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Category: Servers

Setup Synology LDAP Server & Certificates

This is the forth in a series that documents the Tier 3 / Co-Managed IT work we did to setup a wireless test bed for a Linux based scientific device. The testing environment included two different wireless network hardware types (Ubiquiti and Cisco). There was also a Synology device used for various purposes including hosting the Ubiquiti controller inside a Kubernetes container, providing certificate services, providing LDAP authentication, and providing RADIUS authentication. Each article will detail a separate piece of the project. This article shows the setup Synology LDAP server & certificates.

Setup LDAP Server

  1. Login to Synology
  2. Open Package Center
  3. Install LDAP Server app
  4. Open LDAP Server package
    • Enable LDAP Server
    • Create FQDN (something like Test.local)
    • Create password
    • Enable Synology LDAP Server
    • Change Connection Settings
      1. Disallow anonymous binds
      1. Force clients to use encrypted connections
      1. Change timeout to 10 minutes
      2. Click OK
      3. Synology LDAP Server Connection Settings
    • Click Apply
    • Click on Manage Groups
      • Click on Create
      • Give the Group a name
      • Click Next
      • Click Done
      • Synology LDAP Server Add Group
    • Click on Manage Users
      • Click on Create
      • Give the User a name
      • Add user email if appropriate
      • Create password
      • Click Next
      • Check mark next to new group previously created
      • Click Next x2
      • Click Done

Connect Synology to LDAP Server

  1. Open Control Panel
  2. Click on Domain / LDAP on left hand side
  3. Click Join
    • Enter IP address of Synology
    • Synology Join LDAP Server
    • Enter Admin username / password
    • Choose STARTTLS encryption
    • Copy Base DN from LDAP Server app Settings tab
    • Click Next
    • Synology Join LDAP Server2
    • Connection parameters will be check (fix any issues)
    • Synology Join LDAP Server Checks

Configure LDAP Certificates

  1. Open Control Panel
  2. Click on External Access
  3. Click on DDNS tab
  4. Click Add
    • Choose Synology as service provider
    • Add hostname
    • Click Test Connection
    • Synology DDNS Setup
    • Click OK
  5. Click on Security on left hand side
  6. Click on the Certificate tab
  7. Click on Add
    • Add new certificate
    • Synology Add Certificate
    • Click Next
    • Create description
    • Get a certificate from Let’s Encrypt
    • Synology Add Certificate Lets Encrypt
    • Click Next
    • Add needed certificate information
    • Synology Add Certificate Lets Encrypt Info
    • Click Done
  8. Click Settings button and choose appropriate LDAP server certificate

If your company has highly customized setup requirements that you need consulting for, then contact us for assistance.

Our New Email Analysis and Education Tools Helps Keep Your Employees Safe

Phishing-Scams

As you know, we take cybersecurity and the protection of your accounts and data very seriously. That’s why we are always striving to provide you with tools and resources to help keep you and your employees safe from cybercrime.

The most common threat we are seeing is phishing messages delivering malware or stealing credentials. Even though your company might be protected with spam filtering, there are instances where these malicious messages could still appear in your employee’s inboxes. And it’s important we both arm them with as much education and resources as possible to understand and identify these phishes.

We have a new tool that we’d love to demonstrate for your or talk more about. It’s called Catch Phish, and it’s an email analysis and training tool. It connects right to your employee’s Outlook as a clickable application on every message. When clicked, the tool quickly, but safely, scans the important details of the message to find potential threats such as suspicious links or attachments, sender details, or message details such as threatening language or deactivation scares.

This tool is included in our cybersecurity training packages and can help provide the much needed cybersecurity education to all levels of staff.
 
Do you have 30 minutes to talk about reducing your risks with Catch Phish and our other cybersecurity awareness training tools, then contact us for assistance.

Basic Setup of Synology NAS

This is the second in a series that documents the Tier 3 / Co-Managed IT work we did to setup a wireless test bed for a Linux based scientific device. The testing environment included two different wireless network hardware types (Ubiquiti and Cisco). There was also a Synology device used for various purposes including hosting the Ubiquiti controller inside a Kubernetes container, providing certificate services, providing LDAP authentication, and providing RADIUS authentication. Each article will detail a separate piece of the project. This article shows the basic setup of Cisco Wireless Controller.

Setup of Synology NAS

  1. Physically install hard drives into bays
  2. Plug into network
  3. Plug into power
  4. Find IP address by pinging ‘Diskstation’ on network
  5. Start web browser and connect to IP address
  6. Run Setup Wizard
  7. Install Synology OS on drives
  8. Wait for reboot
  9. Start setup
    • Give it a name
    • Create admin account / password
    • Install only important updates automatically
    • Sign-In to or Create Synology Account
    • Create quickconnect ID
    • Enable DSM backups
  10. Create storage pool
    • If it states that no drives are available – check under HDD/SSD to see if there are required firmware updates. Install all available.
    • Use SHR-2 RAID
    • Choose all drives to be in the RAID (not m.2 cache drive)
    • Use Max Allocated size
    • Use Btrfs file system
    • Click Apply
    • Click OK to erase all drives
  11. Open Package Center App
    • Accept terms of service
    • Update any Installed
    • Install LDAP Server and RADIUS Server
    • Close Package Manager

If your company has highly customized setup requirements that you need consulting for, then contact us for assistance.

