Andrea Gallazzi .com

DPM 2010: Event ID 1584 - A backup application initiated a VSS snapshot on Cluster Shared Volume without properly preparing the volume for snapshot.

2012-01-25T00:54:00.001-08:00

You will see this error when you run DPM 2010 to backup CSV. On the DPM 2010 console, the backup is successful and can restore VHD backup. However on the Event Viewer, you will see Event ID 1584 is logged.

In my case the NetApp FAS used for SAN storage and the reason is did not purchased Snapmanager to support hardware requestor for VSS.

To solve this issue, you need to enable serialization backup of CSV node.

On DPM server, modify the registry (change data from 3 to 1)
Key : HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\2.0\Configuration\MaxAllowedParallelBackups
Value: Microsoft Hyper-V
Data :1
Type: DWORD

Thanks to Robert: http://robertanddpm.blogspot.com/2010/07/enabling-serialized-backup-of-hyper-v.html )

Exchange 2010 - Activesync HTTP ERROR 500 on FolderSync

2012-01-23T00:11:00.001-08:00

Only for some users, the ExRCA returns HTTP ERROR 500 on FolderSync but the user affected have check box for "Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent" are already selected.

The is not a member of the following protected group.

Administrators, Administrator, Account Operators, Server Operators, Print Operators, Backup Operators, Domain Admins, Schema Admins, Enterprise Admins, Cert Publishers, Krbtgt, Read-only Domain Controllers, Replicator

To resolve this issue we can follow the followings steps:

a. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.

b. Open the Properties of "Aftected user".

c. Click the Security tab and click Advanced.

d. Click the "Effective Permissions" tab.

e. Click Select, input "Exchange Servers", click "Check Names" and click OK.

f. Scroll down and check whether the following permissions exist:

g. If the permission does not exist, please switch back to the Permissions tab. Click Add.

h. Input "Exchange Servers", click "Check Names" and click OK.

i. In the "Apply to" drop down box, please select "Descendant msExchActiveSyncDevice objects" and add the following permissions: List contents, Read all properties, Write all properties, Delete, Modify Permissions

j. Click OK.

k. Click OK and click OK.

The related permissions are set when installing the Exchange 2010 server. You may also run "setup /PrepareDomain" command to reset the permissions again if the default permissions have been changed.

Removing Public Folders From Exchange 2003 by ADSI

2012-01-21T08:28:00.001-08:00

If Public folders are not in use in your organization, you can save time removing the Public Folders From Exchange 2003 by ADSI

Configuration + CN=Configuration + CN=Services + CN=Microsoft Exchange + CN=YOUR ORGANISATION + CN=Administrative Groups + CN=First Administrative Group + CN=Servers + CN=SERVER NAME + CN=InformationStore

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Windows update sites

2012-01-02T06:37:00.001-08:00

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
https://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
http://*.update.microsoft.com
https://*.update.microsoft.com
http://*.windowsupdate.com
http://download.windowsupdate.com
http://download.microsoft.com
http://*.download.windowsupdate.com
http://wustat.windows.com
http://ntservicepack.microsoft.com
http://*.microsoft.com

Network Setting Manager

2011-12-28T01:54:00.001-08:00

In OSX Network Positions are very useful. Unfortunately in Windows is not possibile.

Network Setting Manager is able to add this feature.

Are you tired of changing your network configuration on your
laptop or computer every day? Always the same procedure?

On the go: changing...
At home: changing...
In the office: changing...

Then NetSetMan is your solution. It will do the work for you.
Switch between network profiles for different locations instantly!

http://www.netsetman.com/index.php?s=nsm

Thanks to S_Net for reporting

Windows Server Core, Hyper-V core: How to turn off NIC DNS register

2011-12-28T01:27:00.001-08:00

netsh interface ipv4 set dnsserver name="Local Area Connection" source=static address="10.10.10.1" register=none

Windows Server Core, Hyper-V Core: Modifying network bindings from the command line.

2011-12-28T00:13:00.001-08:00

nvspbind is a tool for modifying network bindings from the command line. It is especially useful in Server Core environments with the Hyper-V role enabled.

It can be used to set the correct bindings for NICs used in Virtual Networks.
It can also be used to enable or disable specific bindings on any NIC and to query and change the NIC connection order.
It utilizes the INetCfg APIs documented on MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms805265.aspx).

