Desktop Feedbag

Don’t forget to update your Exchange 2010 CHM file with SP2

Desktop Feedbag — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:11:52 +0000

Great offline resource.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28207

Powershell Script Explorer

Desktop Feedbag — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 02:30:17 +0000

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=29101

Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell (pre-release) helps scripters find Windows PowerShell scripts, snippets, modules, and how-to guidance in online repositories such as the TechNet Script Center Repository, PoshCode, local or network file systems and Bing Search Repository

HP Blades: PowerShell cmdlets

Desktop Feedbag — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:13:31 +0000

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/scriptfanatic/archive/2011/01/06/HP-BladeSystem-PowerShell-cmdlets.aspx

Use Serviio Media Server instead of Samsung PC Share Manager

Desktop Feedbag — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 01:35:49 +0000

For all your DLNA enabled devices for streaming media, this one works the best, and it’s Free!

http://www.serviio.org/

FIXED: Exchange 2010 SP1/SP2 DAG on VMWare fail over with Veeam

Desktop Feedbag — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:03:11 +0000

If you have a DAG setup in your Exchange 2010 SP1/SP2 environment and running Veeam as your OS/Application backup solution you will need to make some cluster timeout changes. The reason is that when Veeam takes the snapshot to then do a VSS backup it will cause the databases in the DAG to fail over and cause lots of alerts.

Below is a simple .bat file script that you can run on a mailbox server inside the cluster. You only need to run this once on one server that is part of a dag. Also, do a reboot at the end. You will also notice that I have the default settings REM’d out at the end in case you want to put it all back.

@Echo Off

REM ##############################################################
REM Changes the delay values for an Exchange 2010 DAG cluster
REM ##############################################################

REM ##############################################################
REM RUN THIS ONCE ON A MAILBOX SERVER THAT IS A MEMBER OF THE DAG
REM ##############################################################

REM ##############################################################
REM ****** N E W S E T T I N G S ******
REM ##############################################################

REM Modified for VEEAM backups do to snapshot causing DAG to fail over

cluster.exe /prop SameSubnetDelay=2000:DWORD
cluster.exe /prop CrossSubnetDelay=4000:DWORD
cluster.exe /prop CrossSubnetThreshold=10:DWORD
cluster.exe /prop SameSubnetThreshold=10:DWORD

REM This is to view your settings
cluster.exe /prop

REM ##############################################################
REM ****** D E F A U L T S E T T I N G S ******
REM ##############################################################

REM Modified for VEEAM backups do to snapshot causing DAG to fail over

REM cluster.exe /prop SameSubnetDelay=1000:DWORD
REM cluster.exe /prop CrossSubnetDelay=1000:DWORD
REM cluster.exe /prop CrossSubnetThreshold=5:DWORD
REM cluster.exe /prop SameSubnetThreshold=5:DWORD

REM This is to view your settings
REM cluster.exe /prop

Download a file (HTTP) with Powershell

Desktop Feedbag — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:52:28 +0000

$client = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$client.DownloadFile("http://www.domain.com/file.txt","C:\stuff\whatever.txt")

This is good if you want to download an XML file, now that you have this file you can do some formatting.

Don’t forget to apply your Exchange 2010 DAG Hotfixes

Desktop Feedbag — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:39:01 +0000

These also apply to post Service Pack 2.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/11/20/recommended-windows-hotfix-for-database-availability-groups-running-windows-server-
2008-r2.aspx

Good one liner for Exchange 2007 and 2010 to find DSN Failures

Desktop Feedbag — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:55:51 +0000

Good one liner for Exchange 2007 and 2010 to find DSN Failures.

Get-MessageTrackingLog -resultsize unlimited -start "12/13/2011 3:00PM" -End "12/13/2011 6:00PM" -Server srv-hub02 | ? {$_.EventId -eq "DSN" -and $_.SourceContext -eq "Failure"} | select timestamp,recipients,messagesubject

SAN iSCSI testing

Desktop Feedbag — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:41:39 +0000

I started using Openfiler, very nice open source tool for creating shared storage within ESX and Hyper-V, perfect for home lab use.

