Sysadmins of the North is just a technical blog, like so many others out there. Here I write about IT stuff that I find interesting, problems I encountered and solved. Topics include computers, servers, web, sysadmin, database, virtualization, optimization and security.
For the most part, I write as it comes; posts may seem incoherently written sometimes (my apologies). Drop me a comment somewhere to say hi, or discuss about any of the topics. I always love the interaction!
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Code language: HTML, XML (xml)Latest posts on Sysadmins of the North
- IPv6 support for WSL2! 🥳
IPv6 support for WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux), this is huge! In Windows Insider Program you can update WSL to have experimental IPv6 support. - Windows SID to username and vice versa
Sometimes you need to convert a Windows SID (security identifier) to an username, or vice versa (an username to an SID). In this post I show you a couple of methods to translate the one into the other. One is using VBScript and one is using PowerShell. - Get SQL database backup details with PowerShell
Quickly get SQL Server backup .bak file header information using PowerShell and SQL Server Management Objects (SMO). Determine the name of the SQL server that wrote the backup set. - Get IIS Current Connections using PowerShellDo you want to know how to get the current number of connections to IIS hosted websites? The information is stored in Windows Server Performance Counters, and you can get it using Get-Counter cmdlet in PowerShell of course. But in post I’ll show you a different -and perhaps even faster- method using WMI/CIM and Win32_PerfRawData_W3SVC_WebService.
- Install SSL/TLS certificates in Windows Server using PowerShell
Use PowerShell to install SSL certificate in Windows Server and change its FriendlyName property. As a bonus, I show you how to verify a certificate’s Common Name (Subject) and Subject Alternative Name (SAN) using certutil.exe and PowerShell Get-PfxCertificate. - Tune Windows Server TCP/IP and IISWhen you have set up your ASP.NET / .NET or PHP configuration for high performing websites in Windows Server, it sometimes becomes important to reconfigure Windows Server’s TCP/IP stack and IIS too. You may have to increase network throughput and performance, or you just might run out of available ports / sockets (aka port exhaustion).
- Install Windows Updates using PowerShell
In this post I show you how you can use PowerShell to install Windows Updates. Quickly and silently. This makes the use of PSWindowsUpdate module perfect for your day to day automation. The module even supports scheduling (on remote computers too!), it has the ability to search WSUS and Windows Update for updates, scheduling and performing the download and installation of updates. - Send email with PowerShellIn this post I provide you with a small PowerShell function you can use to send email over a TLS secured SMTP connection with SMTP authentication. As a framework you can use in your own scripting and extend it. You can even create a PowerShell module of it.
- Are you in my blocklist?
Is your IP address in my WordPress .htaccess block list? Here are IP addresses I block manually because of comment spamming. - Create an additional SQL Server LoginHere is a small T-SQL snippet that creates an additional (extra) SQL Server Login (User) for contained databases in SQL Server. It sets memberships too.
- Monitor SQL Server and databases in depth using ZabbixSQL Server performance monitoring in Zabbix: Keeping your SQL Server and databases in top shape is key for a good performing SQL Server database server and its databases. A good performing SQL Server makes happy customers, and that’s what puts bread on the plank, right? In this post I’ll show you how you can use Windows Performance counters, PowerShell / WMI and Zabbix for in depth monitoring of your SQL Server server and databases.
- Query all WordPress posts in MySQL not having a Yoast SEO meta description
Here is a query you can use to query all posts in WordPress not having a Yoast SEO meta description yet. You can run this on your MySQL prompt or in phpMyAdmin. - Configure Windows Debugging Symbols in WinDbg
Before you can properly debug crash and memory dumps in Windows (Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server), you need to install WinDbg -Windows Debugger- and its debugging symbols. In this article I explain how to set up these debugging symbols for WinDbg in Windows. Debug BSOD like a boss! - Extract files from an MSI package
To extract all files from a .msi file, use the following msiexec command and arguments. Windows has the ability to allow the MSI package (.msi file) contents to be extracted using the command line or via a script. - Connect to a KVM host through an ssh tunnel and arbitrary port in Windows 11 and WSL 2
If you need to connect virt-manager to a KVM host over ssh in Windows, then Windows 11 and WSL 2 made things a whole lot easier for you. Even if you need to connect virt-manager through an ssh tunnel and arbitrary port because your network is reachable only through a bastion host and ssh key authentication. Here is how.
Available categories
Are you looking for a specific category of posts? Here are the categories I have on Sysadmins of the North.
- Code base (46)
- PowerShell (24)
- GNU Linux (20)
- MySQL (10)
- Web applications (72)
- Umbraco (5)
- Web application security (22)
- WordPress (39)
- Windows Server (126)
About Jan Reilink – the author
Currently I work as an application manager / administrator at Embrace – The Human Cloud in Groningen (the Netherlands). At Embrace we develop and manage software to automate processes and unlock knowledge, social intranets, and so forth. Smart technology helps your organization move forward.
The human cloud connects automated services with human knowledge exchange. With our solutions for self-service portals, customer tracking systems and digital workplaces, we are creating space for human work.
Before Embrace, I was over 20 years at Vevida.com as a systems- and applications manager/administrator.
My experience and specialties include Windows Server, IIS, WSL & Linux (CentOS, Debian), PHP, WordPress, websites, MySQL, optimization and security. Vevida is now part of TWS, Total Webhosting Solutions, and incorporated into Yourhosting.nl. My SysOps department went to the company cldin.eu, Cldin.eu’s mission is to build the best-in-class digital infrastructures that scale.