Bob Ausmus

Scripting Office 365 and DirSync Replication

2014-06-25T13:45:00.006-04:00

If you are running the new version of DirSync, you probably noticed that the "DirSyncConfigShell.psc1" file is missing. They have also changed the way your start a sync. The new way (documented here: Click Me) you have to import the module, then run the command. Well, I attempted to run this remotely on my desktop and it just hung every time. Here is what I was running:

Invoke-Command -ComputerName SERVER -ScriptBlock { import-module dirsync; Start-OnlineCoexistenceSync }

Then, with the help of a friend at http://powershell.org he reminded me to turn on -verbose so that I could see exactly what the PowerShell was doing. I found that when importing the module, it was attempting to dot-source a file named .\importmodules.ps1 put there by DirSync. Ok, now what is wrong with that file? So I cracked it open and ran each command, one at a time, in a ISE environment and found that it was attempting to run with .net 4.0 and since I had .net 2.0 on my PowerShell window (by default), it was hanging.

Whew… ok now let's find a way to change the PowerShell window to get it to run .net 4.0 for this command. Here is what I came up with:

reg add hklm\software\microsoft\.netframework /v OnlyUseLatestCLR /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add hklm\software\wow6432node\microsoft\.netframework /v OnlyUseLatestCLR /t REG_DWORD /d 1
Invoke-Command -ComputerName SERVER -ScriptBlock { import-module dirsync -verbose; Start-OnlineCoexistenceSync }
reg delete hklm\software\microsoft\.netframework /v OnlyUseLatestCLR /f
reg delete hklm\software\wow6432node\microsoft\.netframework /v OnlyUseLatestCLR /f

So I through that into my script and BAM it started working again. Thanks to all the people online (twitter, reddit, etc…) for your help.

References:

PowerShell.org http://powershell.org/wp/forums/topic/new-dirsync-module/#post-16522

TechNet http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/18429.microsoft-azure-active-directory-sync-tool-version-release-history.aspx

Migrate users from on-prem Exchange server to Office 365

2013-10-18T14:11:00.002-04:00

Moving users one at a time through the EMC was getting super old so I decided to write a script for it to speed it up. Below is the script that I use to migrate a user from the on-prem Exchange 2010 server to Office 365:

A couple of notes on what the script is doing:

- You will need to edit the lines in the "Declaring the variables" section to fit your environment
- Pay attention to the help file at the beginning of the script on how to run the script
- The first thing the script will do is prompt you TWICE for credentials.
- Once for Exchange on-prem server (LDAP)
- Second for Microsoft Online (Office 365)
- Next it will load all the modules/snapins that you will need during this script
- Starting the script:

1. First thing that we are going to do is disable Unified Messaging (UM) on the on-prem Exchange server. You can't migrate a user while UM is enabled.
2. License the user in Office 365
3. Set the location for the user to US in Office 365
4. Connect to Microsoft Exchange Online with a new session
5. Create the move request for the user from on-prem to Office 365
6. Sends a conformation email to you once the move has been scheduled.

Here is the script:
(quick note: to run this in bulk, just throw in a FOREACH loop in there before the license part)

# **************************************
# ******** NOTES / Help File ***********
# **************************************

<#
.SYNOPSIS
To migrate users one at a time from on-prem Exchange to Office 365

.DESCRIPTION
This script will migrate one user at a time to Office 365.
It will disable Unified messaging on the local Exchange server,
then migrate the user to Office 365.

.EXAMPLE
SingleUserO365migrate.ps1 -UPN username@domain.com -ext 1234

.NOTES
Assumptions - This script is being ran from a server that has
the following PowerShell modules installed:

Exchange 2010 / AD / Microsoft Online / Quest AD

The parameters that you will need to include in the script are:
- UPN = The Users EMAIL address
- ext = The phone ext of the user that you are migrating

.LINK
Script developed by Bob Ausmus (http://bobausmus.blogspot.com)
#>

#**************************************
#************* Parameters *************
#**************************************

Param(
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$UPN,
[parameter(Mandatory=$false)][String]$ext,
[parameter(Mandatory=$false)][String]$officelocation
)

#**************************************
#*******Declaring the variables********
#**************************************

#License to be used is $License
$license = "<License pack of your Office 365 License>"

#On Premises CAS Server is: $OnPremCas
$OnPremCas = "<URL of your OWA from On-Prem Exchange Server>"

#Target Delivery Domain is: $TargetDeliveryDom
$TargetDeliverydom = "<URL of your Office 365 domain>"

#Getting the username of the user that is running the script
$curuser = $env:username

#Creditials for on-prem Exchange Server
$onpremcred = $host.ui.PromptForCredential("Domain Login", "Please enter your LDAP username and password", "DOMAIN\$curuser", "")

# Get Local Users Creditials for MS Online
$cred = $host.ui.PromptForCredential("Microsoft Online Login", "Please enter your email address and password", "$curuser@domain.com", "")

# Setting the name of your Exchange Server
$exchangeserver = <insert name of your Exchange server here>

# Setting for email report
$ToEmail = "to@domain.com"
$FromEmail = "from@domain.com"
$Subject = "Subject for email"
$smtpserver = "mail.domain.com"

#**************************************
#***********Helper Functions***********
#**************************************

# Countdown Function
function CountDown($waitMinutes) {
$startTime = get-date
$endTime = $startTime.addMinutes($waitMinutes)
$timeSpan = new-timespan $startTime $endTime
write-host "`nSleeping for $waitMinutes minutes..." -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
while ($timeSpan -gt 0) {
$timeSpan = new-timespan $(get-date) $endTime
write-host "`r".padright(40," ") -nonewline
write-host $([string]::Format("`rTime Remaining: {0:d2}:{1:d2}:{2:d2}", `
$timeSpan.hours, `
$timeSpan.minutes, `
$timeSpan.seconds)) `
-nonewline -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
sleep 1
}
write-host ""

}
cls

#*************************************
#*****Checking PowerShell Modules******
#**************************************

# Inserting some blank lines to make the script prettier
write-host
write-host

# Exchange Module Check

write-host "Checking to see if the Exchange Management PowerShell is installed"
if ((get-pssnapin -name Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010")
{
write-host Exchange Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
. $env:ExchangeInstallPath\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1
Connect-ExchangeServer $exchangeserver -AllowClobber
}
else
{
write-host Exchange Management PowerShell is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}

write-host
write-host

# AD Module Check

write-host "Checking to see if the Active Directory PowerShell module is installed"
if ((get-module -name ActiveDirectory -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "ActiveDirectory")
{
write-host ActiveDirectory Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
import-module activedirectory
}
else
{
write-host Active Directory PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}

write-host
write-host

# Microsoft Online Module Check

write-host "Checking to see if the Microsoft Online PowerShell module is installed"
if ((get-module -name MSOnline -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "MSOnline")
{
write-host Microsoft Online Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
import-module MSOnline
connect-msolservice -credential $cred
}
else
{
write-host Microsoft Online PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}

write-host
write-host

# Quest AD Module Check

write-host "Checking to see if the Quest AD PowerShell module is installed"
# <old> if (Get-PSSnapin | where {$_.Name -eq "Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement"})
if ((get-pssnapin -name Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement")
{
write-host Quest AD Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
Add-PSSnapin Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
else
{
write-host Quest AD PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}

write-host
write-host

#**************************************
#*********Starting the script**********
#**************************************

write-host "Disabling UM for $UPN" -backgroundcolor cyan -foregroundcolor black
$User = $UPN -replace "@domain.com", ""
Disable-UMMailbox -Identity $User -Confirm:$false

