Activating Windows using KMS server

Microsoft Key Management Services (KMS) provides a way to automatically activate volume license editions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office.

Detecting KMS servers

From Command prompt type:

nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp.test.com

test.com is domin name

Output should be something like below:

_vlmcs._tcp.test.com SRV service location:
priority = 0
weight = 100
port = 1688
svr hostname = kms.test.com

If this test fails, you will need to have the following DNS record added to the DNS zone:

_vlmcs._tcp.test.com. 3600 IN SRV 0 100 1688 kms.test.com

Activating Windows

Open a command prompt with elevation

Install default product key (bellow is example for Windows Server 2016 datacenter)

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk WC2BQ-8NRM3-FDDYY-2BFGV-KHKQY

For other keys refer to this link

Run the following command to point Windows to the KMS server.

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms.test.com

Run the following command to activate Windows.

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

Run the following command to check activation staus

slmgr.vbs -dlv

In case you try activating evaluation version of Windows server 2016 if trying above steps you’ll get following error:

Error: 0xC004F069 On a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition, run ‘slui.exe 0x2a 0xC004F069’ to display the error text.

In this case run following commands:

Find available target editions

DISM.exe /Online /Get-TargetEditions

Change your target edition (bellow is example for Windows server 2016 datacenter)

DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:WC2BQ-8NRM3-FDDYY-2BFGV-KHKQY /AcceptEula

Reboot server, repeat above steps and you should be good to go

 

 

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Integrate Atlassian BitBucket with Active Directory

In this example 2 AD groups will be used

• BitBucket.Admin (System Admin,Admin,Project creator,Bitbucket user)
• BitBucket.User (Project creator,Bitbucket user)

Configuring Active Directory integration:

User directory-add directory-Microsoft Active Directory

Server Settings

Name: Active Directory server

Directory Type: Microsoft Active Directory

Hostname: example.com

Port: 389

Username: ldapuser for searching AD

LDAP Schema

BaseDN: DC=example,DC=com

LDAP Permissions:

Read only

Advanced settings

Check Enable nested groups (leave other settings)

User Schema Settings

Show only members of BitBucket.Admin/Bitbucket.User AD groups

UserObject class: user

UserObjectFilter:(&(objectCategory=Person)(sAMAccountName=*)(|(memberOf:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:=cn=BitBucket.Admin,OU=Groups,DC=example,DC=com (memberOf:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:=cn=BitBucket.User,OU=Groups,DC=example,DC=com)))

UserNameAtribute: sAMAccountName

UserName RDN Atribute: cn

User First Attribute Name: givenName

User Last Name attribute: sn

User Display Name Attribute: displayName

User Email Attribute: mail

User Password Attribute: unicodePwd

User Unique Attribute: objectGUID

 

Group Schema settings

 

Group Object Class: group

Group Obect Filter: (&(objectCategory=Group)(cn=BitBucket*))

Group Name attribute: cn

Group Description Attribute: description

Configuring group access and roles

In BitBucket go to Global permissions-add groups and assign roles

Installing Chocolatey server using Ansible

It’s presumed Chocolatey server will be installed on D drive,it’s presumed Chocolatey server has no internet access.

Choco installation files are obtained in following way:

On any windows machine with internet access following has been done:

• installed chocolatey
• after chocolatey has been installed following command has been executed:

  choco install chocolatey.server

• all required files are downloaded to C:\tools folder

Copy tools folder somewhere to Ansible server, Ansible playbook will copy  it to D drive on Windows server.

Folder structure:

|—————–winplaybook/choco.yml   chocoserver/tools/

|—————group_vars/

|             | ————–features/features.yml

|————–windows/vars_win.yml   vaul_win.yml

features.yml contains list of IIS features and IIS users

---
features:
- Web-Server
- Web-Asp-Net45
- Web-AppInit 

users:

- IIS_IUSRS
- IUSR
- IIS APPPOOL\ChocolateyServer

chocoserver/tools contains chocolatey server installation (copied from windows machine with internet access)

Chocolatey API key is in vars_win.yml (unencrypted-point to vault_win.yml) and vault_win.yml (encrypted)

vars_win.yml:

api_key: '{{ vault_api_key }}'

vault_win.yml:

vault_api_key: myapi

Playbook will copy Chocolatey server files to D drive, installs IIS server and features,removes default IIS web site, creates Chocolatey application pool, sets ACL permissions on D:\tools\chocolatey.server and D:\tools\chocolatey.server\App_Data,creates Chocolatey IIS site and changes default API key

– name: install choco server
hosts: dc2
vars_files:
– group_vars/windows/vars_win.yml
– group_vars/features/features.yml
gather_facts: yes
tasks:
– name: Copy Chocolatey server to D drive
win_copy:
src: /root/win_playbooks/choco_server/
dest: D:\
– name: Ensure IIS is installed
win_feature:
name: Web-Server
state: present
include_management_tools: True
– name: Ensure IIS Web-Server and ASP.NET are installed
win_feature:
name: ‘{{ item }}’
state: present
with_items: ‘{{ features }}’
– name: Ensure Default Web Site is not present
win_iis_website:
name: “Default Web Site”
state: absent
#- name: Chocolatey.server package is installed
# win_chocolatey:
# name: “chocolatey.server”
# state: present
– name: Configure AppPool for Chocolatey.server
win_iis_webapppool:
name: ChocolateyServer
state: started
attributes:
enable32BitAppOnWin64: true
managedRuntimeVersion: v4.0
managedPipelineMode: Integrated
startMode: AlwaysRunning
autoStart: true
– name: Grant read permissions to D:\tools\chocolatey.server
win_acl:
user: ‘{{ item }}’
path: D:\tools\chocolatey.server
rights: Read
state: present
type: allow
inherit: ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit
progagation: InheritOnly
with_items: ‘{{ users }}’
– name: Grant IIS APPPOOL\ modify permissions to D:\tools\chocolatey.server\App_Data
win_acl:
user: ‘{{ item }}’
path: D:\tools\chocolatey.server
rights: Modify
state: present
type: allow
inherit: ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit
progagation: InheritOnly
with_items: ‘{{ users }}’
– name: Create Chocolatey IIS site
win_iis_website:
name: “chocolatey”
state: started
port: 80
#ip: 127.0.0.1
application_pool: “ChocolateyServer”
physical_path: D:\tools\chocolatey.server
parameters: logfile.directory:c:\ChocolateyServer\logs
register: website
– name: Change default API key
win_lineinfile:
path: D:\tools\chocolatey.server\web.config
regexp: ‘<add key=”apiKey” value=”chocolateyrocks” />’
line:’         <add key=”apiKey” value=”{{ api_key }}”/>’
state: present

