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(Edit 17th May 2015: This issue has been resolved by Microsoft and Alternate Login IDs are now fully supported with the ConfigMgr/Intune hybrid solution. This involved updates to the Intune service. The WiKi article (referenced below) has been edited to reflect this. Thanks for the information Stefan Schörling and Jörgen Nilsson.)
I hope that this blog post helps other Consultants to avoid the trap that I fell into. "Alternate Login IDs" are a really cool new feature of Windows Server 2012 R2 Update. They are described in detail here
DirSync: Using Alternate Login IDs with Azure Active Directory
The process involves:
- Modifying the DirSync attribute flow for UserPrincipalName for provisioning/sync
- Leveraging the Alternate Login ID feature of AD FS for Single Sign-On authentication
The concept is particularly useful for customers that cannot or will not change their on-premise UserPrincipalNames to use a different routable domain (changing the UPN is one of the first steps we have to do when deploying ConfigMgr/Intune). It works really well to authenticate your users in Azure for Office 365. An AD account with the UPN gerry.hampson@contoso.local can now synchronise with a cloud identity gerry.hampson@contoso.com. Lovely. The end result looks exactly the same as if we implemented using UPNs.
However, it doesn't work with the Unified Device Management solution of ConfigMgr 2012 and Intune. This is because ConfigMgr handles AD user accounts differently. When a user is first discovered all the AD attributes are committed to the ConfigMgr database. This includes the UPN (eg. gerry.hampson@contoso.local). When I add this user to my "Intune Users" collection this change cannot be synchronised to Intune. The CloudUserSync log tells us that the internal AD UPN is being used to sync to Azure. As the DirSync Direct Mapping is not involved in this process it fails - UserNotFound. Of course it does - gerry.hampson@contoso.local does not exist in Azure.
The article above has warned me that I might have a problem:
"If you are an InTune Hybrid customers using the SCCM Connector there may be additional configuration required. Please contact your Account representative for more information."
I contacted Microsoft CSS for this "additional configuration". They were aware of this shortcoming. There is no supported solution at this time - and no estimated time for a possible solution. The suggested workaround is to run a script on the ConfigMgr database to change the UPN for the user accounts to use the public routable domain. Clearly this is not supported so I don't think it's a great idea.
A recent customer engagement had several phases. Phase 1 was an Office 365 migration. They were very pleased to implement the new features so that UPNs did not have to be changed. Phase 2 was the ConfigMgr/Intune solution - guess what - UPNs now had to be changed. It's a real shame because Alternate Login IDs are a cracking new feature.
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DirectAccess has become a vital resource in many enterprise environments. We implement High Availability for technologies like SQL and Exchange so why should DirectAccess be any different? The good news is that it's easy to do so.
We've previously deployed a single server DirectAccess solution (lets call this server RAS1). Then we moved the NLS to a remote web server. Now we will implement HA for the solution. The following are the basic steps.
- Add NLB feature to RAS1
- Build new Windows 2012R2 Server RAS2
- Add Remote Access role and NLB feature to RAS2
- Export IPHTTPS listener certificate from RAS1 and import to RAS2
- Enable MAC spoofing on virtual NICs
- Enable Load Balancing
- Add second server to Load Balanced cluster
1. Add NLB feature to RAS1
3. Add Remote Access role and NLB feature to RAS2
4. Export IPHTTPS listener certificate from RAS1 and import to RAS2
Export certificate from RAS1
Import to RAS1
5. Virtual NICs
Enable MAC spoofing
Enable MAC spoofing on the virtual NICs of RAS1 and RAS2
Second NIC
You can implement this solution with a single NIC per server. However it is better practice to use two. The second NIC, for NLB communication, should be configured in separate subnet with no default gateway.
6. Enable Load Balancing
Launch the Remote Access Management console on RAS1.. Open the configuration.
On the bottom right of the window select "Enable Load Balancing".
The "Enable Load Balancing" wizard is launched. Click Next.
Choose NLB as the cluster method (note that you can configure the solution to use an external load balancer).
Enter an available IP address. The wizard is quite smart here. It knows that DirectAccess is already working with a single server solution (RAS1). DNS records and firewall rules have been created and we don't want to have to amend these. Therefore the wizard swaps the IP addresses.
The working dedicated IP address of RAS1 (DIP) becomes the Virtual IP address of the NLB cluster (VIP).
The new available IP address becomes the IP address of RAS1. Pretty clever.....
Verify the settings and "Commit".
Review progress.
Click Close to return to the wizard.
Verify success and close the wizard.
See what has happened. A load balanced cluster has been created with a single node (RAS1).
Note that the IP address of RAS1 has changed.
