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To download the Log Parser Studio, please see the attachment on this blog post. Anyone who regularly uses Log Parser 2.2 knows just how useful and powerful it can be for obtaining valuable information from IIS (Internet Information Server) and other logs. In addition, adding the power of SQL allows explicit searching of gigabytes of logs returning only the data that is needed while filtering out the noise. The only thing missing is a great graphical user interface (GUI) to function as a front-end to Log Parser and a ‘Query Library’ in order to manage all those great queries and scripts that one builds up over time. Log Parser Studio was created to fulfill this need; by allowing those who use Log Parser 2.2 (and even those who don’t due to lack of an interface) to work faster and more efficiently to get to the data they need with less “fiddling” with scripts and folders full of queries. With Log Parser Studio (LPS for short) we can house all of our queries in a central location. We can edit and create new queries in the ‘Query Editor’ and save them for later. We can search for queries using free text search as well as export and import both libraries and queries in different formats allowing for easy collaboration as well as storing multiple types of separate libraries for different protocols. Processing Logs for Exchange Protocols We all know this very well: processing logs for different Exchange protocols is a time consuming task. In the absence of special purpose tools, it becomes a tedious task for an Exchange Administrator to sift thru those logs and process them using Log Parser (or some other tool), if output format is important. You also need expertise in writing those SQL queries. You can also use special purpose scripts that one can find on the web and then analyze the output to make some sense of out of those lengthy logs. Log Parser Studio is mainly designed for quick and easy processing of different logs for Exchange protocols. Once you launch it, you’ll notice tabs for different Exchange protocols, i.e. Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (MAS), Exchange Web Services (EWS), Outlook Web App (OWA/HTTP) and others. Under those tabs there are tens of SQL queries written for specific purposes (description and other particulars of a query are also available in the main UI), which can be run by just one click! Let’s get into the specifics of some of the cool features of Log Parser Studio … Query Library and Management Upon launching LPS, the first thing you will see is the Query Library preloaded with queries. This is where we manage all of our queries. The library is always available by clicking on the Library tab. You can load a query for review or execution using several methods. The easiest method is to simply select the query in the list and double-click it. Upon doing so the query will auto-open in its own Query tab. The Query Library is home base for queries. All queries maintained by LPS are stored in this library. There are easy controls to quickly locate desired queries & mark them as favorites for quick access later. Library Recovery The initial library that ships with LPS is embedded in the application and created upon install. If you ever delete, corrupt or lose the library you can easily reset back to the original by using the recover library feature (Options | Recover Library). When recovering the library all existing queries will be deleted. If you have custom/modified queries that you do not want to lose, you should export those first, then after recovering the default set of queries, you can merge them back into LPS. Import/Export Depending on your need, the entire library or subsets of the library can be imported and exported either as the default LPS XML format or as SQL queries. For example, if you have a folder full of Log Parser SQL queries, you can import some or all of them into LPS’s library. Usually, the only thing you will need to do after the import is make a few adjustments. All LPS needs is the base SQL query and to swap out the filename references with ‘[LOGFILEPATH]’ and/or ‘[OUTFILEPATH]’ as discussed in detail in the PDF manual included with the tool (you can access it via LPS | Help | Documentation). Queries Remember that a well-written structured query makes all the difference between a successful query that returns the concise information you need vs. a subpar query which taxes your system, returns much more information than you actually need and in some cases crashes the application. The art of creating great SQL/Log Parser queries is outside the scope of this post, however all of the queries included with LPS have been written to achieve the most concise results while returning the fewest records. Knowing what you want and how to get it with the least number of rows returned is the key! Batch Jobs and Multithreading You’ll find that LPS in combination with Log Parser 2.2 is a very powerful tool. However, if all you could do was run a single query at a time and wait for the results, you probably wouldn’t be making near as much progress as you could be. In lieu of this LPS contains both batch jobs and multithreaded queries. A