Most options are documented in the readme and nvpsbind.txt which download with the install.

To get help run “nvspbind.exe /?”

C:\>nvspbind /?
Hyper-V Network VSP Bind Application 6.1.7690.0.
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Usage: nvspbind option NIC protocol
Options:
/n display NIC information only
/u unbind switch protocol from specified nic(s)
/b bind switch protocol to specified nic(s)
/d disable binding of specified protocol from specified nic(s)
/e enable binding of specified protocol to specified nic(s)
/r repair bindings on specified nic(s)
/o show NIC order for specified protocol
/+ move specified NIC up in binding order for specified protocol
/- move specified NIC down in binding order for specified protocol
/++ move specified NIC up to top of binding order for specified protocol
/-- move specified NIC down to bottom of binding order for specified protocol

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/nvspbind

Hyper-V Cluster: Network Configuration

2011-12-27T23:51:00.001-08:00

Management Network(Parent Partition)
1 Network Card

Make sure this card is listed first in the Adapter and Bindings connection order.
In Failover Cluster Manager make sure that the NIC is configured to allow cluster network communication on this network. This will act as a secondary connection for the Heartbeat.

Storage ISCSI
2 Network Cards – Not Teamed

Enable MPIO.
Disable NetBIOS on these interfaces
Do not configure a Gateway
Do not configure a DNS server
Make sure that each NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
Remove File and Printer sharing
Do not remove Client from Microsoft networks if using Netapp Snapdrive with RPC authentication
In Failover Cluster Manager select- Do not allow cluster network communication on this network

VM Network
(Parent Partition)
2 Network cards :
1 for Dynamic IP’s
1 for Reserved IP’s

Disable NetBIOS on these interfaces
Do not configure a Gateway
Do not configure a DNS server
Make sure that each NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
Remove File and Printer sharing and Client from Microsoft networks
In Failover Cluster Manager select – Do not allow cluster network communication on this network.

Cluster Heartbeat
1 Network Card

Disable NetBIOS on this interface
Do not configure a Gateway
Do not configure a DNS server
Make sure that this NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
Make sure that Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks are enabled to support Server Message Block (SMB), which is required for CSV.
In Failover Cluster Manager make sure that the NIC is configured to allow cluster network communication on this network.
In Failover Cluster Manager remove the tick box for Allow Clients Connect through this network. This setting has nothing to do with the host/parent partition. This setting is used to control over what NICs the Cluster Resources can be accessed.

Cluster Shared Volume (CSV)
1 Network Card

Disable NetBIOS on this interface
Make sure that this NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS
Make sure that Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks are enabled to support Server Message Block (SMB), which is required for CSV.
In Failover Cluster Manager remove the tick box for Allow Clients Connect through this network. This setting has nothing to do with the host/parent partition. This setting is used to control over what NICs the Cluster Resources can be accessed. This is more relevant for other workloads e.g. File Cluster. It has no impact on the communication with the host partition or for the VM’s themselves.
By default the cluster will automatically choose the NIC to be used for CSV communication. We will change this later.
This traffic is not routable and has to be on the same subnet for all nodes.

Live Migration
1 Network Card

Disable NetBIOS on this interface
Make sure that this NIC is NOT set to register its connection in DNS.
In Failover Cluster Manager remove the tick box for Allow Clients Connect through this network. This setting has nothing to do with the host/parent partition. This setting is used to control over what NICs the Cluster Resources can be accessed. This is more relevant for other workloads e.g. File Cluster. It has no impact on the communication with the host partition or for the VM’s themselves.

By default the cluster will automatically choose the NIC to be used for Live-Migration. You can select multiple networks for LM and give them a preference.

How to enable Jumbo Frames on Hyper-V Server

2011-12-22T02:13:00.001-08:00

Attention: I reported the following "good" article only for redundancy. The original source is here: http://mrshannon.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/jumbo-frames-on-hyper-v-server/

Enabling Jumbo Frame support in Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 (or Windows Server Core) has proven to be a bit of an adventure. It really just involves setting the MTU size, but it has to be done in the OS (to affect the TCP/IP stack) as well as the network cards’ driver. Since Core versions of Windows do not have a network control, setting the MTU on the cards proves to be a bit of a trick. This is what I had to do to enable Jumbo Frames on several iSCSI nics, and since it differs for Intel vs Broadcom adapters, there are two procedures.

