Exchange – Bulk import of distribution group members from csv



A short but useful post:

Suppose you need to import hundreds of members to a distribution group.
The list is in a CSV file:

Name,Email
user1,user1@domain1.com
user2,user2@domain2.com
user3,user3@domain3.com
user4,user4@domain4.com
user5,user5@domain5.com
user6,user6@domain6.com
user7,user7@domain7.com
user8,user8@domain8.com
user9,user9@domain9.com
user10,user10@domain10.com
user11,user11@domain11.com
user12,user12@domain12.com
user13,user13@domain13.com
user14,user14@domain14.com
user15,user15@domain15.com
user16,user16@domain16.com
user17,user17@domain17.com
user18,user18@domain18.com
...

To bulk import all the users, a simple command like this is enough:… Read more

Icinga icon   Icinga – How to configure passive checks made easy (2)



In the previous post I explained what is the difference between Icinga active and passive checks, why can be interesting to use passive checks, what is the result format Icinga is expecting when processing those checks and the way I use to send those results (instead of using snmp traps).

Now it is time to show how to configure it … Read more

Icinga icon   Icinga – How to configure passive checks made easy (1)



As I posted long time ago for Nagios (Nagios – Using passive checks without agent), it is time to show an easy way to configure Icinga to perform passive checks (without using SNMP traps).

This is the first of two posts. In this I only want to make some theoretical explanations and then in the second I will … Read more

POWERSHELL   Powershell – Schedule a task on a list of servers remotely



Maybe you have been interested in configuring a scheduled task on a set of servers of your enviroment. Depending on the quantity it can become a tedious… or a reeeaaaaally tedious process (connect to every server, run "scheduled tasks" console, configure…)

So, as we, sysadmins, usually do… let's make the work easier using scripts…

In this example, the goal is Read more

IRONPORT icon   Ironport – Schedule automation scripts on Windows



On a previous post I explained how to Automate Ironport commands / scripts from Windows. At the end of the post I suggested configuring the task scheduler to execute a bat script, for example, to save a backup copy of the configuration… So, here we go!

Example 1: Simple configuration backup via email

Assuming all the necessary preparations … Read more

Lync   Lync – Monitor services status using Nagios



This post shows a Powershell script I use to monitor the status of my Lync services.
This state can be manually checked on the Lync console (Lync 2010 in my scenario):
Lync - Monitor services status using Nagios_1

And with the Get-CsWindowsService powershell command:

PS C:\> Get-CsWindowsService

Status   Name            ActivityLevel
------   ----            -------------
Running  MASTER
Running  REPLICA
Running  RTCSRV          Incoming Requests per Second=0,Mess...
Running  RTCCAA          Concurrent Calls=0
Read more

IRONPORT icon   Ironport – Automate commands / scripts from Linux



In a previous post (Linux: SSH connection without password (RSA public-key) I showed the way to configure a non-interactive SSH connection from-to a Linux system.

If the target system is a Ironport ESA device, the configuration is almost the same (generation of the key pair and configuration of the private one). But to install the new public key on … Read more

IRONPORT icon   Ironport – Automate commands / scripts from Windows



In another post we saw the way to configure a SSH connection to Linux without password via public/private key. To allow SSH connection without interaction (without password) to Cisco Ironport ESA (Email Security Appliance) from a Windows machine is a bit different. These are the different steps:

Generate public/private keys

To generate the keys, we will use Puttygen (PuTTY Key Read more

Linux   Linux – Create custom inetd service



The inetd (also known as superserver) is a daemon that provides (commonly on Linux and Unix systems) internet services. The configuration file inetd.conf contains the list of the offered services by the daemon. The clients connect to certain port and inetd launches the corresponding program to process the connection.

This example shows how to setup a service that executes remote … Read more