VSTS support for Windows Server 2008 R2

Posted on June 9, 2017 by IT Tech Log

I ran into a few issues when using Visual Studio Release Management in combination with Windows Server 2008 R2. Eventually I got it to work, but it took quite some troubleshooting.

In VSTS RM I would like to use a PowerShell script that runs from the network.

Before 2008 R2 can be used, there are a few prerequisites that need to be in place on your target before we can start, these are:

The .NET Framework 4 or higher
PowerShell 4

After these were in place there was an error:

AuthorizationManager check failed

A command that prompts the user failed because the host program or the command type does not support user interaction. The host was attempting to request confirmation with the following message: Run only scripts that you trust. While scripts from the internet can be useful, this script can potentially harm your computer. If you trust this script, use the Unblock-File cmdlet to allow the script to run without this warning message. Do you want to run Script.ps1?

This indicates that the file is blocked, but when I run the PowerShell command:

Get-Content -Path ‘.\Script.ps1’ -Stream Zone.Identifier

to find out if the file is blocked (more explanation here) it does not display any blocked files. If it did, I could run Dir .\ –recurse | unblock-file

Then I tried run “winmgmt /salvagerepository” as decribed here. No success

In the end it turned out that the network location isn’t trusted so I needed to log on to the target server with the account I use in VSTS RM to run the script and when logged on to the server, add file://*.<domain name> to the Local Intranet sites. Or only the network location that needs to be trusted.

In the PowerShell step in VSTS RM it is necessary to add the domain suffix to the location of the script otherwise it will still not work. After this is done, the script will run perfectly.

Posted in Microsoft General, Scripts | Tagged AuthorizationManager; VSTS; Release Management; VIsual Studio Team Services; PowerShell; Unblock-File | Leave a comment

Integrate Azure Active Directory Authentication to your website

Posted on March 3, 2017 by IT Tech Log

This blog post is from march 2017. The cloud changes fast so it could be outdated at the moment you read it.

To provide a secure sign in and authorization to your website you will need Azure Active Directory or any other Authentication Provider like Facebook, Twitter or Google. In this blog we will use Azure Active Directory.

We will also use a Web App in Azure and an MVC website build in Visual Studio.

You can download the files and components we will need from here.
Open adalTemplate.js and search for <replace> . Replace <replace> with an actual value.

Logical design

Let’s look at the logical design and how the components integrate and are dependent on each other:

At this step I assume that you have Azure Active Directory and have created a Web App in Azure.

We start at building a website in Visual Studio. Create a new MVC website:

2. Drag ADAL.js and jquery-3.1.1.min into the project Solution Explorer. You can download them here.

3. Open _Layout.cshtml

4. Drag ADAL.JS and jquery-3.1.1.min into the code of the front page

5. Open Index.cshtml

6. Under the ADAL.JS section, create a script tag:

7. Paste the content of the adalTemplate.JS file between the Script tags

8. Change the values between all the <> sections. For example <TenantID> and <AppID>

Needs to be between “”

ClientID is the Application ID of the Application in Azure Active Directory Applications

9. Change the redirect URL to the URL of your website:

Now the website is configured to redirect incoming requests to the Azure AD for authorization.

GRAPH API

The next step is to use the GRAPH API to get a list of users from Azure AD displayed on our website.

1. In Index.cshtml, the code for the GRAPH API should be pasted in line 131.

Code example:

2. In Index.cshtml, in div class=”jumbotron” add ID=”Items” to the DIV

Active Directory Configuration

1. Log on to Azure, go to Azure Active Directory and create a new application using the values in the next screenshots

The reply URL are the websites where Azure AD is allowed to send the token to.

Permissions are used to give the token access to certain information in Azure AD. Some information requires admin access but to read the user info and to read the basic profiles of all users, no admin access is needed. Only select those two options.

The keys section is only used if the application authenticates and not the user, since we want the user to authenticate, the keys section in not necessary.

Azure Web App configuration

Now that a new application is configured in Azure AD, it is time to set up the Web App.

1. Log on to Azure, Go to the Azure Web App

2. Enable App Service Authentication.

3. Select Advanced and paste in the Client ID (this is the Application ID of the Application in Azure AD).

Now when you open the created website, it asks you to log on and afterwards displays a list of users.

