On the mobiles we just got an HTTP 500 (Internal Server Error). Also in the IIS-Log file I didn’t get that much information. Also just HTTP 500. But within the request I found the following information “DeviceNotProvisioned_Mbx:<MBX-Servername>.

So, provisioned where? OK, through the ECP I checked if the authenticated user account has a mobile device associated to it. But there was no association. So after a moment of thinking I remembered that I saw “something” time ago within Active Directory. Because I always use “Advanced Features” and especially “Users, Contacts, Groups, and Computers as containers” within dsa.msc I just switched to that MMC and changed to a user account where I knew that ActiveSync is working.

So first, if not already done, activate the above mentioned features (you’ll need both).

So, beyond an ActiveSync enabled user account (which already synced with a device) you’ll find a new container called “ExchangeActiveSyncDevices“. Within that container you’ll find entries for every device this user is currently syncing or synced once in the life time (unless the device was removed within ECP or so).

So, nice, but how does that help with the above error? Actually the error occurs because Exchange isn’t able to create this container. This can happen if someone played around with the Active Directory permissions (like it happened in my company BEFORE I started there, of course)

So within the Properties of a user account at the Security Tab (if you can’t see that one you have so enable the “Advanced Features” within View) -> Advanced the Check Box “Include inheritable permission from this object’s parent” should be checked.

Exchange 2010 grants special permissions to the group “Exchange Servers” at the Domain Level. Actually it grants “Create/Delete msExchActiveSyncDevices objects“.

So if Exchange isn’t able to create this container beyond a user object it can’t create the device object and so now association between the mobile device and the user and finally as consequence of that no Active Sync is working J

Conclusion: Don’t mess with Active Directory Permissions unless you really know what you do (for now and for the future) J

It’s really a quick and easy task:

Open a command line and type

Dism /Online /GetTargetEditions

You will get the current installed Windows Edition, in my case ServerStandard

You get a list with available upgrade options with:

dism /online /get-targeteditions

So, to upgrade to Enterprise you have just to type:

dism /online /set-edition:serverenterprise /productkey:<your productkey>

The key I used for the command is a KMS-Key. If you just own MAK’s you have to specify one of your Multiple Activation Key’s of course. I’ve added a link to all KMS-Keys at the end of this post.

After the reboot we can check if the upgrade worked.

Here are some useful links:

Technet Library for DISM
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744380(WS.10).aspx

KMS Keys
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793406.aspx

And a more detailed blog post
http://blogs.technet.com/b/server_core/archive/2009/10/14/upgrading-windows-server-2008-r2-without-media.aspx

After renaming a server and reinstalling Exchange 2010 i got the following error while launching EMC: The following error occurred while attempting to connect to the specified Exchange server ‚<OLD SERVERNAME’.

The problem was that EMC still tries to connect to the old server name, and I found no option to specify the new one.

So I looked around in the Registry and TaTa, there is one value which still includes the old value. Just too bad that it’s a Binary value. So if you want you can also just rename the server to the new and right value. The easier solution (which I did) is just deleting the value “NodeStructureSettings“.

BTW: It’s within the following Hive: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Exchangeserver\v14\AdminTools

After firing up EMC again it will discover the local Exchange Installation again and running fine again J

BTW: With EMS (àPowerShell) you won’t get this error

I’ve the got the following error after reinstalling an Exchange 2010 Server.

Setup cannot use domain controller ‘<dcname.fqdn>’ because an override is set in the registry. Run Setup again, and specify ‘/DomainController:<other dc fqdn’.

The problem was that i statically assigned a domain controller to this Exchange Server after the old installation.

So I tried to hint the setup brought up and ran setup.com with the /domaincontroller Parameter. But I got the same error.

After a short search in the registry, i saw that there was still some stuff from the old installation. Especially the configuration from the “MSExchangeADTopology” Service, which provides the AD informations to Exchange services, was still there and caused this problem.

So after deleting “ConfigDCHostName” and running setup again, everything worked fine.

