Monday 30 November 2009

Outlook 2010 Beta Hanging On Send/Receive

Okay, so maybe all of the bugs are not quite worked out yet:

image

We have three Exchange mailboxes along with an Internet hosted SharePoint Calendar in Outlook 2010.

The hang up was on the SharePoint connection not throwing up an authentication window. It took a couple of shutdown and restarts before the credentials window finally showed itself.

The above was seen after Outlook mysteriously quite sometime between just before lunch and this afternoon when this post is being written.

How did we know? The client side rules were not being honoured and the Inbox was getting quite full. There are no indications in the system logs as to what caused it to stall either.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix

Via Slashdot:

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article with the hotfix:

We are just in the process of implementing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on the new Intel Nehalem architecture in both the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series.

So, finding out about this particular problem before the boxes went into production is a good thing.

The update begs the question though, does the hotfix really resolve the conflict with the CPU architecture?

It looks as though we will be doing a bit more testing than we normally do on new platforms to make sure that things do not blow up on us with the new soon to be deployed production Hyper-V boxes.

One of the linked articles from Slashdot is a good read:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Saturday 28 November 2009

Windows Server Backup Recovery Fail – A Handle to the driver control device could not be created. . .

We needed to spot recover some files on one of our client’s servers.

But, when we plugged in the required backup USB hard drive and ran the Recovery Wizard from within the Windows Server Backup (WSB) node we ran into a really strange error:

image

Recovery Wizard

Unable to browse ServerName (C:). A handle to the driver control device could not be created. Make sure the driver is installed correctly.

Now, a search for the error message turned up very little in the way of results.

Somehow, in the numerous searches we attempted on the problem, the following site held the clue:

In the above linked forum post SriramB[MSFT] runs the questioner through some steps to get WSB installed. But, the clue for us was found because of the following found in the Device Manager after revealing hidden devices:

image

We right clicked on the File as Volume Driver and Uninstalled it. We then right clicked on the root computer name and clicked on Scan for hardware changes and the File as Volume Driver got picked up:

image

File as Volume Driver

Device driver software installed successfully.

Once the driver was installed, we saw this in our Recovery process:

image The + NetworkData (L:) volume was able to be browsed for the content we were looking to restore.

We are not entirely sure what caused the driver to get knocked out in the first place since the backup portion of WSB was working just fine.

This is one reason why regular spot recovery as well as a full recovery tests should be a mandatory part of any managed services offering. If the backups are not tested, then no one will know they were broken until there was a real emergency.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Friday 27 November 2009

Experts-Exchange SBS Zone Milestone – 1,000,000 Points!

One of the ways that I contribute to the SBS community is via providing assistance on the Experts-Exchange forums.

While there may not be a lot of time to dedicate to the forums, help is provided when there are a few extra minutes in between tasks.

This week was the week where my SBS Zone point count surpassed 1 million.

The Experts-Exchange is a great place to find a quick answer to a troubling problem that may not get answered on the Microsoft Forums (News Groups).

We do find it to be a good resource for those sometimes difficult problems that have no search hits anywhere else but there.

Thanks for reading and for your support! :)

UPDATE: Okay, so somehow I managed to throw in some extra zeros in the title. :) Number fixed.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday 26 November 2009

Updating The Asus Eee PC’s BIOS

To update the Eee PC’s BIOS is a pretty simple affair with a few catches:

  1. Download the latest BIOS from Asus’ Web site.
  2. Extract the BIOS ROM file.
    • image
  3. Rename the file to 1000HE.ROM
  4. Make sure the Eee PC A/C adapter is plugged in.
  5. Copy the 1000HE.ROM file to the root of a FAT32 USB flash drive.
  6. Power down the Eee PC.
  7. Power up the Eee PC.
  8. Press ALT + F2 key combination at the BIOS/Splash screen.
  9. The built-in flash utility will pick up the 1000HE.ROM file and flash it.
  10. Once finished, power down the Eee PC.
  11. Pull the USB flash drive.
  12. Power the unit up.
  13. Press F2 to enter setup (may need F1 after that).
  14. Verify that the BIOS version is the same as downloaded.

We are flashing the 1000HE because the newer BIOS firmware has added support for Windows 7 features.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Asus Eee PC Drivers Available For Windows 7

We posted a while back about our drive conversion to an Intel Solid-State as well as installing Windows 7 Pro on our Asus Eee PC 1000HE (previous blog post).

Since Asus has new Eee PC products that are now out with Windows 7 Starter edition, drivers should be available for our existing Eee PC.