7. Add second server to cluster
Now, on the bottom right of the Remote Access Management configuration window, choose "Add or Remove Servers".
Select "Add Server".
Browse to choose RAS2.
Ensure that the correct NIC is selected.
Verify the settings and click Add.
Close the wizard.
"Commit" the changes.
Verify progress.
Close the "Adding or Removing Servers" wizard.
See that the second node has been added to the load balanced cluster.
Verify that the nodes are operating correctly.
Issues Encountered
I encountered a couple of issues during this configuration.
Firstly the wizard did not seem to add both nodes to the NLB cluster. When I opened the Network Load BaIancing Manager I noticed that only one node was present. I had to add the second node manually.
Also, my DirectAccess solution broke after I introduced NLB. I found that this was due to the fact that my customer had a series of firewalls with some kind of one-to-one NATing throughout. This played havoc with the NLB traffic. This was solved by introducing Dynamic NAT rules.
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Previously we implemented Direct Access in five easy steps using a single server. In production additional configuration is required to implement a best practice solution.
The Network Location Server is a key component of DirectAccess. Its purpose is to detect whether computers configured as DirectAccess clients are located in the corporate network. When clients are in the corporate network, DirectAccess is not used to reach internal resources. Instead, clients connect to internal resources directly.
The network location server is simply a Web site with an HTTPS server certificate. It should be located on a remote web server (not the DirectAccess server - which has the Remote Access role). It is also good practice to have multiple NLS servers in a Highly Available configuration.
This blog post demonstrates how to move the NLS configuration to a remote web server.
First you need a web server. Install IIS as normal.
Next you will need an SSL certificate. Note that you can use a self-signed certificate when the NLS is co-located with the DirectAccess server. However you can't on a remote web server.
In my example I used my Internal CA and requested a certificate using the Web Server template (using the Certificates Snap-In).
See that further information is required.
The Common Name is the FQDN of the web server (eg nlsweb.contoso.local).
Web Server certificate has been installed.
Add https to site binding and configure to use the new certificate.
Now, back at the DirectAccess server, open the Remote Access Management console.
Edit the Infrastructure Servers section (Step 3).
Enter the URL of the remote server (in the format https://nlsweb.contoso.local) and click to Validate. You will not be able to continue if the URL is incorrect and you cannot validate.
Apply the new settings.
Close the wizard.
Now test your configuration. DirectAccess clients should still be able to connect as normal.
Back to Endpoint Protection menu
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The best SCEP troubleshooting information that I've encountered can be found in a single TechNet blog post by Mary Hutson. It is a collection of the top Microsoft Support solutions for the most common issues experienced when using System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection and it is updated quarterly.
It contains information and solutions in the following areas:
- Solutions related to malware not cleaned, detected, or quarantined
- Solutions related to SCEP Client Problems
- Solutions related to Definition deployment issues
- Solutions related to Client Policy editing, policy deployment, or policy adherence
- Solutions related to Client Application compatibility (another application has problems)
You can find the blog post here.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/topsupportsolutions/archive/2014/02/04/top-support-solutions-for-system-center-endpoint-protection-2012.aspx
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Back to MDM Menu
Previously with ConfigMgr 2012 and Windows Intune it had not been possible to collect the IMEI from mobile devices with regular inventory. This was a real issue for Mobile Device Administrators. The IMEI is crucial information to have when dealing with the device vendors and Telcos.
However, recently, Cory Ferro (Program Manager, Enterprise Client and Mobility - Microsoft) published an excellent workaround which allows you to retrieve the IMEI for Windows Phone 8.1 devices. You can find it here and it really works.
This is an extract from the article:
"Windows Phone 8.1 has added a CSP to allow a GET request for the device’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), a unique identifier for a mobile device. Inventory collection of mobile device IMEIs is not enabled by default, however it is possible to retrieve the value of Configuration Service Providers (CSP) nodes through inventory, provided these nodes provide GET operations. The steps provided below show you how to define a new inventory class using MOF (which will use URIs for the nodes/properties of interest), and importing the new class into Configuration Manager. Refer to the Windows Phone 8.1 MDM protocol documentation for information on available CSPs and properties."
The basic steps required are:
1. Create a MOF file from the text published by Cory
2. Save the file xxxx.MOF
3. Import the MOF to ConfigMgr Inventory classes
4. Create and run the query (instructions in Cory's blog). You may have to wait for a short while for the information to populate (a couple of hours for me).
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My blog has been referenced as recommended reading in the new ConfigMgr 2012 book by Kent Agerlund. Thanks Kent.
System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager: Mastering the Fundamentals, 3rd Edition, published by Deployment Artist, can be purchased from Amazon