You will find this value within “HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\MSExchange ADAccess\Instance0″

To make it’s easier to monitor all your DC’s if the replication is working and if all DC’s already have the up to date Schema I’ve wrote a small PowerShell Script which does exactly that

So, let’s start two screen shots.

The first one shows an older version of the script (did basically the same, but with the help of dsget.exe. Furthermore the output wasn’t that nice

But you see, I made that screenshot during our live update and you can see that not all DC’s have the new Schema already.

This screen shot was made after running the current version and after everything is up to date.

I think the Script is quite self-explaining.

When you fire it up the without any parameter it will help you

I also made a little error handling. But I’m sure I’ve missed some circumstances.

But it’s no problem, because I just read the Active Directory. So you can also run it as unprivileged user without problem.

You can view the file via my web-based SVN at https://svn.sperrgebiet.org/public-web/public/PowerShell/Get-MXSVersion.ps1?view=markup

or directly grab a copy at https://svn.sperrgebiet.org/public/PowerShell/Get-MXSVersion.ps1

Hope it’s helpful for you.

Please let me know if something isn’t working like expected or if you have troubles with it. I’m sure it can be improved J

_Hans

But there’s one drawback (in my opinion). The onscreen-keyboard is too large. Especially after a lesson where I saw the right location of the key’s I want to run a lession without the onscreen keyboard. But there is no option to do that. First I started to move the window out of the screen, but that isn’t the way an IT-Guy should solve such a problem

OK, the better solution would be to modify the source code so it fit’s one requirement, but I choose the easier way

Just build a small VB.net Tool which just creates and empty form and keep it in front of other windows.

You can switch the behavior of the Window with the top button. There are just two options

It’s just an simple 19KB Binary without any features like saving it’s last position or so. It’s always starts with its default values.

You can download it at: http://www.sperrgebiet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/CoveringWindow.zip

Or with the source code at: http://www.sperrgebiet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/CoveringWindow_withSource.zip

Hope someone finds it useful too

Just a short PowerShell –Trick which will save you a lot of time

A lot of Cmdlets need the right credentials to perform a action. Especially with W2008R2 and the AD-Cmdlets or with Exchange 2010 this is handy. So you can either type your username/password every time, or just save it to a variable.

$cred = Get-Credential

After hitting Enter a Pop-Up appears where you can enter your credentials. They will be saved within the variable

The input isn’t validated. It’s just saved within the variable for later processing. And don’t worry, the password isn’t saved as clear text

You can also fill the prompt with a username by using “Get-Credential <Username>”. This is maybe helpful when using that in a script.

You can also use this Pop-Up Mechanism directly in a command.

So have fun playing around with PowerShell

May the Shell be with you J

So, let’s start.

First we’ll do the Windows-Part.

Grab a copy of NSClient++ (Thanks a lot to Michael Medin for his great work on this AddOn) at http://nsclient.org/nscp/

I prefer the ZIP-Package and a manually installation. But it doesn’t matter if you want to install the MSI. Just take care that you use the 32 or 64 Bit Version.

1. If you have the ZIP-Package as well, just unpack it and move the files to a folder you like (I use C:\Tools\NSClient++).
2. Open nsc.ini and make the following changes:
   1. Line 14: Uncomment NRPEListener.dll
   2. Line 117: allow_arguments=1
   3. Line 121: allow_nasty_meta_chars=1
   4. Line 125: use_ssl=1
   5. Line 135: allowed_hosts=<IP of your Icinga/Nagios Host>

   Explanation: You need allow_arguments and the nasty_meta_chars for Performance Counters, because we need the Backslash to specify them.
   use_ssl and allowed_hosts is just for security reasons, but I suggest to use them
   

3. Start a command prompt and navigate to the directory where you’ve unpacked your NSClient++ Files (make sure you’re running the command prompt as Administrator)
4. Test if NSClient++ is working => “NSClient++.exe” /test
   
   

   If the output looks good (if no error is displayed) exit the Test-Mode with, tada => Exit
   

   This Test-Mode is really handy if a query on the Monitoring-Host doesn’t return the result you expect. Just fire up the Test-Mode and run the query again.
   