Tags:

odata.error
Insufficient privileges to complete the operation
Azure Active Directory
Web App
ADAL
response_type ‘token’ is not supported for the application
oauth2AllowImplicitFlow

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Active Directory, ADAL, Azure, oAuth, Web App | 2 Comments

TFS Release Management trigger script fails after upgrade from 2013 to 2015 (Update 3)

Posted on November 23, 2016 by IT Tech Log

We are using TFS 2013 Release Management to do deployements. This works great after some modifications (the out-of-box product isn’t that good). One of the modifications is that we use a PowerShell script to trigger releases instead of the option Can trigger release from build

Our 2013 script is:

 <#
        .NOTES
        #------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        # Date		    : 08-01-2016
        # Script name  	    : Start-ReleaseManagerBuild.ps1
        # Description  	    : Starts a build from a TFS build.
        #
        # Created by        : Ralph Jansen 
        # Extra module      : 
        # Copyright         : ©2015 all rights reserved.
        # History           : RJA 08-01-2016 Initial version
        #
        #------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        
        .DESCRIPTION
        Starts a build from a TFS build.
        
#>

param(
    [string]$releasetemplatename = $Args[0],
    [string]$releasename = $Args[1],  
    [string]$targetstagename = $Args[2])   

cls

$username = "<domain>\<username>"
$password = "<password>"
$secstr = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.SecureString
$password.ToCharArray() | ForEach-Object {$secstr.AppendChar($_)}
$credentials = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $username, $secstr


$rmServer = "tfs" 

$builddefinition = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($env:TF_BUILD_BUILDDEFINITIONNAME)
$build = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($env:TF_BUILD_BUILDNUMBER)

$baseEndpointUrl = "http://$($rmServer):1000/account/releaseManagementService/_apis/releaseManagement" 
$configurationServiceUrl = "$baseEndpointUrl/ConfigurationService" 
$releaseDefinitionServiceUrl = "$baseEndpointUrl/ReleaseDefinitionService" 
$orchestratorServiceUrl = "$baseEndpointUrl/OrchestratorService" 

$escapedUsername = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($credentials.UserName) 
$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$configurationServiceUrl/GetUserByUserName?userName=$escapedUsername&api-version=3.0" 
$userId = $responseXml.Result.User.Id 


$body = "<Filter StatusId='2' IsDeleted='0' UserId='$userId' />" 
$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$releaseDefinitionServiceUrl/ListReleaseDefinitions?api-version=3.0" -Body $body 
$applicationVersionElt = $responseXml.ApplicationVersionList.ApplicationVersion |  
Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "$releaseTemplateName" } 
$applicationVersionId = $applicationVersionElt.Id 
$releasePathId = $applicationVersionElt.ReleasePathId 


$body = "<Filter ApplicationVersionId='$applicationVersionId' LockRequested='1' LockRequestedById='$userId' />" 
$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$configurationServiceUrl/GetApplicationVersion?api-version=3.0" -Body $body 
$componentNames = $responseXml.ApplicationVersion.Components.Component.Name 


$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$configurationServiceUrl/GetReleasePath?id=$releasePathId&api-version=3.0" 
$targetStageElt = $responseXml.ReleasePath.Stages.Stage |  
Where-Object { $_.StageTypeName -eq $targetStageName } 
$targetStageId = $targetStageElt.Id 


if ("$releaseName" -eq $null) {$releaseName = "Release: $([DateTime]::Now.ToString('G'))"}
 

$genericProperties = @( 

 """ReleaseName"":""$releaseName""", 

 """ReleaseBuild"":null", 

 """ReleaseBuildChangeset"":null", 

 """TargetStageId"":""$targetStageId""" 

) 

$componentProperties = ($componentNames | ForEach-Object { """$($_):Build"":""$build""" }) 
$json = "{" + ($genericProperties + $componentProperties -join ",`n") + "}" 

$escapedReleaseTemplateName = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($releaseTemplateName)
$propertyBag = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($json)
$releaseId = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$orchestratorServiceUrl/InitiateRelease?releaseTemplateName=$escapedReleaseTemplateName&deploymentPropertyBag=$propertyBag&api-version=3.0"


$statusId = Invoke-RestMethod -Credential $credentials -Uri "$orchestratorServiceUrl/ReleaseStatus?releaseId=$releaseId"
$statusMapping = @("?", "NotStarted", "InProgress", "Released", "Stopped", "Rejected", "Abandoned" )
$statusMapping[$statusId]

PasteBIN url

Since the upgrade to 2015 U3 this script doesn’t work anymore and gave a “Permission Denied” error in the PowerShell window.

