SharePoint, Office 365, Azure, and Other Musings…
September 24, 2018 Leave a comment
Registration is available for SharePoint Saturday New England on October 20 in Burlington, MA. We’ve also posted the agenda. You can find out everything about this year’s event on our Web site: https://SPSNewEngland.org
To register, please go to https://spsne.news/Register2018
We hope to see you this year!
March 23, 2018 Leave a comment
In case you missed my session last month at the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group, I will be delivering my session “Easily Integrating a Chat Bot into SharePoint” at the Granite State SharePoint Users Group next month, on Thursday, April 5th.
Chat Bots are very commonplace these days. They have been around for years, but advances in AI technology have allowed for a large growth and advances in this area. Microsoft has in preview a service called QnA Maker, that will allow you to create and build a Chat Bot that you can easily integrate into SharePoint using the Azure Bot Framework, all without writing a single line of code. Join me, and I’ll walk you through step-by-step on this process, along with discussing how and where Chat Bots can be used to provide better adoption and support to your users.
Click here for more information and to register! Hope to see you there!
March 20, 2018 Leave a comment
Minimal Download Strategy… the bane of pretty much everyone’s existence… well, at least in SharePoint. Especially if you’re using JavaScript (who would do that?!). It’s useless. And while it was created for a good purpose, I have yet to come across a client that actually needed it over the pains it generally causes.
I recently had a client ask me to remove it from everything (hear that large cheering section in the stadium?)… so I threw together a script that will disable it from every site in a web application. Here she is!
# Load the SharePoint PowerShell Module… if not running this in the SharePoint Console…
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell –ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
# URL to our web application
$WebApp = "https://sharepoint.sharepont.sharepoint.com"
# Get all webs within a web application
$Webs = Get-SPWebApplication $WebApp | Get-SPSite -Limit All | Get-SPWeb -Limit All# Loop through said webs
foreach ($Web in $Webs)
{
# Is MDS enabled?
$MDSEnabled = Get-SPFeature -web $Web.URL | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -eq "MDSFeature"}
# If it is… disable it!
if ($MDSEnabled -ne $null)
{
Disable-SPFeature –identity "MDSFeature" -URL $Web.URL -confirm:$false
}
}
March 16, 2018 Leave a comment
Recently ran into an issue where I needed to reset the SQL sa account password. The problem is, no one had administrative access to the SQL instance. However, we did have local administrator access. As of SQL Server 2008, being the local admin, or, being part of the local administrators group does not automatically give you sysadmin access to SQL.
I tried a few methods out there, but nothing seemed to work… finally stumbled across this post on MSSQLTips https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2682/recover-access-to-a-sql-server-instance/
The article explains that launching SQL Server Management Studio using PsExec, launches it as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, which does have access to SQL Server by default. Was able to pop into SQL, and reset the sa account password.
.\PsExec -s -i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe"
It took longer to download and extract the Sysinternals tools than to actually do the work. Saved me a lot of time!
March 12, 2018 Leave a comment
Join us from anywhere! For the first time we’re doing a Skype-only meeting. Read the below for more information, and go here to register! Skype details will be mailed out tomorrow to all registered attendees after registration closes at 5PM EST.
The Boston Area SharePoint Users Group (BASPUG) was founded to bring together like minds to network and share their experiences, triumphs, and tribulations around Microsoft SharePoint, to provide a community platform for Boston area SharePoint users, administrators, developers, architects, of all experience levels, even brand new to SharePoint, to share their knowledge with the community.
THIS MEETING WILL BE ONLINE ONLY OVER SKYPE! MEETING DETAILS WILL BE SENT OUT THE DAY OF THE MEETING AFTER REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED TO ALL REGISTERED ATTENDEES!
The new SharePoint Framework allows development of client side web parts that work on both modern and classic SharePoint pages. In this session you’ll learn how to put the Framework to work building and deploying these web parts. You’ll learn how to develop web parts that are editable from the SharePoint page, and that are responsive and look like part of the overall SharePoint experience. Don’t miss this opportunity to hit the ground running with this new SharePoint development model.