They are:

image

And:

image

Just don’t expect them to come down too quick though:

image

Not sure where the 14.4K modem speeds are coming from, but _wow_ are the download speeds so 1994! Albeit, the downloads were initiated via the direct download link to avoid installing yet another download manager.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Trend Manual Uninstall Instructions

The Trend Client Manual Removal Instructions on Trend’s site.

One thing to keep in mind when it comes to the above instructions when working with 64bit operating systems:

image

Add the Wow6432Node to any HKLM\Software\* registry changes when removing references to the Trend client.

MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Outlook 2010 Primary Mailbox Disconnected While Remote?

This was a bit of a puzzle at first:

image

Outlook was prompting for credentials for the two add-in mailboxes but not for the primary mailbox.

It took a few minutes of working through the settings to figure out that there was one very important thing missed during the initial setup of this mailbox:

image

The Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP was not enabled and our RPC/HTTPS Outlook Anywhere settings were not in place!

Oops!

Fortunately, the missed setting was on the laptop I am working on, but if it belonged to a client that was trying to use their new laptop setup there could have been a frustrated phone call. 

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Outlook 2010 – Adding An Additional Exchange Mailbox And It Sorts To The Main Mailbox!

We have a number of different Exchange based accounts that we use for the various needs of our company.

When it came to e-mail, we would always set up a POP3 connection to grab e-mail from the various e-mail related accounts.

Now that we can set up those Exchange mailboxes within Outlook 2010, this is how we don’t go about it:

  1. Click on the File tab button.
    • image
  2. Click on Account Settings.
    • image
  3. Click on Account Settings that shows up on the menu.
  4. Click on the New button in the E-mail Accounts window.
    • image
  5. In the dialogue box that comes up, we are going to choose the Manually configure server settings option.
    • image
  6. Select Microsoft Exchange.
    • image
  7. And, this is why we do not go about configuring an Exchange account from within Outlook 2010:
    • image

Okay, so we have learned that we cannot configure an additional Exchange account from within Outlook.

This is how we set up an additional Exchange account:

  1. Close Outlook 2010.
  2. Open the Control Panel.
  3. Switch the View by: to an Icon view.
  4. Click on the Mail  or Mail (32-bit) icon.
    • image 
  5. Click on the E-mail Accounts button.
    • image 
  6. Click the New button.
    • image 
  7. Click the Manually configure server . . . option and click Next.
    • image 
  8. Choose the Microsoft Exchange option and click Next.
    • image 
  9. Set the Exchange server and user name in place.
    • image
  10. Click the Check Name button to verify the settings.
    • Make sure to click the More Settings button once the settings are correct and input the Outlook Anywhere settings under the Connections tab.
  11. Click Finish.

The new account will now be in the E-mail Accounts window:

image

Once we open Outlook and authenticate for the new account, we will have:

image

BTW, rules can be created in the secondary Exchange mailboxes to move content into the primary Exchange mailbox where that content has a dedicated folder.

So, no more fancy POP3 configurations for gathering e-mail from various mailboxes into certain folders!

This feature alone is worth its weight in gold!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Tuesday 24 November 2009

QuickBooks 2010 Multicurrency Upgrade Disk Has Arrived

If there is something we approach with a lot of trepidation, it is the upgrade of any QuickBooks instance to a newer codebase version of QuickBooks.

The upgrade from QuickBooks 2007 non-multicurrency version to QuickBooks 2008 non-multicurrency version with the new codebase was rife with issues.

We run our bookkeeping on QuickBooks Multicurrency since many of our transactions are in non-Canadian dollars. The codebase for the Multicurrency version has not been touched until now.

The accompanying QuickBooks Upgrade card indicate a number of things to be aware of when upgrading:

  • Make sure to have any recent Sales Tax Returns at hand prior to upgrading.
  • Have the tax return payment or refund information at hand as well.
  • Make a backup.

The QuickBooks site:

Needless to say, we will be keeping our current bookkeeping online with our current version for the next month or three. Our bookkeeper will asked to run things in tandem for a while . . . just in case (previous disastrous QuickBooks post).

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Office 2010 Beta – Office 2007 Uninstall Fail?

After uninstalling Office 2007, we installed Office 2010 Beta. But, things were not working as we had expected. So, into the Programs and Features we went on this Windows 7 laptop and we found:

image

Note that the above was found after uninstalling Office 2007 and rebooting the laptop.

So, what does that mean?

It means that the script used to deploy Office 2007 on our network via Group Policy does not detect the newer version installed on this laptop and proceeds to install Office 2007.

