Set NTP servers on Windows Server 2008

First, check/set the following registry values :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
"Type"="NTP"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer]
"Enabled"=dword:00000001

Then, run the following commands :

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes/manualpeerlist:time.nist.gov,tick.usno.navy.mil,tock.usno.navy.mil,0x8
w32tm /config /update
w32tm /resync

VMWare ESXi 3.5, USB and APC UPS

It appears that ESXi doesn't support sharing USB ports among VMs, and as my APC battery is monitored through USB, I cannot have APC PowerChute running on one of my VMs.
For USB (or serial port) monitored batteries, you will need to use a physical machine. This can be understandable if you want to shut down the host too.

Administrative Template File for Forefront (Forefront.adm)

Forefront doesn't come with any .adm file to manage it through group policies.
You can use Forefront Client Security Console to setup parameters (scan schedule, user's rights...).
When deployed using a GPO, you'll find parameters under Extra Registry Settings which is not very handy.
On the Aaron Tiensivu's Blog you will find an adm file (forefront.adm) that you can copy to your C:\Windows\inf folder of your server running Group Policy Management to have a more readable view.

Windows Explorer Problems with Office SharePoint Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2

I was installing MOSS 2007 on Windows 2008 R2 recently and the installation went very smoothly. You basically create a slipstreamed installation source of MOSS with SP2 and run it like you would any other install – Google it – there are plenty of how-to's out there.

Everything was running fine until I tried to open a document library in Windows Explorer using “Actions”-“Open with Windows Explorer”. The browser just didn’t react, neither did Windows Explorer.

It turns out I had installed the WebDAV that comes with IIS and the WebDAV that comes with SharePoint didn’t like that one bit. Using the Server Manager I removed WebDAV from the IIS features, bounced the server and all was well.

Analyzing IIS Logs

I have worked with applications before which analyze web logs but the most of them required a lot more work and configuration (or costs) than I am often prepared to invest.
I was looking for a simple tool that would allow me to point to my IIS logs and say “analyze”!
After a little bit of searching and a lot of giving up on software that was either needing too much work or just poorly written/documented, I found this:
WebLog Expert Lite
It does everything I need and best of all it’s freeware!

Adding Antispam features to Exchange 2007

If you’re not using an Edge server in your Exchange 2007 environment you can still add antispam features to your server.

In the Exchange installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\) in the subfolder “Scripts” you will find the script “install-AntispamAgents.ps1”. Open the Exchange Management Shell, switch to the Scripts folder and run the script.

You will need to restart the Exchange Transport service and then you will find an extra tab “Antispam” in the Hub-Transport settings under Organization.

Adding zen.spamhaus.org to the block list providers significantly reduced the amount of spam I was receiving.

Missing shares on an iSCSI volume after reboot

When a server with iSCSI volumes reboots, it is possible that the file shares will be missing. This is caused by the server service starting before the iSCSI Initiator is finished starting.

To solve the problem, add a persistant or bound volume in the iSCSI Initiator for the drive that has the missing shares.

Alternatively, you can manually restart the server service and the shares will be recreated.

SharePoint 2007 SP2 Problems

Like with most service packs, I like to run tests before installing. If the service pack is for a mission critical application such as Exchange or SharePoint I make it a point to clone my environment and run the tests on a copy of my production system.

The SP2 service packs for SharePoint 2007 came out several weeks ago so it was time to test everything. I basically recreated my domain, the web front end and the SQL DBs for my main SharePoint installation – it’s always good disaster recovery practice, in any case :). The environment was (thankfully) 100% virtual so I could work with snapshots.

I started with the WSS update which during step 8 of 9 in the configuration wizard died on me with a link to the log. In the log I found the error:

“The B2B upgrader timer job failed”

There was lots of info on Google but nothing which helped. Since it was 100% virtual I could return to the original state after every failed attempt and try something different. I tried every suggestion I could find but no amount of stopping services, removing content DBs or disabling solutions helped.

Of course, the answer ended up being a lot less complicated than I had thought. I had an old web application which I had used for testing something a long time ago and, naturally, I hadn’t reproduced the content DBs when I was building my test environment. I deleted the old web application, retried the update and it ran like a dream.

Happy days!

Changing the name of a SQL Server

After changing the computer name on a MS SQL Server you will need to run the following SQL query:

 

sp_dropserver <old_name>
GO
sp_addserver <new_name>, local
GO

Microsoft Virtualization

I’ve finally had the chance to play around with Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode. I must say, although it’s good to finally have an update to Virtual PC 2007, I can’t understand why Microsoft still refuses to implement certain functionality.

Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64 bit, which is more than OK, but why the hell won’t Windows Virtual PC support 64bit guest systems?? You have the technology in Hyper-V, Microsoft, it’s not rocket science - why would you do this? All I want is the ability to boot a Hyper-V system on my desktop/laptop. One would think that, overall, it would be MORE work for Microsoft to have their server and client virtualization differ so much. I suppose I am stuck with VMWare Server on my laptop for another while.

On the other hand, I do like what I have seen so far in XP Mode. It’s basically a virtual XP machine which publishes its applications using RDP (any links to applications in the All Users start menu pop up in the Windows 7 start menu) – pretty neat. I can see it causing problems, though, when several applications need to be used simultaneously – XP only supports 1 RDP connection. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft makes any changes to that before the RTM.