School Data Sync (SDS) er en spændende ny teknologi, der gør det langt lettere at importere elev- og klassedata direkte ind i Office 365. Fx kan man importere SIS-data direkte ind i SDS og sætte det til at opdatere inden for et vist interval, og dermed sikrer man, at klassesider, grupper og tilhørsforhold altid er opdaterede i Office 365.

Det har været i preview i en længere periode, men nu er det tilgængeligt!

Dette vil smidiggøre it-driften betragteligt, og åbner nye muligheder for både skoler, driftscentre og Microsofts løsningspartnere.

Ikke mindst fordi de eksisterende klassedata vil kunne spille smukt sammen med Microsoft Classroom, hvor der nu vil kunne oprettes digitale klasserum til hver klasse, hvor der kan deles filer, noter, beskeder og gives lektier for.

Nedenfor er der en forklaring af de skridt, du nu kan tage for at komme i gang – alt afhængig af din rolle. Det er kopieret skamløst fra det oprindelige blogindlæg, som du kan finde på dette link.

Get started now

Here’s how to get started using SDS and Microsoft Classroom Preview:

School IT admins:

• Sign up to get free one-on-one deployment help directly from Microsoft or deploy SDS yourself using these instructions.
• Watch the SDS demo.
• Download the SDS sample data and scripts.
• Install the SDS toolkit.

School IT admins—additional resources:

• Watch the video about SDS and Microsoft Classroom Preview at the Omaha School District.
• Read the case study about SDS and partner AssistX ClassPolicy at the RiverSchool District.
• Read the case study about safe email options for the Cleveland School District.
• Give us feedback on our support site.
• View partners on the School Data Sync website.
• Visit our community forum.

App and LMS Partners:

• Sign up to learn more about SDS integration and co-marketing opportunities.
• Review the API documentation to enrich your apps with roster data from Office 365.
• Develop and test your application by downloading the sample code and documentation.

SIS/MIS and System Integration Partners:

• Sign up to learn more about SDS integration and co-marketing opportunities.

Teachers:

• Ask your IT department to set up these services. Point them to this blog post for details and instructions.
• Learn more on the Microsoft Classroom Preview website.
• Watch deep dive videos on Microsoft Classroom.
• See our interactive guides on Classroom Preview and other learning tools inside Office 365 Education:
  • Introducing Microsoft Classroom.
  • Engaging students with new learning tools.
  • Managing your assignments.

Im Dezember 2016 hat ein Industriekonglomerat in Deutschland bekanntgegeben, dass es Opfer eines Cyberangriffs geworden ist. Die Analyse ergab, dass es sich um eine professionell ausgeführte Industriespionage handelte. Der Presse zufolge haben die Angreifer Malware der Winnti-Familie eingesetzt, um im Februar 2016 ständigen Zugriff auf das Netzwerk des Konglomerats zu erhalten.

In diesem Blog erhalten Sie einen Einblick in die Winnti-Malware und wie sie von den beiden bekannten Gruppen BARIUM und LEAD verwendet wird. Dabei erfahren Sie, wie diese Gruppen die Malware in unterschiedliche Ziele implementieren und welche Techniken Microsoft-Forscher eingesetzt haben, um dieses Implantat aufzuspüren.

Um zu verstehen, wie dieser und ähnliche Cyber-Angriffe abgeschwächt werden können, müssen Sie zunächst verstehen, wie Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) Aktivitäten kennzeichnet, die in Verbindung mit BRARIUM, LEAD und anderen bekannten Gruppen stehen. Zusätzlich ist es wichtig zu wissen, wie Windows Defender ATP umfassende Threat Intelligence über diese Gruppen zur Verfügung stellt. Zunächst wird der Winnti-Implantat-Installationsprozess besprochen. Anschließend beschäftigt sich dieser Blog damit, wie Windows Defender ATP solche Angriffsmethoden und Tools erfassen und visualisierte Kontextinformationen bereitstellen kann, um tatsächliche Angriffe zu untersuchen und zu bekämpfen. Des Weiteren bekommen Sie, Informationen zu neuen zentralisierte Funktionen – die als Erweiterungen für Windows Defender ATP mit dem Windows 10 Creators Update veröffentlicht werden – verwendet werden können, um Bedrohungen schnell zu stoppen. Dazu gehört auch das Unterbinden von Command-and-Control-Kommunikation (C&C-Kommunikation) und der Installation von zusätzlichen Komponenten oder das Verbreiten von bereits bestehenden Implantaten auf andere Computer im Netzwerk.

Winnti Gruppen: BARIUM und LEAD

Winnti wird von Microsoft Threat Intelligence mit mehreren Gruppen assoziiert. Diese Gruppen sind Sammlungen von Malware, unterstützender Infrastruktur, Online-Rollen, Viktimologie und anderen Angriffsartefakten, die der Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph verwendet, um Angriffsaktivitäten zu kategorisieren und zuzuordnen. Microsoft benennt diese Gruppen nach Elementen aus dem Periodensystem. In diesem Fall heißen die beiden Gruppen, die am stärksten mit Winnti in Verbindung gebracht werden, BARIUM und LEAD. Obwohl die beiden Gruppen jeweils Winnti einsetzen, sind BARIUM und LEAD in sehr unterschiedlichen Einbruchsszenarien involviert.

BARIUM etabliert vor dem Angriff auf unterschiedlichen Social-Media-Plattformen eine Beziehung zu seinen potentiellen Opfern. Diese Opfer stammen insbesondere aus den Bereichen Business Development und Personalabteilung. Sobald BARIUM ein Verhältnis zu den Opfern aufgebaut hat, startet die Gruppe mit Spear-Phishing-Attacken. Dafür kommt eine Vielzahl von einfachen Malware-Installationsvektoren zum Einsatz. Zu diesen gehören beispielsweise bösartige Shortcut-Links (.lnk) mit versteckten Payloads, kompilierte HTML-Hilfe-Dateien (.chm) oder Microsoft-Office-Dokumente mit Makros oder Exploits. Die erste Einbruchsphase verwendet das Win32/Barlaiy-Implantat. Dies ist bekannt für seine Verwendung von Social-Network-Profilen, Seiten für die gemeinschaftliche Bearbeitung von Dokumenten und Blogs für C&C. In späteren Phasen verlässt sich BARIUM auf Winnti für den ständigen Zugriff. Der Großteil der Opfer stammt aktuell aus den Bereichen Videospiele, Multimedia und Internet Content. Einige Angriffe richteten sich aber auch gegen Technologieunternehmen.

Im Gegensatz zu BARIUM hat sich LEAD einen größeren Ruf für Industriespionage erworben. In den vergangenen Jahren gehörten zu den Opfern:

• Multinationale, multiindustrielle Unternehmen aus den Bereichen Textilmanufaktur, Chemie und Elektronik
• Pharmaunternehmen
• Ein Unternehmen aus der Chemieindustrie
• Eine Universitätsfakultät mit Fokus auf Luftfahrttechnik und Forschung
• Ein Unternehmen, das in die Planung und Herstellung von Automotoren involviert ist
• Eine Cyber-Sicherheitsfirma mit Fokus auf den Schutz von industriellen Kontrollsystemen

LEAD verfolgte mit den Einbrüchen das Ziel, sensible Daten zu entwenden – inklusive Forschungsmaterial, Prozessdokumente und Projektpläne. Zusätzlich brachte die Gruppe Zertifikate für die Codesignierung in ihren Besitz, um ihre Malware in nachfolgenden Angriffen zu signieren.

In den meisten Fällen umfassten die Angriffe von LEAD keine hochentwickelten Exploit-Techniken. Die Gruppe unternimmt auch keine gesonderten Anstrengungen, um im Vorfeld der Attacke eine Beziehung zu den Opfern aufzubauen. Stattdessen schickt LEAD einfach E-Mails mit einem Winnti-Installer an die potentiellen Opfer. Anschließend verlässt sich die Gruppe auf grundlegende Social-Engineering-Taktiken, um die Empfänger davon zu überzeugen, die Malware zu installieren. In einige Fällen hat LEAD einfach Brute Force eingesetzt, um Zugangsdaten zu erhalten. Alternativ haben sie SQL-Injektionen ausgeführt oder ungepatchte Web-Server ausgenutzt und anschließend den Winnti-Installer auf die kompromittierten Maschinen kopiert.

Winnti aufspüren

Microsoft Analytics zeigt, dass Winnti bei Angriffen in Asien, Europa, Ozeanien, im Mittleren Osten und in den USA in den vergangenen sechs Monaten zum Einsatz kam (Bild 1). Die jüngste Angriffsserie wurde im Dezember 2016 beobachtet.

Bild 1: Einsatzziele von Winnti von Juli bis Dezember 2016.

Obwohl das Aufspüren von Bedrohungen von Winnti klassische Untersuchungsarbeit beinhaltet, greifen die Analysten von Microsoft Threat Intelligence auf die Vorteile von Machine Learning zurück. Wenn Angreifer Winnti für den Zugang zu Web-Server verwendet haben, versteckten sie das Implantat im Grunde für jeden sichtbar. Allerdings haben sie es als eine vertrauenswürdige und legitime Datei getarnt. Dies war der Fall bei zwei bekannten Einbrüchen in 2015. Damals nannten die Angreifer die Implantat-DLL “ASPNET_FILTER.DLL”, um diese als DLL für den ASP.NET-ISAPI-Filter (Tabelle 1) auszugeben. Zwar bestehen offensichtliche Unterschiede zwischen der legitimen und der bösartigen Datei, allerdings würde das Ausfiltern der bösartigen Datei erfordern, dass ein Datensatz mit Millionen von möglichen Dateinamen, Software Publishern und Zertifikaten durchsucht werden muss. Microsoft-Forscher haben eine Kombination von Erkennung von Anomalien und überwachten Machine Learning verwendet, um den Datensatz zu reduzieren und aussagekräftige, Malware-bezogene Anomalien von gutartigen Daten zu trennen.

Tabelle 1: Legitime ASPNET_FILTER.dll vs. getarntes Winnti-Beispiel.

Umgang mit Winnti-Einbrüchen

Windows Defender ATP hilft Netzwerksicherheits-Professionals auf mehreren Wegen beim Umgang mit Einbrüchen von Gruppen wie BARIUM und LEAD. Das folgende Beispiel wurde mithilfe eines Winnti-Installer entwickelt, der bei Angriffen im Dezember 2016 zum Einsatz kam.