# Enable License and Location in MS Online Office 365

# Setting the location for the user in Office 365 to be "United States"
write-host "Setting Usage Location for $UPN to United States" -backgroundcolor cyan -foregroundcolor black
if (get-msoluser -UserPrincipalName $UPN | where {$_.UsageLocation -ne "US"})
{
write-host Setting the location for $UPN to US
set-msoluser -userprincipalname $UPN -usagelocation US
}
else
{
write-host "The location is already set to US, skipping this step"
start-sleep -s 2
}

write-host

# Setting the License for the user to be the proper license in Office 365
write-host "Setting License for $UPN to $license" -backgroundcolor cyan -foregroundcolor black
if (get-msoluser -UserPrincipalName $UPN | where {$_.isLicensed -ne "True"})
{
write-host Setting the License in Office 365 for $UPN
set-msoluserlicense -UserPrincipalName $UPN -Addlicenses $license
}
else
{
write-host $UPN already has the $license set, skipping this step
start-sleep -s 2
}
write-host

write-host
write-host "Connecting to the Microsoft Online Exchange Server(s)"
# Enabling UM on the mailbox in Office 365 Exchange Environment
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
import-pssession $session -prefix o365

write-host
write-host "Creating Mailbox Move Request for $UPN" -backgroundcolor cyan -foregroundcolor black
new-o365moverequest -Identity $UPN -Remote -RemoteHostName $OnPremCas -RemoteCredential $onpremcred -TargetDeliveryDomain $TargetDeliveryDom -BadItemLimit 100 -LargeItemLimit 49
Send-MailMessage -To $ToEmail -From $FromEmail -Subject $Subject -SmtpServer $smtpserver -body "$UPN is being moved to Office 365. They are in $officelocation."
write-host
write-host
exit-pssession
write-host "**** The script is complete ****" -backgroundcolor green -foregroundcolor black

# *****************************************************************
# ****************THIS IS THE BOTTOM OF THE SCRIPT*****************
# *****************************************************************

PowerShell Module and SnapIn Checks

2013-10-18T11:28:00.001-04:00

One of the companies that I do a lot of work for uses Office 365 and everything they do is in bulk. Going through the portal to do anything is time consuming for everyone so I have been writing PowerShell scripts to automate as much as possible. The most common thing that I found is that I have to load the following modules and snapin's almost every time I run a script or a command. So rather than opening up several PowerShell windows to accomplish this task, I just load all the modules in the one window and proceed from there.

Here is the script that I put in place for loading all the modules for the following products:

- Exchange 2010

- Active Directory

- MS Online (Office 365)

- Quest AD Tools

The script does a check first to see if you have the module/snapin already loaded. If so, then it will skip to the next one. If not, then it will load the module/snapin.

# Exchange Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Exchange Management PowerShell is installed"
if ((get-pssnapin -name Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010")
{
write-host Exchange Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
else
{
write-host Exchange Management PowerShell is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}
write-host
write-host

# AD Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Active Directory PowerShell module is installed"
if ((get-module -name ActiveDirectory -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "ActiveDirectory")
{
write-host ActiveDirectory Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
import-module activedirectory
}
else
{
write-host Active Directory PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}
write-host
write-host

# Microsoft Online Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Microsoft Online PowerShell module is installed"
if ((get-module -name MSOnline -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "MSOnline")
{
write-host Microsoft Online Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
import-module MSOnline
connect-msolservice -credential
}
else
{
write-host Microsoft Online PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}
write-host
write-host

# Quest AD Module Check
write-host "Checking to see if the Quest AD PowerShell module is installed"if ((get-pssnapin -name Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | foreach { $_.Name }) -ne "Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement")
{
write-host Quest AD Management PowerShell is not added to this session, adding it now...
Add-PSSnapin Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}
else
{
write-host Quest AD PowerShell module is good to go. -backgroundcolor black -foregroundcolor green
start-sleep -s 1
}

Script: Query AD for when users last changed their passwords

2013-04-01T15:14:00.000-04:00

I ran into a challenging question today... My manager asked if I could get a report of all the users and when they changed their password. I knew I could get this via "DSGET and DSQUERY" but I wanted to force myself to use PowerShell. So here is the quick little script that I wrote that will do just that...

Assumptions:
- You already have a TXT file on your computer that has a list of usernames for all the accounts
- You run these commands on a domain controller or a computer with the remote administration tools installed (to get the AD Module for PowerShell)

The Script:

Import-module activedirectory

$ErrorActionPreference="SilentlyContinue"

Stop-Transcript
| out-null

$ErrorActionPreference
= "Continue"

Start-Transcript
-path C:\output.txt -append

$list =
get-content c:\<path to the TXT file with your users in it>\users.txt

Foreach
($username in $list) {get-aduser -id $username -Properties passwordlastset
|select-object -property name,enabled,passwordlastset} 

Stop-Transcript

Notes:
The "Start-Transcript" and "Stop-Transcript"enable you to get the output in a TXT file so you can import it in excel for later use and manipulation.

Good luck!!!

My road to Hyper-V

2013-04-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here I wanted to track my road to learning Microsoft Hyper-V.

Background:
I have worked with HyperVisors a lot in the past.

- Big fan of VMware ESX
- XenServer is ok (but only have ran Windows on it)
- Hyper-V is a new player to the market.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 was.... horrible. Just horrible. I really gave it it's fair shake but... no. Hyper-V 1 was, eh, ok. Worlds better than before but "Quick Migration" was the killer that kept it out of the enterprise. Hyper-V 2 was much better than 1. "Live Migration" means that it is now a contender for the enterprise market, however it still wasn't 100% there for management.

That brings us to Hyper-V 3. From what have read and seen.... this version hit it out of the park. I love the management aspect of it now that it is MUCH cheaper (and from what I hear will manage vCenter as well).

I am going to concentrate a series of blog post related to what I learn in relation to Hyper-V 3. If you have any suggestions of where to look, gotcha's, examples, etc... please let me know.