I should point out that this does not address configuring the network switch that these nics are attached to. That is a whole ‘nother can of worms, but suffice it to say that the switch must not only support Jumbo Frames but have that support enabled, along with a whole host of other settings.

Enable Jumbo Frames on the OS

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your server will allow jumbo frames. You do this by setting the MTU on your adapters to 9000. The easiest way to do this is by running a netsh command on each adapter you want to use Jumbo Frames.

Get a list of interface names by running “netsh int show int”

Admin State State Type Interface Name

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enabled Disconnected Dedicated Local Area Connection 2

Enabled Connected Dedicated Bcom-GB3-iSCSI-A

Enabled Connected Dedicated Local Area Connection

Enabled Connected Dedicated Local Area Connection 3

Enabled Connected Dedicated Local Area Connection 4

Enabled Connected Dedicated Bcom-GB4-iSCSI-B

Enabled Connected Dedicated Intel-GB1-Guest-B

Enabled Connected Dedicated Bcom-GB2-Guest-A

Enabled Connected Dedicated Intel-GB2-Guest-C

Enabled Connected Dedicated Bcom-GB1-Mgmnt

Enabled Connected Dedicated Intel-GB3-iSCSI-C

Enabled Connected Dedicated Intel-GB4-Migration

In this case I have already re-named the Interfaces that I intend to use for iSCSI. You might just see a whole list of “Local Area Connection” interfaces. You can use ipconfig or netsh to further identify which ones you want to use.

Now for each interface you want jumbo frames enabled, run this command:

netsh int ipv4 set subint “<Interface Name Goes Here>” mtu=9000 store=persistent

Now you have to configure Jumbo Frames in the driver for each interface.

Enable Jumbo Frames on Intel cards

The Intel driver stores it’s “Jumbo Frame” settings in the registry. Thankfully, Hyper-V Server (and Windows Core) comes with Regedit, so you can just launch that from command line (regedit.exe) and browse to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces

Here you will see all the network interfaces listed by GUID. I have found that the easiest way to determine which GUID is which adapter is by finding the IP address and being able to correlate it to the right Interface name.

At this point you should start making a list to help keep things straight. Copy the GUID into notepad and list the IP address next to it and do this for each card you want to configure. So for this server, my list looks like this:

SERVERNAME {7A310D71-217C-4E4A-9DA7-43299A76CBD5} 172.16.0.9

SERVERNAME {7BC7F3B9-B245-4579-82CB-C94161BFDBC1} 172.16.0.7

SERVERNAME {8BA5076E-0FC3-4D20-9609-654F228EE6BD} 172.16.0.6

SERVERNAME {98ABBECA-B8A2-41D2-9550-8B571E50F49A} 172.16.0.8

Now we have to navigate to a new registry key to configure the driver. Go here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Here you will again see a list of all network interfaces, only this time they are under 4 digit identifiers. From here, search for the GUID that you copied to your list and you should find it as the “NetCfgInstanceId” key of one of the adapters. Once found, it’s not a bad idea to update your list to keep track of what’s what. Mine looks like this now:

SERVERNAME {7A310D71-217C-4E4A-9DA7-43299A76CBD5} 172.16.0.9 0009 Intel

SERVERNAME {7BC7F3B9-B245-4579-82CB-C94161BFDBC1} 172.16.0.7 0005 Broadcom

SERVERNAME {8BA5076E-0FC3-4D20-9609-654F228EE6BD} 172.16.0.6 0004 Broadcom

SERVERNAME {98ABBECA-B8A2-41D2-9550-8B571E50F49A} 172.16.0.8 0008 Intel

Scroll up to find the “*JumboPacket” key and double click it to change the default value of 1514 to 9014. Note the extra 14 bytes here represents packet headers that normally are not counted in MTU size.

Repeat this for each Intel adapter you need to configure, and then reboot the server for the setting to take effect.

Enable Jumbo Frames on Broadcom cards

First make sure you have the latest Broadcom drivers. Make sure you get the 2008 R2 x64 set.

If you haven’t already, then download and install the driver and then reboot the host. Note: Make sure you migrate any existing guest servers off the host before you install the drivers. The temporary outage of the card due to the update seems to make a failover cluster angry.

Now get the Broadcom Management Application suite. Again, get the x64 set from the same page.