Benachrichtigungen für Cyber-Angriffe

Microsoft Threat Intelligence spürt ständig Gruppen wie BARIUM und LEAD auf. Zusätzlich dokumentiert es die Taktiken, Techniken und Methoden, die bei den Angriffen verwendet werden. Dabei liegt ein besonderer Fokus auf den Tools und der Infrastruktur, die solche Angriffe ermöglichen. Windows Defender ATP überwacht regelmäßig geschützte Endpunkte und sucht nach solchen Indikatoren für gefährliche Aktivitäten. Wenn Windows Defender ATP eine verdächtige Aktivität aufgespürt hat, benachrichtigt es das Security-Operations-Center-Personal (Bild 3).

Bild 4: Zusammenfassung von LEAD und tiefgehende Dokumentation.

Windows Defender ATP ist außerdem in der Lage, bisher unbekannte Attacken zu entdecken. Dafür wird das Systemverhalten auf Anzeichen von feindlichen Aktivitäten überwacht. Dazu gehören:

• Installation und Aktivierung von Malware sowie ihre Beständigkeit
• Backdoor-Befehle und -Kontrolle
• Diebstahl von Anmeldeinformationen
• Seitliche Bewegung auf andere Maschinen im Netzwerk

Zahlreiche Malware-Familien registrieren sich beispielswiese selbst als Dienste während der Installation, um auch nach Neustarts weiterhin Zugriff zu haben. Der Großteil der Malware, der diese Techniken einsetzt, modifiziert die notwendigen Registrierungsschlüssel in einer Art und Weise, dass sie nicht mehr dem Profil eines legitimen Programms entsprechen. Winnti ist dabei keine Ausnahme. Aus diesem Grund kann Windows Defender ATP während des Installationsprozesses von Winnti einen Verhaltensalarm auslösen (Bild 5).

Bild 5: Benachrichtigung über anormale Service-Erstellung.

Um die Reichweite zu verbessern und gleichzeitig False Positives zu verringern, verwendet Windows Defender ATP den Intelligent Security Graph, um vor der Erstellung von Benachrichtigungen zwischen verdächtigen und harmlosen Verhalten zu unterscheiden. Dabei werden Alter der Datei, die globale Verteilung und das Vorhandensein und die Validierung einer digitalen Signatur in Betracht gezogen.

Visualisierte Kontextinformationen

Windows Defender ATP bietet für Benachrichtigungen, die entweder durch eine bestimmte Threat Intelligence in Verbindung mit einer Gruppe oder einem generischen auffälligen Verhalten ausgelöst wurden, angereicherten und visualisierten technischen Kontext. Dieser visuelle Kontext erlaubt Security-Operations-Center-Personal (SOC), Benachrichtigungen mit allen zugehörigen Artefakten zu untersuchen, den Umfang des Cyber-Angriff einzuschätzen und einen umfassenden Aktionsplan vorzubereiten. In den nachfolgenden Screenshots zeigt Windows Defender ATP eindeutig die Präsenz der Winnti-Installation, in denen der Installer eine DLL auf die Festplatte hinterlegt (Bild 6), die DLL mithilfe von rundll32 lädt (Bild 7), die DLL als einen Dienst einrichtet (Bild 8) und eine Kopie von sich selbst im Pfad C:WindowsHelp (Bild 9) speichert.

Bild 6: Winnti-Installer legt eine DLL ab.

Bild 7: Winnti-Installer lädt die DLL mit rundll32.

Bild 8: Winnti richtet sich selbst als Dienst ein.

Bild 9: Der Installer kopiert sich in C:WindowsHelp

Windows Defender ATP zeigt diese Aktivitäten in einem Prozessbaum in einer Zeitleiste für infizierte Computer an. Analysten können daraus detaillierte Informationen herausziehen wie die abgelegte Implantat-DLL, den Befehl zum Ausführen von rundll32.exe und Laden der DLL sowie die Anpassung der Registry, die die DLL als Service einrichten. Diese Informationen können einen ersten Einblick bieten, um das Ausmaß des Breach einzuschätzen.

Schutzmaßnahmen

Das Windows 10 Creators Update wird mehrere Erweiterungen für Windows Defender ATP enthalten, die neue Optionen für SOC-Personal für sofortige Maßnahmen für eine erkannte Bedrohung bieten. Wenn ein Eindringling einen mit Windows Defender ATP geschützten Computer kompromitiert, kann das SOC-Personal diesen Computer aus dem Netzwerk isolieren, C&C des Implantats blockieren und Angreifer davon abhalten, zusätzliche Malware zu installieren und sich auf anderen Computern im Netzwerk auszubreiten. Währenddessen wird die Verbindung zum Windows-Defender-ATP-Dienst aufrechterhalten. SOC-Personal kann von der isolierten Maschine Live-Untersuchungsdaten sammeln. Dazu gehören DNS-Cache- oder Sicherheits-Event-Logs, die verwendet werden können, um Benachrichtigungen zu verifizieren, das Ausmaß des Einbruchs einzuschätzen und weitere Aktionen zu planen.

Bild 11: Optionen für Reaktionsmaßnahmen.

Eine weitere Möglichkeit ist es, das Winnti-Implantat aufzuhalten und unter Quarantäne zu stellen. Somit lässt sich der Einbruch auf einer einzelnen Maschine stoppen. BARIUM und LEAD sind nicht bekannt dafür, großangelegte Spear-Phishing-Kampagnen durchzuführen. Aus diesem Grund ist es eher unwahrscheinlich, dass SOC-Personal mit mehreren Computern beschäftigt sind, die von diesen Gruppen zur gleichen Zeit kompromittiert sind. Nichtsdestotrotz unterstützt Windows Defender ATP auch das Blockieren des Implantats im ganzen Unternehmen, um großangelegte Einbrüche bereits in einer frühen Phase aufzuhalten (Bild 12).

Bild 12: Maßnahmen zum Aufhalten einer Bedrohung.

Fazit: Erkennungszeit verkürzen und Auswirkungen reduzieren

Berichten zufolge hat es mehrere Monate gedauert, um den Angriff auf das Industriekonglomerat zu erkennen und aufzuhalten. Die Zeit zwischen dem eigentlichen Cyber-Angriff und seiner Erkennung dürfte den Angreifern genügend Zeit gegeben haben, um sensible Informationen zu lokalisieren und zu entwenden.

Mit den erweiterten Post-Breach-Detection-Möglichkeiten von Windows Defender ATP ist SOC-Personal in der Lage, diese Zeitspanne auf wenige Stunden oder sogar Minuten zu reduzieren. Dies führt zur Reduzierung von potentiellen Auswirkungen durch ständigen Zugriff auf das Netzwerk durch Angreifer. Windows Defender ATP bietet außerdem weitreichende Informationen über Gruppen, die für solche Cyber-Angriffe verantwortlich sind. Damit erhalten Kunden die Möglichkeit, Aspekte der Angriffe zu verstehen, die nicht von Netzwerk- und Endpoint-Sensoren wie Köder für Social Engineering und die regionale Natur eines Angriffs stammen. Mit relevanten visualisierten Informationen können Analysten das Verhalten von Malware auf betroffenen Maschinen studieren und somit ihre eigenen Reaktionen planen. Abschließend bietet Windows ATP mit dem angekündigten Creators Update zusätzliche Möglichkeiten, um Gefahren wie Winnti zu erkennen. Zudem erhält die Lösung zentralisierte Reaktionsmöglichkeiten wie das Isolieren einer Maschine und Blockieren einer Datei. Dies ermöglicht ein schnelles Eindämmen von bekannten Angriffsmethoden.

“In Deutschland gewinnt das Thema IT-Sicherheit täglich an Bedeutung hinzu. Das zeigt sich unter anderem daran, dass neue Vorfälle immer öfters auch in den Medien hierzulande behandelt werden. Zudem sind Unternehmen seit Juli 2015 wegen des neuen IT-Sicherheitsgesetzes verpflichtet, IT-Sicherheitsvorfälle dem Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik zu melden. Kunden sollten sich aus diesem Grund aktiv mit dem Thema beschäftigen und Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection evaluieren, bevor sie selbst Opfer eines Cyber-Angriffes werden.”, so Milad Aslaner, Senior Product Manager Windows & Cyber Security bei Microsoft Deutschland.

Windows Defender ATP ist in den Kern von Windows 10 Enterprise integriert und kann ohne zusätzliche Kosten getestet werden.

Peter Cap, Mathieu Letourneau, Ben Koehl und Milad Aslaner

Microsoft Threat Intelligence

I recently had a surprise in my SCCM environment that I wanted to share in hopes of helping others in similar situations.  We are on current branch of ConfigMgr (1610 at the moment) and during our monthly update deployment cycle we had many machines failing to install due to content issues.  Upon looking closer we learned a little more about the boundary changes that happened in the product recently. There are now relationships between boundary groups, and a new “default site boundary group” that comes into play.

The key to all of these changes is to look in your CAS log for lines similar to the following:

Matching DP location found 0 – http://FOO.redmond.corp.microsoft.com/sms_dp_smspkg$/content_AAAAAAA-BBBBBB-1234-1234-123456789.1 (Locality: BOUNDARYGROUP)

That locality part is the key thing to watch.  In our case we had many machines where it was “Locality: site”.  This means no boundary group was associated with the given boundary, and no relationship to another boundary group, so the client was using the default site boundary group.  Fixing boundaries to be in proper boundary groups got us on the right track.  Locality: BOUNDARYGROUP or Locality: ADSITE is a much better line to see.

So lesson to share, keep an eye on your CAS.log and that locality line to make sure things go where you want them to.

I’m dedicating this post to a new data structure. That is the SkipList. This is an intriguing data structure with many benefits. In addition, I’ve decided to implement this data structure in C. Before I go about talking about the data structure itself I want to explain what drove me to implement it in C. I’ve been programming for the majority of my career in C++. In this blog, I’ve written most of my posts in C++ and have praised the language as being the best tool for almost any task. However, I decided that in this instance I want to go back to the basics. I wanted to prove to myself that I can still design a C library with the proper abstractions while leveraging the best software engineering methodologies. I wanted also to remember how it feels to program without the comfort of the C++ type system, C++ Templates, Object Oriented Programming etc… Hence, this post is going to be divided into two parts: The first will discuss Skip Lists, and the second will dwell into how to design a library in C. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing this code.

The entire code can be found on my Github: https://github.com/guyalster/SkipList

SKIP LIST, so what is it all about?