Making "Lync Call" default

2013-03-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

I just finished installing Lync server 2010 at work and noticed that the "click to call" feature on the client was not making a "lync call" the default for everyone. This is controlled in the CsClientPolicy for users. Here is the Powershell command to change it:

Set-CsClientPolicy -EnableVOIPCallDefault $True

More information on the full set of options and parameters can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398300.aspx

Favorite Tools to stress-test a connection

2013-03-04T09:35:00.001-05:00

Recently at work I turned up a new Metro connection between two locations. Once it was up, I was asked how I verified that indeed I was getting the full 100mb/s that we were paying for. I had to find a tool that would "stress-test" the connection to it's max to prove that it was working.

Here are two of the tools that I used and how I used them:

First tool is: "iperf" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iperf)

Great little tool that just works. Tons of options but basically you put it on a laptop at both ends of the connection. One is the client and one is the server. You turn on the server with this command from the command prompt:

iperf -s

Yup, it's that simple. Then take the other laptop to the other end of the connection and type this command from the command prompt:

iperf -c <ip address of the server>

Again, it's that simple. The client will contact the server and will run as fast as it can flooding the connection. Once it's done, you will get a report that shows how long it took to send the packets and the max throughput. Great tool, especially for contractors to prove that everything is working.

Second tool is "Pathtest" (http://www.testmypath.com)

This is very similar in the way it works to iperf. Same setup as before, just replace the "iperf" with "pathtest" in the commands. The reason I like this one is the report/output is a little neater and easier for none-techie people (like the CFO) to read and understand. They like seeing reports with neat graphs and Pathtest gives them that.

Both tools are ran from the command prompt. The easiest way to open the command prompt is to following these steps:

1. Press and hold the "Windows key" (usually located just left of the space bar) and then press "r"
2. Type in the RUN box the following: cmd
3. Press enter (or click OK)
4. This will bring up a black box. That is the command prompt.

Good luck and I hope this helps next time you need to prove to the bean counters that you are getting what they are paying for.

Powershell script to make a Lync 2010 "Hunt Group" from scratch

2013-02-12T13:55:00.002-05:00

I am really trying to beef up on my Powershell so I decided to make a script that would make a Lync 2010 Hunt Group. There was a challenge that I had where I was required to make (10) Hunt Groups workflows, queues, and groups. They were to be the same settings, just different users and phone numbers. The thought of going through all the wizards for all the settings just made me want to cry, so I decided to put the big boy pants on and learn how to do this via Powershell. Here goes....

Let's start by identifying what systems we will need to touch.

- Exchange server for creating the users and voicemail Unified Messaging (UM)
- Domain Controller for setting the 'telephone' option in the users account attributes
- Lync server for creating the users, worflow, queues, and groups.

Now that we know the systems, let declare the order of operations.

1st - Exchange to create the user account ONLY. Voicemail will come later.
2nd - Domain Controller - telephone attribute
              -> This is necessary as Exchange uses this information to assign the SIP URI in the next step
3rd - Exchange - enable the voicemail (UM)
4th - Lync to finish the script

Since we know the order of operations, let's dive into the script. I found that Powershell is much like PHP in the fact that you are declare variables in the beginning to use later. One gotcha here is that you can't call variables that haven't been created yet (hard lesson learned here - more to come about that). Here are the variables that I used:

        $SetNumber = '1'
        $SetName = 'Johnny Smith'
        $SetAlias = 'jsmith'
        $SetUserPrincipalName = 'jsmith@domain.local'
        $SetSAMAccountName = 'jsmith'
        $SetFirstName = 'Johnny'
        $SetLastName = 'Smith'
        $SetPassword = 'Password'
        $SetDBStore = 'DatabaseStore01'
        $Telephone = '8005551212'
        $SIPResourceID = $SetAlias + '@domain.local'
        $SetInboxPermission = $SetAlias + ':\inbox'

This is a good time to go ahead and run the commands. They are a little confusing and overwhelming at first look, but I think if you read the command, you will really see the variables in there and it will make sense:

From the Exchange server:

Command:
New-Mailbox -Name $SetName -Alias $SetAlias -OrganizationalUnit 'domain.local/OU/CHILD_OU' -UserPrincipalName $SetUserPrincipalName -SamAccountName $SetSAMAccountName -FirstName $SetFirstName -Initials '' -LastName $SetLastName -ResetPasswordOnNextLogon $false -Database $SetDBStore

From the Domain Controller (NOTE: We have to declare the "$SetAlias" again as we jumped to a new server):

Variable:   $SetAlias = 'jsmith'
Command: Set-ADuser -id $SetAlias -officephone $Telephone

From the Exchange Server (don't have to declare the variables as we already have them):

Command:
Enable-UMMailbox -Identity $SetName -UMMailboxPolicy "UMDefault Default Policy" -SIPResourceIdentifier $SIPResourceID

***EXTRA BONUS COMMAND***

I like to set the permissions on the user to allow for everyone to be able to view their mailbox. IMO, this just saves headaches in the future of you allowing users specifically. Here are the commands:

        set-MailboxFolderPermission -id $SetAlias -user default -AccessRights reviewer

       set-MailboxFolderPermission -id $SetInboxPermission -user default -AccessRights reviewer

***END - EXTRA BONUS COMMAND***

From the Lync Server:
(Quick NOTE before we get too far. We have to declare more variables here as we have created the user and now we have to get more information that we could only get AFTER we the previous steps have been created)

Variables:

        $ServiceId = "service:ApplicationServer:server.domain.local"
        $GroupName = "Group 1"
        $QueueName = "Queue 1"
        $WorkFlowName = "Hunt Group 1"
        $PrimaryURI = "sip:8005551212@domain.com"
        $LineURI = "tel:+18005551212"
        $DisplayNumber = "+1 (800) 555-1212"
        $DistoList = "distrolist@domain.local"
        $VoiceMail = "sip:jsmith@domain.local;opaque=app:voicemail"

Commands:

1. Create the group:

Command: New-CsRgsAgentGroup -Parent $ServiceId -Name $GroupName -AgentAlertTime 20 -ParticipationPolicy Informal -RoutingMethod Parallel -DistributionGroupAddress $DistoList

2. Create the queue:

Additional Variables: $Group = get-csrgsagentgroup -Name $GroupName
Command: New-CsRgsQueue -Parent $ServiceId -Name $QueueName -TimeoutThreshold 30 -TimeoutAction $ActionTO -AgentGroupIDList($Group.Identity)

3. Create the workflow:

Additional Variables:

        $Queue = Get-CsRgsQueue -Name $QueueName
        $ActionTO = New-CsRgsCallAction -Action TransferToVoiceMailUri -uri $VoiceMail
        $ActionWM = New-CsRgsCallAction -Action TransferToQueue -QueueID $Queue.Identity
        $NBACTION = New-CsRgsCallAction -Action TransferToVoicemailUri -uri $VoiceMail

Command:

        New-CsRgsWorkflow -Parent $ServiceId -Name $WorkFlowName -Description "Hunt Group 1" -PrimaryUri $PrimaryURI -LineUri $LineURI -DisplayNumber $DisplayNumber -Active $true -Anonymous $true -DefaultAction $ActionWM -NonBusinessHoursAction $NBACTION

Create the user in Lync for the voicemail

Attributes: $Username = "jsmith@domain.local"
Commands:

enable-csuser -identity $UserName -registrarpool lyncserver.domain.local -sipaddresstype Emailaddress -sipdomain domain.local

set-csuser -identity $UserName -enterprisevoiceenabled $true

Grant-CsVoicePolicy -policyname "Voice Policy Name" -Identity $UserName
The script is finished!!!! Now you can go into the Lync control panel and see the changes that you have made. Now the reason for this script, rinse and repeat. Just change the "VARIABLES" to meet your needs. Since this was 1 of 10 users accounts, I just changed it from #1 to #10.