It looks as though the script is not aware of the 64bit versions. We will need to look into updating it to work with the new versions of Office 2010 when we have access to our Open Value Licensing version.

The script:

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM Modified 2009-10-06 by Philip Elder for company variables.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file.
set ProductName=Enterprise

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\SBS\ClientApps\Office2007Ent

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment REM (required)
set ConfigFile=\\SBS\ClientApps\Office2007Ent\Enterprise.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\SBS\ClientApps\Office2007Ent\Office12Logs

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" SET WOW6432NODE=WOW6432NODE\

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\%WOW6432NODE%Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

So for now, we will restructure our OU and GPOs for the moment to exclude the GPO setting to deploy Office 2007 for any machines the Office 2010 Beta will be installed on.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Outlook 2010 Send/Receive And Exchange Settings After Upgrading

Since most folks will have a version of Office installed on their machines before installing the new Office 2010 Beta, one thing to keep in mind is that if installing the 64bit version of Office 2010 Beta the previous Office 32bit version will need to be uninstalled first.

This is how our Send/Receive settings looked after the whole process:

image

By default, our send/receive time limit will be 5 minutes.

Click on the Edit button in the above window and we found:

image

The “Include the selected account in this group” setting was unchecked.

So, we made sure to check it:

image

Once the settings were configured correctly, Outlook started to behave as expected for content flow.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Monday 23 November 2009

SBS 2003/8 – Receive Confirmation Of Successful Fax Send In Windows Vista/7

To connect to the fax service on an SBS 2003 or SBS 2008 server with Vista or Windows 7 do the following:

  1. From a computer that is running Windows Vista/7, open Windows Fax and Scan.
  2. Click New Fax.
  3. Click Connect to a fax server on my network.
  4. Type the name of the server that is running Windows SBS, for example \\servername. If you do not know the name of the server, click Start, type cmd, and then type:
    • set sbsserver [Enter]
    • Answer will be: SBSSERVER=My-SBS
  5. Type a name for the fax account, such as SBSServer.

To receive a confirmation when sending a fax do the following once an outgoing fax has been initiated:

image

  1. After filling in the above form click on Tools.
  2. Click on the Options… menu item.
  3. Set the appropriate actions:
    1. image
  4. A confirmation e-mail will show up when the fax has sent successfully.

The delivery receipt option needs to be set each time a fax has been sent.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

What Version of SQL Is That?

We have a client that needs to update a Line of Business application that is using a SQL 2005 Express instance.

The LoB has a major update coming down the pipe and the product developer has stated that we need to have SQL 2005 SP2 at the minimum to support the newest features in the update.

The following SQL version comes via a screenshot of SQL Server Management Studio Express:

image

Okay, so, now what version and service pack level are we at?

Apparently SP2+Q954606 (GDR):

image

The above screenshot was taken from this site:

The SQLSecurity.com site has an extremely comprehensive list of each version level depending on which SQL patches were installed.

So, we now know that we have SQL 2005 Service Pack 2 installed with Service Pack 3 looming in the near future and that our LoB can be safely updated.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Two Service Packs NOT To Install At This Time

Currently, we are abstaining from installing the Windows SharePoint v3 Service Pack 2.

The second service pack we are holding off on installing is Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 on our SBS 2008 installs.

While the KB article contains some content addressing things that break when Exchange 2007 SP2 gets installed on SBS 2008, there is no real need at this point to install the Service Pack.

Also, there will be an SBS 2008 specific Exchange Service Pack 2 package released at some point that will allow us to install the Service Pack without it breaking things.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Moving From 3G CDMA to 3G+ HSPA In Canada

We just picked up a Sierra Wireless 306 USB HSPA (SW 306) 3G+ cellular modem that runs on the CDMA carrier’s networks here in Canada.

Now, with the Sierra Wireless 598 3G modem, there was no real worry about hitting the 1GB data plan’s soft limit as the modem rarely gave us over 20KB/sec despite the 3Mb connection claim it made when it connected to the Internet.

This is definitely _not_ the case when it comes to the SW 306. While no speed claims are made when the connection to the Internet completes, we have already seen the need to do some downloading of drivers and other software packages using the new modem.

Thus, we have a very practical view of just how fast this thing is . . . and it is _really_ fast!

One Microsoft download came down at close to 1MB/Sec.

This morning, as a test, we downloaded IE8 for Windows XP:

09-11-23 3G  Download

In the above screenshot the SW 306 3G+ cellular modem is on par with our close to the Central Office ADSL 6Mb connection that runs closer to 7.5Mb.