batch job is simply a collection of predefined queries that can all be executed with the press of a single button. From within the Batch Manager you can remove any single or all queries as well as execute them. You can also execute them by clicking the Run Multiple Queries button or the Execute button in the Batch Manager. Upon execution, LPS will prepare and execute each query in the batch. By default LPS will send ALL queries to Log Parser 2.2 as soon as each is prepared. This is where multithreading works in our favor. For example, if we have 50 queries setup as a batch job and execute the job, we’ll have 50 threads in the background all working with Log Parser simultaneously leaving the user free to work with other queries. As each job finishes the results are passed back to the grid or the CSV output based on the query type. Even in this scenario you can continue to work with other queries, search, modify and execute. As each query completes its thread is retired and its resources freed. These threads are managed very efficiently in the background so there should be no issue running multiple queries at once. Now what if we did want the queries in the batch to run concurrently for performance or other reasons? This functionality is already built-into LPS’s options. Just make the change in LPS | Options | Preferences by checking the ‘Process Batch Queries in Sequence’ checkbox. When checked, the first query in the batch is executed and the next query will not begin until the first one is complete. This process will continue until the last query in the batch has been executed. Automation In conjunction with batch jobs, automation allows unattended scheduled automation of batch jobs. For example we can create a scheduled task that will automatically run a chosen batch job which also operates on a separate set of custom folders. This process requires two components, a folder list file (.FLD) and a batch list file (.XML). We create these ahead of time from within LPS. For more details on how to do that, please refer to the manual. Charts Many queries that return data to the Result Grid can be charted using the built-in charting feature. The basic requirements for charts are the same as Log Parser 2.2, i.e. The first column in the grid may be any data type (string, number etc.) The second column must be some type of number (Integer, Double, Decimal), Strings are not allowed Keep the above requirements in mind when creating your own queries so that you will consciously write the query to include a number for column two. To generate a chart click the chart button after a query has completed. For #2 above, even if you forgot to do so, you can drag any numbered column and drop it in the second column after the fact. This way if you have multiple numbered columns, you can simply drag the one that you’re interested in, into second column and generate different charts from the same data. Again, for more details on charting feature, please refer to the manual. Keyboard Shortcuts/Commands There are multiple keyboard shortcuts built-in to LPS. You can view the list anytime while using LPS by clicking LPS | Help | Keyboard Shortcuts. The currently included shortcuts are as follows: Shortcut What it does CTRL+N Start a new query. CTRL+S Save active query in library or query tab depending on which has focus. CTRL+Q Open library window. CTRL+B Add selected query in library to batch. ALT+B Open Batch Manager. CTRL+B Add the selected queries to batch. CTRL+D Duplicates the current active query to a new tab. CTRL+ALT+E Open the error log if one exists. CTRL+E Export current selected query results to CSV. ALT+F Add selected query in library to the favorites list. CTRL+ALT+L Open the raw Library in the first available text editor. CTRL+F5 Reload the Library from disk. F5 Execute active query. F2 Edit name/description of currently selected query in the Library. F3 Display the list of IIS fields. Supported Input and Output types Log Parser 2.2 has the ability to query multiple types of logs. Since LPS is a work in progress, only the most used types are currently available. Additional input and output types will be added when possible in upcoming versions or updates. Supported Input Types Full support for W3SVC/IIS, CSV, HTTP Error and basic support for all built-in Log Parser 2.2 input formats. In addition, some custom written LPS formats such as Microsoft Exchange specific formats that are not available with the default Log Parser 2.2 install. Supported Output Types CSV and TXT are the currently supported output file types. Log Parser Studio - Quick Start Guide Want to skip all the details & just run some queries right now? Start here … The very first thing Log Parser Studio needs to know is where the log files are, and the default location that you would like any queries that export their results as CSV files to be saved. 1. Setup your default CSV output path: a. Go to LPS | Options | Preferences | Default Output Path. b. Browse to and select the folder you would like to use for exported results. c. Click Apply. d. Any queries that export CSV files will now be saved in this folder. NOTE: If you forget to set this path before you start the CSV files will be saved in %AppData%\Microsoft\Log Parser Studio by default but it is recommended that y ou move this to another location. 