Install the management app. I opt’d not to install the BASP component (see screenshot below) since we do not want failover or teaming in this scenario. It’ll likely warn you that you need the dotNet Framework 2.0 and you should be able to ignore this because the installer just does not recognize the “Core” framework, but the application still runs. To make sure you do in fact have the framework installed, run “oclist | findstr /i netfx” and look for a line stating that NetFx is installed. For example, “Installed:NetFx2-ServerCore”. If not, you can install it by running “start /w ocsetup NetFx2-ServerCore” or instead you can install dotNet 3.0 and 3.5 by running “start /w ocsetup NetFx3-ServerCore”.

From C:\Program Files\Broadcom\BACS run “BACSCLi” to run in interactive mode. It will show you a list of all network adapter drivers installed. You only care about the “NDIS” adapters so enter “list ndis” and you’ll see something like this:

C MAC Dev Type Name

- ------------ -------- ----------------------------------------------------

0 001B214285B8 NDIS [0000] Intel(R) Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter

1 001B214285B9 NDIS [0007] Intel(R) Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter #2

2 001B214285BC NDIS [0008] Intel(R) Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter #3

3 001B214285BD NDIS [0009] Intel(R) Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter #4

4 0026B9429866 NDIS [0002] Broadcom BCM5709C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBDClient)

5 0026B9429868 NDIS [0003] Broadcom BCM5709C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBDClient) #2

6 0026B942986A NDIS [0004] Broadcom BCM5709C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBDClient) #3

7 0026B942986C NDIS [0005] Broadcom BCM5709C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBDClient) #4

If you did the Intel configuration you’ll notice the four digit number in square braces of the Name field matches the Control\Class registry key.

Use some combination of “ipconfig /all” in another window or CtxAdmTools’ Visual Core Configurator 2008 or the four digit registry code to identify the adapter that you want to configure. In this example we want Connection #6. Select it by using “select 6” or whatever number is in the “C” column that matches your adapter. Now validate that you have selected the correct adapter by reviewing some of its details. Run “info” to see it’s MAC/IP, etc.

Vital Signs

-----------

MAC Address: : 00-26-B9-42-98-6A

Permanent MAC Address: : 00-26-B9-42-98-6A

IPV4 Address : 172.16.0.6

Link Status : UP

Duplex: : Full

Speed(in Mbps): : 1000

Offload Capabilities : TOE,LSO,CO,RSS

Mtu : 1500

Driver Information

-----------

Driver Status: : Loaded

Driver Name: : bxnd60a.sys

Driver Version: : 5.0.13.0

Driver Date: : 07/30/2009

Notice the MTU setting is set to 1500 by default. Now run “cfg advanced” to list its advanced properties.

Advanced

--------

Ethernet@WireSpeed: Enable (Default)

Flow Control: Disable

IPv4 Checksum Offload: Tx/Rx enabled (Default)

IPv4 Large Send Offload: Enable (Default)

IPv6 Checksum Offload: Tx/Rx enabled (Default)

IPv6 Large Send Offload: Enable (Default)

Interrupt Moderation: Enable (Default)

Jumbo MTU: 1500 (Default)

Locally Administered Address: Not Present (Default)

Number Of RSS Queues: 8 (Default)

Priority & VLAN: Priority & VLAN enabled (Default)

Receive Buffers: 750 (Default)

Receive Side Scaling: Enable (Default)

Speed & Duplex: Auto (Default)

TCP Connection Offload (IPv4): Enable (Default)

TCP Connection Offload (IPv6): Enable (Default)

Transmit Buffers: 1500 (Default)

VLAN ID: 0 (Default)

Wake Up Capabilities: Both (Default)

Run “cfg advanced “Jumbo MTU”=9000” to set Jumbo frames to 9000 bytes. Note that you do not have to account for the 14 bytes of header data here. It’ll take a few seconds to apply the change but you should not need to reboot (yay!). You can now run “cfg advanced” and “info” to list the settings and ensure that the MTU is in fact set to 9000.

You should also enable Flow Control for Transmit (Tx) and Receive (Rx). With the correct adapter already selected, run “cfg advanced “Flow Control”=”Rx & Tx enabled””.

Once that is complete you can enter “q” to exit BACScli or start over using “list ndis” and select another interface to configure. You can also use this utility to select non-Broadcom adapters to display some of their info like MTU size.