So, what does that mean for us? It means that we need to be aware of our RDP settings when connecting to remote systems for the day. 32bit colour depth is not necessary, nor is full screen on a larger high definition laptop screen.

We will need to keep an eye on our usage via our provider’s online portal that allows us to do so.

It also means that our Canadian cellular data providers will be needing to restructure their data plans that span 500MB to 5GB per month. Obviously, even the 5GB soft limit will not be enough for bandwidth intensive users.

Though, with little competition between the providers up here, there is really not a lot of incentive to do that.

We have clients that have one of the provider’s early unlimited data plans. The provider has a policy of taking away great plans and replacing them with whatever is current, and more restrictive, than the previous plan. So, we are going to encourage our clients to hold onto that plan and their current SW 598 modems as long as possible.

And one more thing. We are required to pay an extra $5/Mth per device that requires any form of PPTP/L2TP VPN access. VPN connections are not allowed out of the box.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Friday 20 November 2009

TechDays Success And A TS Gateway Error

The feedback received on the WSUS presentation was quite positive. Hopefully the evaluation forms back that up.

Before heading backup up I stopped in at a client we have in Calgary to set up a couple of new backup hard drives and try and get their copier to e-mail PDFs into a SharePoint library.

It’s not like we have not done this before!

But, no matter what we tried, we could not get this particular copier to send e-mail via SBS 2008. There will be more troubleshooting to be done to figure out the “why” as it does not make sense.

I ended up being there until late working on that. So, after working on that for a while some Windows Server 2008 x64 updates were installed on SBS and a reboot was to be had with the hope that something would kick into gear and start working.

Well, after the reboot things did not improve so we decided to call it a night as I still had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of me.

About an hour into the drive, our client called to say that his and his wife’s systems were not able to connect to Exchange via Outlook Anywhere and that their iPhones stopped syncing earlier that evening . . . right around the time the updates and reboot happened.

The TS Gateway service was up and running despite the fact that no one could RDP into the server using the remote.domain.com gateway or via RWW.

This particular server has a DRAC installed so I was able to remote into the console and work on the server from Red Deer where I stopped to address the problem.

Nothing looked to be amiss and there were absolutely no clues in the logs as to why the TS Gateway service was not allowing anything through.

After running the Fix My Network wizard with nothing turning up, the Set Up Your Internet Address wizard, and then the Certificate wizard to reseat their GoDaddy certificate, nothing changed.

As a last resort, a reboot was initiated.

Since this troubleshooting was going on in a Red Deer parking lot via a 3G+ Internet connection, I left the DRAC console window open and started back on my way towards Edmonton/St. Albert.

This particular box takes about 15-20 minutes to reboot.

One advantage of having a Solid-State Drive in the Tecra was the ability to drive off without worrying about a hard drive problem due to the bumps and vibrations of driving.

An RDP shortcut on the Tecra’s desktop was saved with credentials embedded before heading out.

About 20 minutes into my resumed trip the SBS 2008 logon screen showed up. A double tap later and the SBS 2008 desktop showed up after a minute or so.

The key to figuring out what was happening was when the console screen went black, the Dell BIOS POST stuff went by, and then a Windows Registry update series of registry strings went by.

It seems that some of the updates applied before the previous reboot did not take properly and required yet one more reboot before things settled down.

We will make sure to check that the TS Gateway service is functioning as expected after updates as its misbehaving impacts a lot of different SBS services.

Once logged off the server the Tecra was shut down and I had an almost uneventful trip home.

A rather large Coyote jumped out in front of me from the median side of the highway close to Leduc. It is the first time that I have laid into the brakes hard enough to set off the ABS on dry pavement all the while swerving to avoid the animal.

Needless to say I barely missed the coyote and was a little surprised that they could be Jacklit. It pretty much stood still as soon as it turned its head towards me.

I did not have to worry about being tired for the rest of the ride home! ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday 18 November 2009

TechDays Calgary – WSUS Presentation Soon

My presentation on Best Practices in Architecting and Implementing Windows Server Update Services will be starting in just about an hour.

It is the last Server Track presentation of the day.

So far, the content here has been excellent and the quality of the speakers has also been excellent.

It was well worth the trip.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

TechDays Calgary – WSUS Presentation Soon

My presentation on Best Practices in Architecting and Implementing Windows Server Update Services will be starting in just about an hour.

It is the last Server Track presentation of the day.

So far, the content here has been excellent and the quality of the speakers has also been excellent.

