Month: July 2010

VMware ESX 4.1 released!

With leaks starting to grow about next release of ESX(i), v4.1 is now out the door! It is a big upgrade and include a lot of new goodies for people. Below is a small sampling of the changes in 4.1:- VMware now made it obvious ESX is dying and everyone...

Microsoft System Center Management Pack Catalog Refresh

Several months ago when Microsoft moved their System Center management packs to their "PinPoint" site, it was a horrible mess. Trying to search or find the right MP was an exercise in futility. In fact, it's beyond me how MS released that interface to the public. Clearly they didn't consult...

How strong is your SSL? Sniff and find out!

Today a colleague of mine asked me if I really thought one could tell what cipher strength is used during SSL transactions. I said sure! Piece of cake if you know what to look for. Just like in the movie Matrix, if you stare at the cipher text long enough...

Enable SQL SSL with low-privileged service account

One of the neat security features with SQL 2005 and later is the ability to use a SSL certificate to encrypt off-host SQL server communications over port 1433. Encrypting communications between your SQL server and your remote applications is strongly recommended. Do you really want credit card data, personal information...

SQL 2008 R2: Generate trusted TDE certificate

As previously mentioned in my blog about SQL TDE (Transparent Data Encryption), the example script I gave just used a SQL self-signed certificate to encrypt the database. While this is fine for a demo, you should only used trusted certificates in a production environment.Getting a trusted certificated inserted into SQL...

SQL 2008 R2: Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Example

One of the new features in SQL Server 2008/R2 is Transparent Database Encryption, or TDE. TDE lets you encrypt any database, without having to change your application. This means you can fully encrypt databases and log files for SharePoint, RMS, or anything else you wish. For the ultimate in security...

SQL 2008 R2: Temp Database Configuration (Part 6)

One of the last things I do during a SQL installation is configure the temp databases. Temp databases are very important to some applications, as they are used as a scratch or buffer space. Other applications may not use them hardly at all, so it really depends on your environment.One...

SQL 2008 R2: Windows Firewall (Part 5)

One of the best things Microsoft did with Windows Server 2008 and later is the built-in firewall. Unlike previous OS releases where the firewall was pretty much a joke, Microsoft started from scratch and came up with a very robust two-way firewall. SQL is one of the prime targets for...

PXE Booting a Wyse zero client, Part 2

Yes, time for part 2 of the Wyse PXE booting series. Part 1 described the general concept and why you might want to PXE boot your Wyse zero client instead of having embedded flash for the ThinOS. The remainder of this post will cover the technical details on how to...

SQL 2008 R2: Lockdown Script (Part 4)

This is the final part of my SQL 2008 R2 Secure and Automate your Installations series. The first two scripts, covered here, and here perform an unattended installation of SQL 2008 R2 and then modify some key SQL parameters. The final script to make all of this work is below....