Testing Jumbo Frames

To test if Jumbo Frames are working you can ping another host target that also supports Jumbo Frames. The easiest way that I have found to do this was to just change the IP of your test NIC and your test target NIC to something that no other adapter has. This is because there is no way to tell windows specifically what NIC to send traffic over, so setting the NIC’s to their own network ip space is the only way to ensure that the ping traverses a particular adapter.

For example, I changed the source test nic to 172.16.1.4 and the target to 172.16.1.8 and no other adapters on either host saw set in the 172.16.1.* range.

First try a normal “ping 172.16.1.8” and it should work fine. Then use “ping -f -l 6000 172.16.1.8” to test jumbo frames and it should also work, only this time you’ll see it sending 6000 bytes instead of 32.

So that about covers it. I had to do this for each of the 32 iSCSI nics spread across the 8 host servers, but it works! You should be aware that if you do a driver update or if you share a NIC with a virtual network (as a Hyper-V Host) your settings may be lost and you’ll have to go through this again

Exchange Server 2010 Build Numbers and Release Dates

2011-12-20T04:37:00.001-08:00

To view the build number for the version of Exchange 2010 that you’re running, run the following command in the Exchange Management Shell:

Get-ExchangeServer | fl name,edition,admindisplayversion

All versions here:

Exchange Server 2010

Product name	Build number	Date	KB
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 RTM	14.0.639.21	11/9/2009
Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010	14.0.682.1	12/9/2009	KB976573
Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010	14.0.689.0	3/4/2010	KB979611
Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2010	14.0.694.0	4/9/2010	KB981401
Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010	14.0.702.1	6/17/2010	KB982639
Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2010	14.0.726.0	12/13/2010	KB2407113

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1

Product name

Build number

Date

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.218.15

8/24/2010

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.255.2

10/4/2010

KB2407028

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.270.1

12/9/2010

KB2425179

Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.289.3

3/7/2011

KB2492690

Update Rollup 3-v3 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.289.7

4/1/2011

KB2529939

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.323.1

6/22/2011

KB2509910

Update Rollup 4-v2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.323.6

7/27/2011

KB2579150

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.339.1

8/23/2011

KB2582113

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

14.1.355.2

10/27/2011

KB2608646

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2

Product name	Build number	Date	KB
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2	14.2.247.5	4/12/2011

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/exchange-server-and-update-rollups-builds-numbers.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh135098.aspx

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

2011-12-05T11:25:00.001-08:00

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2) is available for download. The latest SP includes functionality that is aimed at helping users navigate and manage their cloud-on-premises hybrid environments.

The newest SP adds new protection and compliance tooling; additional deployment options; and the return of Outlook Mobile Access (OMA). SP2 also includes a new hybrid configuration wizard, which, as Softpedia explained, can help automate “the setup of a hybrid connection between Exchange Online running in Office 365 and an on-premises Exchange 2010 organization.”

Exchange 2010 SP2 is supported on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2008 Standard.

Exchange 2010 SP2 isn’t the only Microsoft offering that bridges the cloud-on-premises gap. Microsoft is in the midst of a strategy shift in terms of how it intends to encourage customers to move from private to public clouds, officials have said recently.

More info:

What's New in Exchange 2010 SP2: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh529924.aspx

Released: Exchange Server 2010 SP2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/12/05/released-exchange-server-2010-sp2.aspx

Download:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28190&WT.mc_id=rss_alldownloads_all

Open the firewall port for SQL Server

2011-11-30T01:32:00.000-08:00

Windows Firewall on Windows Server 2008 helps prevent unauthorized access to computer resources. However, if the firewall is configured incorrectly, attempts to connect to an instance of SQL Server may be blocked. To access an instance of SQL Server that is behind the firewall, you must configure the firewall on the computer that is running SQL Server.