Lync Common Area Phones (Conference Rooms)

2013-02-12T10:33:00.000-05:00

I am deploying a Lync Server 2010 at my office and ran into the conference room phones. I started to configure a user account for each phone but quickly realized that it wasn't going to work like I thought. I had to research a way for multiple users to use this phone. Here were my goals to make this happen:

1. Provide great audio sound and not choppy for calls 2. Work for multiple users with different laptops 3. Had to be user friendly and easy to use (or the users would either always call me to set it up or just wouldn't use it)
I started by choosing the better hardware for the phone. A Polycom CX3000 is a perfect solution for conference room phones. PoE phone but will connect via USB as well. Perfect mix for my conference rooms.

Next I need to make it work for all my users. I got a little lucky in the fact that all of my users have Dell laptops and they all take the same docking station. So I dropped a docking station in each conference room and plugged up a keyboard, mouse, HDMI cable to the TV, Ethernet cable and the Polycom CX3000 via USB. That way users can come in, drop their laptop on the docking station, and they have all the tools already plugged in ready to go.

Now the challenging part; making it user friendly. To start this part let me say that when I deployed the Lync phone system to the users, I spent a lot of extra time on the training slides and presentations to make sure everyone knew EVERYTHING about how to use the client. Also, I have a very tech savvy group of users (that helps!!!). Now, since we already have everything plugged in to the docking station, when the users turn on there laptop (and after a quick, really quick, driver install from Lync on the Polycom phone) the Polycom CX3000 was available as a drop down option for them to use as their "speaker phone" on Lync calls, Go-to-meeting calls, and all other calls. The TV was also ready to go so they can share their screen for everyone in the room and, since we are on Lync, they can share that same screen with the external callers via Lync conferencing.

This was a WIN-WIN for our department. Conference rooms have always been a pain for us, but this has really reduced the calls to the helpdesk as well as made our users a lot happier. They are actually using the solution which is the WIN.

Here is a link to the Polycom phone.

Conference Bridge in Lync Server 2010

2012-04-03T16:16:00.001-04:00

How to create a conference bridge in Lync server 2010.

<Sorry for the quick and dirty version. I just wanted to get this out there. Will clean later>

My company wanted to go out and buy several different conference bridges this week. I decided to make a couple on our Lync server.

Requirements:
- Create separate conference bridge ID's per department
- Make them available for the whole department
- Have to be accessible from the outside

We have DID's (direct inward dial) phone numbers for each of our users. I know that I can create a new user for each of these departments, but I want them to share the same DID. So in Lync server I was able to assign the same DID to each user and give them an extension. This made them unique in Lync based off their extension number. Here is how I did it:

Step 1. Choose a DID to use
Step 2. Create your users in Active Directory
Step 3. Enable the users in Lync Server
Step 4. Give the users the same phone number with unique extensions
   Example: tel:+18885551212;ext=100
Step 5. Login to your conferencing options webpage to set the PIN
Step 6. Copy the information in the conferencing options webpage for following:
   PIN
   Conference URL
   Conference ID
Step 7. Give this information out the users/departments.

How to send a new Welcome email for Exchange 2010 United Messaging users

2012-01-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

I was faced with a challenge today where several users reported that they didn't get their "welcome" email from Exchange when I configured them for Unified Messaging. I looked everywhere in the console for how to resend the email. No Powershell help. Nothing in technet. What to do....

I didn't really want to disable and then enable them. That seems pointless. There has to be a way!!! So I decided to just resent their PIN. Boom...another email was sent out. That is crazy but it worked. They received the email and were able to configure their voicemail.

Here are the steps I took (pretty easy):

1. Open Exchange Management Console
2. Expand "Recipient Configuration"
3. Find the user account that you need to send the email to
4. Right click the user account and choose: "Reset Unified Messaging PIN..."
5. Accept the defaults and click OK on the next screen.
6. This will general a new PIN and send an email to the user.

Here is the PowerShell command:

Set-UMMailboxPIN -Identity "bob ausmus"

External Response Group Call Routing with Lync Server

2011-12-05T16:59:00.001-05:00

I stole (er...found) this and it is awesome for Lync. Props to http://blog.kiwibees.net/?p=98

Once you start playing with Response Groups in Lync (or OCS) it probably wont be long before you want one to dial out to your PBX. In my case recently it was to get a support line to call an on-call mobile.

Out of the box, Lync wont.

Any outbound call needs a voice route to determine its routing path and permissions – without one it simply cant go anywhere. In short when the RGS tries to dial out it will default to your global voice policy which (unless you’ve changed it – and you shouldn’t) wont route.

Your first task is to therefore create a voice policy that includes the number (or number pattern) you want to call and define a gateway device.

You can do this via the Lync Control Panel or Powershell.
Make sure the voice policy is of type ”User” otherwise you wont be able to apply it to your RGS object
Make sure you commit the new policy otherwise it wont be available for use (you’ll get a policy is not a user policy error).

Then you need to bind that policy to your RGS object. You definitely need Powershell for this bit.

Grant-CSVoicePolicy -identity “RGSWorkflowObject” -PolicyName VoicePolicyYouCreated

For identity, use the display name of your RGS Workflow object.

And you’re done. Your RGS can now dial out.

Last tip – make sure the number you’re trying to dial out to is entered fully normalised in the format

+<countrycode><areacode><number>@<sipdomain>.

eg. +6491234567@sipdomain.com

Alternative to the Windows desktop

2011-12-05T15:57:00.000-05:00

Are you like several of my friends that like to save EVERYTHING to their desktop? So let me paint the picture for you.... You have 50 documents, pictures, shortcuts, and music files on your desktop with put a picture of you in New York for New Years Eve as the background (example). Then you get mad when you can't find the document that you are trying to find on your desktop. Sound familiar? Is this your desktop?

