Robert Vance

Author's posts

Migrate Azure VM to OnPrem Hyper-V Host

I recently had to move a test VM from Azure to an on-prem Hyper-V host.  I wasn’t able to to find a clear guide for a migration of a simple single VM so I figured I’d share how I achieved it: 1) In the Azure portal, browse to the VHD disk for the VM you …

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HOWTO: Find NAV user running long SQL queries

I was recently tasked with determining why a NAV 2018 installation was occasionally performing poorly.  I suspected that one or more users were running particular queries or functions but I needed to find a way to prove that.  The catch was I am not a SQL DBA and I know even less about NAV.  But …

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HOWTO: Deploy Dynamics NAV Contact Insights Outlook Addin End to End

This HOWTO explains how to configure a completely fresh environment with Dynamics NAV 2018 and the Contact Insight Dynamics NAV Outlook Addin on-premises while using Azure AD for authentication. The reason this HOWTO was created is a customer wanted to use the Contact Insights NAV plugin for Outlook. It was determined that this plugin does …

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2019 Okanagan Half Marathon Route Map

UPDATE:  Since I made the waypoints anyway, I thought it might be fun to make a video flythrough of the entire 21.1KM of the course.  It’s quick and dirty and more than a little silly but it does serve to demonstrate that this is not going to be easy.  Check out the video here:   I’m …

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HOWTO: Microsoft Certification Exam Preparation Generator

If you’ve ever had to write a Microsoft certification exam, you know that the exam syllabus is available from a URL that looks like this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-##-###.aspx Where the ##-### is the specific exam you are writing.  You likely also know that  the way Microsoft presents this information is not ideal from a study guide perspective.  …

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HOWTO: Build a Temperature Alert System using a Raspberry Pi

I recently had my furnace fail while I was away on business.  Fortunately there were no lasting consequences but it could have been a very bad day.  To try and minimize the risk of such issues in the future, I decided I wanted a temperature monitoring solution that would alert me if the temperature in …

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HOWTO: Calculate Elapsed Business Hours Using PowerShell

Update: 4/11/2022:  An individual by the name of Adam Cook has taken the premise of this script and transformed it into a far more robust PowerShell module and published it on Github.  I wanted to ensure I gave his project all the visibility I could.  The Github page is available here: https://github.com/codaamok/PSBusinessTime Thanks Adam! Have …

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HOWTO: Backup and View All Contents of an Android Device

This HOWTO is written primarily for my own future reference but hopefully it’ll help someone else too. Let’s say you want to back up the entire contents of your Android device.  How do you do that? 1) Download the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tool that comes with the Android SDK Platform Tools.  The link of …

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HOWTO: Generate a Microsoft Exam Checklist

Are you studying for a Microsoft certification exam?  If so, then you are probably familiar with the “Skills Measured” website that describes what will be covered on your exam.  If not, it looks something like this: I’m currently studying for my 70-347 – Enabling Office 365 Services exam.  The skills measured list above is a …

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Is it just inflation?

I recently received a reminder to renew my AMA Plus membership.  2018 marks my 10th anniversary of having an AMA membership.  I pay in annual lump sum payments as it’s cheaper than the monthly option.  I was curious how much they’ve charged for the service over the last decade.  Have a look as I think …

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