The following script is able to resolve our issue easily:

@echo ========= SQL Server Ports ===================
@echo Enabling SQLServer default instance port 1433
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 1433 "SQLServer"
@echo Enabling Dedicated Admin Connection port 1434
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 1434 "SQL Admin Connection"
@echo Enabling conventional SQL Server Service Broker port 4022
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 4022 "SQL Service Broker"
@echo Enabling Transact-SQL Debugger/RPC port 135
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 135 "SQL Debugger/RPC"
@echo ========= Analysis Services Ports ==============
@echo Enabling SSAS Default Instance port 2383
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 2383 "Analysis Services"
@echo Enabling SQL Server Browser Service port 2382
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 2382 "SQL Browser"
@echo ========= Misc Applications ==============
@echo Enabling HTTP port 80
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 80 "HTTP"
@echo Enabling SSL port 443
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 443 "SSL"
@echo Enabling port for SQL Server Browser Service's 'Browse' Button
netsh firewall set portopening UDP 1434 "SQL Browser"
@echo Allowing multicast broadcast response on UDP (Browser Service Enumerations OK)
netsh firewall set multicastbroadcastresponse ENABLE

Rif: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968872/en-us?fr=1

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Windows Server Core: How to change “NIC” name

2011-11-08T08:12:00.001-08:00

First off all let’s see the the NIC's names.

netsh interface show interface

Now we can rename your Network Adapters/Local Area Connection/Interface

netsh interface set interface OldName NewName= “New Name”

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2: Core Configurator

2011-11-08T07:09:00.001-08:00

Today, I found a useful tool on codeplex called Core Configurator.

It is completely open source so it can be amended and change to fit your requirements, this version has been a year in the making and has been written in powershell with a reference to Winforms so that a GUI format is displayed.
The primary focus of this project is to try and get feedback and contributions back from the community to make this a tool the best/ free tool everyone will want in there toolkit, so if you have some code or features that you might want included then please leave a comment and we will get in touch.
Core Configuration tasks include:

Product Licensing
Networking Features
DCPromo Tool
ISCSI Settings
Server Roles and Features
User and Group Permissions
Share Creation and Deletion
Dynamic Firewall settings
Display | Screensaver Settings
Add & Remove Drivers
Proxy settings
Windows Updates (Including WSUS)
Multipath I/O
Hyper-V including virtual machine thumbnails
JoinDomain and Computer rename
Add/remove programs
Services
WinRM
Complete logging of all commands executed

You can download it on Codeplex site: http://coreconfig.codeplex.com/

Exchange Management Console Troubleshooter

2011-10-15T07:02:00.001-07:00

The EMTshooter runs on the local (target) Exchange server and attempts to identify potential problems with management tools connection to it.

The troubleshooter runs in 2 stages. First, it will look at the IIS Default Web Site, the PowerShell vdir, and other critical areas, to identify known causes of connection problems. If it identifies a problem with one of the pre-checks it will make a recommendation for resolving the problem. If the pre-checks pass, the troubleshooter will go ahead and try to connect to the server in the exact same way that the management tools would. If that connection attempt still results in a WinRM-style error, the troubleshooter will attempt to compare that error to a list of stored strings that we have taken from the related support cases that we have seen. If a match is found, the troubleshooter will display the known causes of that error in the CMD window.

For more informaiton on this download see: http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2010/12/07/3411644.aspx

Exchange 2010: IP Block List Providers and the variables

2011-10-13T00:43:00.001-07:00

In Exchange 2003 we could set custom error message with below variables:

%0: IP address of the sending mail server
%1: Rule name of the connection filter
%2: The RBL provider

BUT in Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 the variables above are not longer available.

To set custom rejection response we can use below variables.

{0}: IP address of the sending mail server
{1}: Rule name of the connection filter
{2}: The RBL provider

I.e.: Message refused: your IP {0} is listed by {2} (see http://multirbl.valli.org/lookup/{0}.html for details).

Naturally we can use the EMS:

Add-IPBlockListProvider -Name:Spamhaus -LookupDomain:zen.spamhaus.org -AnyMatch $True –RejectionResponse “Message refused: your IP {0} is listed by {2} (see http://multirbl.valli.org/lookup/{0}.html for details).”

Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124369(EXCHG.140).aspx

SBS 2011: Event 217 invalid header fields with Failure hrResult (0x800ccc63)

2011-09-06T12:09:00.001-07:00

In case the SBS 2011/2008 POP3 connector returns the error 217 on Event Viewer under Microsoft-Windows-Small Business Server/Operational

One or more (x) e-mail messages in the POP3 mailbox account 'emailaddress@domain.com' on the POP3 server 'mail.domain.com' have invalid header fields. Because of this, the messages cannot be delivered to the Exchange Server mailbox 'mailbox@domain.com' in Windows Small Business Server. The messages are still on the POP3 server. To resolve this issue, connect to the POP3 mailbox account, and then manually retrieve or delete the messages.

