Found this issue while on-boarding a customer a couple of weeks ago. The symptom was that no one could RDP or elevate UAC on any computer besides the server. The error was the following phrase "An Authentication error has occurred (Code: 0x800706be)"

We ran DISM and SFC to check if there was any issue on the system but could not find an issue with the system. Event logs were not showing much information.

After further troubleshooting and running AutoRuns we noticed the computers shared a same agent which was the Solarwinds RMM. When we ran AUtoruns (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns) we found the issue being the Solarwinds Credential Provider, once disabled or removing the RMM the RDP connections started working properly.

I the picture above we unchecked the MSPACredentialProvider.

Recently we needed to fix an issue with an AWS OpenVPN EC2 instance that was running and the customers had 25 licenses but the system was showing only 2 licenses instead of 25 users. The Instance was already purchased and working properly but the licensing would not apply. Noticed the issue being as described on their post
https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/troubleshooting-problems-with-software-licensing/#Licensing_problems_with_Amazon_AWS_tiered_instances

We remotely connected to the OpenVPN server and could not do any name resolution and thus we could not connect to the following licensing servers:

These DNS names with wide dynamic IP ranges, on port TCP 443:
awspc1.openvpn.net
awspc2.openvpn.net

And these DNS names with static IP addresses, on port TCP 443:
awspc3.openvpn.net, IP address: 107.191.99.82
awspc4.openvpn.net, IP address: 107.161.19.201

So we changed the network interface to have a Static DNS servers. Login as the openvpn user to your instance.

1- Go to the netplan configuration folder

cd  /etc/netplan

2- Edit your yml file

sudo nano 50-cloud-init.yaml

3- Add the name servers (And remember the indentations)

 nameservers:
                addresses: [8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1]

4- The configuration should look like this

5- Apply the configuration change

sudo netplan apply

7- Confirm your can ping the licensing servers

ping awspc1.openvpn.net

8- Restart the OpenVPN Service

sudo systemctl restart openvpnas

Then the OpenVPN should be licensed now.

While working on Rocketchat and discussing with @scottalanmiller VitalPBX I came across https://meet.jit.si/ which works great for Video Conferencing and has a dial-in option as well which is Free.

It integrates very well with Slack using their link https://slack.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=116888949298.122751011265&scope=bot,commands

However, with Rocketchat I needed to add the Jitsi App and Configure the settings for meetings.

1- Go to your Rocketchat server instance and login
2- Got to your Administration Panel

3- Go to the Market Place and Install the Jitsi Meet App

4- Then once installed click on the app and add the Jitsi Meet URL

In my case it was https://meet.jit.si/ you can change it to something else as well.

5- Once done enable it.

6- Scroll down to Video Conference

7- Expand Jitsi and Enable the settings as you need to

8- Save the changes.

Once completed you can just type on your chat /jitsi and the name of you room or name and it will create a conference for you

Found this while working with a customer since their network kept on crawling and disconnecting until we disconnected the APs

https://community.ui.com/questions/Broadcast-storm-after-Unifi-controller-upgrade-to-6-0-20/0b924047-0632-4304-bada-4158a0a5349e

Upgrading the controller to 6.0.22 worked.

@eddiejennings That's great but have you seen this?
https://community.ui.com/questions/UniFi-Installation-Scripts-or-UniFi-Easy-Update-Script-or-UniFi-Lets-Encrypt-or-UniFi-Easy-Encrypt-/ccbc7530-dd61-40a7-82ec-22b17f027776

Had an issue with a Server 2021 R2 Server not installing the 2022-02 Monthly Rollups. The error was

Windows updates failed to install with error code: 800F0831

as noted here.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/37901.windows-server-2012-r2-troubleshooting-windows-updates-failed-to-install-with-error-code-800f0831-in.aspx

Found the offending update under the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder and it was the KB5005613 and since I had a few servers, created this PowerShell script. Hopefully it is useful.

https://github.com/dbeato/scripts/blob/master/Windows/W2K12-R2-Update-Fix.ps1

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41179214

@scottalanmiller Well it was as I thought, firmware bricked the Synology. Not even a reset or using a separate drive to do a pseudo migration of the drives worked. Data is intact but need a new Synology (They will RMA). Glad of their support service with advanced RMA. So it is good. Yesterday was a mess:

1- Friends clicking on Google Drive Emails (Phishing)
2- A Friend got scammed with "HP Support" (Syskey change )
3- Xray machine acting up with Exposures
4- Synology issue

All in all we all survived (They all had backups)

@scottalanmiller how about this?

https://github.com/jorgedlcruz/zimbra-automated-installation

Based on https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Install_Zimbra_Collaboration_and_a_DNS_Server_with_Script

Ubiquiti Usurvey for Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubnt.usurvey

Happy SysAdmin day to all!

The Windows 10 1709 AMDX Templates are here below:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=56121

From this thread in SW

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-hit-by-wannacry-virus-fears-it-could-cripple-some-jet-production/

Finally finished upgrading all 1511 and 1607 workstation to Windows 10 1703. 165 computers

Level 3 owned up to it
https://twitter.com/Level3NOC/status/927633534424141824

Let’s Encrypt Acmev2 for HAProxy

https://www.haproxy.com/blog/lets-encrypt-acme2-for-haproxy/

Dealing with Windows 10 auto restarts even when I have GPO set with active hours....

@openit said in What exactly imaging software, any open source or free options ?:

Hi all,

I know little about Imaging software.

I think we are talking about Imaging backup which doesn't reside in the system itself like Recovery Partition, through which we can restore the system to Factory default settings.

And I am aware of cloning software like CloneZilla, through which we can restore to that specific time (programs and settings). It doesn't seems practical for me to do it individually.

So we are talking about using at work and network backup/centralized one, preferably with an Agent will do good work ? Is that FOG kind of software referred to be as Imaging Software ?

I always had storage problem to try or start doing imaging to make things easier. Following are few confusions/queries :

1. I believe imaging is the system backup, excluding data (or other partitions), unless we include.

2. Lets say we are trying to take image of Windows machine (system/C partition only), if it's partition size is 100GB and used some 44GB for OS, what size imaging software will occupy after backing up ? 100 GB or 44 GB ?

3. There will be any incremental and schedule kind of imaging backups ? to take back to working stage ? as it's not practical to take the PC back to zero (fresh Windows)...

4. If FOG is an example for software referring to as reimage in this thread (https://mangolassi.it/topic/15746/why-restart-works-technical-reason/22)
   So I need to setup FOG of some linux server, add storage (lets say some NAS) and take image backups on network, how will be the performance ? I am afraid it will kill the network. So user can work while image backup is going on ?

5. Whether single windows image will work for different model machines (HP, Dell, Lenovo etc.), since they have different components and drivers ?

Thanks for response !

There is a big difference between imaging and cloning of systems and backups. FOG is for cloning and creating images of systems.

https://www.cloudberrylab.com/blog/introducing-cloudberry-backup-2-5-1-for-macos-linux

Playing battlefield with the son, the old school way: