Have you been having issues with Microsoft Azure AD Sync service after a simple reboot of the Windows Server? These simple steps might help:

Copy model.mdf and modellog.ldf files from

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\150\LocalDB\Binn\Templates

to either

C:\Users\ADSyncxxxxx$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Local DB\Instances\ADSync2019

or

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\ADSync\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Local DB\Instances\ADSync2019

This issue should not occur starting from version 2.1.1.0 of MS Azure AD Connect. Read the Microsoft doc below to perform a manual in-place upgrade of Azure AD Connect.

References:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/rxkd7m/has_your_azure_ad_connect_been_unable_to_start/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-upgrade-previous-version#in-place-upgrade

In Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online, to connect a soft deleted mailbox, you have need to use the cmdlet New-MailboxRestoreRequest to restore the mailbox to another user.

Get-Mailbox -SoftDeletedMailbox | select guid

Get-Mailbox <NewMailbox> | select guid

New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceMailbox <GUID> -TargetMailbox <GUID of new mailbox> -AllowLegacyDNMismatch

To check the status of the restore:

Get-MailboxRestoreRequest | Get-MailboxRestoreStatistics

References:

Reddit

Azure AD App Proxy allows you to publish an internal website to the internet. It is easy to set up and does not require inbound firewall rules. Traditionally, you would publish a website with the help of a reverse proxy, for example with Citrix Netscaler/ADC, KEMP Loadbalancer or F5.

In the Azure AD Portal (aad.portal.azure.com) open Application Proxy and firstly install the software on a server in the corporate network. Domain join is not a requirement, but is needed if you use Kerberos authentication.

You will need to log in with your tenant admin (or a M365 user that has the appropriate role).

After the installation, you should see the server in Azure AD App Proxy:

To then publish your site, select + Configure an app

Provide the internal URL along with the protocol (HTTPS or HTTP). You could select Azure AD in Pre Authentication and work with conditional access policies and require MFA for example. This example is using Passthrough Authentication.

Also some basic settings can be changed. To publish the site, hit + Add

After a few minutes, your site should be available:

You can also configure custom domains by verifying your domain(s) in Microsoft 365 by uploading your public certificate with the private key (pfx) and configuring the appropriate DNS record. For detailed information, check out the Microsoft docs below.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/app-proxy/application-proxy

If you have the misfortune of having to troubleshoot and repair boot issues on a virtual machine after a physical host crash, these two commands might help you.

First of all, try to get into the advanced settings on boot (it should be the F11 key), or after a while Windows (Server or 10/11) might automatically go into the menu when it cannot boot from disk. Alternatively a Windows ISO image can be used.

Once in the advanced settings, run the good old checkdisk command:

chkdsk /f C:

After completion, restart the VM and check if you are able to boot. If the issue persists, try restoring the registry database (once again through the advanced settings or a Windows ISO). A scheduled task regularly backs up the registry and puts it the folder C:\Windows\System32\config\Regbak.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\RegBack\* C:\windows\system32\config

Restart the VM and check if you are able to boot into Windows. If you still have issues, you should consider restoring from a backup (it sucks but sometimes it is unavoidable).

When syncing local AD users to Azure AD, you can configure Seamless Sign-On to automatically login to Microsoft 365 Apps like Sharepoint Online, OneDrive, or Exchange Online. This is very easy to do and will make logins for users less painful.

Assuming Azure AD Connect is already set up with Pass-through authentication (see https://www.ajni.it/2021/05/configuring-azure-ad-connect-for-user-synchronization/), just open Azure AD Connect and then hit “change user sign-in” and log in with an Azure AD Global admin. After that, select “Enable single sign-on”.

Enter Domain Admin credentials.

When the pre-checks is complete, hit configure and exit.

A Computer Account named AZUREADSSOACC will be created in Active Directory which allows the authentication validation between Azure AD and local Active Directory. The Kerberos decryption key is saved in the cloud and should be changed regularly. You can see that on the Computer account, service principal names are configured

Lastly, you can roll out the feature with Group Policy. The URL https://autologon.microsoftazuread-sso.com must be added to the intranet zone list, which allows the browser to send Kerberos tickets to that site.

The GPO can be found under User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page > Site to Zone Assignment List.

Status bar updates via script must be also enabled. This GPO is located under User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page > Intranet Zone > Allow updates to status bar via script.

You can test the feature by opening portal.office.com. After entering the username, login should be done automatically without needing to insert a password.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-sso-quick-start