It was well worth the trip.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Office 2010 Beta – A Step In The Right Direction

Indeed, the Dev Team has fixed one of the most critical problems with the Release Candidate!

image

The above screenshot is of our own audit notes opened from a remote SharePoint library.

Since we use SharePoint a lot for our document collaboration, having the ability to open SharePoint documents remotely is absolutely critical to the way we do business. That bug put a quick end to the use of Office 2010 Release Candidate in our company.

It looks as though that will change as of tonight!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Office 2010 Beta Available For Download For TechNet Subscribers

It’s official, the Office 2010 Beta has arrived . . . at least for TechNet Plus subscribers:

image

We shall soon see if Microsoft has addressed some of the issues that plagued us with the Release Candidate as the Beta has been downloaded and will be trialed on the Asus Eee PC that is here in Calgary with me.

Our main concerns:

  • Remote documents stored in a SharePoint library will open properly.
  • Outlook Search does not keep breaking.
  • Recurring Calendar items do not get deleted when only one in the series is deleted.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

TechDays: Three boxes & Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 = High Availability Virtualization

A really inexpensive way to build a High Availability virtualization solution:
+ 3x Core 2 box with Intel-VT enabled.
+ 2 NICs, 3 is better.
+ Switches and cables.
+ TechNet Plus for:
+ Storage Server 2008 for iSCSI Target
+ System Center Virtual Machine Manager
+ Microsoft OSs and servers for VMs

PC's 1 & 2 will have Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 installed.
PC 3 will have Storage Server to host the shared storage.

NIC 1: Local LAN for management.
NIC 2: VMs.
NIC 3: Cluster heartbeat.

From there, putting things together is fairly straight forward.

Another machine can be used to facilitate set up of the HA solution.

We have a few solutions coming that will be built on individual servers as well as on the Intel Modular Server so we will try to build some comprehensive guides for building the HA setup along with its management needs.

Philip

Sent from my SBS Integrated Windows Mobile® phone.
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Monday 16 November 2009

Sierra Wireless 306 USB Modem Install On The MacBook Pro

We picked up a new Sierra Wireless 306 HSPA cellular modem on Friday.

Unfortunately, our carrier seemingly had issues getting it activated so we had no cellular modem available to us over the weekend. A call from them this morning, and a flip of some sort of switch and we now have connectivity on our Windows machines.

The MacBook Pro did not install the same way for the 306 as the previous Sierra Wireless 598 CDMA 3G modem.

Once the post install reboot was finished, we had the strangest message about a New Network Found when the 306 was plugged into the MacBook Pro.

When we clicked through the message, we were presented with the following nondescript, and really strange window:


09-11-16 Sierra Wireless - New Network.png

Now, our provider did not give us any information to fill out the requested fields.

After searching around for a while, some information on Sierra Wireless's Web site provided a clue as to what we needed to do. We say clue because the instructions linked to do not apply specifically to Snow Leopard as there are differences in the set up routine.

Note that in the above screenshot that the Apply button is no longer available. That is because it was available and clicked on even though no specific information was entered in any of the fields.

Strangely enough, even with the empty fields, the 3G Watcher utility's Connect button showed up after clicking Apply.


09-11-16 Sierra Wireless 3G Watcher.png

The new 3G HSPA network is significantly faster than the "3G" CDMA network that the Sierra Wireless 598 connected to. As a result, we will need to keep an eye on the data usage as a true 3Mb connection can add up very quickly.

Philip Elder

MPECS Inc.

Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book


*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

MVP Oliver Sommer Interview at TechEd Europe 2009

Have a few minutes to burn?

Fellow MVP Oliver Sommer, along with other Microsoft MVPs, were interviewed by Karen Young while attending TechEd Europe recently.

Besides Oliver’s interview, there are a number of other Microsoft MVPs from various disciplines interviewed by Ms. Young.

Check them out! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Presenting on WSUS At TechDays In Calgary On Wednesday!

A little while back, Kevin Kaminski gave a Windows 7 presentation to all of us at the Intel Technical Solutions Training event here in Edmonton.

Afterwards he and I got to chatting about various topics including the next TechDays event in Calgary which happens to be running tomorrow and Wednesday.

He was going to be giving three of the presentations at TechDays. After finding out which ones I volunteered to take over the WSUS Architecture presentation.

  • What:
    • TechDays Calgary - D2 S4 - Best Practices in Architecting and Implementing Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
  • Where:
    • Palomino Room
  • When:
    • Wednesday November 18 @ 14:45Hrs (2:45PM)

So, if you have some time, need to get caught up on some in-depth technical information on Microsoft products in a short period of time, TechDays is the place to do it!