2. Tell LPS where the log files are by opening the Log File Manager. If you try to run a query before completing this step LPS will prompt and ask you to set the log path. Upon clicking OK on that prompt, you are presented with the Log File Manager. Click Add Folder to add a folder or Add File to add a single or multiple files. When adding a folder you still must select at least one file so LPS will know which type of log we are working with. When doing so, LPS will automatically turn this into a wildcard (*.xxx) Indicating that all matching logs in the folder will be searched. You can easily tell which folder or files are currently being searched by examining the status bar at the bottom-right of Log Parser Studio. To see the full path, roll your mouse over the status bar. NOTE: LPS and Log Parser handle multiple types of logs and objects that can be queried. It is important to remember that the type of log you are querying must match the query you are performing. In other words, when running a query that expects IIS logs, only IIS logs should be selected in the File Manager. Failure to do this (it’s easy to forget) will result errors or unexpected behavior will be returned when running the query. 3. Choose a query from the library and run it: a. Click the Library tab if it isn’t already selected. b. Choose a query in the list and double-click it. This will open the query in its own tab. c. Click the Run Single Query button to execute the query The query execution will begin in the background. Once the query has completed there are two possible outputs targets; the result grid in the top half of the query tab or a CSV file. Some queries return to the grid while other more memory intensive queries are saved to CSV. As a general rule queries that may return very large result sets are probably best served going to a CSV file for further processing in Excel. Once you have the results there are many features for working with those results. For more details, please refer to the manual. Have fun with Log Parser Studio! & always remember – There’s a query for that! Kary Wall Escalation Engineer Microsoft Exchange SupportImproving Security - Together
For many years, client apps have used Basic Authentication to connect to servers, services and endpoints. It is enabled by default on most servers and services and it’s super simple to set up. Simplicity isn’t at all bad in itself, but Basic Authentication makes it easier for attackers to capture user’s credentials and so we’re taking steps to improve data security in Exchange Online.Log Parser Studio 2.0 is now available
Since the initial release of Log Parser Studio (LPS) there have been over 30,000 downloads and thousands of customers use the tool on a daily basis. In Exchange support many of our engineers use the tool to solve real world issues every day and in turn share with our customers, empowering them to solve the same issues themselves moving forward. LPS is still an active work in progress; based on both engineer and customer feedback many improvements have been made with multiple features added during the last year. Below is a short list of new features: Improved import/export functionality For those who create their own queries this is a real time-saver. We can now import from multiple XML files simultaneously only choosing the queries we wish to import from multiple query libraries or XML files. Search Query Results The existing feature allowing searching of queries in the library is now context aware meaning if you have a completed query in the query window, the search option searches that query. If you are in the library it searches the library and so on. This allows drilling down into existing query results without having to run a new query if all you want to do is narrow down existing result sets. Input/Output Format Support All LP 2.2 Input and Output formats contain preliminary support in LPS. Each format has its own property window containing all known LP 2.2 settings which can be modified to your liking. Exchange Extensible Logging Support Custom parser support was added for most all Exchange logs. These are covered by the EEL and EELX log formats included in LPS which cover Exchange logs from Exchange 2003 through Exchange 2013. Query Logging I can't tell you how many times myself or another engineer spent lots of time creating the perfect query for a particular issue we were troubleshooting, forgetting to save the query in the heat of the moment and losing all that work. No longer! We now have the capability to log every query that is executed to a text file (Query.log). What makes this so valuable is if you ran it, you can retrieve it. Queries There are now over 170 queries in the library including new sample queries for Exchange 2013. PowerShell Export You can now export any query as a standalone PowerShell script. The only requirement of course is that Log Parser 2.2 is installed on the machine you run it on but LPS is not required. There are some limitations but you can essentially use LPS as a query editor/test bed for PowerShell scripts that run