A skip list is a dynamic and randomized data structure that allows storing keys in a sorted fashion. The skip list is in essence, a linked list with multiple levels. Each level is itself a linked list and with pointers from the upper levels to the lower levels. The thing that is special about this data structure is that its expected runtime for all operations (insertion, deletion, searching) is O(Log(N)). So how is this run time achieved? Well, that’s a result of the randomness of the skip list and how it is built. But before we talk about how we achieve this runtime lets first answer a more fundamental question. Why do we even need it? We already have binary search trees which are great data structures for storing sorted keys (and values) and achieving a logarithmic runtime when they are balanced. In fact, they are deterministic in behavior and have a guaranteed logarithmic runtime (rather than an expected one). The answer to this question will motivate us to continue this quest.
First, implementing a balanced binary search tree can be a very tricky business. Anyone who has tried to implement and AVL/RB tree has seen the complications. On the other hand, as I’ll show later in this post, implementing a skip list is much easier. But there is one more important advantage to skip lists over their tree counterparts. That is synchronization. Locking in skip lists can be done in a much more efficient way than in trees, but most importantly, synchronization in skip lists can be implemented without any locking at all while guaranteeing consistency. However, this is a subject that I will not get into in this post as it is also very complicated and requires much more insight and depth. However, mentioning this is crucial to justify why this data structure is so important.

How to build a skip list:

So now we come to the juicy part. How to build a skip list. Well, the best analogy to a skip list I’ve heard came from an MIT Data Structures & Algorithms class. There the lecturer explained skip lists in terms of the NYC subway system. The NYC subways have multiple lines which go in the same direction. However, one of them passes through every station on its way to the destination, while others pass through some of the stations. The express line passes through the least amount of stations. If you want to get from station A to M, the best strategy is to take the express train from station A directly to station F. Then take the next train from F to J that also stop at stations H and I. Then take the slowest train from I to M that stops at every station. This, of course, is a better strategy than taking the slowest train from A to M that stops in all stations on its way. This is the same idea of how a skip list works and where it derives its efficiency from.  So let’s examine how we build the skip list from the ground up. We start with the lowest level (that is the slowest train lane), we then toss a coin, and if its “heads” we insert the element in the next upper level. We continue to do this until we draw “tail”. The actual way the skip list will be implemented is slightly different but in essence, is the same as I just described. The idea is that when we want to insert a new node to the skip list, we first generate a number between 0 to MAX_SKIP_LEVELS (which is a constant defined by the user). This number will determine in how many levels this new node will appear. Inserting the new node starts from the topmost level that is equal to the random level we generated (the express lane) and we move to the right in that lane until we reach a node that has a key that is greater than our new node. That will be our insertion point. From that point, we continuously insert our node while adjusting the “next” pointers until and including the last level (e.g. level 0). Searching of an existing key will be done in a similar fashion: We’ll start from the top most level of the skip list, going right (using the next pointer) until we hit a node with a key >= our key. We then go down to the next level until we reach the top most level that contains our node. As you can see from these, the runtime of insertion, searching, and deletion is proportional to the number of nodes we have in each level. What is the expected number of nodes we have in the level i ? It is easy to see based on the random process that it will be about half of the nodes that appear in the previous (bottom) layer. This should sound familiar at this point. We notice that in essence. a skip list resembles very much a balanced binary search tree. The main difference is that a key appears in the parent as well as in the child nodes all the way down to the leafs.  Using this intuition, we can now see why those operations of the skip list are expected to be O(Log(N)) where N is the number of elements stored in the list.

Skip List Data Structure and APIs:

In GitHub all of the above are located in the SkipList.h
At the top, we have the definition of a SkipNode. The SkipNode has only two fields: the current level of that node and a pointer to pointers to other SkipNodes. The pointer to pointers can be viewed as a dynamic array of lists. This array represents all the levels that this node participates in. This seems strange at first. How many different pointers will the array contain? This of it like this: Image Node N1 with key K1, appears in 10 Levels. Imagine that Node N2 with key k2 is greater than k1 and appears in 5 levels while Node N3 with key k3 which is also greater than k1 appears in 11 levels. N1’s array will have the first 5 pointers in its array pointing to N2 and the next 5 pointers pointing to N3.
Let’s assume that we’re looking for N2 in the SkipList. When we reach level 10 we’ll get to N1 which is less than N2. we will see that at level 10 through 6 it points to N3 which is greater than N2, so we’ll go down in the levels until we reach level  5, where we’ll find N2 as the next pointer of N1 and return it.

The next definition is of a SkipList structure. Notice that this structure contains only three function pointers. This structure is the C equivalent of a C++ interface with pure virtual functions. Who will implement this interface?  That will be a structure that is defined in SkipList.c. The reason it is defined in the .c file rather than in the .h file is for encapsulation purposes. How does the user of the library get a pointer to the SkipList interface? This is done using the initialization function defined just below the structure. But there is something interesting about that function (InitializeSkipList). Notice that it accepts three parameters: size_t – This is the maximal number of levels. SkipCompare – This is a type of a function pointer defined above and which receives two skip lists and returns the larger of them. ValCompare – a function pointer which accepts a pointer to a key (void*) and a skipNode* and returns if that key is greater than the key in that SkipNode.
So, it is the responsibility of the user to tell the library how to compare the values in the SkipNode by providing the comparators to the library upon initialization. But wait a minute! that’s weird! Shouldn’t the library know itself how to compare these Nodes ? after all, the nodes are defined here. But if you’ll take a closer look, you’ll notice how none of the structures defined above contain keys and values. In fact, they are very stripped down. So where are the keys and the values that are supposed to be stored inside each SkipNode? That is the trick here. This is a design decision I made when I wrote this library. If I were to write this code in C++, I would use templates to define the SkipNode in a generic way that is independent of the key type it operates on.  But in C I don’t have that luxury. In C the only way for me to create generic types is by defining them as void *. Instead of doing that, I decided to take a different approach. I decided to adopt the approach that is often used in operating system kernels, which is to have the data structure be embedded inside the main user structure. That is, instead of having the  SkipNode contain the user’s types, the user will hold a SkipNode inside his/hers structures.

For example:

But how will this work? Since the library only operates on SkipNodes, how will we be able to get the containing structure.
This is a critical piece of the puzzle. in the SkipList.h file you will find a macro defined as:

This Macro is not simple to understand so I suggest examining it carefully to see what it does. However, I will  mention that it uses the relative location of the SkipNode variable inside the exclosing structure to get the address of the enclosing structure. This is a worthwhile trick to master by itself.

So far we have seen the structures that are exposed to the users of the library. But as you probably noticed none of them contain the metadata to manage the skiplist. Furthermore, ideally we would like to have a sentinal node which does not contain any keys or values, but is used to get access to the rest of the skip list. This sentinal structure is defined in the .C file (again for the purposes of encapsulation).

Are you seeing the object-orientedness here? The first variable is the SkipList interface pointer. When the user calls the initialization function: InitializeSkipList(…) he expects to get a pointer to a SkipList structure. We will return to the user the address of the the Sentinal object cast to be a SkipList pointer. This is classic C style polymorphism.
Notice that the interface function pointers inside the SkipList structure all accept a pointer to a SkipList structure as well. The user will pass back to each one of the API functions the pointer to the SkipList. The implementation will cast that pointer back to be SkipNodeSentinal and will have the access it needs to all the metadata of the skip list. Again, classic C style polymorphism. The rest of the variables inside the SkipNodeSentinal are not worth emphasizing as they are all part of the metadata of the skip list.

I highly recommend going over the code in my GitHub. I really tried to put a lot of emphasis on good software engineering and to make the interface as clean as possible. Enjoy.

All the votes are in! 

And below are the results for the TechNet Guru Awards, December 2016 !!!!

Firstly, deep apologies to a few of our mighty contenders for failing to include your submissions in last month’s competition.

It seems some of the last minute entries may have missed the import.

To ensure your article is safely added before the deadline, please add something during the month, and link immediately to the submission page.

You can continue to edit and tidy your work right up until and even during the voting process.

Judges will not look at the submission page until they are told it is safe to.

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on TechNet, contributed from valued wiki authors like YOU!

Each month, the contributions are scored by a panel of judges (5 per category, 2-3 in each are MS experts), and the winners of each category are showered with love and attention from all corners of TechNet.

See the links at the bottom, to find out more about the competition and how to enter.

We have picked the top three highest scored contributions for each category to bestow our awards upon.

The awards are in gold, silver and bronze, the gold obviously being the top winner of the category.

The last column is just a few of the comments judges made during the judging process.

In some cases, we have not obtained permission to use the judges names, so they have been reduced to initials.

My fellow wiki ninjas will be digging deeper into some of these articles in this blog series, so watch out for those.

Starting this month you will notice some articles are marked as failing to meet our minimum bar for quality or content.

Any of our judges can exercise their right to veto an article, if they do not feel it meets minimum requirements for a medal.

When this is the case, we will at least give an indication of the reason, so you understand why.

A big thank you also to the other authors who did not make the top three of each category.

Some articles only just missed out, so we may be returning to discuss those too, in future blogs.

Giri Abhay

BizTalk Server: Sending Missing File Alert

Abhishek Kumar: “Keep it up and very nice article . Nice to see use cases and design pattern for the Notification in Microsoft Biz Talk Server 2016 . T” Ed Price: “Valuable topic, great formatting, and a good conversation going in the comments. For improvements, it could use a References section with external links on this topic and a See Also section.” TGN: “Interesting scenario, great wrap up.”

Peter Geelen

FIM 2010 / MIM 2016 Troubleshooting: The requestor’s identity was not found.

Ed Price: “This article has a great breakdown of info and very solid References and See Also sections! Great article!”