How are you supposed to find anything in that mess anyway? Everything looks the same. Where is that "HAVE TO HAVE" file that you need for your boss by closing time??? Crap did it download.... I have waited my usual 1/2 second to have it magically appear, I better download it again. Where else, the Desktop. Don't worry, I will move it later (oh no, you fell into that trap as well?). Tell me how many times have you said that and "got busy" and forgot? Me = guilty as well.

I have no problem with saving things to the desktop however I would like to introduce a better place to store things. A little folder called My Documents. uh.... hello Bob, that will never work. Microsoft puts that folder there for people like you that know computers. Maybe, but they also put things in this folder to assist you in keeping your documents organized so people like me can back them up and find them for you when you computer fails.

Windows Vista introduced a new concept called "libraries" as folder shortcuts. These are a great way to quickly and easily place documents where they can be stored and organized. Which makes finding them later easy. Every Library that you make will show up on the left hand side in the navigation pane when you open or save a file. making it easy to find.

There are some libraries already created for you, such as Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. Use these. Microsoft put them there for a reason. They put files in the right spot where they need to go. But Bob.... I don't like these and I just want to put a file somewhere real quick so I can find it. Ok then, let's make a TEMP library where we can do just that.

First we need to create a TEMP a folder that we can include in our new library.

1. Click the start button and click "Documents"
2. Click on the "New Folder" button near the top
3. Type TEMP as the name of the folder

Now to create a library shortcut for this TEMP folder. To do that, follow these steps:

Click the Start button, click your user name (which opens your personal folder), and then, in the left pane, click Libraries.
In Libraries, on the toolbar, click New library.
Type a name for the library, and then press Enter.
Click the name of the library that you just created.
Click the "Include a folder" button
Browse to the TEMP folder you just made.

Now we have a TEMP library on the side that you can save things in. Plus, since this folder is under the documents directory, it will be easy to backup.

Clearing DFS Cache

2011-09-28T15:34:00.000-04:00

"Server cannot find network path of DFS name space"

Ever ran into that before on a Windows 2008 Server? That is a great error that tells you nothing. Love it. Thanks Microsoft. That great descriptive error from Microsoft means that the cache for the DFS name space is either pointing to the wrong location to is corrupt. Read on to learn how to fix this error....

So your cache is brok-ie no work-ie eh? Here is a quick little command that you can run from an elevated (right click and choose run as administrator) command prompt to "flush" the DFS cache on your local server:

dfsutil cache referral flush

So if you run this from your server right now, it will fail and you will be saying - "What happened???" I did like Bob told me to. That's because you haven't installed the tools that you need on the server to support this command. You need to install the "File Services Tools" on the server. Here's how:

Open Server Manager, under Add Feature, Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), Role Administration Tools, File Services Tools

Now close and reopen your elevated command prompt and paste the DFS command in again. Now it should work and clear your cache. No reboot needed.

Here is more information
2008 2003

My Favorite "8" Keyboard Shortcuts

2011-09-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen that one "IT" guy that seems to be sooooo fast on the computer that you can't seem to follow him or what he is doing? Next time you see that, pay attention to his hands. I bet they rarely leave the keyboard. I made a decision that I was going to learn to use keyboard shortcuts to accomplish my everyday tasks and I swear it made me faster. I decided to share my top 8 favorite keyboard shortcuts with everyone.

1. Windows key

I love that little Windows key down there on either side of the space bar. That key is so useful to do anything. To open "My Computer" all you have to do is press the Windows key + "E" and BAM there it is. Windows Explorer.

2. Control + an arrow key (either right or left)

You know that you can move the cursor from right to left with the arrow keys but, what if you want to scroll all the way through a line of text. What if I could make it so that you could skip back a word at a time as opposed to a letter at a time. I am here to tell you that pressing Control + arrow key will do just that. Your welcome for the extra time you have to take out the trash and fix dinner.

3. Control + C & Control + V   (Copy and Paste)

An oldie but a goodie. I use this shortcut EVERY DAY - ALL DAY long. I rarely type anything out anymore. Copy and paste baby.

     Control + C = copy
     Control + V = paste

4. F5 (refresh)

Learn to love this key. If you are waiting for an ebay action to end, Facebook to update, or can't wait to read Britney Spears latest tweet....press F5. That will cause the web page (and other things as well) to refresh and give you the latest content. Use it every where on the computer, not just a Internet Explorer. Love it!!!!

5. Control + A (select all)

How many of us love to click and drag, then just to mess up and have to do it over? I want to copy everything from this folder to that one. Press control + A and it will select it all for you. Then use hint #3 with hint #7 to perform the copy and paste. You hands will never leave the keyboard and you will be shocked on how fast it was.

6. Select + An arrow key (either right of left)

Selecting or highlighting a line in a document is hard to do with the mouse. You have to click and hold and drag and not too far....go back...wait it jumped to another line. Next time try this; put your cursor on the letter right before the word or phrase that you want to highlight, then press and hold down SHIFT and an arrow key. That will highlight one letter at a time. Then use hint #3 to copy and paste it.

7. Alt + Tab (Move between windows)

Ok folks...time to get real. This is the best tip that I can give you. If you press alt + tab it will switch from window to window (application to application). Say for example that you have a letter you are typing open in Word and you found this great tag line from a website that you want to put there. Here is how I would do it without moving my hands from the keyboard:

Hint #6 - Hold down SHIFT and press the right arrow key to highlight the text that I want from the site
Hint #3 - Press Control + C to copy it
Hint #7 - Press Alt + Tab to move to the Word document
Hint #3 - Press Control + V to paste it

This hint will change the way that you use the keyboard. I can have numerous windows open at the same time and with this hint, I can flip back and forth between applications, making me look like I am flying around on a computer. Use this one to show your boss that you deserve that raise!!!!

8. F2

Ever wanted to change the name of a document without having to click...wait....click......crap......to fast now it is opening. Close it...click...wait...wait...click....ok now I can change the file name. What a pain. Now you can use F2 to rename the file. Highlight (or click once) the name of the file, then press F2. That will allow you to rename. This works in Excel as well, editing the contents of a cell.

Just to prove that it can be done for myself, I typed this whole blog without touching the mouse. Now you can shock and amaze your friends at parties.

HTML WebForm with PHP and MySQL - Part 4

2011-09-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

Part 4 - PHP Script to insert data into database

Recap: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Now that we have the database and all of the columns created, we now need to get that data into the database. We can do that with a PHP script.

First we need to build a PHP file that we can edit. Create a new file on your webserver and name it whatever you want (I called mine "pushtodb.php"). Now open that file with your editor of choice. I like notepad++ but you can use whatever is more comfortable for you.

Just like in HTML, we have to open the PHP script with <?PHP (and don't forget to close the tag now so you don't forget later - close it with ?> ). This tells the browser that you are going to use PHP as oppose to just HTML.

