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

A couple of great Media Center addons

Just wanted to share a couple of excellent Media Center addons I have found recently
.
The first, called WebGuide4, allows you to access your Media Center PC through a web interface, including mobile:
http://www.asciiexpress.com/wiki/

The second allows access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Catch Up and Channel 4 Catch Up from within Media Center:
http://www.milliesoft.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=11

DPM 2007 Agent failing to protect Windows Vista SP1

I recently modifed my DPM 2007 installation to backup my local users folder on Windows Vista Ultimate x64. This would not work and kept producing the following event logs when I attemted to manually sync the share:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          15/06/2008 08:50:37
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Cartman2.thefoleyhouse.co.uk
Description:
Faulting application DPMRA.exe, version 2.0.5820.0, time stamp 0x46f990f7, faulting module kernel32.dll, version 6.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x4791ada5, exception code 0x80070002, fault offset 0x000000000002649d, process id 0x1ff8, application start time 0x01c8cebaac1ac7c8.

After some research I found the following fix:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/31450629/cant-create-recovery-poi.aspx

You have to create the following DWORD registry key with a value of 1:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel\obcaseinsensitive

Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Component Registration Problem

My Media Center PC randomly decided to stop working. After a lot of searching and trying I finally found this:

http://mymce.wordpress.com/2006/11/30/a-component-registration-failurea-critical-process-failurea-tuner-not-found-error/

The steps were:

1. Close Media Center
2. Click on the Start menu, choose run and type cmd
3. Execute the command regsvr32.exe atl.dll
4. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehSched /unregServer
5. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehSched /service
6. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRecvr /unregServer
7. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRecvr /service
8. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRec.exe /unregServer
9. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRec.exe /regserver
10. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehmsas.exe /unregServer
11. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehmsas.exe /regserver
12. Restart Media Center

Thanks so much guys!

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).

How to re-create the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar

Create a text file called Show Desktop.scf containing:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

More details here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/190355/en-us

How to enable user environment debug logging in retail builds of Windows

I've found this quite useful in debugging slow logins or incorrect application of group policy.

Create the following DWORD value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\UserEnvDebugLevel

Set:
0x00030002 - Masses of debug info
0x00010001 - Normal

It logs to:
%Systemroot%\Debug\UserMode\Userenv.log

More details here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221833

DPM 2007 Internal error code: 0x80990A93

When changing the PG (Protection Group) that my server belongs to, I normally get this error message:
DPM cannot protect \\CHEF2.thefoleyhouse.co.uk\Optical Drive\. The recycle bin, the System Volume Information folder, non-NTFS volumes, DFS links, CDs, Quorum Disk (for cluster) and other removable media cannot be protected. (ID: 38)

Today, it suddenly changed to:
DPM cannot access the path \\CHEF2.thefoleyhouse.co.uk\Optical Drive\ because part of the path has been deleted or renamed.
Check the path and enter it again.
ID: 36
Details: Internal error code: 0x80990A93

It took me a little while to realise that this was because I had removed the DVD from the drive! I thought I'd broken something by reinstalling the DPM client!

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.

Windows Vista SP1 x64 - Multiple Taskeng processes consuming resources

I think I've found the cause, with not a little help, of all my multiple taskeng processes that have been plaguing my x64 SP1 Vitsa box:

1. Open Task Scheduler from Administrative Tools
2. Delete any User_Feed tasks
3. Type 'msfeedssync enable' at the command line to recreate

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3087879&SiteID=17

Thanks guys!

Blog Tags were not working

I've added the following to web.config to allow these to work:





I added it just before the  tag.

How-to Enable antispam updates on a single Exchange 2007 server

There is a handy little script that you can run from the Exchange Management Shell:
InstallAntispamAgents.ps1

To update manually:
Get-AntspamUpdates

To update automatically:
Enable-AntispamUpdates -UpdateMode Automatic

How-to Allow a distribution group to receive mail from the internet

Found the answer here:
http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2007/07/new-distribution-groups-do-not-receive_31.html

Use the following command in Exchange management shell:
Set-DistributionGroup "Group Name" -RequireSenderAuthenticationEnabled $false

Moved to new server

We are now running on Server 2008.

Let me know of any issues please!

Virtual Server on Server 2008

You must remember to add the CGI service role to IIS 7.0:
http://www.hostingforum.ca/838516-virtual-server-2005-sp1-vista-x64-vswebapp-exe-being-downloaded-instead-executed.html

How-to Create antispam reports

There are a number of reports avaiable in Exchange Management Shell.

You must first change into the scripts directory (cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts) and then try the following:
get-AntispamFilteringReport.ps1
get-AntispamSCLHistogram.ps1
get-AntispamTopRecipients.ps1
get-AntispamTopRBLProviders.ps1
get-AntispamTopBlockedSenders.ps1
get-AntispamTopBlockedSenderDomains.ps1

How-to grant Sendas for Distribution Groups

Found the answer here:
http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2007/03/how-to-assign-sendas-right-using.html

Run the following in Exchange Management shell:
Add-AdPermission "Distribution Group Name" -user "Mailbox Name" -AccessRights extendedright -ExtendedRights "send as"

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!