	Abhishek kumar	Logic Apps -Working with Cache and Enterprise Messaging in Logic Apps	Jan Hentschel: “Good walkthrough with a nice scenario about Logic Apps in combination with Cache and Enterprise Messaging” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “One more great article from Abhishek. The contents are well written and came up with complete meaning of Logic Apps – working with Cache.” Eric Berg: “thank you for this great work.” Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “” Ed Price: “I love having the workflow diagram. Great details! Amazing dive into Logic Apps!” TGN: “I love this one Abhishek, thanks for sharing!” Dileepa Kariyawasam: “Nice article.”
	Steef-Jan Wiggers	Getting started with Microsoft Azure Functions	Dileepa Kariyawasam: “Nicely Written and Well Explained.” TGN: “Great first time tutorial Steef-Jan!” Jan Hentschel: “Nice getting started article about Azure Functions by Steef-Jan. Love the mix of explanations and hands-on.” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “A good to start. Simple and well explained.” Eric Berg: “thank you” Ed Price: “The Considerations section is great!” Lasse Wedø: “Similar posts already exists”
	Ken Cenerelli	Understanding the Azure App Service Editor	Ed Price: “Great to have the video, See Also, and References! Fantastic details in this article! Fantastic to have this App Service overview!” Eric Berg: “Thank you for this contribution” Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “Topic was a bit broad, I was expecting a bit more effort, Ken.” Dileepa Kariyawasam: “This is a very useful article. Nicely written.” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good one. Nicely written. Seems Video link is broken-need to fix.” Jan Hentschel: “Mh, I loved using Kudu. After this article from Ken I probably will have to switch to the App Service Editor :-)”

Also worth a mention were the other entries this month:

• Microsoft Azure and Open Source by Syed SHANU
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good to see someone wrote on Azure4Sure and OSS. Good start.”
  Eric Berg: “Thank you for this collection of information”
  Dileepa Kariyawasam: “Useful article with good explanations.”
  Lasse Wedø: “No new information”
  Jan Hentschel: “A little bit short. Would be nice to have some more content about how you can use Open Source software on Azure and how Azure uses Open Source.”
  Ed Price: “Good introduction to Azure Open Source!”
• Manage Office 365 Subscription Directory from Azure Active Directory by Priyaranjan KS
  Lasse Wedø: “A quick howto”
  Jan Hentschel: “Good overview about creating an Azure AD. Would be nice to have some more information on how to use it.”
  Ed Price: “Great job on the instructions! Very valuable scenario.”
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Short & good write up. Images are nicely used.”
  Eric Berg: “Hi Priyan, thank you for this article. the described scenario is not fully valid and not required for azure ad sync…Azure AD and “O365 Directory” are the same…please clarify your article”
  Dileepa Kariyawasam: “Useful scenario. Nicely written.”

	Hassaan Akbar	Windows Phone Controlled Car using Arduino	Ed Price: “Great diagram, photos, and code snippets! Great that the code source is hosted on MSDN Galleries!” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Great write up, nicely written”
	Syed SHANU	ASP.NET Core Template Pack	Ed Price: “Clear instructions, helpful images, and the ability to download all the source code!” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good to start, nice explanation.” Lasse Wedø: “Lot’s of screenshot, not much indepth”
	Sandeep Shekhawat	ASP.NET Core: Generic Repository Pattern	Lasse Wedø: “Explaining well” Ed Price: “Good code formatting. What a long and powerful article! Very robust Download and See Also sections.” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Well explained write up, it tells how good to use Repository pattern. Thanks Sandeep for nice write up”

Also worth a mention were the other entries this month:

• Project Layout In ASP.NET Core 1.0 by RajeeshMenoth
  Ed Price: “Great use of code!”
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Simply written and well explain write up defining ASP.NET CORE project layout”
• Getting Started With ASP.NET CORE 1.0 by RajeeshMenoth
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good step-by-step write up to start with ASP.NET CORE”
  Ed Price: “Greta step-by-step instructions!”
• ASP.NET Core Angular 2 EF 1.0.1 Web API Using Template Pack by Syed SHANU
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “One more great article by Syed. Simply awesome, well explained ASP.NET Core with Angular2.”
  Ed Price: “Great formatting and depth!”
• ASP.NET Don’ts and Dos by Vincent Maverick Durano
  Lasse Wedø: “Nice list of tips”
  Ed Price: “Very helpful list!”
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good tips”
• Windows 7/8/10 Troubleshooting: Numeric Keypad not working by Peter Geelen
  Lasse Wedø: “Might not work for all, may just be a 3rd party driver”
  Ed Price: “Short and sweet! As Sabah says in the comments, “Very informative Peter. Thanks for sharing :)””
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good write up”
• Middleware And Staticfiles In ASP.NET Core 1.0 – Part One by RajeeshMenoth
  Ed Price: “Rajeesh, you did an amazing job formatting this article. Good Reference section!”
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good to start”

	Priyaranjan KS	Exploring Feature Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2016	Malin De Silva: “Very useful and good with the explanation.” John Naguib: “Excellent, thanks for this topic” Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “nice overview”
	Sjoukje Zaal	Office 365: Setting up your development environment	John Naguib: “Very Good next time you can write about SharePoint framework” Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “nice actual topic, but this is a little bit duplicated area, so nice, good to see it, but..” Malin De Silva: “Excellent article. Please keep it updated.”
	waqas sarwar	SharePoint 2016 Distributed Cache error( ERRS001 & ES0001)	Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “great tip for troubleshooting, but nothing else, just good point of course” Malin De Silva: “Good and descriptive.” John Naguib: “Nice Article thanks for the reference”

Also worth a mention were the other entries this month:

• Implement Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in SharePoint Online by Priyaranjan KS
  Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “actual topic, nice overview, should be definitely longer”
  Malin De Silva: “Really good work. Helpful at many times.”
  John Naguib: “Very Good, thanks for writing about it”
• Create and Consume MVC CRUD Entity Framework Web API in SharePoint Server 2016 by Priyaranjan KS
  Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “great article, really understandable, nice work”
  John Naguib: “Excellent wiki, thanks for it”
  Malin De Silva: “Useful article.”
• SharePoint 2016 Unable to Follow the Document and Post the feed comments by Waqas Sarwar(MVP)
  Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “good tip”
  Malin De Silva: “Good article.”
  John Naguib: “Nice one, thanks”
• SharePoint 2016 Failed to Register SharePoint Service while running PSConfig by Rahul Dagar
  John Naguib: “Thanks for the tips”
  Malin De Silva: “Will be a useful tip. Would love to see more information around.”
  Roman Nedzelsky, MVP: “good tip for troubleshooting”

	Ed Price – MSFT	Small Basic Accessibility: Enlarging the text and Hiding IntelliSense & the Help Pane	SYEDSHANU: “Nice post ED Price.Very useful tip for Small Basic users for Enlarging the text and Hiding IntelliSense.” Michiel Van Hoorn: “Good explanation on accessibility settings for Smallbasic IDE. Coding should be possible for everybody!”
	Ed Price – MSFT	Small Basic Troubleshooting: Sound.Play doesn’t work on some versions of Windows 10	SYEDSHANU: “Very useful guide for Small Basic users to play sound on Windows 10.” Michiel Van Hoorn: “For those using the more exotic N, K or KN versions of Windows 10 this will explain the issues with Sound playback and how to fix it.”

	Priyaranjan KS	Create Power BI Reports using Facebook Data	Visakh16: “Nice walkthrough of how facebook data can be integrated into PowerBI. Adding some reference links on PowerBI would help the starters” Sam Lester: “Great step-by-step detail! Can you also share/post the .pbix template so others can try it out?” PT: “It’s hard to choose one of your posts over the other because they are nearly identical. Good start but please provide some insight beyond rudimentary steps. Example: what are the auth. options?” Tomaž Kaštrun: “Nicely written to get started on how to connect to private or public Facebook account using Power BI. I would expect little bit more insights on what kind of data are available. Otherwise fine.”
	Priyaranjan KS	Generate Power BI Business Intelligence Reports using SharePoint Online List	Tomaž Kaštrun: “Nice starter article on how to start using Sharepoint with Power BI reports.” PT: “(cont from other post) …provide some advice based on your experience, such as common challenges and limitations.” Visakh16: “Nice walkthrough of how data can be extracted from Sharepoint List and used within PowerBI. Adding some reference links on PowerBi would help the starters”

Prashanth Jayaram

SQL Server Operations: Extending DMF to Report Disk Space of SQL Server

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “So, we have a winner. ;-)” Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Great article! Well done! The issue is very important, which make the article very useful, and probably most DBA not familiar with these solutions. Moreover, it is well written and it’s well formatted” Tomaž Kaštrun: “nice article on how to check disk space with T-SQL across multiple server. suggest to address issues using xp_cmdshell. otherwise fine”

	Priyaranjan KS	Insert SQL Server data into SharePoint using SQL CLR Trigger and SharePoint Client Object Model	Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Very nice article! Fits as a tutorial on creating CLR trigger using SQL Server Database Project. Part of the code posted as images instead of text, and there is no option to download the code.” Tomaž Kaštrun: “using SQL CLR Trigger on SharePoint. Very useful and handy article and how to do it.” Visakh16: “Well explained using images etc. Helps to understand how we can sync up Sharepoint objects based on changes in SQLServer” Diederik Krols: “Nice read!” Richard Mueller: “Very detailed steps and well explained. Great use of Wiki guidelines. But the See Also section should only include links to Wiki articles.”
	RajeeshMenoth	Ranking Function In Microsoft SQL Server	Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Nice article, basic topic, there is place for improvement.” Tomaž Kaštrun: “getting strarted with ranking functions on T-SQL.” Visakh16: “Just a straightforward walkthrough. Would have been better if article was on more advanced level. Perhaps you could refine this to create an in depth article.” Diederik Krols: “Great article. It would be nice to add some reasons why these functions are so useful (e.g. avoid cursors, avoid cross apply calls, avoid client-side reprocessing, etc)” Richard Mueller: “Good images and useful code. I like the links to explain terms. A very useful explanation of ranking functions.”

	Hassaan Akbar	UWP App for Controlling Arduino/RPi Based Devices Over Bluetooth	SYEDSHANU: “Thank you very much for your contribution.This is great article for using UWP to Controlling Arduino/RPi Over Bluetooth.” Diederik Krols: “Nice article.” Ed Price: “Short and sweet. Very clear and valuable!”
	Vinoth Rajendran	UWP + Linux Socket communication & Handling communication in the BackgroundTask	Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “Wonderful. C code done nicely.” Ed Price: “Great depth on this content. Good use of images and code!” SYEDSHANU: “Very nice and detailed article for UWP + Linux Socket communication.Good to see as the Source code is available for download.” Diederik Krols: “Great content.”

