Microsoft Workloads on AWS

Category: Management Tools

Automate downgrading SQL Server to Developer edition on Amazon EC2

In this blog post, we will show you how to automate the process of downgrading from Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise or Standard edition to SQL Server Developer edition to save cost. Introduction Every day, customers benefit from the cost savings, scalability, performance, and ease of management of running SQL Server on AWS. Deploying SQL Server […]

Monitor Microsoft SharePoint Server using Amazon CloudWatch Application Insights

Introduction In this blog post, I will demonstrate how to configure Amazon CloudWatch Application Insights for a Microsoft SharePoint farm. Management and governance are important aspects of any workload, whether it is running on-premises or in the AWS Cloud. In this context, management refers to performing defined actions, either automated or manual, to make sure […]

Providing self-service multi-account access to AWS Managed Microsoft AD

Introduction In this blog post, I will show you how to selectively share a central AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (AWS Managed Microsoft AD) directory across your multi-account environment through a self-service model using AWS Service Catalog. In a large and growing AWS Organizations environment with decentralized teams, you want to remove as […]

Update AWS Tools for PowerShell at scale with AWS Systems Manager

In this blog post, I will show you how to update AWS Tools for PowerShell at scale within your environment by using the AWS Systems Manager Run Command. Manually updating AWS Tools for PowerShell across multiple instances can be time-consuming, inefficient, and error prone. These manual operational efforts typically result in a logistical nightmare, especially […]

Convert licenses of SQL Servers migrated with AWS Application Migration Service

In this blog post, I will show you how to convert Microsoft SQL Server licenses to an AWS provided license included using post-launch settings in the AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN). When you are migrating your SQL Servers to Amazon Web Services (AWS), you have a variety of options for using new and existing […]

Automated user creation and provisioning in Active Directory and Amazon WorkSpaces

For customers that have workloads in the AWS Cloud, a common use case is the provisioning of new user accounts in Active Directory, and subsequently, WorkSpaces for these new users. In this blog post, we will present an efficient and reusable solution to automate the creation, provisioning, and deprovisioning of Microsoft Active Directory (AD) user […]

Automatically create self-managed licenses in multiple accounts using tags

In this blog post, we will demonstrate how you can set up self-managed licenses to be tracked automatically through tagging. Managing licenses for software running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is critical for compliance and auditing purposes. Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a free tool, AWS License Manager, to help you manage your licenses. However, license […]

Accelerate Remote Desktop Gateway deployments with AWS Launch Wizard

Introduction In this blog post, I am going to show you how easy it is to deploy a secure infrastructure to manage your Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) instances for Microsoft Windows Server through the automation provided by AWS Launch Wizard. AWS Launch Wizard offers a guided way of sizing, configuring, and deploying AWS resources […]

Accelerate Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for Microsoft Windows workloads

In this blog post, we will present a sample solution and provide recommendations on how to reduce both the cost and time associated with a Microsoft Windows Server instance joining an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Auto Scaling group up to 78%. Customers using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling often desire faster scale-out times to […]

Automate rotating IAM credentials for SQL Server backups to Amazon S3

In this blog post, we will look at how to automate the rotation of the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) credentials synchronized with Microsoft SQL Server credentials to meet password rotation requirements. Solution overview The IAM Access key and Secret access key are used to create a SQL Server credential; therefore, to rotate the […]