It is worth it.

UPDATE: Added the "I" in "he and I got to chatting" since I missed it the first time!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Saturday 14 November 2009

What A BitLocker Encrypted Drive Looks Like On Another PC

It looks like this:

image

After refreshing the view it looks like this:

image

And, in Windows Explorer after clicking on the encrypted partition showing as G: with no file system indicator we get:

image

The above screenshots are from the Tecra S10’s 160GB spindle based hard disk that has since been replaced by an Intel X-25 M 160GB SSD.

The E: partition was the Active one that contained the BCD database and other files needed for the initial boot of the Windows 7 Enterprise.

The E: partition was actually a misguided attempt at setting up BitLocker with Windows 7 since the discovery that Windows 7 would create its own 100MB partition for the boot content was made after the fact.

This time around, we allowed Windows to install into the new SSD without touching any of the partitioning and we now have a BitLocker encrypted SSD in the Tecra S10 with nothing more than a small Active partition. The encryption process looks to be more CPU dependent that drive I/O dependent as the encryption time may have been reduced by 35%.

So, any guesses on whether the data in that encrypted partition is accessible? Perhaps by someone with a lot of horsepower like law enforcement or perhaps an organized crime syndicate of some sort . . . maybe.

For now, with BitLocker we have taken the best possible precautions at protecting the data on that drive and can be reasonably assured that the data will remain intact until we wipe the drive using a DoD 7 pass erase.

For that DoD 7 pass wipe we use a freeware product called Eraser. It is an excellent little utility that allows us to wipe as many drives as this particular system can handle (7+ drives).

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Friday 13 November 2009

Scorpion Software AuthAnvil Authentication Keyfob Tokens Have Arrived

While at the SMB Nation Fall Conference we took advantage of Scorpion Software’s bundled special.

We had a package arrive not long after we did that with five AuthAnvil tokens in it. Though they are not on the integration To Do list yet.

Once we have migrated our SBS to 2008, we will get in touch with Scorpion to schedule an installation training session that they are providing as part of the package.

Once we have done that, we will then have two factor authentication in place for our own network.

We will then begin to talk to our clients about augmenting their security setup with the AuthAnvil.

Scorpion Software has a good demonstration video here:

Check out some of the auditing features that are demonstrated near the end of the demo video. For folks that have one username for many tasks, AuthAnvil can actually track which user logged in using that account and from where.

This is a pretty neat product and should be a serious consideration for any organization dealing with sensitive client data.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Replacing a MacBook Pro Drive With An SSD and Upgrading the RAM

Okay, so we found this great video online that shows how to take things apart and put them back together.

Now, in the above case, the replacement hard drive seemingly had an OS already on it and according to the comments he used a cloning method in a previous video to do that.

Well, since the MacBook Pro had already been messed around with, tweaked, and essentially made non-standard, it was time to start fresh anyway.

Once we had the MacBook Pro opened up we started with the memory:

image

Note the Seagate 160GB 5400RPM SATA drive in the bottom left hand corner of the above shot.

We upgraded the memory using Kingston’s 4GB kit:

We then used a 160GB Intel X25-M second generation drive to replace the Maxtor:

image

Now, being that we do _a lot_ of hard drive upgrades and changes with a fresh install of the Windows OS, this process was supposed to be a no-brainer.

But, this is what we were greeted with when the MacBook Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD booted up:

image

Since Windows would have the drive listed there despite the fact that it was untouched, the above screen was a bit disconcerting at first.

Just in case, we powered the unit down and pulled off the bottom cover to verify that all connections were properly seated which they were.

While we were at it, we tied the SSD up to our data mule via SATA to USB adapter and the drive showed up with no problems.

After installing it back into the MacBook Pro and booting back up into the setup routine, the Utilities menu item seemed to be the next logical place to look … at least for us Mac OS X n00bs anyway! ;)

Under that menu was an item called Disk Utility. We clicked on that and there was the SSD:

image

The only Disk Utility option that permitted us to do anything to the drive was Erase:

image

Note the Format was wrongly set to Case Sensitive. The second run through the OS X Snow Leopard install we left things at their default.

Once the format was finished we saw:

image

Forty minutes later we had a freshly installed Mac OS X and off we went to install the Mac Applications, Office 2008 for Mac, and all of the available updates.

Now, there may be a better way of getting a fresh drive available for OS X install in the Utilities menu, so please feel free to offer your way of doing things.

