Vista\2008 SP2

This has been RTM for a while, and I was expecting it to show up on Windows Update today, but it didn't. I downloaded it from Technet but just noticed it on the Microsoft main site here.

I particularly like the combined Vista\2008 32bit\64bit DVD here.

Configure Server 2008 Time

I used the command:
"w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:"uk.pool.ntp.org europe.pool.ntp.org" /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update"

More details here:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/f3d6b66c-5fdc-4a77-a901-5efbcb4d4bb71033.mspx?mfr=true

Active directory permissions inheritance being cleared

I've been having an issue for some time where certain users and groups were having thier AD inheritance flag cleared and an arbitary set of permissions made.

It turns out that this is by design. Because the users belonged to a group, which belonged to Print Operators, thier permissions were being set to match the System\AdminSDHolder object. The PDC emulator runs an hourly process which copies the permissions from AdminSDHolder to these protected objects.

The following article describes how to remove Print Operators from this protected list of groups. The article talks about a hotfix, but this is only relevent for Windows 2003 SP1. Windows 2003 SP2 already has this change.

You can find the article here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817433/en-us

DPM 2007 DPMRA Error 10048 (0x2740)

After rebooting my Exchange server because of DNS issue, the DPM protection stopped. Further investigation found this in the event log:
The DPMRA service terminated with service-specific error 10048 (0x2740).

Google found this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947682

Essentialy you use 'netstat -oan' to find the PID of the process using port 5718 or 5719, which are both required by DPMRA.
Then use 'tasklist' and 'tasklist /svc' to discover which process it is. In my case, it was the MS Exchange Information Store.

I fixed it by stopping all Exchange services, starting DPMRA and then restarting Exchange.

It's kind of weird that MS Exchange can use the DPMRA ports when DPM is speciffically for protecting Exchange (amongst other things).

SQL Database missing from DPM 2007

Having fixed my SQL 2005 issues with DPM 2007, I found my main production SQL database was missing from the list of resources available to be protected. When attempting a normal SQL backup, I got an error message telling me that the Full Text Index was missing.

I recreated the Full Text Index, (got lost when changing SQL versions - No backup, that's what DPM was supposed to do!), and everything worked great.

The thing I learned here was, if DPM is having problems protecting a resource, try another backup type for more information on the error!

DPM SQL Issues

I had the following scenario:

• DPM 2007 Running on Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 (x86)
• SQL 2005 Standard (x86) running on Windows Server 2008 (x64)

DPM would not protect the SQL databases, and kept giving errors that the protection was "inconsistant". There were lots of SQLVDI errors in event viewer, including a BADMEM error.
To cut a long story short, I found the fix was to replace the x86 version of SQL 2005 with an x64 version.

Moved to new server

We are now running on Server 2008.

Let me know of any issues please!

How-to Backup Exchange 2007 on Server 2008

After all the hassle of getting Exchange 2007 setup yesterday, I found that I had no way to backup my Exchange 2007 server running on Server 2008. For whatever reason, Microsoft do not supply NTBackup and there is no in-built way of backing up Exchange 2007 when run on Server 2008.

Now, I could opt for a third party backup program or use Microsoft DPM, but for my 4 user network, this is a little bit of an overkill.

After some research, I found this article on how to install NTNackup on Vista:
http://www.petri.co.il/installing_windows_xp_ntbackup_on_windows_vista.htm

I followed this by copying the following binaries from my old server (C:\Windows\System32\) to my new server (C:\Program Files\NTBackup\):

• ntbackup.exe
• ntmsapi.dll
• vssapi.dll

I installed the removable storage manager from server manager:

• Start Server Manager
• Click Features
• Click Add Features
• Select Removable Storage Manager
• Click Install

When NTBackup starts, you will see an error regarding removable storage, but I just ignored this and clicked "Do not show this again"

Upon running NTBackup, I could see drives and system state, but no Exchange!

I then found this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/275876

I copied esebcli2.dll from my old server (C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin) to my new sever (C:\Program Files\NTBackup)

I ran regedit and changed the esebcli2 key from C:\Program Files\Micrsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\esebcli2.dll to C:\Program Files\NTBackup\esebcli2.dll.

I ran NTBackup and backed up my Exchange store to disk!

Exchange 2007 on Server 2008

What a day!

I've learnt a hard lesson today. Never unbind IPv6 from Server 2008 if its running Exchange 2007.

I had some problems adding some Vista laptops to a Server 2008 domain today. I couldn't determine if it was SP1 RC1, UAC being turned off or IPv6. The computers would not join the domain using the GUI. I had to manually extract the XP SP2 version of netdom and use that, after manually creating the computer accounts in the domain.

All was well until I restarted the Server. The Exchange Transport Service hung in "starting" and I could not connect to the Exchange server using the Power Shell or Console. I kept getting AD errors from these tools, and lots of errors about the Exchange AD Topology service not being able to contact AD.

To cut a long story short, I flattened the server and started again - Only to discover that IPv6 wasn't the problems with the workstations joining the domain, but it was the problem for Exchange 2007!

I never did get to the bottom of the problem joining the domain though. At least I have a work round now - Use XP SP2 Netdom!

Server 2008 Hyper-V Service vmss failing to start

With the latest RC1 refresh, you have to install Server 2008 with the default language settings in order for the vmss service to start properly.

Details here:
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2585027&SiteID=17

Running Windows Server 2008 under Xen on OpenSuse 10.3

I've just bought a 2xQuad Core Zeon, Dell Poweredge 1900, with 16GB RAM. This is for some heavy duty Hyper-V testing in Windows Server 2008 but I thought it'd be fun to run it under OpenSuse 10.3 first.

The result:

Click the above image for a full size one.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Core - Demos

The are some nice core demos over at Keth Coombs' blog.

Catch them here:
http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2007/11/04/windows-server-2008-core-screencast-series-watch-all-eight-parts-here.aspx