Document Protection with Azure Information Protection Ad-hoc permissions

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Document protection is a key step in achieving the security standards and policies in an Organization. We can achieve this with AIP by defining policies globally or by giving custom permissions to the document owners.

User Defined Permissions with the label :

Steps to configure in AIP

Navigate to Azure Portal

Search for Azure Information Protection Service and select the label in which we want to configure the user defined permission.

In this case, I selected the ‘Restricted’ label and under protection settings, select the protection action type as ‘set user-defined permissions’. Save the policy after the configuration changes.

 

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Test the functionality:

Open any office application and select the label ‘Restricted’. We see the below prompt for user-defined permissions

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Similarly, open a new email in Outlook and select the label ‘Restricted’. The moment you select the label, Do Not Forward protection is applied to the email.

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Global Policies in AIP for Document Protection:

unlike the custom permissions, we can configure global policies which are mapped to the labels defined as per the taxonomy. These configurations, gives different protection settings with the option of different user roles for different Groups/Domains

This way, we can impose rights restrictions, based on the recipients domain. In this scenario, I am configuring protection settings in such a way that co-owner role will be assigned to my domain and viewer role will be assigned to external domains like Gmail and yahoo. That way, if I send any attachment which is labelled as ‘Restricted’ , all members within my Organization can read/write/edit, authenticated users  (in O365) can review it  and users in Gmail and Yahoo can only just view

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Test the Functionality:

Label a word document to ‘Restricted’.

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Attaching to an Email: We see that recommendation to classify an email too as ‘Restricted’

I am sending it to an user within my domain and to an user in Gmail and we can see the prompt from the policy.

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Creating Classification Labels and Policies in Azure Information Protection

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Information Rights Management is a subset of Digital Rights Management technologies which prevents sensitive information from the risk of accidental, unauthorized modification, deletion and misuse

Azure Information Protection ( AIP ) is a Service offered by Microsoft which gives the features and functionalities of Information Rights Management. With AIP, an organization can classify, label  and protect the sensitive information, which enables them to  have visibility over the different types of Sensitive data across the locations

Steps to Configure Policies in Azure Portal

Before we configure the Global polices, it is always recommended to get the Taxonomy crisp and clear. Do not create too many labels and sub-labels

Here in this example, I am keeping the taxonomy straight forward

Restricted – For highly sensitive content

Confidential – For Sensitive content

Internal – For the content within the Organization

Public – For all other content

Steps to configure Labels and Policies in Azure Portal 

Login to Azure Portal 

Search for Azure Information Protection

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Add new label 

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Give a name to the label and add description. Navigate to Protect and add the users/members for consuming the permissions

Protection Settings: Select Azure Key/HYOK  as per the organization structure, give file expiration settings and add permissions based on the AD group or individual recipient addresses. Set the permissions(co-owner, co-author, reviewer, viewer etc.) as appropriate

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I created four labels as Internal, Public, Confidential & Restricted

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Create a policy to map this label

Select the policies under classifications and hit on ‘ Add a new Policy’

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Give a name to the policy and select the label from the drop down list to which this policy to be applied.

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Now, as we created labels and polices in Azure portal, let us verify if these are getting reflected in the clients machines.

Prerequisites for installing AIP Agent in Clients:

  1. Azure Active Directory : Make sure the on-premise identities are in sync with Azure identities. Azure AD Connect is used to sync the identities. If the users are in O365, they can directly download the office apps from portal.office.com
  2. Supported client platforms: Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, Windows8.1, Windows10 with .Net Framework 4.6.2
  3. Office Applications: Office 365 Pro plus, Office Professional Plus  2019/2016/2013(SP1)/2010(SP2)
  4. Connectivity to Azure Services over internet: Make sure that the URL’s are allowed and necessary ports are open as per Network Prerequisites
  5. Download AIP client from here

 

Installing AIP client

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Sign into Office apps with the Organization account which is enabled with AIP License and as you open them, you see the labels appearing in the apps

 

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Now, the labels when selected, the policies configured for each label will be applied to the content and the sender of the email or author of the document will have visibility on the content life cycle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Load Balancing SCOM sdk service with Microsoft NLB Cluster

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In SCOM, High Availability can be achieved at Management Server, Gateway Server and Agent level. If we drill down further more, we can even find ways to configure HA for SCOM console for uninterrupted monitoring

The sdk clients which connect to SCOM console can be made continuously available with Network Load Balancing. So, even in case of Management Server failure, the SCOM console will be operational

The SCOM Operations Console connections can be Highly available with Microsoft Network Load Balancing ( NLB ) , or using hardware Load Balancers or DNS aliases.

In this demo, I have chosen to use Microsoft Network Load Balancing

 

Prerequisites:

  1. Assign Static IP address instead of DHCP  to the SCOM Management Servers
  2. Microsoft Network Load Balancing feature to be enabled in the Management Servers
  3. Create NLB Cluster
  4. Add Nodes to the  Cluster
  5. Add cluster DNS-record to DNS zone

 

Primary Management Server: Server1.kartik.com

Secondary Management Server: Node2.kartik.com

Enable Microsoft Network Load Balancing Feature in both the Management Servers

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After successful installation of NLB feature, open Network Load Balancing Manager from Administrative Tools and create NLB Cluster

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Add Primary Management Server as Host

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Give Cluster IP address

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Give a Name to the Cluster

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Connect Host to Cluster

Add Secondary Management Server to the Cluster

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Add Cluster DNS records to DNS-Zone in DNS Server

Login to the DNS Server

Create “A” record for the Cluster

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Access SCOM Console with NLB Name SCOMConsole.kartik.com

 

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Now, we see that SCOM Console is operational with the NLB Cluster Name

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Test the Functionality:

To test this functionality, I have stopped the Data Access Service in Secondary Management Server. This SDK Service is the core for accessing the SCOM console

SCOM console is connected to SCOMConsole.kartik.com

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Let us stop the SDK Service

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We can see that the SCOM Console is still operational

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Installing Root Certificate Authority and Creating SCOM Template

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System Center Operations Manager can manage the domain joined servers/machines using the default Kerberos protocol when the port 5723 is open. The machines which are not joined to the domain ( workgroup computers ) or the ones which are in a domain which doesn’t trust  Ops Manager can be managed by importing certificates in both Gateway/Management Server and the client machine

This blog features the configuration of Certificate Authority role and creating Certificate Template

CA Server : AD.kartik.com

Login to the Active Directory Server as a domain Admin and configure the CA role

Navigate to Server manager and select add roles and features

Select Active Directory Certificate Services role

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Select Certificate Authority, Certificate Enrollment Web Service, Certification Authority Web Enrollment.

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Specify credentials to configure AD CS Role

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Select Enterprise CA

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Specify the CA type as Root CA

 

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Select the option create a new private key

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Select the default options for Cryptiographic provider and Key Length and select SHA256 as hash algorithm

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Specify the name to the Certificate Authority

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Specify the validity period as per the Company Policy

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Choose the  default database locations

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verify the selected options

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Configure the additional role services

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Specify credentials to configure role services

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Select the authentication type as windows integrated authentication

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Specify the service account for CES

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Select Certificate Authority from the Tools menu in Server Manager

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Click on Certificate Templates and select Manage

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Select the template Ipsec Offline request and select duplicate template

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Leave the compatibility tab to default

Give the appropriate Template Name under general Tab

Select the validity period as per the Security Policy

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Under Request Handling, check Allow Private Key to be exported

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Under Cryptography Select as Providers Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider and Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider v 1.0

 

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Navigate to Extensions tab and select Application Policies , click edit and select

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Select Client Authentication and Server Authentication

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Navigate to security tab, select Authenticated users and click on Add

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Select Object types as computers

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Search for  SCOM Management Servers

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Grant Read and Enroll permissions to the Management Servers

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Go back to the Certificate Authority Console, Select Certificate Template, Click on New Certificate Template to Issue

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Select the Template which was created before

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Launch https://ad/certsrv (https://adservername/Certsrv) from Management Server and select advanced certificate request

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The certificate Template should be visible here

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System Center Operations Manager 2016 High Availability – Configuration

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High Availability is an important service for any application and it is highly recommended for a monitoring application. HA solution for a monitoring solution makes sure that the monitoring is always on and the service is available with out interruptions.

From System Center 2012, HA is made easier with the concept of Resource pool, where each member of the pool will synchronize the SQL data and make themselves available during a failure and the same principle applies in System Center 2016 too

Scenarios of HA in System Center Operations Manager

  1. Agent Server fail over to a Management Server from  Resource Pool
  2. Gateway Server Failover to Management Server
  3. Gateway Agent ( domain joined ) Failover
  4. Gateway Agent ( Work-group ) Failover

In order to test this fail-over functionality, I have configured the below servers in my Lab

  • Domain: Kartik.com
  • SCOM Primary Management Server : SCOM2016.kartik.com
  • SCOM Secondary Management Server: SCOM2.kartik.com
  • Gateway Server 1 : Server1.Kartik.com
  • Gateway Server 2 : Node2.kartik.com
  • Domain joined Client Server : Client2.kartik.com
  • Workgroup Computer : Client
  1. Agent Server fail-over to Management Server from a Resource Pool