BTW, the RAM upgrade was actually done before the drive swap. It made a bit of a difference when multiple programs were open when swapping between them.

But, the SSD drive upgrade totally changed the performance characteristics of the MacBook Pro.

  • From off to logon screen is 16 seconds.
  • From logon to full dashboard functionality is less that 5 seconds.
    • The dashboard is pretty full.
  • Shutdown from the point of clicking the final shutdown button is 3 seconds.

The unit was pretty quick relative to the other portables that are used around here, but the SSD has made a huge difference in its performance.

Next up will be to pick up a copy of Parallels and install Windows to enable RWW/RDP and TS Gateway functionality to access client systems for management purposes.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Thursday 12 November 2009

MacBook – You can’t turn on FileVault to protect the home folder of this user account.

Ack!

After finally figuring out how to get the MacBook to recognize the new Intel SSD (another post coming on this one), we ran into this lovely roadblock when enabling the home folder encryption setup called FileVault:

image

You can’t turn on FileVault to protect the home folder of this user account.

The home folder is located on a volume that isn’t in Mac OS Extended format.

Um, when we installed OS X 10.6 via the MacBook Pro DVD we chose the Mac OS Extended format for the hard drive. Though, we also included case sensitivity along with journaling.

So, what gives?

A few searches for the error turned up the following:

Essentially, we need to reinstall the OS via the DVD. Since this is a fresh install, it is not a really big deal. Apparently FileVault cannot be enabled when the disk was formatted to include case sensitivity in its structures.

This is a bit weird since the underlying OS for Snow Leopard is a UNIX derivative where case sensitivity has been a part of the OS setup since the beginning.

We have now learned that the type of disk format we use during an initial set up of any Mac will impact future uses of that Mac.

BTW, gotta love the non-descript error eh? It’s not like we haven’t seen those before in the Windows world! ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Using One USB Flash Drive To Install Different Windows OSs

We have run into a bit of a snag when we try and reuse the same USB flash drives to install the various Windows operating systems being installed on laptops, workstations, desktops, and servers.

What we were doing was keeping a copy of the OS in a folder and copying it onto the flash drive after deleting whatever was on the drive. We would rename the drive to indicate what OS was on it.

Well, we have been receiving BCD errors whenever we boot from the the reused flash drive.

So, here is what we do to make sure we get a nice clean start every time.

Software needed:

Now, once we have Virtual CloneDrive installed on the workstation, to keep things simple we create a series of folders with the OS’s name on our workbench system desktop.

We then copy the respective OS’s ISO file into that folder.

When we need to change the OS on the USB flash drive we delete the files on it, mount the ISO using Virtual CloneDrive, and copy that ISO’s content onto the flash drive.

This seems to work with no hassles.

To prep a flash drive for booting on a Vista or 7 machine:

  1. Start –> cmd –> right click and Run As Administrator.
  2. Click through the UAC.
  3. Diskpart [Enter]
  4. List Disk [Enter]
    • A list of disks in the system will appear. The USB flash drive should be pretty obvious due to its small size.
  5. Select Disk x [Enter]
    • Again, select the USB flash drive listed above by number.
  6. Clean [Enter]
  7. Create Partition Primary [Enter]
  8. Select Partition 1 [Enter]
  9. Active [Enter]
  10. Format fs=fat32 quick [Enter]
  11. Assign [Enter]
  12. Exit [Enter]

The autorun dialogue should pop up after completing the above procedure with the list of options available for a newly inserted USB flash drive.

At some point we might actually get into Windows Deployment Services . . . but that will not happen until we actually have some time! 8)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Force Eject a CD/DVD From the MacBook Pro

In the process of swapping the 160GB 5400RPM Hitachi hard drive for an Intel 160GB second generation SSD, there was a disk in the optical drive that would not come out when the eject button was pressed.

Now, on the MacBook Pro optical drive there is no pinhole for us to use a paperclip or the like to force eject a disk in the drive.

It turns out that all we needed to do was hold down the trackpad button prior to powering up the MacBook Pro.

Sure enough, after holding the button down and powering up the unit out came that disk.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Trend Micro – Reset the Security Dashboard Password

We are doing the last of our Trend Micro A/V product removals and replacement with Symantec EndPoint Protection.

Our Trend odyssey has unfortunately been long and very painful:

So painful in fact, we paid for a one year SEP subscription and did the R&R for free at all of our clients that had the Trend product installed at.

The password for this last client is not being recognized. So, our notes must be out of date as the password must have been changed without those notes being updated or perhaps the product hiccupped yet again.