Lets create a variable to open up a connection to the SQL server. You do that with this command:

$con = mysql_connect("SQL_server_name","username","password");

Now we have to tell the SQL server which database to use. This command will connect to the SQL server and open up the proper database:

mysql_select_db("database_name", $con);

Notice the "$con" in that statement? That will take the first statement that we wrote and inject it into this one. Trust me, putting things in variables will make your life a LOT easier as you can reuse the variables throughout the script.

Time to write that SQL statement that we will actually insert values into the database. Let's make this in a variable named "$sql" so we can use it over and over. At this point (if you read Part 1) you should have all your inputs from your webform in a text file so we can input them in the SQL statement. You have them in notepad++ right??? Right??? Here is the SQL statement; copy and paste this into notepad++ so you can edit it as you need to:

     $sql="INSERT INTO table_name (input_1, input_2, input_3)
     VALUES
     ('$_POST[input_1]','$_POST[input_2]','$_POST[input_3]')";

Ok we have all the connections out of the way, now time for use to actually perform the command(s). Here is the code that will take all the variables we defined and put them in a IF statement:

   if (!mysql_query($sql,$con))
   {
     die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
   }

One more piece of code that we will need now but will make more sense later on:

$id = mysql_insert_id ( );

Whew. Come on Bob aren't we done yet? Nope, we have three more steps to finish.

1. Assign the URL that we want people to go to after the script has been ran

2. Setup the email that will alert us when something has been submitted

3. close the SQL connection

Task 1: Assign the URL

Put this in a variable, I used the variable "$url" but you can use whatever helps you remember what it is.

$url = 'http://www.domain.com/thankyou.html';

The command that will actually take users to the next page is (look for that variable):

echo '<META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0; URL='.$url.'">';

Task 2: Setup the email

You are going to see variables from above in this one. You can see why variables are important.

     $emailadd = 'email@yourdomain.com';
     $subject = 'New contract was submitted';
     $body = "This is the body of the email:";
     $text = $body. " " . $id;

     mail($emailadd, $subject, $text, 'From: '.$emailadd.'');

Pay attention to the bottom line. That is the actual command that will send the email out. As you can see, we are building the email with all the variables we make right above it. See that "$id" variable there. I put that in the email in a future lesson we will use that to lookup this form. We need a place holder that we can call this specific form from the database, and since ID is always unique, its the perfect one to use.

Task 3: Closing the SQL connection (the easy one)

You are going to find this a real challenge. Here is the code (look for the variable that we assigned earlier):

mysql_close($con)

At the bottom of the script you should see (if you followed directions from above) the ?> to close the PHP script.

That's it. Post that to your site and give it a shot. Let me know if it works!!!! Good luck.

Showing Advanced Features in Active Directory

2011-08-25T23:29:00.000-04:00

I edit SPN's a lot with MS SQL server and I was sick of using ADSIedit so I found that the ADMINPAK for Windows 7 would allow me to edit the SPN's directly. Only problem is that you can't see the "Attributes" tab in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) without turning on the advanced features. Here is how I turned them on:

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers (Start -> Run -> type: dsa.msc -> Ok)

2. Click on "View" then check "Advanced Features"

Now you can see the "Attributes" tab as well as a lot of other tabs that make editing user profiles a lot easier for the lonely sys-admin.

HTML WebForm with PHP and MySQL - Part 3

2011-08-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

Part 3 - Creating the MySQL database

Recap: Part 1 | Part 2

In part 1 & 2 we created a webform that will submit the results to an email address. This is great unless you want it to be readable to non-computer geek people. Also there is no record of the form being submitted except for the email. To accomplish this we need to input the results into a database. I choose MySQL as my hosting provider gave this as part of my package.

Step #1 in putting the form data into a SQL database is to create the database and table where the data will reside. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this however I choose to use the built-in SQL manager. This blog article is not to debate the technology you choose to setup the database, just how to format the columns.

A SQL database is made of tables with columns and rows. A table is like an Excel document with columns and rows. The first thing that we need to do is create a column that will be unique for each row. Most everyone calls this "ID" column. Create this as an integer as well as the following options:

PRIMARY KEY
CANNOT BE NULL (can't be blank)
AUTO INCREMENT (increases by 1 each time something is put in the database)

You can call this row of data to pull data back out of the database. Now to create the rest of the columns.

Remember in Part 1 we defined the input values for each box in the web form. Now we need to create a column for index value. In my form I used "NAME" as the first box that users fill out, which means that I will need to create a column in the database that will receive that data. Create a TEXT column that will receive text form the input box.

Rinse and repeat for every input value you have created in your form. Once you have your table and all the columns defined, you can check your work by running this command:

DESC tablename

That command will show you all the columns in the table and what they are formatted as (i.e. Integer vs TEXT).

In Part 4 we will show you how to put that data in the database with a PHP script that we call from the <form action="SCRIPT.PHP"> that we defined in step #1 in the webform.

HTML WebForm with PHP and MySQL - Part 2

2011-08-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

Part 2 - Creating the PHP script (for email)

If you missed it; here is Part 1 - Creating the HTML form

"Prerequisites” – Your webhosting provider / server must support PHP scripts. I use Earthlink and they have a control center where I can enable/disable PHP scripts. Make sure to enable this prior to putting this live in production.

So far we have a HTML webform with the form tag method="post" that will gather the data for us. We also have the form tag action="sendresults.php" which we will use to send us the results to an email account.

NOTE: I can't take credit for this script as I stole it from here: http://forums.htmlhelp.com/index.php?showtopic=7293

Whew……the boring stuff is out of the way, here are the steps to complete this:

Step 1: Download the file from this blog and save on your computer named "sendresults.php"

Step 2: Right click and edit this file in notepad.

Step 3: Change the following lines ($subject / $emailadd / $url)

Step 4: Save the file back to the server.

Let me take a minute to explain the $url. That "$" means that it is a variable and we can name it whatever we want. We can call it $bobisawesome if we wanted to. Basically this is being made we can use it later in the script without having to type in the long URL.

Now we can test the form. If you changed the field (variables) I told you to above, then you should be able to click submit on your form and in a few minutes, receive an email. You should also be redirected to another website (the $url variable) after clicking the submit button.

Let me break down some of the script for you. Look for this line close to the bottom:

mail($emailadd, $subject, $text, 'From: '.$emailadd.'');

This is actually the command that will email us the form. You can see I am building the email with the variables that we declared earlier in the script. Next look for this line:

echo '<META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0; URL='.$url.'">';

The ECHO command is the one that we will use to perform the next step (which in our case is to redirect to another page). If you look close at the end of the “ECHO” command, you will see our “$url” variable – yeah!!! The ECHO command can also be used to return something like: 1 row of data updated (which you will see more in the SQL part)

Troubleshooting:

If you are redirected to a blank screen with the name of the PHP script in the address; that means that your script blew up. They don’t produce error codes due to security issues. Just know that you didn’t set something in the script properly.
Make sure that your email is not sitting in your junk email folder
Confirm that PHP scripts are enabled on your web server / hosting provider.