Hyper-V: Create a Virtual SAN appliance for shared storage testing

Desktop Feedbag — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:16:17 +0000

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/How-to-install-an-open-source-iSCSI-SAN-server-inside-Microsoft-Hyper-V

Hurricane Irene: News reporter covered in raw sewage

Desktop Feedbag — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:18:26 +0000

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/fox-reporter-gives-update-covered-in-sea-foam-20110827#.TlpYR34fqrE.facebook

Hmmm, what’s up with Droid and Apple? Not good.

Desktop Feedbag — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:21:48 +0000

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/182074/20110718/android-apple-htc-itc-mobile-os-patent-infringement-oracle-motorola-oem-samsung-iphone-steve-jobs-li.htm

MS Office 2010 Service Pack 1, what’s changed

Desktop Feedbag — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:51:53 +0000

This spreadsheet will show all.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/1/2/512CC712-4070-4CFF-BC4A-B3AFF0E21A1E/Microsoft%20Office%202010%20Service%20Pack%201%20Changes.xlsx

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Group Chat SQL Query

Desktop Feedbag — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:31:11 +0000

Use the SQL query below to get Who, What, Where, and When out of Microsoft Lync Group Chat.

SELECT dbo.tblChat.userId, dbo.tblPrincipal.prinName, dbo.tblChat.[content], dbo.tblNode.nodeName, dbo.fnTicksToDate(dbo.tblChat.chatDate) AS date
FROM dbo.tblChat INNER JOIN
dbo.tblPrincipal ON dbo.tblChat.userId = dbo.tblPrincipal.prinID INNER JOIN
dbo.tblNode ON dbo.tblChat.channelId = dbo.tblNode.nodeID

Lync Server 2010 Archiving Report

Desktop Feedbag — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:07:52 +0000

This looks interesting.

http://dusk1911.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/lync-2010-im-archive-report/

How to: Remove Lync SQL Store from Active Directory and start a new Central Management Store

Desktop Feedbag — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:26:43 +0000

So today I was publishing the Lync topology into SQL and tried using a DNS alias to our SQL server(s). No go, however it built my Central Management Store and put the DNS alias into Active Directory. No matter what I did I could not republish a new topology with a different SQL CMS location as this was stored somewhere in AD. I found a simple PowerShell cmdlet that comes with Lync, Remove-CsConfigurationStoreLocation. Rather than going into ADSIEdit, I took a swing at this option. I ran the following with no parameters and it cleared everything up and I was able to republish.

Remove-CsConfigurationStoreLocation

Just got my Lync Server 2010 Unleashed Book

Desktop Feedbag — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:34:01 +0000

Wow……..great book so far. I would recommend this book to anyone supporting or getting ready to rollout Microsoft Lync Server. http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Lync-Server-2010-Unleashed/dp/0672330342

What schema changes are part of Lync?

Desktop Feedbag — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:37:16 +0000

Found this good read.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dodeitte/archive/2010/10/20/what-happens-during-schemaprep-in-lync-server-2010.aspx

MDOP 2011 released

Desktop Feedbag — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:42:05 +0000

Major updates include App-V 4.6 SP1

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2011/03/10/mdop-2011-including-app-v-4-6-sp1-is-now-available.aspx

Instance-GUID Exchange 2010 Outlook 2003 fix, COMING SOON

Desktop Feedbag — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:07:00 +0000

Just saw this pass through the forums, this is good news.

Issue:

Server name properties in Outlook 2003 profiles were being changed to an Instance-{GUID} value. This resulted in multiple issues within the Outlook 2003 client. In some extreme cases, clients would lose connectivity to Exchange entirely. In other cases, the clients would experience issues opening shared folders and calendars.