In this scenario, the agent servers will be reporting to Management Server Resource pool and when one  Management server goes down, the agents reporting to that will fail-over to the other Management Server available in the pool

Test Fail-over

Scenario:

Primary Management Server: SCOM2.kartik.com

Failover Management Server : SCOM2016.kartik.com

Client Server: Client2.kartik.com

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Shutdown the Management Server SCOM2.kartik.com to test the agent failover

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SCOM2 showing grey in SCOM console

 

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Event Logs from SCOM2016.kartik.com4

 

Logs from SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Logs from SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Logs from Client2.kartik.com

Here, we see that the server successfully failed over to SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Client2.kartik.com showing healthy in SCOM console

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2. Gateway Server Fail-over

Gateway Server: Server1.kartik.com

Primary Management Server: SCOM2.kartik.com

Failover Management Server: SCOM2016.kartik.com

 

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  • Powershell Commands to configure Gateway Server failover

 

$primaryMS = Get-SCOMManagementServer –Name “SCOM2.kartik.com”

$failoverMS = Get-SCOMManagementServer –Name “SCOM2016.kartik.com”

$gatewayMS = Get-SCOMGatewayManagementServer –Name “Server1.kartik.com”

Set-SCOMParentManagementServer –Gateway $gatewayMS –PrimaryServer $primaryMS

Set-SCOMParentManagementServer –Gateway $gatewayMS –FailoverServer $failoverMS

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Powershell Commands to verify Gateway Server Fail-over 

$GWs = Get-SCOMManagementServer | where {$_.IsGateway -eq $true}

$GWs | sort | foreach {

       Write-Host “”;

       “Gateway MS    :: ” + $_.Name;

       “–Primary MS  :: ” + ($_.GetPrimaryManagementServer()).ComputerName;

       $failoverServers = $_.getFailoverManagementServers();

       foreach ($managementServer in $failoverServers) {

              “–Failover MS :: ” + ($managementServer.ComputerName);

       }

}

Write-Host “”;

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Verify Gateway Server Fail-Over

Shutdown the primary management Server SCOM2.kartik.com

Logs from SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Event generated in SCOM console for SCOM2.kartik.com

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Logs from Server1.kartik.com saying that it is successfully failed over to SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Server1.kartik.com showing healthy in SCOM console

 

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3. Gateway Agent ( domain-joined ) failover

Client: Client2.kartik.com

Primary Gateway Management Server: Server1.kartik.com

Failover Gateway Management Server: Node2.kartik.com 20

Client2.kartik.com reporting to Gateway Server1.kartik.com

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Powershell commands to configure Gateway Agent failover

$primaryMS = Get-SCOMManagementServer | where {$_.Name –eq ‘server1.kartik.com’} 
$failoverMS = Get-SCOMManagementServer | where {$_.Name –eq ‘Node2.kartik.com’} 
$agent = Get-SCOMAgent | where {$_.PrimaryManagementServerName -eq ‘Server1.kartik.com’} 
Set-SCOMParentManagementServer -Agent: $agent -PrimaryServer: $primaryMS 
Set-SCOMParentManagementServer -Agent: $agent -FailoverServer: $failoverMS

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Powershell commands to verify Gateway Agent failover

 

$Agents = Get-SCOMAgent | where {$_.PrimaryManagementServerName -eq ‘Server1.Kartik.COM’} 
$Agents | sort | foreach { 
Write-Host “”; 
“Agent :: ” + $_.Name; 
“–Primary MS :: ” + ($_.GetPrimaryManagementServer()).ComputerName; 
$failoverServers = $_.getFailoverManagementServers(); 
foreach ($managementServer in $failoverServers) { 
“–Failover MS :: ” + ($managementServer.ComputerName); 
} 
} 
Write-Host “”;

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Shutdown Server1.kartik.com

Event generated in SCOM console for Server1.kartik.com

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Event Log from Management Server SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Client2.kartik.com successfully failed over to other gateway server Node2.kartik.com

Event log generated in Client2.kartik.com

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Client2.kartik.com showing healthy in scom console

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4. Gateway Agent ( workgroup ) failover

Workgroup computer: Client.kartik.com

Primary Gateway Management Server: Server1.kartik.com

Failover Gateway Management Server: Node2.kartik.com

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Note: For the workgroup computer to failover , the certificate used for client authentication should be imported into personal store of failover Gateway Management Server too

Workgroup client reporting to the gateway Server1.kartik.com

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Certificates imported in personal store of both the Gateway Servers Server1.kartik.com and Node2.kartik.com

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Powershell commands to verify Gateway Agent failover

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Shutdown Server1.kartik.com

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Event logs generated from Management Server SCOM2016.kartik.com

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Event Log generated in workgroup computer for successful failover

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