Active Directory Replication

Active Directory Replication

1. Architecture:

I'll use 2 Virtual machines created with Hyper-V.

SRV1: 192.168.1.10 (Windows Server 2012 R2)
SRVREP: 192.168.1.11 (Windows Server 2012 R2)

A domain controller already installed SRV1: DOMAIN.LOCAL

2. Configuration:

Join SRVREP to the domain controller, login with a domain administrator, open "Server Manager" and add "Active Directory services" role.

Execute the domain controller configuration

Select "Add a domain controller to an existing domain"

Enter the domain name or search for it by "select"

 Enter the restore password of the domain controller

Specify the Server that you want to replicate from

Now, the active directory installed

I'll create a user on SRV1 to see if the replication works

User created on AD SRV1

User exist on AD SRVREP

Publish an RDP Server on an Alternate Port TMG Firewall

Publish an RDP Server on an Alternate Port TMG Firewall

I create my own environment using Hyper-V, I create 3 virtual machines: Domain Controller, ForeFront TMG and Windows client.

On the ForeFront TMG VM I installed 2 network cards internal (LAN) and external (WAN)

For example let's say that my WAN address will be: 192.168.1.100 and my LAN address will be: 10.10.10.100

I add the ForeFront TMG VM to the my domain. My domain controller is 10.10.10.10.

So we will create a Firewall rule to grant an RDP access through a port we choose, let's begin:

Open the TMG firewall console and click "Firewall Policy" in the left pane of the console. 

Click the Tasks tab in the Task Pane and then click "Publish Non-Web Server Protocols".

The New Server Publishing Rule Wizard launches. Type in the name of the rule you want to create. Click Next.

On the Select Server page, enter the IP address of the server that you are publishing. In this

example, we’ll enter the IP address of windows client 10.10.10.71. Click Next.

On the Select Protocol page, choose the protocol you want to publish. In this case, we’ll select "RDP (Terminal Services)" Server from the Selected Protocol drop-down list. Click Next.

Now, click on"Ports"
Select the "Publish on this port instead of the default port". We will choose port "6000"

On the Network Listener IP Addresses page, We will choose "External".

Click on "Address" to specified the WAN address.

Click "Finish"

Apply the rule

Now, let's check if we have access to Windows client VM through the WAN address and the port. Open "mstsc", tape the WAN address and the port.

We are successfully connected.

SQL Server 2012 High Availability - Synchronizing Database

SQL Server 2012 High Availability - Synchronizing Database

1. Architecture:

In our lab, we'll use 3 Virtual machines:

• SRV1: Active Directory.
• SQL1: Principal SQL Server.
• SQL2: Mirror SQL Server.

3. Installation:

3.1. Installation prerequisites:

I'm using hyper-v to create virtual machines. All virtual machines are running with Windows Server 2012 R2. I will setup SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition.


3.2. install Clustering feature:

We will install Clustering feature in each of SQL1 and SQL2.

In Server Manager, Click on "Manager" - "Add Roles and Features"

Select "Failover Clustering"

In start Menu, open "Failover Cluster Manager"

Create a cluster

Add the two servers SQL1 and SQL2

Give a name to the Cluster and enter an IP address 

Now our cluster is ready

The next step is to create the Quorum, I'm going to use a share folder and I will create it in another server, not SQL1 or SQL2, so I will share a folder in Active Directory Server.

In the "Failover Cluster Manager", right click on the cluster name, "More Actions" then "Configure Cluster Quorum Settings"

Choose "Advanced quorum configuration"

I'm going to configure a share folder for the quorum

After creating and sharing the folder, enter the server name and select the folder

3.3 Installation SQL Server 2012:

Install SQL Server 2012 in each Server (SQL1, SQL2)

3.4. Database configuration:

I'm going to use "AdventureWorks" database, you can download a sample from here.
After downloading the sample, you need to unlock it and copy it in the DATA folder of SQL Server.
In this step we are going to make the configuration only in primary server SQL1.
Attache the database in SQL server

Right click on the database, "Attach"

In the attaching step, remove the log and click OK.
Next, right click on "AdventureWorks" database and change the recovery mode to "Full"

Now, we need to backup the database, otherwise you cannot join the database to the high availability group.

3.5. Configuration High Availability Cluster for SQL Server:

Some changes in the SQL Server Service are needed for the cluster, so go to "SQL Server Configuration Manager" - "SQL Server Services" - "SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER)"

Right click on the service the "Properties"

Go to "AlwaysON High Availability" tab and check "Enable AlwaysOn Availability Groups"

We need to restart the service to take effect the changes

In "Log On" tab, Change the SQL Server Service account, this account should has the right to access to the two servers.

Restart the SQL Server Service.

3.6. Configuration High Availability Group:

Go to "AlwaysOn High Availability" - Availability Groups"

Click on " New Availability Group Wizard"

Give a name for the group

Select the database that you want to join, in our case "AdventureWorks"

Add the secondary server, click "Add Replica"

Enter the name of the secondary server (SQL2)

 In "Replicas" tab, select "Automatic Failover", "Synchronous Commit" and change to Yes "Readable secondary"

In  "Backup Preferences" select "Prefer Secondary" and change the pariority of the second server more than the primary.

In "Listener" tab, create a listener, give a name for the lister, IP address and a port. Our case I will use port 1433

Create a shared folder in SQL1

Click Next

 Right click on the Availability Group and check the dashboard

Our Database is synchronizing. To check if the failover is working I will reboot the primary server and see if the database will move the secondary server SQL2

After rebooting the Database "AdventureWorks" is on SQL2