In the Event Log of the TFS server there was an entry:

Event code: 3005 
Event message: An unhandled exception has occurred. 
Event time: 11/23/2016 4:56:06 PM 
Event time (UTC): 11/23/2016 3:56:06 PM 
Event ID: 8de0118d17904ffd9031c36c4373480f 
Event sequence: 13983 
Event occurrence: 42 
Event detail code: 0 
 
Application information: 
    Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/3/ROOT-1-131243652270020196 
    Trust level: Full 
    Application Virtual Path: / 
    Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Release Management\services\ 
    Machine name: <server> 
 
Process information: 
    Process ID: 5380 
    Process name: w3wp.exe 
    Account name: <account>
 
Exception information: 
    Exception type: IncompatibleVersionException 
    Exception message: Current client version (3) is not compatible with the server version (7.0). You must upgrade the client.
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Release.Services.WebRequestValidators.HttpRequestValidator.IsRequestAuthorized(HttpRequestBase httpRequestBase)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Release.Services.WebRequestValidators.ServiceModuleAuthorizer.OnAuthorize(HttpContextBase httpContextBase, Action completeRequest)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Release.Services.ServiceModule.<>c__DisplayClass0_0.<Init>b__1(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

 
 
Request information: 
    Request URL: http://<server>:1000/account/releaseManagementService/_apis/releaseManagement/ReleaseDefinitionService/ListReleaseDefinitions?api-version=3.0 
    Request path: /account/releaseManagementService/_apis/releaseManagement/ReleaseDefinitionService/ListReleaseDefinitions 
    User host address: <ip address>
    User: <username>
    Is authenticated: True 
    Authentication Type: Negotiate 
    Thread account name: <username>
 
Thread information: 
    Thread ID: 8 
    Thread account name: <username>
    Is impersonating: False 
    Stack trace:    at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Release.Services.WebRequestValidators.HttpRequestValidator.IsRequestAuthorized(HttpRequestBase httpRequestBase)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Release.Services.WebRequestValidators.ServiceModuleAuthorizer.OnAuthorize(HttpContextBase httpContextBase, Action completeRequest)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Release.Services.ServiceModule.<>c__DisplayClass0_0.<Init>b__1(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)
 
 
Custom event details:

The Current client version (3) line triggered me to change this in the script to version 7.0. So the trigger script now is:


 <#
        .NOTES
        #------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        # Date		    : 23-11-2016
        # Script name  	    : Start-ReleaseManagerBuild.ps1
        # Description  	    : Starts a build from a TFS build for Release Management 2015 (U3)
        #
        # Created by        : Ralph Jansen
        # Extra module      : 
        # Copyright         : ©2015 All rights reserved.
        # History           : RJA 08-01-2016 Initial version
        #
        #------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        
        .DESCRIPTION
        Starts a build from a TFS build.
        
#>

param(
    [string]$releasetemplatename = $Args[0],
    [string]$releasename = $Args[1],  
    [string]$targetstagename = $Args[2])   

cls

$username = "<account>"
$password = "<password>"
$secstr = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.SecureString
$password.ToCharArray() | ForEach-Object {$secstr.AppendChar($_)}
$credentials = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $username, $secstr


$rmServer = "<servername>" 

$builddefinition = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($env:TF_BUILD_BUILDDEFINITIONNAME)
$build = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($env:TF_BUILD_BUILDNUMBER)

$baseEndpointUrl = "http://$($rmServer):1000/account/releaseManagementService/_apis/releaseManagement" 
$configurationServiceUrl = "$baseEndpointUrl/ConfigurationService" 
$releaseDefinitionServiceUrl = "$baseEndpointUrl/ReleaseDefinitionService" 
$orchestratorServiceUrl = "$baseEndpointUrl/OrchestratorService" 

$escapedUsername = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($credentials.UserName) 
$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$configurationServiceUrl/GetUserByUserName?userName=$escapedUsername&api-version=3.0" 
$userId = $responseXml.Result.User.Id 


$body = "<Filter StatusId='2' IsDeleted='0' UserId='$userId' />" 
$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$releaseDefinitionServiceUrl/ListReleaseDefinitions?api-version=7.0" -Body $body 
$applicationVersionElt = $responseXml.ApplicationVersionList.ApplicationVersion |  
Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "$releaseTemplateName" } 
$applicationVersionId = $applicationVersionElt.Id 
$releasePathId = $applicationVersionElt.ReleasePathId 


$body = "<Filter ApplicationVersionId='$applicationVersionId' LockRequested='1' LockRequestedById='$userId' />" 
$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$configurationServiceUrl/GetApplicationVersion?api-version=7.0" -Body $body 
$componentNames = $responseXml.ApplicationVersion.Components.Component.Name 