Update:

This issue is going to be corrected in the next cumulative update for Outlook 2003; there is no server-side fix necessary. This update is scheduled to be released towards the end of this month (February 2011). You will be able to download the update from the Microsoft Download Center, Office Update, or Microsoft Update. You can also look for the link when it is released at the Update Center for Microsoft Office, Office Servers, and Related Products.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This fix will not correct existing profiles, it will only prevent this behavior from occurring in the future. To correct existing profiles, simply go into the profile where the Exchange Server name is specified, backspace out the last character of the name to “un-resolve” it, then type the last character again and hit “Check Name” to re-resolve the server. This is the same workaround, you can employ when encountering this issue today.

Print from any device

Desktop Feedbag — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:10:16 +0000

Google cloud printing.

http://goo.gl/2kKz8

Exchange 2010: How to see how many OWA users are connected

Desktop Feedbag — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:56:52 +0000

A simple way is to use Performance Monitor. Hook to MSExchange OWA and the add current user. It doesn’t tell you who, but it will at least give you a count. In my example I have the Exchange tools loaded on my desktop so within Performance Monitor on that remote machine I was able to add that one counter four times to four of the CAS servers to get an overall picture. It will also show you if your load balancer is working properly.

Failed Exchange 2010 Jetress within ESXi vSphere 4.1

Desktop Feedbag — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:45:28 +0000

A grueling couple of days of running the MS Exchange 2010 Jetstress tool and watching it fail for the read latency tests. This was for 4 mailbox servers and 12 databases with one passive copy in the DAG. The active copy disk lives on an EMC CX4 SAN and the passive lives on an EMC CX3 SAN. We were seeing failures on both sides, but only the first 3 of the six databases on each server. Very odd.

DB San Disk: RAID 5 (both active and passive)
Log San Disk: RAID 10 (both active and passive)

We first thought we needed to break up the 12 databases to seperate LUNs inside ESXi rather than having one giant disk in ESXi and then carving it out inside Windows 2008 R2.

This was NOT the case.

Solution:
When creating disks for your databases and log volumes inside ESX make sure that you use the new virtual iSCI adapter to split the data traffic I/O. Meaning when you create a new disk and hook it to the LUNs that you already got simply select a new iSCSI port number. I I alternated between controller 1 and 2 keeping my OS on controller 0.

Example:
MBDB01 was put on SCSI controller: 1:0
MBDB01Log was put on SCSI controller: 1:1

MBDB02 was put on SCSI controller: 2:0
MBDB02Log was put on SCSI controller: 2:1

MBDB03 was put on SCSI controller: 1:2
MBDB03Log was put on SCSI controller: 1:3

Even though the physical part of this whole thing is that everything is traveling through the same fiber channel, the guest OS doesn’t know that and actually builds new scsci controller hardware for you for each new controller you setup.

Jetstress now passes with flying colors on all fronts.

How to monitor and log, centrally, OCS 2007 R2 desktop sharing logs

Desktop Feedbag — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:00:07 +0000

First, install an OCS 2007 R2 monitoring server, on a seperate server from the OCS pool. Once that is setup using the MS directions in the link at the beginning of this post. Create a new SQL View on the LcsCDR database with the following code below.

USE [LcsCDR]

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
ALTER VIEW [dbo].[UserMedia]
AS
SELECT     SD.SessionIdTime, SD.SessionIdSeq, SD.InviteTime, SD.ResponseTime, SD.SessionEndTime, SD.ResponseCode, ISNULL(SD.User1Id, 0) AS User1Id,
                      ISNULL(SD.User2Id, 0) AS User2Id, ISNULL(SD.TargetUserId, 0) AS TargetUserId, ISNULL(SD.SessionStartedById, 0) AS SessionStartedById,
                      ISNULL(SD.OnBehalfOfId, 0) AS OnBehalfOfId, ISNULL(SD.ReferredById, 0) AS ReferredById, ISNULL(U1.UserUri, ”) AS User1Uri, ISNULL(U2.UserUri,
                      ”) AS User2Uri, ISNULL(UT.UserUri, ”) AS TargetUserUri, ISNULL(US.UserUri, ”) AS SessionStartedByUri, ISNULL(UB.UserUri, ”) AS OnBehalfOfUri,
                      ISNULL(UR.UserUri, ”) AS ReferredByUri, dbo.MediaList.Media
FROM         dbo.SessionDetails AS SD INNER JOIN
                      dbo.Media ON SD.SessionIdTime = dbo.Media.SessionIdTime AND SD.SessionIdSeq = dbo.Media.SessionIdSeq INNER JOIN
                      dbo.MediaList ON dbo.Media.MediaId = dbo.MediaList.MediaId LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      dbo.Users AS U1 ON U1.UserId = SD.User1Id LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      dbo.Users AS U2 ON U2.UserId = SD.User2Id LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      dbo.Users AS UT ON UT.UserId = SD.TargetUserId LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      dbo.Users AS US ON US.UserId = SD.SessionStartedById LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      dbo.Users AS UB ON UB.UserId = SD.OnBehalfOfId LEFT OUTER JOIN
                      dbo.Users AS UR ON UR.UserId = SD.ReferredById