“and then manually retrieve or delete the messages” LOL!!!!

If you have a look in the pop3connector.log [ C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Logs\pop3connector ] :

[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] 505 27477
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] 506 4446
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] 507 32528
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] 508 358136
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] .
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: Downloading message 1 of 500.
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [TX] RETR 1
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] +OK 8723 octets follow.
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: Sending message 1 to the SMTP recipient allusers@XXX.COM...
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (SMTP) [TX] MAIL FROM: <SUBJECT EMAIL> RET=FULL
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: Downloading message 2 of 500.
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [TX] RETR 2
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:10: (POP3) [RX] +OK 171731 octets follow.
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15: (SMTP) [RX] 501 5.1.7 Invalid address
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15: Failure hrResult (0x800ccc63) trying to deliver message id 1:
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15: SMTPRESPONSE:    * * *   !Failed!   * * *
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:                  * * *              * * *
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:                  * * * 0x800ccc63 * * *
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:       Command: [SMTP_MAIL]
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:     Completed: Yes.
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:     IxpResult:
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:   ---> ---> ---> hrResult: 0x800ccc63
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:                pszResponse: 501 5.1.7 Invalid address
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:              uiServerError: 501
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:              dwSocketError: 0
[t 0] 09/06/11, 17:46:15:                pwszProblem: <none>

As you can see, the connector not validates the header, passing the ball with “Return-Path” error direcly to Exchange transport. The latter has the parameter MaxProtocolErrors setted to 5 ( LOL )

First of all you can try to set the “Default Domain” on the “Sharepoint Fax Receiver Connector”. To do this we can use this EMS command:

Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity ($Env:computername + "\Windows SBS Fax Sharepoint Receive " + $Env:computername) -DefaultDomain $Env:UserDNSDomain

If you are unlucky, try to increase the paramenter “MaxProtocolErrors”

Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity ($Env:computername + "\Windows SBS Fax Sharepoint Receive " + $Env:computername) -MaxProtocolErrors 500

Remember to restart POP3Connector and MSExchangeTransport

Exchange 2010: HAProxy, a free Layer 4 Virtual Load Balancer

2011-09-04T02:52:00.001-07:00

Haproxy runs on Unix like OS (Linux, FreeBsd) and can be used to resolve all load balancing problem, of course even those Exchange Server 2010.

HAProxy is a free, very fast and reliable solution offering

high availability, load balancing, and proxying for TCP and HTTP-based applications. It is particularly suited for web sites crawling under very high loads while needing persistence or Layer7 processing. Supporting tens of thousands of connections is clearly realistic with todays hardware. Its mode of operation makes its integration into existing architectures very easy and riskless, while still offering the possibility not to expose fragile web servers to the Net, such as below :

You can visit the Steve Goodman’s Blog, where you can read how HAProxy works with Exchange 2010.

http://www.stevieg.org/e2010haproxy/

http://haproxy.1wt.eu/

Windows Log Files For TroubleShooting

2011-08-23T23:36:00.001-07:00

I believe every System Administrator should know about the log files for troubleshooting Windows Server. These logs are great help for troubleshooting lot of Windows related problems from windows update to Group Policies. Windows Generates log for every process that has been done on the server. Listed below are some of the log files you should check in case of failures.

DCPromoUI.log

The DcpromoUI.log file contains a detailed progress report of the Active Directory installation and removal processes. Its default location is the % SystemRoot %\Debug folder on Windows 2000–based servers. Logging begins when the Active Directory Installation Wizard is opened and continues until the summary screen appears; regardless of whether it terminated prematurely or completed successfully. If the installation or removal failed, detailed error messages appear in the log immediately after the step that caused the failure. When the installation or removal process is successful, the log provides positive confirmation of that fact.

Netsetup.log

When joining a computer to a Windows 2000 domain, the Networking Setup (NetSetup) installs all the necessary Microsoft supported networking components. The Netsetup.log file provides information about the attempts to join domains and records any errors that might be preventing the join from being successful. Also, to install networking components not directly supported by Microsoft, the NetSetup tool provides a way to connect into the setup process for third-party components.

Userenv.log

The output of this log file can be helpful in troubleshooting problems with user profiles and Group Policy processing. The log file resides in the % SystemRoot %\Debug folder.