To change that admin password:

  1. Go to the <installed drive>\Program Files\Trend Micro\Security server\PCCSRV\Private directory.
  2. Open the ofcserver.ini file using Notepad or any text editor
  3. Look for the Master_Pwd= parameter under the [INI_SERVER_SECTION] section.
  4. Replace the Master_Pwd= value with 70.
    • Remove the !encrypt! portion too.
  5. Save and close the ofcserver.ini file.
  6. Restart TM Security server  Master Service.
  7. Log into the Security dashboard  and type 1 as the password.

We now have the ability to manage if that was what we needed, or now to remove the product completely from all of our workstations and servers on this network.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Wednesday 11 November 2009

HP TouchSmart iQ816 Wall Mount Completed and How-To

One of the tasks we needed to accomplish was the wall mounting of an HP TouchSmart iQ816 PC.

The HP recommended VESA compatible mount was set up in such a way that it could only mount to a wall stud as we were not confident in using any form of plugs for such a heavy item.

The product we ended up using to mount the iQ816 was made by Ergotron:

image

Now, the above image and the actual product are a bit deceiving as far as the tilting mechanism was concerned.

After pulling everything out of the box and seeing how loose the two arms seemed to be in the tilt, there was some doubt about how the actual tilt would work.

Once the iQ816 was mounted on the arms and installed onto the wall bracket there was no more doubt though:

image

Somehow there was enough resistance due to the weight of the iQ816 to allow the tilting motion to rest wherever we set it in the Ergotron product’s full range of motion.

Note the minimal clearance between the cupboards above the iQ816. This was quite intentional. To get that clearance though, we needed to remove the plastic cap on the wall bracket and slide the arms holding the iQ816 onto the wall bracket from the side shown. The arms were mounted to the iQ816 before sliding onto the wall bracket.

The cap’s screw hole can be seen in the middle of the cap above.

This next shot is not so clear, but gives a pretty good idea of how the final mounting looks from the front:

image

My best friend will be making up a cap that matches the pattern of the cupboards along with their colour to go over the mounting bracket seen to the right of the iQ816. Unfortunately the wall studs were not quite centered to the opening of the desk.

The TouchSmart units are really neat. Our client really likes them.

Tools needed for this project:

  • Cordless drill (18v Milwaukee in our case)
  • 3/16” drill bit for lag bolt pilot holes.
  • Bit, adapter, and socket to drive in lag bolts.
  • 3/8” socket wrench to finish tightening.
  • Laser sight stud finder with integrated 360Deg levels.
  • 36’ level to level the wall bracket.
  • Contractor quality tape measure.
  • 12” carpenter’s square.

The iQ816 required four spacers between its VESA bracket and the Ergotron arms as well as two washers per bolt when mounting the arms to the back of it.

The tape measure, square, and the laser site on the stud finder were used to pinpoint the desk’s centre relative to the wall behind the iQ816.

Once the studs were located, we measured out where the wall bracket needed to be relative to the placement of the iQ816. We then drilled our first pilot hole for the top left corner of the wall bracket.

Using the level and tape measure we were able to find and drill the other three pilot holes.

We then placed the wall bracket on the wall and started the first lag bolt on the top left. Once the lag bolt had grabbed enough (tacked in place) we then started the top right after which we finished off the two bottom bolts.

When all four bolts were tacked in, we then drove them into the stud using the drill until they were just touching the wall bracket. We left them snug enough to allow us to move the bracket and use the level to make sure that it was indeed level before tightening things up.

Once level, we carefully tightened up the top left lag bolt all the while making sure to maintain level. We then tightened up the bottom right bolt, then the bottom left, and finally the bottom right.

Keep in mind that the lag bolts can be over tightened. If this happens, the wall bracket will actually break through the outer skin of the wall board thus compromising its integrity.

This in turn could lead to a failure of the mount itself as it may loosen up the wall bracket over time as the user tilts the iQ816 up and down and the bracket works its way into the wall board.

Thus, it is important to pay attention and listen to the tightening process while using the socket wrench.

We cleaned up any wall board dust and wood before we installed the proprietary iQ816 VESA bracket onto the back of the unit as well as removed the two feet at the bottom. Supplied with the kit were a couple of caps to go in the holes where the feet used to be.

We then installed the Ergotron arms using the spacers as well as washers against the bolt head as already mentioned.

Once the unit was on the wall bracket, the cap at the end was back on, we wired up the HP power block in between the Ergotron mounting arms behind the iQ816.

Thus, we had a pretty neat and clean desk space for our client to work on.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer