Remote Desktop Session Host, Remote Session Environment, and double click on Configure RemoteFX:
In the Configure RemoteFX window select enable and click OK:
That’s it for the RD Session Host. For the client we can do some tuning. Go to start run gpedit.msc press enter, and go to the same folder as you did on the RDSH. So go to Computer Settings, Administrative templates, Windows Components, Remote Desktop Services, Remote Desktop Session Host, Remote Session Environment, and double click on Optimize visual Experience when using RemoteFX:
In the Optimize visual exprience… window select enable and set Screen capture Rate and Screen Capture Quality to Higest, and press OK:
Your al set to test RemoteFX on a RD Session Host now! Start a mstsc.exe and go to experience. Set the performance on LAN (10 Mbps or higher):
On the general tab set the name to the name of your RD Session Host and click connect to set up a connection. To check if RemoteFX is installed correctly do the following check. Log in to the RD Session host with administrative rights. Go to start, administrative tools and click on event viewer. In event viewer go to Application and Services\Logs\Microsoft\Windows\RemoteDesktopServices-RemoteDesktopSession Manager. If the your client computer is connected to the RDSH by using RemoteFX for Remote Desktop Session Host, Event ID 1000 will be shown:
The installation of RemoteFX is completed! Hope it works as good for you as it did for me! See you on the next post!
Download PDF of Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3