Andrew Connell is a full stack web developer with a focus on Microsoft Azure & Office 365, specifically the Office 365 APIs, SharePoint, Microsoft’s .NET Framework / .NET Core, Angular, Node.js and Docker that enjoys development, writing & teaching… if it’s cutting edge web you will find Andrew there! He has received Microsoft’s MVP award every year since 2005 and has helped thousands of developers through the various courses he’s authored and taught both in-person & in online courses. Recently he launched his own on-demand video platform, Voitanos (https://www.voitanos.io) to deliver his on-demand video training.
Throughout the years Andrew has been fortunate enough to share what he has learned at conferences like Microsoft’s TechEd, Build, Ignite & SharePoint conferences, Angular’s ngConf & AngularU, SPTechCon, SP Live 360, and Techorama among many others all around the world in North America, Europe, Asia & Australia. You can find Andrew on his popular blog (http://www.andrewconnell.com), follow him on Twitter @andrewconnell, check out some of the numerous projects he’s involved in on GitHub (http://www.github.com/andrewconnell) or listen to his popular weekly podcast, The Microsoft Cloud Show (http://www.microsoftcloudshow.com), which is focused on Microsoft cloud services such as Azure and Office 365 as well as the competitive cloud landscape.
For the first time, we’ll be doing a completely remote meeting over Skype! Skype meeting details will sent out after registration has closed on the day of the meeting, around 5PM on March 13, 2018. So, please register in advance to make sure you receive the details!
LINKED IN
Join our group on LinkedIn today to connect with the rest of the BASPUG members, and spread the word!
FACEBOOK
We are also on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Boston-Area-SharePoint-User-Group/113652405354617
TWITTER
Follow news about the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on twitter by following us @BASPUG, and by using the hashtag #BASPUG
WEB
Visit the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group website at http://www.bostonsharepointug.org
ORGANIZERS
Event meetings are organized by Geoff Varosky of BlueMetal and James Restivo of Crow Canyon Systems.
Please visit The Boston SharePoint Area Users Group page for more event details!
Have questions about Boston Area SharePoint Users Group March 13, 2018 Meeting? Contact Boston Area SharePoint Users Group
March 2, 2018 2 Comments
If you’re calling an Azure runbook, it is sometimes useful to be able to get the Job ID, say, to report back and update the source that initiated the call to a runbook. This is a quick post on how to access that ID in PowerShell.
You can access it via the following:
$PSPrivateMetadata.JobId.Guid
And the output:
February 28, 2018 Leave a comment
Azure’s Key Vault is a great way to store certificates, usernames, passwords, for use in your Azure applications, infrastructure operations, and more.
This is just a quick post to tell you how you can get at the value of a stored Secret in the Key Vault with PowerShell and the Azure module.
You can see, I have a Key Vault named gvkeyvault, and a secret named geoffv
Now, to get it, we can use the Get-AzureKeyVaultSecret cmdlet. By giving it our VaultName and our key Name, we can see the key. However, that does not get us the value of our Secret.
To do that, we need to get the SecretValueText property of the Key Vault Secret.
(Get-AzureKeyVaultSecret –VaultName “gvkeyvault” –Name “geoffv”).SecretValueText
You can see we get the value out of “12345”…
Now I need to go change the combination of my luggage.
February 26, 2018 2 Comments
I have only probably a small number of PowerShell scripts that I have written that do not need to import some library/module (I refer to them as both libraries and modules in this, as they are libraries of cmdlets). More often than not, I am working with SharePoint or Azure, and need to utilize cmdlets from one of those libraries to do what I need to do. So, what if you need to use PowerShell modules in your Azure Automation runbooks?
In this post, I am going to show you how to import and use PowerShell libraries in your Azure Automation Accounts.
First, we’re going to need to create an Azure Automation Account, if you don’t already have one…
In the Azure Portal click on New, and then search for Automation, and click on it in the drop-down.
It should select the Automation Account
So scroll down to the bottom and click on Create
Give it a Name, select the Subscription, give it either a new Resource Group or use an existing… and a Location (what Azure region is this going to run in?) and I do not need a Run As account for this, so I am going to select No… and then, I click on Create at the bottom.
If you don’t have Automation Accounts in the list of blades (the main left hand side menu in the Azure Portal), you can click on All Services at the top, find it under Monitoring and Management, and click on the star next to it 
You should now see it in the list of Favorites
Click on the blade, and you should see your new Automation Account
Click on LibraryImportTest, the Automation Account we just created.
Now that we have our Automation Account, lets take a look at the modules. Scroll down under the Automation Account, and look under Shared Resources
You’ll see Modules and Modules gallery. Click on Modules.