	Emiliano Musso	Basis of Neural Networks in C#	Jaliya Udagedara: “This truly is a great article. Very detailed explanation and I enjoyed every bit of it.” Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “I am going to save this as a bookmark. Nicely done.” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Awesome write up. This is a great starting point for Neural learning with C#. Thanks Emilliano for this wonderful write up, awaiting for more from you” Carmelo La Monica: “Very good topic, Emiliano, good sample and very good work !” Khanna Gaurav: “Great explanation with useful sample” Ed Price: “I love the intro and conceptual explanations in this article!” Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Great article. As the Author said, it’s a re-release of an existing article (which I really loved). With that being said it is highly recommended article! well written and very interesting topic.” Diederik Krols: “Very informative.”
	Sandeep Shekhawat	Build Your First Bot Application With Microsoft Bot Framework	Diederik Krols: “Great introduction.” Sibeesh Venu : “Once again a great article. Thank you” Khanna Gaurav: “Very useful if planning to develop Bot Application” Ed Price: “Great topic and breakdown of the information!” Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Very interesting subject, and a great starting point.” Jaliya Udagedara: “Great article and contains sample code to get you started on Microsoft Bot Framework.” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “BOTs are good. Nice write up.” Carmelo La Monica: “Interesting article and good explain. Congrats!”
	Vincent Maverick Durano	Real-Time Poll Vote Results Using SignalR 2, MVC, Web API 2, jQuery And HighCharts	Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Nice case study. Very good article. Well written and well formatted.” Diederik Krols: “Great series.” Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good one, nice use of SignalR” Jaliya Udagedara: “Nice use of variety of technologies and this article will help you get started from scratch.” Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “Finally we have the results too. ;-)” Carmelo La Monica: “Very good start point for to learn al lot of part for web application. Congrats ?” Khanna Gaurav: “Nice Article” Ed Price: “Great breakdown of the coding steps and use of the Download, See Also, and References section!”

Also worth a mention were the other entries this month:

• C# WinForms Dashboard Monitoring with Animation by Syed SHANU
  Sibeesh Venu : “Once again a great article. Thank you”
  Carmelo La Monica: “This topic is very intersting and detailed. Good C# code and images animated.”
  Khanna Gaurav: “Nice Article”
  Ed Price: “Love the animated GIFs! Great to have the Download link on MSDN Gallery.”
  Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Very nice article, which fit beginners. I felt that the introduction section was a bit long. The images are very well invested, but they took the focus from the technical development part.”
  Jaliya Udagedara: “Article filled with explanations, code snippets and images. I am sure, you will enjoy this.”
  Gaurav Kumar Arora: “Good step-by-step explanation, images are adding more values to this write-up”

Ed Price – MSFT

TechNet Guru Feature Requests

Ronen Ariely (aka pituach): “Very important article, which is part of our TechNet Wiki maintenance procedure. Any author and contributor should be aware of these type of articles.” SYEDSHANU: “Nice Article by Ed Price.Good to see all our TechNet Guru Feature Requests in one place and also the article has Completed Requests lists.” Richard Mueller: “A great idea to get all of these feature requests in one place.” Peter Geelen: “Very good idea to collect feedback this way, very useful!”

	Priyaranjan KS	Assign a Public Domain UPN suffix to multiple users in Active Directory using PowerShell	Richard Mueller: “Good images and code showing how it is done. We need references.” Ed Price: “Great job breaking up the different sections in this article!”
	Priyaranjan KS	Allocate Static IP to Azure Virtual Machines within a Virtual Network using PowerShell	Richard Mueller: “Good information to know. References would help.” Ed Price: “Good to have the Sea Also section).”

Carsten Siemens

Windows Server 2016 Portal

Mark Parris: “Handy landing page.” Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan: “A very good resource for Windows Server 2016 admins etc.” Eric Berg: “Thank you for this consolidation of information. Well done.” Joseph Moody: “Very good list of resources! Thank you for putting it together.” Richard Mueller: “A great portal. I like the summary next to each link. The entries in the See Also should be Wiki articles.” Ed Price: “Great content list and descriptions of the articles!” Kia Zhi Tang: “Nice Compilation, Hope to see it being kept up to date. :)”

A huge thank you to EVERYONE who contributed an article to December’s competition.

Hopefully we will see you ALL again in January 2017’s listings?

If you haven’t contributed an article for this month, and you think you can create a more useful, clever and better presented wiki article than the winners above, here’s your chance!

Best regards,
Pete Laker (Azure MVP)

More about the TechNet Guru Awards:

• TechNet Guru Competitions

The Windows Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Management Pack supports monitoring NLB clusters on Windows Server 2016, including Windows Server Core installations.

Details

Note:There are multiple files available for this download.Once you click on the “Download” button, you will be prompted to select the files you need.

The Windows Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Management Pack provides discoveries, monitors, alerts, and warnings to help the operator understand the state of NLB clusters and NLB servers running Windows Server 2016. The Windows Server NLB Management Pack can provide early warnings that an operator can use to proactively monitor the state of the NLB servers in the computing environment.

• System Requirements

  Supported Operating System

  Windows Server 2016

  This management pack requires System Center 2012 Operations Manager or later.
• Install Instructions
  Please refer to MP guide.

What are some of the things inside the Management Pack at the time of this blog, I do not list everything in the management pack:

Changes in version 10.0.2.0

· Fixed issue: Windows Server 2016 NLB cluster discovery was failing on Nano Server

· Fixed issue: Windows Server 2016 NLB cluster discovery was not compatible with Base OS MP of version 10.0.8.0 for Windows Server 2016

· Fixed issue: “Windows Server 2016 NLB cluster discovery” was causing warning 10000 in the event log if NLB feature was not installed on the server.

· Fixed issue: added version 2016 for corresponding view “Load Balanced IIS” in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Network Load Balancing IIS Integration MP.

Changes in version 10.0.0.0

· “Windows Server Technical Preview” to “Windows Server 2016” versioning and naming rebranding changes

· Network Adapter performance counters were not populated on NLB MP performance views. These counters are collected by Windows Server MP; fixed in Windows Server 2016 MP

Supported Configurations

This management pack requires System Center 2012 Operations Manager or later.

The Windows Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Management Pack supports monitoring NLB clusters on Windows Server 2016, including Windows Server Core installations.

The management pack is not intended to monitor mixed-mode NLB clusters (those that include Windows Server 2003 NLB clusters).

Before You Import the Management Pack

Before you import the Windows Server Network Load Balancing Management Pack, note the following limitations of the management pack:

· Agentless monitoring is not supported.

Before you import the Windows Server Network Load Balancing Management Pack, take the following actions:

· Ensure that System Center Operations Manager is installed.

· Install the Windows Server 2016 Operating System management pack.

· We recommend that you install the QFE referenced in the following article: ”You may find the WMI Provider Host program wmiprvse.exe crashes on a Windows Server 2008-based computer,” at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=140382.

Optional Management Packs

If you want to monitor NLB clusters that are running Internet Information Services (IIS) 10.0 in an application-aware way, you must import the Internet Information Services (IIS) 10.0 Management Pack (version 10.0.0.0 or later) in addition to the IIS Integration Management Pack.

Security Considerations

You might have to customize your management pack. Certain accounts cannot be run in a low-privilege environment or must have minimum permissions.

Low-Privilege Environments

The Windows Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Management Pack requires local administrator privileges to discover, monitor, and execute tasks. For the management pack discoveries, monitors, tasks, diagnostics, and recoveries that require administrative privileges, the management pack uses the NLB Monitoring Action Account Run As profile. The management pack elements in the following tables are configured to use the NLB Monitoring Action Account Run As profile.

Security Considerations

You might have to customize your management pack. Certain accounts cannot be run in a low-privilege environment or must have minimum permissions.

Low-Privilege Environments

The Windows Server Network Load Balancing (NLB) Management Pack requires local administrator privileges to discover, monitor, and execute tasks. For the management pack discoveries, monitors, tasks, diagnostics, and recoveries that require administrative privileges, the management pack uses the NLB Monitoring Action Account Run As profile. The management pack elements in the following tables are configured to use the NLB Monitoring Action Account Run As profile.

Known Issues and Troubleshooting

Mixed-Mode NLB Clusters

The Windows Server NLB Management Pack is designed for monitoring only Network Load Balancing (NLB) servers that are running Windows Server 2016. Monitoring mixed-mode NLB clusters (those that include Windows Server 2003 NLB clusters) is not a supported scenario. This management pack might not report the correct health state of a mixed-mode NLB cluster. Monitoring of Windows Server 2016 mixed-mode clusters is supported.

Windows Server Core

There is an issue on Windows Server Core that prevents the Windows Server NLB Management Pack from discovering and monitoring the network adapter that is used by NLB. Consequently, performance data about the network adapter used by NLB is not collected and the adapter status is not rolled up to the status of the NLB server role.

There is currently no QFE or workaround for this issue.

NLB Node Participating in Multiple Clusters

If an NLB node is participating in multiple clusters and you disable the network adapter that binds that node into a cluster, the node is not discovered the next time the discovery is run.

Execution of several NLB tasks fails on Windows Server 2016 Core

Execution of the following NLB tasks fails on Server Core:

· Display Cluster Settings

· Drain Stop

· Reload Configuration

· Resume Node

· Start Node

· Stop Node

· Suspend Node

Workaround: No workaround available.

NLB performance report is empty

Cluster Performance data is collected and can be seen in the performance view, but NLB Performance report contains no collected performance data.

Workaround: No workaround available.

NLB Cluster could not be completely undiscovered after deletion

NLB Cluster could not be completely undiscovered in the Operations Manager after deletion: both new and deleted clusters are displayed in NLB Cluster State view.

Workaround: No workaround available.

トレーニングと、業界で認知されているマイクロソフト認定プロフェッショナル (MCP) 資格が一緒になったオファーを使って、クラウドでのキャリアの可能性を広げましょう。Microsoft Azure 認定資格への無料のオンデマンド トレーニング (英語のみ)、受験対策セミナー、マイクロソフトオフィシャルコースから再受験付きの Azure MCP バウチャーの中から成功に役立つツールをお選びください。

認定を受けて、総コストを下げながらスケーラビリティ、セキュリティ、プライバシーの向上に役立つ ソリューションを開発するために Azure で拡大する統合クラウド サービス コレクションを活用する準備ができていることをアピールしましょう。

ニーズに最も適した Azure 認定資格トレーニング オファーをご活用ください。

オファーの概要

• トレーニング
  • MOOC Azure オンラインコース（無料、英語のみ）
  • Azure MCP受験対策セミナー（無料、日本語）
  • マイクロソフトオフィシャルコース（日本語）

• MCP認定資格
  • Azure Single Pack  13,000円（税別）
    再受験付きMCPバウチャー＋マイクロソフト公式演習テスト（英語のみ）

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BinaryTitans as a Company was never formed to be a Training Company and hence all our Programs will have a Corporate inheritance. We start the process by on boarding our participant as a BinaryTitans Intern and teach them these technologies as if they would learn in an  Corporate Organization. Hence once after the completion of the Training, he/she will be 100% Ready To Be Deployed on any live Project. As we ensure we are imparting training of the latest technology as possible.