A Medical Office’s Journey to the Cloud

Today we tell the story of a medical office’s journey to the cloud. This particular client was facing their server operating system reaching end of support (a HIPAA violation) in the near future. They had begun by looking at their electronic medical records software company’s online offering, which didn’t have all the functionality of their on-premises software and was very expensive (this is typical).


They next decided to look into moving their current on-premises software into the cloud and we were asked to help with the testing. We determined that it would be best to move the file portion of the server to SharePoint / OneDrive to increase their mobility and flexibility. We also determined that it would be best to move them away from on premises Active Directory into Azure Active Directory / Intune to allow authentication and security policies. Finally we began testing the on-premises software hosted on a server in Azure with a VPN connection to their office.


The SharePoint / OneDrive and Azure Active Directory portions went through with little issues. The server, however, was not as we had hoped. The Azure VPN connection was expensive due to it always being on and no way of turning it off outside of business hours. The performance of the SQL database that the on-premises software used was basically unusable. The other option would be to create virtual desktops on Azure for this purpose but the cost and functionality was not what the customer was hoping for.


This has lead them back to searching for an online EMR software that will meet all their requirements. This will be tough because most companies are good at some things, but not all things and compromises usually have to be made. Our hope is that this story is a lesson to other companies. The cloud may sound like the newest and best way to work, but the costs and functionality are often worse than expected.

If your company is going to use full disk encryption or has compliance requirements that you need consulting for, then contact us for assistance.

Cost of Insuring Your “Digital” Employees

We were discussing the price customers paid for their monthly maintenance of computers and the comparison was brought up about insurance costs. As a business owner with employees, it is necessary these days to offer health insurance as part of their compensation package. If the company has vehicles that are used for business, then the government mandates that they be covered by minimum amounts of insurance. These costs are then built into the price the business owner then charges their clients for products or services.

Insurance Statistics: 

  • According to Business.com, the average cost of health insurance for a single employee was $645 per month and $1,850 per month for a family.
  • According to NerdWallet.com, the average cost of car insurance was $179 per vehicle per month. 

Questions:

So what about the “digital” employees of the company, aka the computers and network equipment that make business possible. How much are business owners paying to “insure” these assets? What are businesses willing to pay to make sure that their computers and network don’t have a sick day? Does the cost of insuring them include preventative care? Who does the business call in case of an accident or breakdown in the middle of the day? Does the cost of insuring include on-site service or transport to a service center?

If your company wants to keep their digital employees healthy and insure them from accidents, then contact us for assistance.

Recover a Stuck Windows Service

Recently had an issue with a backup software that would get stuck in START_PENDING status at every startup. This caused it to be unable to be uninstalled, repaired, or forcefully removed and re-installed. Here is how we fixed it:

1. Find out the Service Name of the service by looking for it in the Services control panel:

2. Open command prompt as administrator

3. To get the PID type in – sc queryex [Service Name]

4. To kill the errant process type in – taskkill /f /pid [PID]

5. To remove the process type in – sc delete [Service Name]

One I had removed the process I restarted the server just to make sure then re-installed the software.

If your company needs help troubleshooting software issues, then contact us for assistance.

Synology Active Backup Restore to Hyper-V

Prerequisites:

  • Make sure Hyper-V Host has CPUs than the combined total of CPUs for all servers being restored as these static until after the VMs are completely restored. If there is not enough CPU resources then the VMs will not boot.
  • Make sure Hyper-V Host has more than the combined total of RAM for all servers being restored as these settings are static until after the VMs are completely restored. If there is not enough memory then the VMs will not boot. 
  • Create a SET NIC Team on the server (if you have multiple NICs)
    • Open Powershell as administrator
    • User the New-VMSwitch command to setup an external virtual switch to connect to for live connections
      • New-VMSwitch -name “SET team” -NetAdapterName “NIC1″,”NIC2” -AllowManagementOS $True
      • The AllowManagementOS is needed if you are using the same NIC team to access the VM host
  • Setup secondary Internal vSwitch to allow for testing before deploying
  • Setup Synology LUN targets for each VM to be restored. Make sure that they are big enough to hold all the full uncompressed size of the entire thick provisioned hard drives for the entire server. 
  • Connect each LUN to the iSCSI Initiator on the VM Host. Make sure to bring them online, initialize them, and give them a drive letter. Synology needs this because it uses the SMB protocol to transfer the files during restore.
  • Make sure to allow the File and Printer Sharing app through the Windows firewall and open port 5986 to allow HTTP traffic for WinRM to allow Synology to query the Hyper-V settings.
  • Add the Hyper-V Host to the Active Backup for Business app.

Synology Active Backup Restore to Hyper-V

  1. Open the Active Backup for Business app
  2. Click on the Physical Server tab on the left
  3. Select the server and click the Restore button
  4. Select the point in time to restore from Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message Description automatically generated
  5. Choose Restore to Microsoft Hyper-V
  6. Choose Full Virtual Machine Restore
  7. Change the Restore Name
  8. Select a folder on the Hyper-V Host to place the configuration files Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message Description automatically generated
  9. Select a folder on the Hyper-V Host to place each of the restore VHD files
  10. Select a Virtual Switch on the Hyper-V Host to connect the VM to Graphical user interface, text, application Description automatically generated
  11. Confirm the settings by clicking on the Done button.

After:

  • The VMs will boot with a single NIC and no network settings. Keep them offline and add additional NICs as needed to match the original setup. Then configure the NICs as before upon reboot. Make sure to connect to Internal Test Switch for initial steps. 
  • Check hardware configuration of CPUs and RAM to determine if adjustments can be made. In particular, the RAM settings can be changed to startup, minimum, and maximum to allow for distribution of resources to VMs that have heavier workloads.
  • Boot VM to make sure it is functioning correctly.  (first bootup can take upwards of 15 minutes)
  • Convert the VM from Gen1 to Gen2
    • Download Windows 10 ISO – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
    • Add Windows ISO to IDE controller as CD 
    •  Set boot to CD in VM Settings 
    • Boot VM to repair section of CD 
    • Boot to command prompt
      • diskpart 
      • list disk   (Make boot disk is in 0 spot)
      • exit
      • X:\>mbr2gpt /validate /disk:0 (select proper disk) 
      • X:\>mbr2gpt /convert /disk:0 
    • Create new VM with Gen2 setting
      • Give the VM a name and Store in appropriate iSCSI LUN drive then Click Next 
      • Select Gen 2 and click Next
      • Give the VM as much startup memory as needed and Use Dynamic Memory then Click Next Graphical user interface, text, application, email Description automatically generated
      • Select the Internal Test Switch and click Next
      • Select an existing hard drive and point to boot drive that was converted to Gen 2 then click Next Graphical user interface, text, application, email Description automatically generated
      • Click Finish to create
      • Modify to match old VM
        • Check Dynamic RAM settings to make sure the Max / Min is set properly
        • Check Hard drives and add additional as needed
        • Turn off Secure Boot function
  • Boot new Gen 2 VM and configure static IP address.
  • If booting successfully then delete Gen 1 VM 
  • Turn of old server as needed
  • Change Gen 2 VM to use SET Team vSwitch 
  • Test connectivity to network resources. 

If your company is looking to migrate from physical to virtual servers, then contact us to make the transition easy.

RMM Automation: Export List of AD Users Last Login Days Ago

As our business continues to grow our focus is on providing white labeled Tier 3 IT support services, RMM as a service, and co-managed IT services. This blog will be highlighting tips for using Powershell to get an Export List of AD Users Last Login was more than 90 Days Ago.

Research

You need to find out what the Organizational Unit (OU) path that you are trying to get the count from. The following command will list all OUs in the domain.

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter 'Name -like "*"' | Format-Table Name, DistinguishedName -A

If you want the entire organization then you will need the top level information which looks like DC=[DomainName],DC=local

Variables

$SearchOU = This is the full DistinguishedName from the above output.

Script Snippet

$InactiveDays = 90
$Days = (Get-Date).Adddays(-($InactiveDays))
  

Get-ADUser -Filter {LastLogonTimeStamp -lt $Days -and enabled -eq $true} -SearchBase $SearchOU -Properties LastLogonTimeStamp,UserPrincipalName |
  
select-object Name,mail,@{Name="Last Login Date"; Expression={[DateTime]::FromFileTime($_.lastLogonTimestamp).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy')}} | export-csv C:\support\inactive_Users.csv -notypeinformation

The script will take several seconds to run based on the number of users in the OU being searched. The output is saved to the local c:\support directory and you can modify this script to include the FTP upload based on our previous article – https://www.farmhousenetworking.com/rmm/automation/rmm-automation-export-log-files-to-ftp/ The script can also be easily modified to change the number of days since last login.

If your company is a MSP or wants to become one and automation just seems out of reach, then contact us to run your RMM for you.

RMM Automation: Active Directory User Count

As our business continues to grow our focus is on providing white labeled Tier 3 IT support services, RMM as a service, and co-managed IT services. This blog will be highlighting tips for using Powershell to get an Active Directory User Count.

Research

You need to find out what the Organizational Unit (OU) path that you are trying to get the count from. The following command will list all OUs in the domain. 

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter 'Name -like "*"' | Format-Table Name, DistinguishedName -A

If you want the entire organization then you will need the top level information which looks like DC=[DomainName],DC=local

Variables


$SearchOU = This is the full DistinguishedName from the above output.

Script Snippet

(Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase $SearchOU).count

The script will take several seconds to run based on the number of users in the OU being searched. The output is an integer number. You can do the same sort of thing for an Active Directory Group Count or Active Directory Computer Count:

(Get-ADgroup -Filter * -SearchBase $SearchOU).count

or

(Get-ADcomputer -Filter * -SearchBase $SearchOU).count

If your company is a MSP or wants to become one and automation just seems out of reach, then contact us to run your RMM for you.

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