$responseXml = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$configurationServiceUrl/GetReleasePath?id=$releasePathId&api-version=7.0" 
$targetStageElt = $responseXml.ReleasePath.Stages.Stage |  
Where-Object { $_.StageTypeName -eq $targetStageName } 
$targetStageId = $targetStageElt.Id 


if ("$releaseName" -eq $null) {$releaseName = "Release: $([DateTime]::Now.ToString('G'))"}
 

$genericProperties = @( 

 """ReleaseName"":""$releaseName""", 

 """ReleaseBuild"":null", 

 """ReleaseBuildChangeset"":null", 

 """TargetStageId"":""$targetStageId""" 

) 

$componentProperties = ($componentNames | ForEach-Object { """$($_):Build"":""$build""" }) 
$json = "{" + ($genericProperties + $componentProperties -join ",`n") + "}" 

$escapedReleaseTemplateName = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($releaseTemplateName)
$propertyBag = [System.Uri]::EscapeDataString($json)
$releaseId = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Credential $credentials -Uri "$orchestratorServiceUrl/InitiateRelease?releaseTemplateName=$escapedReleaseTemplateName&deploymentPropertyBag=$propertyBag&api-version=3.0"


$statusId = Invoke-RestMethod -Credential $credentials -Uri "$orchestratorServiceUrl/ReleaseStatus?releaseId=$releaseId"
$statusMapping = @("?", "NotStarted", "InProgress", "Released", "Stopped", "Rejected", "Abandoned" )
$statusMapping[$statusId]

PasteBIN URL

Now it works fine, so changing the version is necessary to fix the script.

Posted in Scripts | Tagged PowerShell, Release Management, TFS | Leave a comment

Apply IP restrictions to an Azure Storage Account

Posted on July 13, 2016 by IT Tech Log

A Storage Account in Azure has two account keys which can be used to access the Storage Account. These keys give complete permission to the Storage Account so it is very important to keep these keys private.

Another way to assign permissions to a Storage Account is to use Shared Access Signatures (SAS). SAS is a powerful way to grant limited access to a storage account to other clients, without having to expose your account key.

It is also possible to configure specific options for a SAS to, for example:

Expiry Time
IP addresses
Start Time
Protocol (HttpsOnly or HttpsOrHttp)

To generate SAS keys, access to the Azure PowerShell modules (http://aka.ms/webpi-azps) is required. When ready, the following PowerShell command can be used to generate a SAS key. It uses the following options:

The permission is rdwl (read, delete, write, list).
Access is granted on Services, Containers and Objects.
Only clients connecting from the IP addresses 154.132.123.212-154.132.123.218 can connect.
The service is set to Blob (options are Blob, File, Queue, Table).
The expiry time is long because by default it is a few hours before the key becomes invalid.

Get-AzureRmStorageAccount `
-StorageAccountName mystorageaccountname `
-ResourceGroupName myresourcegroup | `

New-AzureStorageAccountSASToken `
-Permission rwdl `
-ResourceType Service,Container,Object `
-Service blob `
-IPAddressOrRange 154.132.123.212-154.132.123.218 `
-ExpiryTime 1/1/2099

The output is a SAS key, like this:

?sv=2015-04-05&sig=9mS7XDJU%2Fajbq4D0gCDqb8NJsc7ztbu%2BubSuS
nnYqkQ%3D&spr=https%2Chttp&sip=154.132.123.212-154.132.123.2
18&se=2016-07-11T12%3A14%3A36Z&srt=sco&ss=b&sp=rwdl

This key can be given to a client to use it.

For example, to upload a file you can use this SAS key in combination with AzCopy (the tool from Microsoft to copy files to a Storage Account).

Download AzCopy from here.
Open a Command Prompt and run the command:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\AzCopy.exe” /source:C:\Fol\ /dest:https://<storageaccount>.blob.core.windows.net/<container> /destsas:”?sv=2015-04-05&sig=9mS7XDJU%2Fajbq4D0gCDqb8NJsc7ztbu%2
BubSuSnnYqkQ%3D&spr=https%2Chttp&sip=154.132.12
3.212-154.132.123.218&se=2016-07-11T12%3A14%3A36Z&srt=sco&ss=b&sp=rwdl” /s

This Command Line will upload the files in the folder C:\Fol to an Azure Storage Account Container using the SAS key.

Posted in Cloud | Tagged Azure, IP Restriction, Permissions, SAS Key, Security, Storage Account | Leave a comment

Manage network access to a HDInsight Cluster

Posted on July 13, 2016 by IT Tech Log

Azure HDInsight is an Apache Hadoop distribution powered by the cloud. This means that it handles any amount of data, scaling from terabytes to petabytes on demand. Spin up any number of nodes at any time.