For a Successful management of an IT Infrastructure we will need more resources than just Microsoft Professionals hence we work to generate resources on following players.

1. Microsoft
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Roles Include

1. System Administrator (Messaging) – Microsoft
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8. Software Testing – Microsoft, Oracle

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yaos is a small, Swiss-based startup specializing in software solutions, data mining, and business intelligence. The organization’s latest project, LimeFlight, is an inflight management software suite that enables airlines to update and optimize the complex processes of loading and catering. Cost effective and easy to use, LimeFlight effortlessly streamlines each aspect of inflight catering operations – reducing the complexity of loading procedures and allowing the airline to operate as lean as possible. LimeFlight also enables crews to provide feedback to staff on the ground, helping airline providers improve the accuracy of their galley planning and eliminate process and food waste.

“Our aim is to help airlines significantly decrease their operational and environmental costs,” says Co-Founder and CFO Fabian Niederer, “It has now become essential for companies to continuously optimize their processes if they plan to develop, or maintain, a competitive edge in the industry. Our application’s sophisticated algorithms streamline operations and help to simplify and automate loading procedures, including tasks that are too complicated for traditional software.”

So, how does it work? According to Fabian, LimeFlight uses artificial intelligence and unique data mining techniques to collect and analyze loading and flight information in an effort to gather a comprehensive understanding of the entire inflight process. All collected data are instantaneously synchronized and combined to produce real-time reports – including loading plans, errors, and future procedures – that help ensure accurate recordings of loading configurations and fluid communication between all stakeholders.

A member of the BizSpark program since their founding, yaos has exclusively used Microsoft tools in the creation of LimeFlight. Hosted in the Azure cloud network, LimeFlight was built using Azure-based features Web App, API App, SQL Elastic Pool, HD Insight Cluster and Cognitive Services. The app also uses SQL Server to power its databases and web servers, while relying on Power BI’s ability to analyze data and produce consumption reports. The company has been very pleased with their BizSpark experience, says Fabian, “The BizSpark program has given us access to great tech evangelists and high quality support. And Microsoft tools have been vital to ensuring that we can provide our existing and potential clients with the best possible product. We know we can rely on consistent quality and support from Microsoft.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Microsoft is helping these startups succeed through its BizSpark program. To join or see other startup stories, visit us at our website here. To listen to our startups, check out these podcasts on devradio here.  Additionally, see the Azure for Startups GitHub repository which helps you learn about Azure and contains a variety of tutorials, code samples, ARM templates, and documentations for you to explore.

About BizSpark:  Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps startups succeed by giving free access to Microsoft Azure cloud services, software and support. BizSpark members receive up to $750 per month of free Microsoft Azure cloud services for 1 year: that’s $150 per month each for up to 5 developers. Azure works with Linux and open-source technologies such as Linux, Ruby, Python, Java and PHP. BizSpark is available to startups that are privately held, less than 5-years-old and earn less than $1M in annual revenue.

In the previous post, we saw how to bulk create users.
So till now we have performed the below

• Install Hyper-V in our lab machine
• Created a Virtual Machine
• Made it a Domain controller
• Created a bulk of users via script

Now we downloaded the AAD Connect software . Always search and download the latest version.

Installed .net 4.0 and 4.5.1.

Now when I tried to install the AAD Connect I go the below error.

Installed the below

• SP1 on Windows 2008 R2(It is a 1.9 GB file)
• Windows Management Framework for PowerShell

Now that we have installed all the pre-requisites, went ahead and started the AAD Connect EXE.

Start the install

Our domain is Praveen.local , its not internet rotatable domain(.local). We will change this later. We have it now as .local so that we can see the error and warning we get.  

We will use Custom setting so that we can see all the options. If we have a small org and we are not going to do any configuration we can Use Express Settings

In the below screenshot you can see that we can set the below

• Location to install AAD Connect
• If we have a Pre-existing SQL Server its settings(If we are not using Windows Internal Database, In this post, we will talk about doing an install which uses the WID)
• If we have an existing Service account that should be used for this that has local admin credentials on this server
• Any custom Sync groups that you want to sync

For your advantage took a screenshot at regular interval which shows the different stages of this installation.

Once the wizard performs the necessary configuration. We get the option to choose how we want our users to Sign-In to Office 365.

Post selecting the User Sign-in option, we will get the option to choose the office 365 account that has global admin permissions.

The below get configured.

Now that we have given Office 365  GA account, now we need to give a service account that has permissions to read and write to our on-premise AD.

Next, we will get a list of all the UPNs defined in our organization. The main aim to use the .local domain in on-prem is for seeing this error.

We have to add an alternative UPN suffix that is internet route-able and our company owns.

Note:  It’s better to fix this problem before moving ahead. I am not going to fix this as I want to capture the further details.

Here we can also choose the on-prem attribute that will be used as the username in the cloud.
It’s best to leave it as userPrincipalName

Next option in the wizard is very important and what many folks might use. Its selecting Domain and OU filtering.

Here I have created an OU called “Non Syncing OU”, and I am not going to sync that OU.

If we have multiple on-prem Org syncing to one Office 365 tenant (azure AD), next Option in the wizard helps us select how the same objects in different On-prem orgs are represented once in Azure AD.
Also, we can choose which on-prem attribute is used to link the cloud user with the on-prem user.

Next, we get an option to select additional features if we want to select any.

Uncheck the option that says “Start Synchronization”  unless you want to Sync the directory to the cloud.

Here I am un-checking the “Start Synchronization”  and “checking the “Staging mode”

Now that we have completed the wizard we can exit

Note: Staging mode is used when you already have an AADConnect server syncing to the cloud, but as a backup for quick turnover if the primary server goes down you need another server which is ready to take its place then we use, Staging mode. I am just showing the option is available.

In the next post, we will complete the Synchronization and take note of few checklist.

Praveen Kumar E

您最喜歡的微軟應用軟件是什麼？您日常都會應用到什麼微軟軟件？

微軟香港最近進行調查，希望找出香港中小企最常用到的應用軟件。調查將用作改善微軟對中小企用戶的客戶服務，務求助您以更佳的效率以及產能，面對當下遇到的挑戰。

微軟誠邀所有中小企參與這次簡短的問卷調查，以協助我們改善未來的服務。是次問卷將會為我們的調查提供重要的資訊，是次問卷調查截止日期為2月10日（周五）。

再次感謝你的參與！

微軟香港
What are your favorite software applications? Which ones do you use on a daily basis?

Microsoft Hong Kong currently researches the most favorite software applications used by small and medium sized businesses in the Hong Kong area. This research has the objective to improve Microsoft’s customer services for small and medium sized businesses in Hong Kong to contribute even better to the city’s efficiency and productivity with the latest technology by adapting to your contemporary needs.

Microsoft appreciates every small and midsized business that takes the time to fill out the short questionnaire below and therefore contributes to the improvement of Microsoft’s services in the future.

The questionnaire provides the main content to the research study and will be posted until Friday, February 10.

Thank you for your time and efforts!
Microsoft Hong Kong

問卷將以英文進行。

The Survey will be conducted in English.

Jan.

26

Script Download:
The script is available for download from https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/How-to-remove-all-network-d3979e18.

The sample code demonstrates how to remove all network printers on a computer.

You can find more All-In-One Script Framework script samples at http://aka.ms/onescriptingallery

Сейчас меняется система хранения и обработки KB (Knowledge Base article)
Новые ссылки на KB сейчас а-ля:
http://support.microsoft.com/Help/xxxxxx

Если знаете номер статьи просто подставляйте номер в ссылку нового типа.

Удобно так же по новым ссылкам отталкиваться от собирательной страницы…
Released Cumulative Updates for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
http://support.microsoft.com/Help/3108728

こんにちは。Azure サポートチームの山本です。

Azure では、たった数クリックだけで、Azure Resource Manager (ARM) の環境でデプロイした仮想マシンを対象に、自動シャットダウンできる機能が追加されました。この機能により、自動シャットダウンの設定は非常に簡単になりました。
シャットダウンする時間と、タイムゾーンを指定するだけです。さらに Webhook のURLに対してシャットダウン15分前に通知を設定することもできます。
(これは、Webhook に対応した Web アプリケーションを作成しておく必要があります。)

英文とはなりますが、以下に自動シャットダウンがリリースされた記事の記載がございますのでご確認くださいませ。
ご参考 : “Announcing auto-shutdown for VMs using Azure Resource Manager“
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-auto-shutdown-for-vms-using-azure-resource-manager/

自動シャットダウン機能は、[Automation スクリプト] にはまだ実装されておりません。

Automation スクリプトとは、リソースグループ内のリソースの構成をスクリプトとして表記しているものです。
ポータルからの操作で、[ライブラリに追加] とクリックするとテンプレートに保存されます。
テンプレート機能を使っていただくと、リソースグループの複製を一度にデプロイすることが出来ます。
「一度構築したリソースグループ内の環境を使い回したい！」「今使っている環境と同じ環境をテスト用に作成したい！」という時に便利な機能となっております。

自動シャットダウンを設定した、Automation スクリプト を利用しようとすると、オレンジ色の枠で、以下のエラー文章が表記されます。
「Microsoft.DevTestLab/schedules はまだエクスポートできないため、テンプレートに含まれません。エラーの詳細を確認してください。」

こちらのエラーは無視していただき、そのままスクリプトを利用して複製していただくことは可能ですが、自動シャットダウンの機能は無効化した状態で複製されますので、デプロイしていただいた後、個別に自動シャットダウンの設定をしていただく必要がございます。

本記事では、テンプレートをデプロイ後、自動シャットダウンの有効化について、ご紹介させていただきます。

自動シャットダウンの設定方法

– 方法１
通常の設定と同様に、該当の仮想マシンにアクセスしていただき、設定。

1. ポータル (https://portal.azure.com/) にログイン
2. 左メニューの [Virtual Machines] をクリックし、該当の仮想マシンを選択
3. メニューから [自動シャットダウン] をクリックし、有効化の設定を行う