Netlogon.log

The Net Logon service responds to network logon requests. The Net Logon service dynamically creates records in the DNS database that are used to locate a server.

Ntfrsapi.log

The File Replication service (FRS) text-based log file is the Ntfrsapi.log file. It resides in the % SystemRoot %\Debug folder. It tracks replication problems and contains events that take place during the installation or removal of Active Directory, for example, creating the NTFRS registry keys

Thanks to Syed Khairuddin for the original post : http://www.virmansec.com/blogs/skhairuddin/archive/2011/06/29/windows-log-files-for-troubleshooting.aspx

Exchange 2010: Settare Out Of Office (Fuori Sede) per tutte le Mailbox

2011-08-05T04:10:00.001-07:00

Dato che siamo in tema di ferie, ecco come settare il “fuori sede” o OOF per tutte le mailbox

Get-Mailbox | Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -InternalMessage "Avvisiamo la gentile clientela che la DITTA rimmarrà chiusa per ferie dal x al x Agosto compresi." -ExternalMessage "Avvisiamo la gentile clientela che la DITTA rimmarrà chiusa per ferie dal x al x Agosto compresi." –AutoReplyState Scheduled –StartTime [data] –EndTime [data]

Al rientro basterà utilizzare questo comando:

Get-Mailbox | Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState Disabled

Linux Integration Services Version 3.1 for Hyper-V

2011-07-29T15:36:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has released version 3.1 of the Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V.

The supported operating systems for 3.1 are:

“Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.0 and 6.1 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)
CentOS 6.0 x86 and x64 (Up to 4 vCPU)”

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837

Exchange 2010 - Do you really want to know how much "white space" is in your mailbox database?

2011-07-15T01:43:00.001-07:00

Do you really want to know how much "white space" is in your mailbox database?

Simply, use the following cmdlet in EMS:

Get-MailboxDatabase –Status | select AvailableNewMailboxSpace

Exchange 2010: Support for UPN credentials in OWA change password feature

2011-07-13T00:10:00.001-07:00

Last year when we released Exchange 2010 SP1, we posted about the change expired password feature in Outlook Web App and how you can enable it by creating the ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabled registry entry. See So you want to change your expired passwords in OWA... for details.

Since then you've sent us many requests for supporting the use of User Principal Name (UPN) format in the same feature. Previously only domain\username format was supported when entering domain credentials.

We passed on that feedback to Exchange PMs and we're glad to let you know that the support for UPN credentials is now available in Exchange 2010 SP1 RU3-V3, which was released recently.

Note: At the time of this writing, Update Rollup 4 is the latest rollup available for Exchange 2010 SP1.

References:

Configuring the Change Password Feature in Outlook Web App
2464564 - You cannot change the password of a UPN formatted user name in OWA when you enable Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Password Reset Tool

source: msexchange official team blog

Favicons issue on IE 9 (only)

2011-07-12T11:22:00.001-07:00

Favicons do not like to Internet Explorer 9, vice versa all other browsers over the world.

To resolve this hateful problem (i.e. in your Google Blogger blog) you remember:

1. Your icon should be a valid dimension: 16x16, 32x32 or 48x48.

2. Place the following code immediately after <head>:

3. Place the following code immediately before </head>

You can convert your PNG picture in ICO through this site: http://www.convertico.com/

Exchange 2010 SP1: How to delete the First (or last) database and move the system mailboxes

2011-07-04T05:59:00.001-07:00

When you try to delete the Default Mailbox Database (created with 1st installation of the Mailbox Role), you receive the error below

“This mailbox database contains one or more mailboxes or arbitration mailboxes. Before you can remove this mailbox database, you must disable, move or remove user mailboxes and move arbitration mailboxes.”

Why?

The First database contains the SystemMailboxes which are the Arbitration mailbox(es).

We have to move these system mailboxes to another database before of remove the Default Database.

1. Find the Arbitration Mailbox with EMS

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | Where {$_.Name -like "SystemMailbox*" } | ft –wrap

2. Now have to create a new move request

New-MoveRequest -Identity "SystemMailbox{1f05a927-32d1-4e19-8ea5-67eba859f541-yourGUID}" -TargetDatabase "dbxxxx"

3. Verify if the move request was done

Get-MoveRequest

4. Remove the request

Remove-MoveRequest -Identity "the name of the request like Microsoft Exchange Approval Assistant"