Sysadmins of the North

Disable ECDH public server param reuse in Windows Server IIS

ECDH public server param reuse is when a server uses the same DH (Diffie-Hellman) key value for multiple handshakes, instead of generating a new one for every handshake. They should be "ephemeral" though which is why it is called "DHE" or "ECDHE", and this means the key is single-use and should never be reused. Windows Server IIS is known for reusing DH key values, but there is a way to disable ECDH public server param reuse in Windows Server IIS.

By Jan Reilink 09/04/2024Windows Server

Windows Server

Create strong passwords in Windows

Create strong passwords in Windows using PowerShell or OpenSSL

By Jan Reilink 29/03/2024Windows Server

PowerShell

Install IIS in Windows 11 using PowerShell

Do you have a need for IIS in your Windows 11 development station? And now you need to install IIS? Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows is a secure and manageable webserver for hosting anything on the web. Here I describe how to install IIS.

By Jan Reilink 06/02/2024PowerShell

Windows Server

Monitor website performance in IIS with Zabbix

Monitor your website performance in IIS with Zabbix and Performance Counters. Scripting in PowerShell and WMI.

By Jan Reilink 29/01/2024Windows Server

PowerShell

Use PowerShell with SSL client certificates for HTTPS GET requests

How to use a specific TLS/SSL certificate or thumbprint for your outgoing HTTPS requests using PowerShell.

By Jan Reilink 02/11/2023PowerShell

PowerShell

Test if a port is open with PowerShell

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. No need for Telnet client.

By Jan Reilink 10/10/2023PowerShell

PowerShell

Calculate SHA-256 checksums in PowerShell

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.

By Jan Reilink 10/10/2023PowerShell

ping google.com with IPv6 network protocol in WSL2 (WIndows Subsystem for Linux 2)

Windows Server

IPv6 support for WSL2! 🥳

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.

By Jan Reilink 19/09/2023Windows Server

magnifying glass near gray laptop computer

Windows Server

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.

By Jan Reilink 06/09/2023Windows Server

Windows Server

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.

By Jan Reilink 21/08/2023Windows Server

Windows Server

Get IIS Current Connections using PowerShell

Use PowerShell, Performance Counters and WMI to get the current number of active connections to IIS websites. Perfect for monitoring IIS webservers in Zabbix.

By Jan Reilink 12/08/2023Windows Server

Windows Server

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.

By Jan Reilink 10/08/2023Windows Server

Windows Server

Tune Windows Server TCP/IP and IIS

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).

By Jan Reilink 21/06/2023Windows Server

PowerShell

Install Windows Updates using PowerShell

In this post I show you how to 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.

By Jan Reilink 15/03/2023PowerShell

PowerShell

Send email with PowerShell

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.

By Jan Reilink 14/03/2023PowerShell