Changing Active Directory Domain joined computer name using Ansible

Unlike other tasks, this one requires runas (become) permissions. So, we need to specify become statement in playbook, and to add following directives in group_vars folder (see this guide how to create it.

add 4 “ansible_become” lines as per example

---

ansible_user: Administrator

ansible_password: Pass

ansible_connection: winrm

ansible_port: 5986

ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation: ignore

ansible_become: yes

ansible_become_user: Administrator

ansible_become_pass: Passw

ansible_become_method: runas

Both are same account,it’s local admin account promoted to Domain Administrator after creating AD Domain, the reason why we need to add those 4 lines is because renaming AD joined machines required Active Directory credentials, those 4 “ansible_become” lines instruct Ansible to use domain administrator credentials instead of local administrator.

- name: Change computer name
  hosts: dc2
  tasks:
   - name: Change host name
     become: yes
     win_hostname:
       name: server2
     register: name_changed
   - name: reboot server after hostname changes
     win_reboot:
       msg: "Computer name changed,rebooting...."
       pre_reboot_delay: 15
     when: name_changed.changed

 

Moving page file to different drive using Ansible

In this example Page file will be moved to D drive, in order for Ansible to “track changes” file C:\Pagefile.log will be created after Page file is moved and server will be restarted afterwards.

In this example page file is set to automatic (InitialSize = 0; MaximumSize = 0), we can set custom Initial/Maximum size (in MB).

- name: Moving page file to another drive
  hosts: winserver
  gather_facts: yes
  tasks:
   - name: "Move Page File to D Drive"
     win_shell: |
       $a=Get-WmiObject -Query "select * from Win32_PageFileSetting"
       if ($a.Name -like 'C:\pagefile.sys') {
       $CurrentPageFile = Get-WmiObject -Query "select * from Win32_PageFileSetting where name='c:\\pagefile.sys'"
       $CurrentPageFile.delete()
       Set-WMIInstance -Class Win32_PageFileSetting -Arguments @{name="d:\pagefile.sys";InitialSize = 0; MaximumSize = 0}
       } write-output "Done" | out-file C:\Pagefile.log -Append
     args:
      creates: C:\Pagefile.log
     register: page
   - name: reboot server
     win_reboot:
       msg: "Page file moved,rebooting..."
       pre_reboot_delay: 15
     when: page.changed

Run Powershell commands using Ansible

Ansible have no module for setting Domain Group Policies,but we can use PowerShell commands. If we need to create Custom GPO and link it to some GPO, we can do it also by Powers shell – by setting Registry Values.

The key must be in one of the two following registry hives:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM) for a registry-based policy setting in Computer Configuration.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) for a registry-based policy setting in User Configuration.

Bellow is example for setting Screen Saver TimeOut to 900 seconds for User Configuration Settings GPO.

New GPO named BO-1-Desktops is created and linked to test OU.

- name: Configure GPO
        hosts: winserver
        tasks: 
          - name: Set ScreenSaver Timeout
            win_shell: | 
              New-GPLink -Name "BO-1-Desktops" -Target 
 "OU=test,DC=ad,DC=contoso,DC=com";
              Set-GPRegistryValue -Name "BO-1-Desktops" -KEY "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop" -ValueName "ScreenSaveTimeOut" -Type DWORD      -Value 900 > C:\screensaverGPO.txt
            args: 
              creates: C:\screensaverGPO.txt

Script won’t be executed if C:\screensaverGPO.txt exists.

Example for creating DNS zone

- name: Create DNS
  hosts: winserver
  tasks:
   - name: Create Forward lookup zone
     win_shell: |
       try {$getdns=Get-DnsServerZone -Name "west01.contoso.com" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
       if ($getdns -eq $null) {Add-DnsServerPrimaryZone -Name "west01.contoso.com"       -ReplicationScope "Forest" -PassThru > c:\dnszone.log}
       } catch {write-host "ok"}
     args:
       creates: C:\dnszone.log

Configure AD Sites and Services using Ansible

This post explained how to use it with Puppet, in this post we’ll do the same.

Powershell script is doing following:

•  reads JSON file above
• Creates subnets defined from JSON file
• Creates sites defined in JSON file
• Assigns subnet to AD site (as specified in JSON file)

JSON and PS1 files are located in  /root/win_playbooks/files/ folder.

Both files will be copied to C:\Script

Script will be running only if file C:\Script\Logs\ADSite.log is present.

- name: Configure AD sites
hosts: winserver
gather_facts: yes
tasks:
- name: Create folder
    win_file:
     path: C:\Script
     state: directory
- name: Copy files
  win_copy:
     src: /root/win_playbooks/files/
     dest: C:\Script\
- name: Run Script
  win_shell: C:\Script\createsite.ps1
  args:
     creates: C:\Script\logs\CreateADSIte.log