You can see that there are quite a bit in there already:
You can also see the version number, so you know what version, say, of the Azure library you are using. You can also Update Azure Modules (if you have a Run As account enabled, which we didn’t do for this test).
You can also click on a module, such as Azure, and you can see that there are 673 cmdlets, or Activities in this module. By clicking on See more at the bottom of the Activities window, you can see the full list of cmdlets.
So, by default, we get the following modules provided by Azure:
Which makes sense… because we’re using PowerShell in Azure. Now, what if we need something more? Click on Browse Gallery. There are MANY modules available in the gallery, so you may not need to import them yourself.
For example, the SharePoint Patterns and Practices library is one I have used in several blog posts recently about Azure Runbooks… search for SharePointPnP
You can see all 3 (Online, 2013, and 2016) libraries are available! Click on one of them…
To import the module into your Automation Account, click on Import at the top
And then click OK. When completed, you will see a notification that it was imported successfully 
That doesn’t mean its there yet… it is still importing. It will bounce you into the module import screen
And once its complete, it will give the overview as well as the list of cmdlets (Activities)
Easy right? This is the same as the PowerShell Gallery.
You can also notice, when you’re in the PowerShell Gallery, you can also deploy to Azure Automation
When using this method, you can either import it into an existing Automation Account, or, create a new one:
Now… what if the module you have is NOT a part of the PowerShell Gallery?
Now lets say, there are come cmdlets I need that are not in the gallery, such as Gary LaPointe’s PowerShell-SPOCmdlets.
A search does not return anything…but I happen to have the module installed locally. So, I first zipped up the folder (the default location for this particular library is C:\Program Files (x86)\Falchion Consulting, LLC\SharePoint Online PowerShell)
Back in Azure, under Modules, click on Add a module
Select the file from your computer, and click on OK
And click on it in the Modules list, it will likely still say Importing…
Now we wait for the import to complete… this takes a few minutes…
And once complete… you can see that you now have the module and all associated cmdlets for use in your Automation runbooks:
“Do I still need to import my modules in my Azure Automation PowerShell scripts?” No. If you have a module loaded for that specific Automation Account, it will be automatically available, so there is no need to specifically import the module in the script itself.
February 23, 2018 Leave a comment
I have been playing around with Azure Automation Runbooks as of late. For one I was working on, I am using a SharePoint list to kick off a flow, and that flow reaches out to my Azure Runbook via a Webhook, which in turns runs some PowerShell using the SharePoint PnP Library to create some list entries, as well as a site or two, depending on the request.
Since I have just been testing this functionality out, I’ve had my credentials under which the script runs and connects to SharePoint under a few variables.
$username = "geoff@domain.com"
$password = "!!!MySuperSecurePassword!!!~)()_($!@)(&$_)*($&@)*"
And then converting those to PowerShell credentials
[SecureString]$securePass = ConvertTo-SecureString $password -AsPlainText -Force
[System.Management.Automation.PSCredential]$psCredentials = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($username, $securePass)
And then connecting to SharePoint
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $url -Credentials $psCredentials -ErrorAction Stop
Now that I have my testing near completed, I no longer wanted to store my username and password for my service account in the script itself as variables. In fact, I want to be able to use multiple credential sets if needed, depending on the tasks that need to be completed. In comes Azure Automation Credentials.
I’ll skip the step of creating an Azure Automation account, I covered that in my last post related to this. Since the
If you go into the Azure Portal, and go into your Azure Automation account, you will see under Shared Resources, a section called Credentials
Click on Add a credential
Enter in a Name, Description, and then the User name and Password for the credentials you wish to use.
And then click on Create
Now that we’ve created our credentials… we can use them! In this example, I am just using a test script to ensure it works…Let’s go over to our runbook.
You can see here in my example script, that instead of the code I used above, I am using:
Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name "MyAccount"
Where MyAccount is the name of the credential we just configured. Let’s now go test it out… go over to the Test Pane and click on Start
I am showing some output just to confirm that the script is indeed running, and it is getting PS Credentials, etc.
And did we get context?
Indeed we did! It works! I surprise myself sometimes… so there you go, this is how you can use Azure Automation Accounts and Automation Credentials to store and retrieve username and password pairs and use them in your Automation Runbooks.
Geoff Varosky's Blog 