Tim's blog

A Microsoft Field Consultant's Notes

How to Add the OMS Client to a VM Scale Set

I was asked by a customer to add the OMS client to an Azure VM ScaleSet (VMSS). This is not...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/09/2018

Stand Alone Service Fabric Error=EndpointProviderPortRangeExhausted

I ran into an issue with a customer wherein they had set up an on-premise, or stand-alone, Service...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/14/2017

Where Did Application Insights Put my Performance Counter Data?

I ran into an issue finding performance counter values I had pushed to Application Insights and...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 11/30/2017

Controlling the Number of Outgoing Connections From HttpClient (.Net Core or Full Framework)

Although there are references to this all over the web for full framework, I had trouble finding it...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 10/23/2017

Add Azure Antimalware Extension to a VM Scale Set

If you're running a Windows Server 2016 base image, ignore this post because we've built Windows...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 03/08/2017

How to Trap Uncaught Exceptions and Avoid 5xx Errors in ASP.Net WebAPI

I was recently writing a WebAPI 2.x project for a customer that involved file IO, decompression, and...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 03/04/2017

How to Remove the Server Header from WebListener

Sometimes enterprises or those hosting web sites wish to remove the Server HTTP response header so...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/03/2016

How Do I Set Up A .Net Core WebListener With SSL?

I've been doing a lot of research on Service Fabric and Windows Docker Containers lately. These are...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 11/04/2016

How Do I Open Ports with PowerShell?

If you have a history with Windows, you're probably used to using netsh to open ports on the Windows...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 11/04/2016

How to Use PowerShell DSC to Prepare a Data Drive on an Azure VM

Introduction I was asked how to automate formatting a data drive on an Azure VM. The drive had been...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/23/2016

How to Convert a VMWare VMDK to Hyper-V VHD

A customer, who is a VMWare shop, gave me a VMDK file of one of their VMs for development purposes....

Author: Tim Omta Date: 06/11/2015

C# Code to Zip Files and Upload to Azure Storage

If you need code to zip some files into an archive and upload it to Azure blob storage, here is a...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 05/27/2015

Script to Perform Azure SQL Premium Failover

** I believe this post is now out of date due to some recent work by the product team, though I have...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 03/26/2015

Automating SQL Service Account/Password Changes

I received a customer request to put together some PowerShell scripts to automate the SQL service...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 02/20/2014

I Never Have to Worry About Upgrading the OS on My Azure PaaS Roles, or do I?

You may think that if you're running a platform as a service application on Azure (PaaS), you never...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 01/17/2014

How to Script Disabling CRL Checking With Netsh and Powershell

I ran into a situation where I needed to automate disabling the certificate revocation list (CRL)...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 06/24/2013

IIS SSL: How To Powershell Script Client Cert Required

I recently was asked how to script the IIS SSL setting to require client certificates (see figure...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 06/22/2013

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2008 and newer RSWindowsKerberos AuthenticationType and IE Blank Screen

I was working on an issue with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2008R2 attempting to get a...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 06/13/2013

Help! I Lost a Disk From My Storage Spaces Mirror, How Do I Recover?

I love Server 2012 Storage Spaces because it provides me the opportunity to consolidate a bunch of...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 06/05/2013

Error: Proxy Authentication Required When Installing Azure PowerShell Cmdlets

Problem Background Recently I ran into an installation error with a customer attempting to install...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/20/2012

Setup Scenarios for SharePoint Foundation 2010: Server Farm

For overall context and prerequisites, please see the introduction to this series This is the most...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/20/2012

Setup Scenarios for SharePoint Foundation 2010: Standalone Server With Custom Index File Location

For overall context, please see the introduction to this series This is scenario only differs from...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/20/2012

Setup Scenarios for SharePoint Foundation 2010: Standalone Server

For overall context and prerequisites, please see the introduction to this series This is the...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/20/2012

Setup Scenarios for SharePoint Foundation 2010: Introduction (3 Scenarios)

I’m posting this for myself as much as for anyone else. I can’t count the times I needed...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 04/17/2012

Load Balanced Test Bed Part 5-Configuring the Cluster

Configuring the Cluster Part 5 of 5: For overall context, please see the introduction to this series...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/21/2011

Load Balanced Test Bed Part 4-Configuring the Nodes

Configuring the Nodes Part 4 of 5: For overall context, please see the introduction to this series...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/21/2011

Load Balanced Test Bed Part 3-Creating the Nodes

Creating the Nodes Part 3 of 5: For overall context, please see the introduction to this series In...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/21/2011

Load Balanced Test Bed Part 2-Networking Setup

Networking Setup Part 2 of 5: For overall context, please see the introduction to this series In...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/21/2011

Load Balanced Test Bed Part 1–Create a Base Image

Creating a Base Image Part 1 of 5: For overall context, please see the introduction to this series...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/21/2011

How To Create a Load Balanced Test Bed With Windows Server 2008 R2 (5 Part Series)

Introduction In large production web application environments, you can exceed the capacity of a...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/21/2011

How to Use Microsoft Word for Free

Update 8/27/2012: The specific steps below are now outdated. You may now use Office Web Apps by...

Author: Tim Omta Date: 12/20/2011