Category: Management Tools

In this blog post, I will show you how to use AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Automation to keep a service account’s password synchronized in Microsoft Active Directory (AD) and a Secret in AWS Secrets Manager encrypted with an AWS Key Management Service (KMS) customer managed key (CMK). This blog post uses AWS Secrets Manager, but […]

In this blog post, I will show you how to use PowerShell to synchronize changes to Microsoft Active Directory (AD) users and groups for federated access to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Introduction Some customers have a well-established Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS) implementation and would like to leverage it for federated access to AWS via […]

In this blog post, I will show how to move Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for SQL Server deployments from AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (AWS Managed Microsoft AD) to your self-managed Microsoft AD. This blog post is not saying you should move away from AWS Managed Microsoft AD to self-manged AD. Keep […]

Migrating your Microsoft workloads to the cloud requires a well-thought-out licensing strategy. AWS offers various ways to support your licensing needs and help you understand the options. Whether you aim to lower costs, enhance security, or improve the price-performance of your applications, AWS has three options to ensure you meet your objectives. The infographic illustrates […]

This blog post is the second of a four-part series on how to upgrade Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. The focus of this series is to provide options to handle the upcoming end-of-support event in October. Part 1 overviews the end-of-support dilemma, plus how to perform an in-place, manual upgrade along with an insight […]

This blog post is the first of a four-part series on how to upgrade Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. The focus of this series is to provide options to handle the upcoming end-of-support event in October. Part 1 overviews the end-of-support dilemma, plus how to perform an in-place, manual upgrade along with an insight […]

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently added a new feature to AWS Compute Optimizer that detects Microsoft SQL Server workloads running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) using machine learning. In this blog post, I will explain how this new feature helps you identify and optimize your SQL Server workloads. Addressing challenges in rightsizing SQL Server […]

For many workloads, customers use Amazon FSx for Windows File Server (Amazon FSx), a fully managed storage service based on Windows File Server. For non-production workloads, a single Availability Zone (AZ) deployment may be sufficient. But sometimes, the need arises to add high availability to the storage in an environment. Customers need a simple way […]

In a previous blog post, I showed how you can use AWS Systems Manager Automation to dynamically automate domain join and unjoin activities with Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for your Windows instances on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). The previous solution showed you how to manually domain join/unjoin activities against single or multiple […]

In just a few weeks, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will host its 11th annual re:Invent for both in-person and virtual attendees. Join us in Las Vegas from November 28th through December 2nd for a full week of keynotes, leadership sessions, bootcamps, breakout content, and technical deep dives. This year, there is a new Enterprise & […]