PowerShell BING Site

Desktop Feedbag — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:30:03 +0000

Bing has released a web interface to all the Powershell cmdlets, very cool, searchable and examples on how to use each cmdlet.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?g=powershell_cmdlets&FORM=SGEWEB&qpvt=powershell#r=53

Great OCS 2007 R2 lab setup guide

Desktop Feedbag — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:43:03 +0000

Go here for an excellent write up with screenshots on deploying OCS 2007 R2 into a hyper-v lab environment.

http://tinyurl.com/7yf9fy

I got OCS up and running into a production enviornment and love it, next up is connecting to the P BX.

Follow us on Twitter now.

Desktop Feedbag — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:08:50 +0000

Yup, jumped on the twitter thing. Good way to post and get information. Stop by and follow.

Virtualization EcoShell

Desktop Feedbag — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:59:44 +0000

Virtualization EcoShell

For those of you who manage a VMware environment this FREE tool is a must. It’s all written on top of Microsoft’s PowerShell and is eventually going to be built right into PowerGUI. Very very cool.

Download here

New PowerShell Help Reader

Desktop Feedbag — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:21:53 +0000

This is too cool.

http://powershelltools.com/#downloads

Get the latest Quest AD snappins for PowerShell

Desktop Feedbag — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:10:37 +0000

PowerShell 2.0 CTP 3 still doesn’t have native Active Directory cmdlets. You can still get into AD and do stuff, but have to use the native ADSI calls. The FREE Quest AD tools just adds a snapin of cmdlets that you can use to do AD stuff. Very easy to build into your scripts for automation. Good stuff for you PowerShell users. If you want to add the snapin to the native PS install, follow my how to here.

Download the Quest tool here.

AD Quest Cmdlets

Add-QADGroupMember
Add-QADMemberOf
Add-QADPasswordSettingsObjectAppliesTo
Add-QADPermission
Approve-QARSApprovalTask
Connect-QADService
Convert-QADAttributeValue
Deprovision-QADUser
Disable-QADUser
Disconnect-QADService
Enable-QADUser
Get-QADComputer
Get-QADGroup
Get-QADGroupMember
Get-QADMemberOf
Get-QADObject
Get-QADObjectSecurity
Get-QADPasswordSettingsObject
Get-QADPasswordSettingsObjectAppliesTo
Get-QADPermission
Get-QADPSSnapinSettings
Get-QADRootDSE
Get-QADUser
Get-QARSAccessTemplate
Get-QARSAccessTemplateLink
Get-QARSApprovalTask
Get-QARSOperation
Move-QADObject
New-QADGroup
New-QADObject
New-QADPasswordSettingsObject
New-QADUser
New-QARSAccessTemplateLink
Reject-QARSApprovalTask
Remove-QADGroupMember
Remove-QADMemberOf
Remove-QADObject
Remove-QADPasswordSettingsObjectAppliesTo
Remove-QADPermission
Remove-QARSAccessTemplateLink
Rename-QADObject
Restore-QADDeletedObject
Set-QADGroup
Set-QADObject
Set-QADObjectSecurity
Set-QADPSSnapinSettings
Set-QADUser
Set-QARSAccessTemplateLink
Unlock-QADUser