I have enclosed a copy of the PHP script on this blog. Stay tuned for our next part of the series: Part 3 – Putting the data into a SQL database. I know…..I can hardly wait myself.

HTML WebForm with PHP and MySQL - Part 1

2011-07-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine asked me to create a form on his website so users could submit contracts to him without printing/faxing/attaching to email/etc..... So I said sure. I created a HTML webform and had it emailed to him every time someone clicked submit via a PHP script. Life was happy and he was happy until he started to receive them via plain text and it was unreadable to a non-IT person. So I needed to put it in a more "user friendly" format.

I started with looking for a PHP script that would email a friendlier version with no luck. I found a couple of people that tried but nothing that wasn't super hard to use. It showed very quickly that going down that road wasn't the best. So I decided to put it in a SQL database. His hosting provider gave him 3 databases to use on a shared MySQL server.

I am creating a series of blogs on how I accomplished this task. Stay tuned for more but for now, here is how I wrote the HTML web form.

Preview of the site: http://spinaroundsounddj.com/Contract_Form.html

Part 1
The first step is to create the HTML form. My tasks were to create a "Contracts" webform that looked like his other pages on his site. I had access to his site so the easiest way to start was to get a copy of another page and "Save-As" to a page called Contracts.html. Now that I have a shell of his page (top links, graphics, etc...) I can clean out the middle stuff and add the webform.

Important note to learn now and not later like I did: PHP and MySQL don't do well with CAPTIAL letters. Put everything in lowercase letters - you will be glad you did later.

Start the form with an HTML tag of

<form action="sendresults.php" method="post" name="contractform" id="contractform">
</form>

This will set the form up for you. Out of habit, I always close the HTML tag every time I open one. Just saves you from having to do it later. Let me explain a little about what this command does.

action="nameofphpscript.php" - This is what the submit button will do when it is clicked.
method="post" - You get two options here; POST or GET. very simply, POST puts stuff somewhere and GET gets stuff from somewhere.
name="contractform" - This is the name of the form.
id="contractform" - This is the id of the form

Now you can create all your tables and and inputs remembering to name them with lowercase letters. I set all of my inputs to [type="text"] just to make it easier. Functionality first and make it pretty later!!!

Helpful hint: If I were in your shoes, I would start a list of all the inputs that you make, it will pay off in the PHP script and inserting into SQL part of the blog series.

Now for the all important SUBMIT and RESET buttons. Here is the code:

<input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" value="submit" />
<input type="reset" name="reset" id="reset" value="reset" />

So that will create (2) buttons on our form. One will submit the form to the ACTION="nameofphpscript" that we defined earlier. The other will clear all fields on the form so the user can start all over. The way they are defined by their function is the value="reset" tag in the code.

Now we should have a webform that looks the way that you want it to. Now we have to do something with it once they click submit. Stay tuned as that is the next part of this blog series.

Enabling Protected Security Groups (domain admins) in Lync 2010

2011-07-14T16:34:00.000-04:00

After installing and getting my Lync 2010 server up and running I was ready to enable and add myself to the Lync server. I logged into the Admin Console for Lync and added myself with all the correct options. Then I clicked "Enable" and found this error:

"Active Directory operation failed on "domain controller". You cannot retry this operation: "Insufficient access rights to perform the operation"

What do you mean I don't have rights, I'm a Domain Admin for crying out loud!!!! So onto the troubleshooting my rights. I have rights in AD. Lync server can contact the domain no problem. Everything looked to be fine. Then I found that my user account was in a "Protected Security Group" by being a domain admin.

Due to some security features in Active Directory (explained here), when you add or make a change to a user that is in a "Protected Security Group" (i.e. Enterprise or Domain Admins) in Lync 2010, you have to change their security to:

"Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent"

Steps to change this setting:
1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)
2. Change to the domain controller that is close to the Lync server
3. Follow the steps in this article to enable advanced features
4. Open the properties of the user account that you are enabling
5. Click on the "Security" tab
6. Click on "Advanced"
7. Check the box highlighted above
8. "OK" all the way back to ADUC
9. Enable the user in Lync admin console

This will allow you to enable them in the Lync server. This also applies to Exchange and here is a technet article that explains this in more depth.

My Road to the CCNA

2011-07-13T14:38:00.000-04:00

After years of procrastinating and employers hounding me to get my CCNA (Cisco Certified Networking Associate) certification, I am finally pursuing it. So, I thought that I would blog about my adventure. Hold on, this is going to be a nail-biter….

I have always said that I needed to take the exam once just to see what it was like so I did just that; and failed. I was close and pretty happy with my score a 745 (you need 825 to pass). It did teach me a lot about what I need to prepare for my next sitting on July 9^th, 2010. Here are a couple of notes for those of you getting ready to take it:

1. You can’t go back to review and/or change your previous questions answers; only forward. I knew this beforehand but it is always good to mention and remind everyone.

2. I almost ran out of time. It was a 90 minute exam with 50 questions, and I ended with 5:09 minutes left. That isn’t a lot of time per question. I got the multiple choice questions pretty easy but the simulation questions were a killer both time wise and how hard they were. The sim’s took about 15-20 minutes each.

3. Subnetting (shock and awe). You should be extremely proficient in subnetting. I didn’t have a ton of questions on subnetting (like 4) but I already had my cheat sheet written down and I could answer the subnetting questions very quickly saving exam question time, which is the biggest reason for being proficient in subnetting.

4. The “?” command WAS available in all simulations (thank the good lord!!!!) and IIRC the auto-complete was on as well. This was huge in my favor as it helped me on the EIGRP sim.

5. You are on the console of the devices in the sim’s, not the VTY. That means that you will see the messages scroll in the window when things change (i.e. an interface going up or down). This was also helpful on my EIGRP sim as I could see when the neighbor was responding and UP.

6. Don’t forget to apply the access-list to the interface, oops. I know for sure that I got one sim wrong as I forgot to apply it to the interface. Lesson learned.

7. Learn CDP commands. I had one sim that required me to look for which switch updated the VTP domain. Missed that because I didn’t remember “show cdp neighbors detail” command. Also the CDP commands are helpful making sure routers are plugged into the right ports that you are advertising routes on.

All-in-all I was happy with my first showing out of the gate. My study material was a little dated; I took the CCNA class from Sullivan University (link) in 2006 and I have the “old exam” books so I think that I am going to pick up the new book to read this coming weekend. I have lined out a study plan as follows:

- Router Simulator to learn the Cisco IOS commands and how to make them work.

o I like GNS3 for my simulator. Get it here. You will need your own IOS but the simulator is awesome.

o I have worked an EIGRP, OSPF, Access-list, Frame-Relay, RIPv1 and v2 on GNS3 so far.