– 方法2
.jsonファイル を利用して設定。多くの仮想マシンに対して、同様の設定を行う場合には、有効かと存じます。

 
1) .jsonファイルを作成
Auto-shutdown は有効、スケジュールされたシャットダウンは午後6時、タイムゾーンは日本時間、15 分前の通知はオフの設定が構成されている .json ファイルとなっております。

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "vmName": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "policyName": "[concat('shutdown-computevm-', parameters('vmName'))]",
    "vmResourceId": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines', parameters('vmName'))]"
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "apiVersion": "2016-05-15",
      "type": "Microsoft.DevTestLab/schedules",
      "name": "[variables('policyName')]",
      "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "properties": {
        "status":"Enabled",
        "timeZoneId":"Tokyo Standard Time",
        "taskType":"ComputeVmShutdownTask",
        "notificationSettings":{
          "status":"Disabled",
          "timeInMinutes":15,
          "webhookUrl":null
        },
        "targetResourceId":"[variables('vmResourceId')]",
        "dailyRecurrence":{
          "time":"1800"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "outputs": {
  }
}
 

Time Zone 使用例:

・GMT Standard Time = 世界標準時
・Tokyo Standard Time = 日本時間

上記と異なる時刻に合わせる場合には、以下のサイトに一覧が表となっておりますので、ご確認ください。

“Microsoft Time Zone Index Values”
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms912391(v=winembedded.11).aspx

2) 作成していただいた json ファイルをサブスクリプションに登録します。

2-1) PowerShell を利用した手順

# Azure アカウントにログイン
Login-AzureRmAccount

# サブスクリプションを選択
Select-AzureRmSubscription -SubscriptionId “サブスクリプション ID”

# リソーステンプレートの実行
New-AzureRMResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName "リソースグループ名" -TemplateURI " jsonファイルへのファイルパス” -vmName “仮想マシン名”

実行結果:
DeploymentName          : autoshutdown
ResourceGroupName       : blogtest
ProvisioningState       : Succeeded
Timestamp               : 2017/01/26 6:41:49
Mode                    : Incremental
TemplateLink            :
Parameters              :
                          Name             Type                       Value
                          ===============  =========================  ==========
                          vmName           String                     blogtestVM
 
Outputs                 :
DeploymentDebugLogLevel :

2-2) ポータルからの手順
1. Marketplace から [テンプレートのデプロイ] を選択、作成
2. 上部に 表示される [編集] をクリック
3. 先ほど作成した .json ファイルを貼り付けていただき、保存
4. 該当の仮想マシンと、仮想マシンが含まれるリソースグループを入力。

以上となります。
※本情報の内容（添付文書、リンク先などを含む）は、作成日時点でのものであり、予告なく変更される場合があります。

参考情報 :
テンプレートの作成方法に関して、リソースごとにまとまっておりますので、以下をご参考にしてください。

Resource Manager テンプレートのチュートリアル
https://docs.microsoft.com/ja-jp/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-manager-template-walkthrough 

(この記事は 2017 年 1 月 19 日に Office Blogs に投稿された記事 FastTrack collaborating with partners to reach thousands of customers each month の翻訳です。最新情報については、翻訳元の記事をご参照ください。)

今回は、マイクロソフト Office パートナー マーケティング チームのマネージング ディレクターを務める Parri Munsell 氏の記事をご紹介します。

Microsoft FastTrack は、Office 365 を使って、より短期間でビジネス価値を実現できるようにサポートする、マイクロソフトの顧客支援サービスです。2017 年、マイクロソフト認定パートナーとタッグを組んだ FastTrack は、これまでにないスピードで広まっています。実際に、毎月 4,000 以上の新規のお客様の導入サポートを実現しています。

FastTrack とマイクロソフト認定パートナーの両サポートを積極的に利用しているお客様ほどスピーディに Office 365 の導入を完了し、ソフトウェア投資から最大限の価値を引き出していることがわかっています。FastTrack では、データ移行、サービスのプロビジョニング、ビジネス目標達成に向けた Office 365 の有効活用を支援します。一方、マイクロソフト パートナーは、FastTrack のサービスをオンサイト サポートでバックアップすると同時に、変更管理に関するコンサルティング、ローカル環境分析、クラウドへの移行に伴う問題の事前回避などの付加価値も提供します。関係者との長期間にわたる協力関係により、これまで以上に多くの価値を組織全体から引き出すことができます。

NGA Human Resources (英語) では、ローカル パートナーと FastTrack チームの両方の専門性を組み合わせ、成果を最大限に引き出すことができました。最高情報責任者の Russell Sheldon 氏は「Microsoft FastTrack チームは、短期間で 8,000 名の従業員と大量のデータを (Office 365 に) 移行するというミッションにおいて、きわめて高品質なサポートを提供してくれました。おかげで、大きな投資をして Google との契約を更新することなく、Google Docs のデータを移行することができました」と語っています。また、マイクロソフト パートナーの Content and Code が提案した効果的な変更管理ポリシーにより、Office 365 をスムーズに導入できました。その結果、かつてないほど生産性がアップし、世界中の従業員の満足度と作業効率が向上しました。現在 NGA HR は、世界規模でビジネスを拡大し、顧客の要望にすばやく応える新しいアイデアを続々と生み出しています。

新しい「Welcome to FastTrack」ガイド

パートナーの支援の下 FastTrack を利用するメリットをお客様に十分にご理解いただくために、「Welcome to FastTrack (英語)」という新しいガイドをご用意しました。プロジェクトのビジョン策定からビジネス価値の創出まで、お客様の意思決定プロセスのあらゆるステージの概要を説明しています。革新的なパートナーは、FastTrack を組み込むことにより、お客様が自社のサービスから最短で最大の成果を引き出せるように取り組んでいます。

お客様の成功に向けた取り組み

マイクロソフトでは、クラウド導入に伴うデジタル改革を支援するため、さまざまなサービスやデジタル リソースを提供しています。世界中で 800 人以上の FastTrack エンジニアがお客様と認定パートナーをサポートし、専門的なアドバイスやリモート ガイダンスを提供しています。さらに専門的な知識が必要な場合は、マイクロソフトとパートナーが協力してサービスを提供します。Office 365 Adoption Offer によるパートナーへの支援は、現在までに 5000 万ドル近くに上っています。これにより、数千社のお客様が認定パートナーを指定し、ローカル サポートを受けられるようになりました。このキャンペーンは、2016 年 2 月 1 日から 6 月 30 日までに Office 365 を購入したお客様に引き続き提供されます。

FastTrack とパートナーの協力によって世界規模で多くの成功事例が生まれていくのは、非常に喜ばしいことです。

FastTrack の関連資料については、FastTrack.microsoft.com を参照してください。マイクロソフト クラウドへの移行を支援するパートナーを見つけるには、Microsoft パートナー センターを参照してください。

最新の FastTrack キャンペーン情報と参加要件を確認したうえで、Microsoft FastTrack と認定パートナーによる連携サービスをぜひ活用してください。

※ 本情報の内容 (添付文書、リンク先などを含む) は、作成日時点でのものであり、予告なく変更される場合があります。

(この記事は 2017 年 1 月 19 日に Office Blogs に投稿された記事 Episode 114 on Azure Functions for SharePoint add-ins with Doug Ware—Office 365 Developer Podcast の翻訳です。最新情報については、翻訳元の記事をご参照ください。)

第 114 回目は、プレゼンターの Richard diZerega と Andrew Coates が、SharePoint アドイン向けの Azure 機能について、マイクロソフト MVP である Doug Ware 氏に伺います。

ポッドキャストをダウンロード (英語)

関連記事

• http://www.instantquick.com/index.php/introducing-azure-functions-for-sharepoint (英語)
• github.com/InstantQuick/AzureFunctionsForSharePoint (英語)
• afspdocs.blob.core.windows.net/docs/index.html (英語)
• functions.azure.com
• cloudsaturdayatlanta.com (英語)

ポッドキャストについてご質問やご意見がございましたら、Office 365 Technical Network の Office 365 開発者向けポッドキャスト (英語) にぜひご参加ください。このポッドキャストの RSS は iTunes  から入手できます。「Office 365 Developer Podcast」で検索するか、RSS フィード feeds.feedburner.com/Office365DeveloperPodcast を直接追加してください。

• Office 365 デベロッパー センター (英語)
• Office 365 メイン ブログ (英語)
• dev.office.com ブログ (英語)
• Twitter (英語)
• Facebook (英語)
• FlipBoard (英語)
• SlackChannel (英語)

StackOverflow

• http://aka.ms/AskSharePointDev (英語)
• http://aka.ms/AskOfficeDev (英語)
• http://aka.ms/AskOffice365Dev (英語)

Yammer Office 365 Technical Network

• Office 365 開発者向けポッドキャスト (英語)
• Office 365 開発者用アプリケーション モデル (英語)
• Office 365 開発ツール (英語)
• Office 365 開発用 API (英語)
• Office 365 開発のアプリケーション モデルへの移行 (英語)
• Office 365 開発の関連リンク (英語)
• UserVoice (英語)

※ 本情報の内容 (添付文書、リンク先などを含む) は、作成日時点でのものであり、予告なく変更される場合があります。

Did you miss //AzureReady last month? Not to worry, as you can now catch up on all of the presentations on-demand!

Held out of the Brooklyn Bowl in London last month, //AzureReady was a day packed full of terrific presentations on cloud computing. There were eleven talks across the day, plus plenty of networking opportunities, great food and even bowling after the event had concluded. Not bad for a free event!

If you missed out, don’t worry! We know that not everyone who wanted to attend could make it, so we have every session recorded and on YouTube for you to check out at your own pace. You can find a playlist with every talk from //AzureReady here.

If you’re unsure where to start, try the event’s keynote by David Chappell. He offers some great insights into the current state of play and how you can best take advantage of new technologies in the modern world. If you enjoy his talk, you’ll be pleased to hear that he also presents on the topic of operational data services later on in the event.

When the event split into two tracks, our speakers dug deep into specific use cases. Take a look at the playlist to see if there’s anything that takes you fancy, especially if you want to see the talks from the opposite track you chose on the day! There are talks on DevOps, Blockchain, IoT and more!

Future Events

Want to make sure you attend the next big Microsoft event? Well, we have a few coming up that you won’t want to miss out on!

TechDays Online (February 20-22)

Join us for the first Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) led TechDays Online of 2017. Each session will be led by MVPs from the UK and across the world, along with Microsoft Technical Evangelists. It’s a three day online event that’s not to be missed! Register here.