Log Parser queries for you! Query Cancellation The ability to submit a request to cancel a running query has been added which will allow you to cancel a running query in many cases. Keyboard Shortcuts There are now 23 Keyboard shortcuts. Be sure to check these out as they will save you lots of time. To display the short cuts use CTRL+K or Help > Keyboard Shortcuts. There are literally hundreds of improvements and features; far too many to list here so be sure and check out our blog series with existing and upcoming tutorials, deep dives and more. If you are installing LPS for the first time you'll surely want to review the getting started series: Getting started with Log Parser Studio Getting started with Log Parser Studio, part 2 Getting started with Log Parser Studio, part 3 If you are already familiar with LPS and are installing this latest version, you'll want to check out the upgrade blog post here: Log Parser Studio: upgrading from v1 to v2 Additional LPS articles can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/karywa/ LPS doesn't require an install so just extract to the folder of your choice and run LPS.EXE. If you have the previous version of LPS and you have added your own custom queries to the library, be sure to export those queries as a backup before running the newest version. See the "Upgrading to LPS V2" blog post above when upgrading. Kary Wall
Enroll Existing Azure AD Joined Machines to Intune
Hello Community, We have an environment with 1500 Devices consisting around 1000 Devices which are already Azure AD Joined & around 500 Devices which are Hybrid AAD joined connected to local AD. We want to onboard All devices to Endpoint Manager however we are unable to find a way to Bulk enroll devices to Intune. Our requirements are: Enroll Existing Azure AD joined device to Intune without User Interaction in Bulk or through some automated approach. (We do not want to manually enter Creds to enroll neither want to reset AADJ) Enroll Local AD joined devices in bulk without renaming the Computer Name as the Windows PPKG is forcing to rename the devices. How can we keep existing device name while enrolling. (We are aware of GPO Approach but did not tested it yet hence unaware of any Cons of using it) What we have Tried so far and our expectations? Created a Windows Provisioning Package but it does nothing on an Existing AADJ Machine except renaming its computer name. We do not want to perform Manual "Enroll Only in Device Management" Step but tested it and it does Enroll Device as Personal Device and not corporate. Provisioning package works well on a non-AADJ machine and enrolls the machine. We cannot disconnect AADJ or Reset Devices. We do not want our users to have local admin rights. (Optional) We would like to have current logged on user mentioned as Primary user in endpoint manager. (Optional) Do not want to use Provisioning package on Local Join Machine as it will rename them. (Optional) Tested some scripts but no success. Deep link do not work. Our Machines are not Managed through SCCM but we do have RMM Service in the environment which can deploy Apps and Packages on the devices. At the end our Motive is to enroll AADJ devices to Intune so we can start managing them, the enrollment process should not be a pain for our users or hampering their workflow. (We can ignore Optional requirement if its not possible to achieve ) Looking forward for some valuable suggestions! Thank you!Demystifying Certificate Based Authentication with ActiveSync in Exchange 2013 and 2016 (On-Premises)
Some of the more complicated support calls we see are related to Certificate Based Authentication (CBA) with ActiveSync. This post is intended to provide some clarifications of this topic and give you troubleshooting tips. What is Certificate Based Authentication (CBA)? Instead of using Basic or WIA (Windows Integrated Authentication), the device will have a client (user) certificate installed, which will be used for authentication. The user will no longer have to save a password to authenticate with Exchange. This is not related to using SSL to connect to the server as we assume that you already have SSL setup. Also, just to be clear (as some people have those things confused) CBA is not two-factor authentication (2FA). How does the client certificate get installed on the device? There’s several MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions to install the client certificate on the device. The most important part of working with CBA is to know where the client certificate will be accepted (or ‘terminated’). How you implement CBA will depend on the response to following questions: Will Exchange server be accepting the client certificate? Will an MDM or other device using Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) be accepting the client certificate? You can choose only one. You can’t have both Exchange and a device accepting the client certificate. This post assumes that the user certificates have already been deployed in AD before CBA was implemented. The requirements for user certificates are documented here: Configure certificate based authentication in Exchange 2016. If Exchange Server is accepting the client certificate