- Read as much as possible from the new Cisco Press book and www.cisco.com as they seem to have everything you need on their website (funny how that works).

- Practice exams (online and through Actual tests). Some people call this cheating, I call it preparing for a tough exam. Just don’t use them to memorize the answers, really try to learn from them (as they do NOTHING for the sim’s and sim’s are a huge part of your exam score).

Adding First and Last names to Active Directory

2011-07-13T14:32:00.000-04:00

I know that my first blog being about VB scripting will shock some of you as I am a diehard SharePoint fan, but none the less this was cool. I wrote my first VB script the other day that import over 430 first and last names into Active Directory from a .csv file. It was awesome to see it work after hours or research and testing. I know that most of you are saying, big whoop I do this in my sleep, but for me it was a real eye opener. I hope that this helps someone else in the future. Anyways, here is what I did and what I learned....

I needed a quick way to import 430 first and last names into Active Directory. I knew that DSMOD would be the command that I would use to add them, but how to automate this so I didn’t have to do it by hand? VB Script.

Step #1: I need to declare all the variables in the top of the script. I have been told to put them up here is no necessary, just considered good “coding.” Here are the variables that I declared:

dim swnum

dim swUser

dim swFirst

dim swLast

dim i

Set oShell = CreateObject(“Wscript.shell”)

Set oNet = CreateObject(“Wscript.Network”)

Set oFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

f = 500

g = 0

i = 0

Step 1(b): In addition to declaring the variable, we need to define the path to the .csv file. This is how I did it:

BSConfig = “\\ServerUNC\Share\FileName.csv”

Step 1(c): Now that we have defined the configuration file, we have to declare the variable that will call the configuration file. (confused yet?)

BSinfo = oFSO.OpenTextFile(BSConfig,ForReading,True)

Step #2: I need to write a sub-routine that would open the text file and query the .csv columns and push the values to the variables that I could use in the DSMOD command line. Here is the sub-routine:

Sub getinfo()

Do While BSinfo.AtEndOfStream <> True

Line = Bsinfo.ReadLine

LineArray = Split(Line,“,”,-1,1)

i = i + 1 <- This was added to up the count each time to read different lines on the .csv file ->

swnum = LineArray(0) <- The LineArray(0) are the columns in the .csv files ->

swUser = LineArray(1)

swFirst = LineArray(2)

swLast = LineArray(3)

Exit Do

Wscript.sleep “5000”

Loop

If i=500 then <- This will stop the script at the end. Change the 500 to a number after ->

Wscript.exit <- the last row in your .csv file ->

end if

Step #3: I need to write another sub-routine that would execute the DSMOD command. This was the tricky one.

Sub Process ()

Do While g"less than"f

getinfo <- this calls the sub-routine “getinfo” ->

if swUser = “END” then

exit do

end if

oshell.run “cmd /c start dsmod user “”CN=” & swUser & “,OU=Users,DC=Microsoft,DC=com”” –fn “ & swFirst & “ –ln “ & swLast

if g = 500 then

wscript.quit

end if

g = g + 1

Loop

Wscript.sleep “1000”

End Sub

· First, I had to get the EXACT command line with all the right switches for the DSMOD.

· Second, I had to use the “CMD start” line to call the CMD Prompt to execute the DSMOD command. This is the “oshell.run” line.

· Third, I had to insert the variables from the sub-routine “getinfo” into the command line (this is where the rubber meets the road). Look for the variables in the DSMOD command line.

Step #4: I had to call the sub-routine that I wanted to run as the script. This is the part of the whole script that makes it work.

Process <- This will call the sub-routine “Process” ->

Let’s review; I had to declare all my variables (at the top for “good coding”), then I wrote my sub-routines, after that I had the VB script run “process” which kicks off the whole script. Sit back and watch the fireworks. I have posted the entire script in the “Downloads” link below.

This opened a whole new world for me. I am going to attempt to script everything now.

Download

Frame-Relay lab (point-to-point)

2011-07-06T14:10:00.000-04:00

I know (err hope) that Frame-Relay is on its way out but I hear that there are still some questions about it on the CCNA exam so….. I have to learn it. I found it to be a little easier to configure than I thought.

In reading various blogs and “how-to” guides; everyone is suggesting to use sub-interfaces for Frame-Relay configurations. This is not necessary all the time however it makes it a lot easier to troubleshoot. Here is my network diagram

*Branch S1/0.100 points to DLCI 202 on Port 10 on frame switch

*Edge S1/0.100 points to DLCI 101 on Port 1 on frame switch

I started the configuration by setting up the serial interfaces on the routers to use Frame-Relay (Don’t forget to turn on the interface – a.k.a. “no shutdown”):

Branch#: configure terminal

Branch(config)#: interface serial1/0

Branch(config)#: encapsulation frame-relay

Branch(config)#: no shutdown

Then I move on to creating the sub-interfaces on the routers and assigning an IP address to them:

Branch(config)#: interface serial1/0.100 point-to-point

Branch(config)#: ip address 10.1.1.2 255.255.255.252

Then I need to set the frame-relay settings on the sub-interface (notice the “ietf” on the end of the command, that is the encapsulation type and since I am configuring this on a per-interface basis I need to include it in the command here as oppose to configuring the whole interface to use “ietf.”). Since this is the “Branch” router and it connects to port 10 on the frame switch, I need to configure it with DLCI 202. Change this to 101 for the “Edge” router.

Branch(config)#: frame-relay interface-dcli 202 ietf

That’s it, you’re all done. This is a simple point-to-point configuration. You could also use frame-mapping as well as multi-point configurations (which is really cool).

Links to sites that helped me out:

Cisco: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_1/wan/configuration/guide/wcdfrely.html#wp1003004

Tech-recipes: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/385/cisco_configure_frame_relay_on_router/

Changing color of output in Powershell script

2011-06-28T10:51:00.000-04:00

I found a neat little command today that will change the output color of the text:

Write-Host -foregroundcolor green "Operation succeeded!"

This will change the color of the text "Operation succeeded" to bright green on the screen. So that got me thinking on how I could use this and I came up with a couple solutions.

One situation where this would be handy is a UP/Down script. Say you wrote a script that would check to see if a server was up or down and wrote the output of UP in bright green letters on the screen. Also you could post DOWN in bright red letters. This is a visual cue that would help your sysadmins or helpdesk quickly identify if a server is up or down.

This also solves another issue that I am facing - hiding the output in a powershell script. I have been looking for ways to hide the output of my commands in powershell script. I found that you can pipe the output to a NULL statement but then you lose the output. I wanted to keep the output however just didn't want the user to see it on the screen. That is now possible with the "-foregroundcolor black" option. It will put the output from the command as black on the screen which will effectively hide it, but at the same time allowing me to highlight it and see what the output is if there is a problem.