Since HDInsight is a PaaS offering, it is by default publicly accessable from any internet connection. The cluster contains often valuable data of customers. These customers also have requirements how to securely connect to this data, for example using IP restrictions so only their block of IP addresses can connect to the cluster.

In this article we are going to secure the HDInsight cluster so only IP adresses that we specify can connect to it.

Log in to Azure using http://portal.azure.com
You must have a Virtual Network (vNet) to continue, if you don’t have a vNet yet, create one. This is mandatory.
Click on +New
Search for HDInsight
Select the HDInsight Cluster
Click on Create
Give the HDInsight Cluster a name
Select the correct Cluster Type and Version
Enter the correct credentials
Give the Storage Account and the Container a name
Select the correct sizing of your cluster.
Be aware that there is a default quota of 60 cores for a Subscription. This can be increased by raising a Support Request.
See https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-limits-quotas-increase-requests/ for more information about quotas.
Click on Optional Configuration and select Virtual Network
Select the correct vNet:
Select the correct Subscription
Click on Create and wait 30 minutes:
Now that the HDInsight Cluster is created it is accessible from the public internet. This is something many customers want to prevent, so we need to secure it.
Since HDInsight is connected to a Private Network, we can assign a Network Security Group (NSG) and then create Inbound Security Rules to allow (not deny) traffic.

Microsoft requires access from some IP adresses for managebility. They provide a PowerShell script to create the Network Security Group and give these addresses access to access the cluster. This script can be downloaded here.
The adjusted script for the environment above, can be seen here.
It is necessary to modify the script and run it. It will create the Network Security Group and have the Microsoft address as inbound rules.
Note: you cannot set Outbound Security Rules on the Network Security Group.
Add your own public address, like your datacenter, home IP or office WiFi ip addresses as Inbound Security Rule

Now the HDInsight cluster is only available from the addresses and ports that you specified in the Inbound Security Rules.

Posted in Cloud | Tagged Azure, HDInsight Cluster, IP Restriction, Permissions, Public IP, SAS Key, Security, vNet | Leave a comment

TFS / NuGet error–Missing package

Posted on March 17, 2016 by IT Tech Log

Error:

S:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 12.0\Tools\nuget.exe restore “S:\Build\8\<name>\<name>\src\<name>.sln” -NonInteractive

WARNING: Unable to connect to the remote server

Unable to find version ‘1.2.2’ of package ‘elmah’.

Unable to find version ‘1.2.2’ of package ‘elmah.corelibrary’

Solution:

0. Connect to the internet

1. Open Visual Studio

2. Open the Project

3. Open Tools, NuGet Package Manager, Package Manager Console.

4. Enter: Get-Package -ListAvailable -Filter <name of package>
for example Get-Package -ListAvailable -Filter elmah

5. Enter Install-Package <name>
For example: Install-Package elmah

Repeat for each missing package.

6. In Source Control Explorer, right click on the Packages folder of the Project.

7. Click on Add Items to Folder, add the new folders in the local Packages folder.

8. In Source Control Explorer, right click on the Packages folder of the Project.

9. Click on Check in Pending Changes

Rebuild the solution.

Posted in Microsoft General | Tagged Missing Package, NuGet, Team Foundation Services, TFS, Visual Studio Team Services, VSTS | Leave a comment

Error presenting PowerPoint file in Skype for Business

Posted on March 10, 2016 by IT Tech Log

“<filename>.pptx couldn’t be converted to presentation because Visual Basic for Application (VBA) is not installed on this computer. Please install VBA and try again”

1. Open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel, select Microsoft Office (Professional Plus) 2013 client and click Change

2. Select Add or Remove Features and click on Continue

3. Expand Office Shared Features and check if Visual Basic for Application has been installed.

4. Click on Continue

5. Restart Skype for Business and re-try to present the PowerPoint file.

Posted in Microsoft General | Tagged PowerPoint, Skype for Business | Leave a comment

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IT Tech Log

VSTS support for Windows Server 2008 R2

Integrate Azure Active Directory Authentication to your website

Logical design

GRAPH API

Active Directory Configuration

Azure Web App configuration

TFS Release Management trigger script fails after upgrade from 2013 to 2015 (Update 3)

Apply IP restrictions to an Azure Storage Account

Manage network access to a HDInsight Cluster

TFS / NuGet error–Missing package

Error presenting PowerPoint file in Skype for Business

Ralph Jansen – Author IT Tech Log

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