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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Use PowerShell Test-NetConnection to test if a TCP port is opened. Along with ping to verify a host is online makes it ideal for scripting and automation.
If you need to verify files are untampered with, you have to create a file checksum -or file hash- that you can use to verify. PowerShell offers this functionality with Get-FileHash cmdlet. Or use certutil.exe.
Windows Subsystem for Linux gets new ‘mirrored’ network mode, providing IPv6 support. This is huge! Update WSL2 in Windows Insider Program to have experimental IPv6 support.
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.
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.
Use PowerShell, Performance Counters and WMI to get the current number of active connections to IIS websites. Perfect for monitoring IIS webservers in Zabbix.
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.
Learn how to reconfigure Windows Server’s TCP/IP stack and IIS for high performing websites. Prevent running out of available ports/sockets (port exhaustion).
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.
In 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.
Here 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 Microsoft SQL Server, databases and performance with Zabbix, PowerShell, Performance Counters and WMI. Keep SQL Server and databases in top shape and performance up! In this post I show you how you can use Zabbix to monitor those important aspects for database administrators (DBA).
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.
Available categories
Are you looking for a specific category of posts? Here are the categories I have on Sysadmins of the North.
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.
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.