Microsoft Tech Summit Birmingham (March 27-28)

Build your cloud and infrastructure skills with a two-day free technical training event at the end of March. There are going to be a huge number of talks across both days, so be sure to give the agenda a look and see what takes your fancy! Register here.

Events page

Even if you can’t make these events, know that you can keep track of all upcoming events on our dedicated events page. This includes events that are run by Microsoft, as well as usergroups and third party events that we think you might find useful. Consider bookmarking it and checking back every so often!

Im Rahmen der BETT-Konferenz 2017 in London, der größten Fachmesse für Bildungstechnologien, werden dieses Jahr wieder interaktive, innovative und kreative Konzepte vorgestellt. Ganz im Zeichen der Zukunft pädagogischer Lernkonzepte, liefert die Bildungsmesse einen Einblick in die Klassenzimmer und Bildungseinrichtungen von Morgen. Auch Minecraft spielt im Bildungssegment mit der Education Edition eine große Rolle und ist dementsprechend prominent auf der Messe vertreten. Ein Grund mehr, einen Ausblick auf das neue Jahr 2017 zu geben.

Am 19. Januar 2016 wurde die Minecraft: Education Edition mit einem einfachen „Hallo!“ der Welt vorgestellt. Die erste spielbare Version, der speziell für Bildungszwecke optimierten Minecraft-Fassung, wurde damals auf ersten Computern während der BETT 2016 installiert und erreichte seitdem tausende Lehrkräfte, die den Lernalltag zusammen mit ihren Schülern neu entwickeln konnten. Mehr als 75.000 Schüler und Lehrer in über 100 Ländern schaffen seitdem Neues, kreieren, forschen und lernen mit Minecraft Education.

Die Weiterentwicklung des Minecraft-Mentoren Programms
Mit diesem Wachstum ging auch eine Partnerschaft mit der engagierten Community von Lehrkräften einher, die sich in Form des Minecraft-Mentoren-Programms im Jahr 2016 etablierte. Im Jahr 2017 wird dieses Programm auf 60 Mentoren aus 19 Ländern erweitert, die im „Mentor of the Week“-Programm jede Woche einen neuen spannenden Blogpost, Livestream, Video oder andere Beiträge veröffentlichen.

Neue Features in Version 1.0 für einen leichten Spieleinstieg
Neben dem erweiterten Engagement mit der Community wurde die Spielerfahrung weitergehend verbessert und neue Funktionen hinzugefügt, die für einen leichten Spieleinstieg für Lehrkräfte und Administratoren sorgen. Mit der Aktualisierung der Minecraft: Education Edition auf Version 1.0 wird Game-basiertes Lernen noch zugänglicher. Die neuen Features in der Übersicht:

• Generalpause – Lehrkräfte können eine kurze Pause für die gesamte Spielwelt einlegen
• Erreichbarkeits-Features wie die Text-To-Speech Funktion im Ingame-Chat
• Aktualisiertes User Interface mit intuitiveren Einstellungs-Optionen
• Die Höhe der Welt wurde auf 256 Pixel erhöht, um noch größere Gebäude bauen zu können
• Vollständiges Gameplay von der ersten Nacht bis zur Enddimension
• Iglus und Eisbären in arktischen Welten
• Angepasster und verbesserter Upload für Lehrkräfte mit .mcworld-Dateiformat-Unterstützung

Lehrkräfte können nun noch leichter als zuvor ihre erstellten Welten hochladen und mit der Community teilen. Das .mcworld-Dateiformat ist jetzt voll kompatibel mit docs.com, wo Lehrkräfte Profile anlegen, Welten hochladen, Tags vergeben und die Welten in ihrem Lehrplan auf education.minecraft.net verlinken können.

Auch in Zukunft ist das Feedback der Spieler, Schüler und Lehrkräfte der Schlüssel für die Entwicklung und Verbesserung der Education Edition. Ein Beispiel hierfür zeigt die Schulklasse der William Annin Middle School rund um Steve Isaac während der Beta-Phase 2016. Mehr dazu im Video.

Weitere Informationen zur Minecraft: Education Edition finden Sie auf education.minecraft.com und dem offiziellen Twitter-Kanal.

Ein Beitrag von Pina Kehren
Communications Manager Mobile Devices, Digital Education & Innovation, Microsoft Deutschland

In den vergangenen Jahren sind einige neue Malware-Vertreter aufgetaucht, die nicht einen einzelnen Computer oder ein Mobilgerät angreifen, sondern den Router. Diese Methode ist natürlich deutlich effektiver, da auf diese Weise gleich alle Zugriffe eines ganzen Netzwerks manipuliert werden können. In der Regel verändert die Schadsoftware im Router die Adresse des DNS-Servers, so dass alle verbundenen Geräte auf Websites mit unseriösen Angeboten oder Schadcode oder auch auf Phishing-Sites umgeleitet werden.

Von dieser Art ist auch eine neue Malware namens Trojan.AndroidOS.Switcher oder kurz Switcher, die von Kaspersky Labs beschrieben wird. Obwohl sie es vornehmlich auf chinesische Nutzer abgesehen hat, sei sie an dieser Stelle dennoch kurz vorgestellt, da das Angriffsmuster recht typisch ist.

In China führt der Google Play Store für Android ausschließlich kostenlose Apps ohne In-App-Verkäufe. Viele chinesische Anwender nutzen daher alternative App-Stores, in denen die angebotene Software jedoch wenig bis gar keiner Kontrolle unterliegen. Von dort aus verbreiteten sich in den vergangenen Monaten zwei neue Android-Apps. Die eine behauptete, ein mobiler Client für die chinesische Suchmaschine Baidu zu sein, die andere stellte sich als Suchmaschine für die Passwörter von WLAN-Hotspots vor. In China werden diese Kennwörter gerne weiterverbreitet.

Per Brute Force ans Ziel

Lädt man sich die App auf sein Smartphone, so nimmt sie zunächst Kontakt zu einem Command & Control-Server (C&C-Server) auf, und der enthaltene Trojaner meldet den Namen des Netzwerks, mit dem das Gerät verbunden ist. Nun greift er den WLAN-Router an. Mithilfe einer Brute-Force-Attacke probiert er verschiedene Kombinationen aus Benutzernamen und den am häufigsten verwendeten Passwörtern aus. Das geschieht über einen JavaScript-Code, der vermutlich nur bei den weit verbreiteten Routern des chinesischen Herstellers TP-Link funktioniert.

Dringt die Malware in den Router vor, ändert sie dort die Adresse des bevorzugten DNS-Servers, so dass sämtliche DNS-Anfragen aus dem LAN nicht beim Server des Providers, sondern bei einem DNS-Verzeichnis der kriminellen Hacker landen. Sobald dann ein Anwender im LAN an seinem Rechner beispielsweise www.bing.com eingibt, erscheint statt der Suchmaschine eine von den Kriminellen gestaltete Website auf dem Gerät.

Die Angreifer haben auch vorgesorgt für den Fall, dass der manipulierte DNS-Server einmal nicht erreichbar sein sollte und in der Firmware des Routers auch die Adresse des zweiten Servers verändert. Der Benutzer wird dann auf den DNS-Server von Google mit der IP-Adresse 8.8.8.8 umgeleitet, damit der Angriff möglichst lange unentdeckt bleibt. Laut einer offenbar versehentlich öffentlich erreichbaren Statistik auf dem C&C-Server konnte Switcher im vergangenen Jahr 1.280 WLAN-Netzwerke infizieren.

Switcher ist nicht der erste Schädling seiner Art. Andere Vertreter sind etwa der von Symantec beschriebene Virus Linux.Wifatch und der zwischen 2007 und 2012 aktive DNS Changer. Zur Abwehr solcher Attacken wird empfohlen, regelmäßig nach Firmware-Updates für den Router zu suchen und sie einzuspielen, Remote Access und UPnP zu deaktivieren und ein eigenes, hinreichend komplexes Passwort für den Aufruf der Konfigurationsseite zu definieren. Ob ein Router infiziert ist, erkennt man an den Einstellungen für den DNS-Server. Bei Heim-Routern für die private und semiprofessionelle Nutzung ist dort bei nicht infizierten Geräten üblicherweise der automatische Bezug der Server-Adresse voreingestellt.

Gastbeitrag von Michael Kranawetter, National Security Officer (NSO) bei Microsoft in Deutschland. In seinem eigenen Blog veröffentlicht Michael alles Wissenswerte rund um Schwachstellen in Microsoft-Produkten und die veröffentlichten Softwareupdates.

こんにちは、日本マイクロソフト System Center Support Team の益戸です。

2017 年 1 月26 日に System Center 2012 R2 向けに Update Rollup 12 (UR12) がリリースされましたのでお知らせいたします。
修正プログラムによっては、適用時にデータベースに対して自動的に更新が発生いたします。
その為、修正プログラムの適用に失敗した場合や、修正プログラムに致命的なエラーが発生した場合に備え、可能な限り、適用前にシステムおよび、データベースのバックアップの取得を検討ください。
System Center 製品については、明確にアンインストールを指示する場合を除き、適用した修正プログラムのアンインストール実施後に動作に問題が発生する場合がございます。

Update Rollup 12 for System Center 2012 R2
https://support.microsoft.com/ja-jp/help/3209604/update-rollup-12-for-system-center-2012-r2

このリリースでは、以下の製品に対して修正プログラムが提供されています。本修正プログラムは、Microsoft Update 経由で更新プログラムをダウンロードしてインストールすることができます。また、オフラインの環境では、Microsoft Update Catalog を通じてダウンロードしたパッケージを手動で適用することもできます。詳細な適用手順や、修正内容については、それぞれのリンクをご参照ください。

・Data Protection Manager (KB —- )
2 月にリリース予定となります

・Operations Manager (KB3209587)
https://support.microsoft.com/ja-jp/help/3209587/system-center-2012-r2-om-ur12
* インストールする手順等に注意がございます。
事前に内容をご確認の上、適用ください。

・Service Provider Foundation(KB3209618)
https://support.microsoft.com/ja-jp/help/3209618/update-rollup-12-for-system-center-2012-r2-orchestrator-service-provid

・Virtual Machine Manager (KB3209585)
https://support.microsoft.com/ja-jp/help/3209585/update-rollup-12-for-system-center-2012-r2-virtual-machine-manager
* インストールする手順等に注意がございます。
事前に内容をご確認の上、適用ください。
適用に際しては、サーバーの再起動が必要となる場合がございます。

まずはリリースの告知をさせていただきました。