5. Now it’s almost done. Just install the service and start it.
   1. “NSClient++.exe” –install
   2. net start nsclientpp
      
      
6. That’s it, the Windows-Part is done ?

So, now it’s time for the Linux-Tasks.

We need the check_nrpe Plugin. You can either install it with aptitude (aptitude install nagios-nrpe-plugin) or grap a copy of the NRPE source at: http://www.nagios.org/download/addons

Again, I’m a fan of compiling such stuff myself. So let’s do it.

1. Unpack the archive => tar –xzf nrpe-2.12.tar.gz
2. Run the configure-command. Just make sure to include the “—enable-command-args” option => ./configure –enable-command-args –enable-ssl
   Again, –enable-ssl isn’t necessary, but a recommendation. Futhermore maybe it’s necessary to add some other config-switches to fit your environment.
3. Compile the package => make
4. It’s not necessary to install the package, we just the the check_nrpe binary from the ./src directory.
5. Copy the check_nrpe binary to your libexec dir of Nagios or Icinga => cp src/check_nrpe /usr/local/icinga/libexec/

Last but not least, the Nagios/Icinga Config

First, we’ll create a new command for checking Performance Counters

1. Edit your commands.cfg (by default in /usr/local/icinga/etc/objects/commands.cfg) => sudo vim /usr/local/icinga/etc/objects/commands.cfg
   
   
   
   Again, this is just a recommendation. But I prefer a “generic” command and put the detailed definition into services.
2. Now add a new service (by default in /usr/local/icinga/etc/objects/services.cfg) => sudo vim /usr/local/icinga/etc/objects/services.cfg
   You must use double Backslashes for the Counters
   
   
3. How to get the name of a Performance Counter?

   Use the Windows Performance Monitor (Start -> Run -> perfmon) and add the counters you want to monitor. After that switch to the properties of your current Performance Monitor Session (Action -> Properties or Right Click to the Graphs -> Properties). At the Data-Tab you’ll find the right name. Just make sure to use double Backslashes in your Icinga/Nagios Config.
   
   

4. Save both files ( :wq ) , check the config and reload Icinga
   1. sudo /etc/init.d/icinga checkconfig
   2. sudo /etc/init.d/icinga reload
5. Look at the results of the check in the Web Interface (I’m sure you’re already running Icinga-Web, or not?
   

Some troubleshooting tips:

1. Before adding a service, run the check on the Linux command line.
   
2. Of you do not get the result you expect with the “remote run” (see above) try to run the check locally on the Windows Machine.
   1. Start NSClient++ in Test-Mode; You can do that while the service is running. You’ll get an error that no socket can be bind, but it’s ok => “NSClient++.exe” /test
   2. Run the check without double Backslashes (they are just necessary for the remote execution)

      
      

Hope this post is helpful for you. If you miss something, or if some steps are not clearly enough just let me know.

Good luck and happy monitoring ?

To run the Windows Mobile 6.5 Device Emulators you have to get the Emulator Images first. You’ll find them at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=20686a1d-97a8-4f80-bc6a-ae010e085a6e

Furthermore a Mobile without network connectivity is quite boring. But the “Virtual Machine Network Driver” isn’t available as single download any more. So you have to download the Virtual PC 2007 Setup at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04d26402-3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6&DisplayLang=en

But it’s not necessary to install it. Just follow the steps as Brian Peek describes at his blog: http://www.brianpeek.com/blog/archive/2009/05/02/windows-virtual-pc-and-the-microsoft-device-emulator.aspx

After that you can bind your Emulator Image to your network card and use it for what ever you want

Because it’s a public download

You’ll find it at the MS Download Center:

SharePoint Designer 2010 64-bit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=566d3f55-77a5-4298-bb9c-f55f096b125d

SharePoint Designer 2010 32-bit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=d88a1505-849b-4587-b854-a7054ee28d66

Furthermore you can also give SharePoint Foundation 2010 (the follower of WSS3.0) a try. It’s still free: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=49c79a8a-4612-4e7d-a0b4-3bb429b46595&displaylang=en