This configuration is simple and is fully documented in the following link that applies to Exchange 2013/2016. The configuration for legacy versions follows the IIS configuration steps. The overall functionality of CBA has not changed across versions however the requirements may vary. Configuration of CBA is done via IIS Manager. The overall steps are: Installing Client Certificate Mapping Authentication feature on all CAS servers, enabling client certificate authentication, setting SSL client certificates to “required” and disabling other authentication methods and finally enabling client certificate mapping on the virtual directory, Configure certificate based authentication in Exchange 2016 Configure certificate based authentication in Legacy versions Important Notes: You cannot use multiple authentication methods and have client certificates enabled on the virtual directory. The client must either use client certificate or username and password to authenticate, not both. SSL settings should be set to “Require” not “Accept”. You can have connection failures if set improperly. If MDM or another device is accepting the certificate and using KCD to authenticate the client device What is important to note here is the client certificate will be accepted at the device, therefore, you would NOT configure client certificates on Exchange. Each vendor should have updated documentation to work with current Exchange version. To accept the client certificate, the MDM would require that KCD be configured to authenticate to Active Directory. Most vendors expect Windows Integrated Authentication configured on IIS/Exchange. This would allow the authentication to be passed without any additional prompts to the client device. All other authentication methods would be disabled. Note: When you enable Integrated authentication on Exchange, you should ensure that the authentication “Providers” have both NTLM and Negotiate enabled in IIS Manager. Overall authentication process when client certificate is accepted by MDM: The client device contacts MDM with a client certificate that contains UPN in the Subject Alternative Name section of the certificate The MDM authenticates the user with Active Directory KCD issues a Ticket to the MDM with user’s credentials MDM sends users credentials to Exchange with Windows Integrated (only) configured on Exchange. Exchange response to the MDM with the mail data. MDM responds to the client with mail data. Coexistence with Exchange, when Exchange is accepting the client certificate When adding 2013/2016 to the environment and Exchange server 2013/2016 is accepting the client certificate, it’s important to disable any client certificate configuration on the legacy CAS. This is because the client certificate will not be proxied to the legacy server. The authentication on Legacy CAS would go back to default of Basic on “Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync” virtual directory, and “Windows Integrated” on subfolder named “Proxy”. Troubleshooting Here are some troubleshooting steps! If Exchange Server is accepting the client certificate If Exchange is configured to accept the client certificate, use the IIS logs and look for requests for /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync. Determine the error code that is returned. IIS error codes are found here. Verify the UPN configured on the “Subject Alternative Name” portion of the client certificate. In ADUC, click “View, Advanced Features”, locate the user account and select “Published Certificates”, click “Details” tab. Client certificates and SSL “Required” should not be enabled on the Default Web Site, only on the MSAS “Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync” virtual directory. Verify there are no additional authentication methods enabled on the MSAS virtual directory. See “Step 4” in Configure certificate based authentication in Exchange 2016 If MDM is accepting client certificate With MDM vendor, verify that KCD is working correctly, by checking security logs on MDM to verify Kerberos is working. Verify if the request is getting to Exchange by looking at the IIS logs requests for /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync. Verify Windows Integrated (only) is enabled on Exchange. Attachments If users have issues with attachments, follow “Step 7” in Configure certificate based authentication in Exchange 2016 Troubleshooting Logs and Tools Use the IIS logs to determine if the device reached the Exchange server. Look for requests to /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory. Refer to The HTTP status code in IIS 7.0, IIS 7.5, and IIS 8.0 KB for information on the various error codes in the IIS logs. Example of IIS error code: 403.7 - Client certificate required. From this you would verify that the device has the client certificate installed. IIS Logs - IIS logs can be used to review the connection for Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync. More info here. Log Parser Studio - Log Parser Studio is a GUI for Log Parser 2.2. LPS greatly reduces complexity when parsing logs. Download it here I wanted to thank Jim Martin for technical review of this post. Charlene Stephens (Weber)
