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

While installing another Exchange 2010 Server in a TestVM i’ve received the following error during the setup:

Error:

The following error was generated when “$error.Clear(); if ($RoleStartTransportService) {start-SetupService –ServiceName MSExchangeTransport }” was run: “Service ‚MSExchangeTransport’ failed to reach status ‘Running’ on this server.”.

The resolution is as easy as strange

Before running the setup I’ve removed IPV6 from the NIC – Binding.

So after I’ve enabled the IPv6 Binding on the NIC again Setup was running fine.

Stratum – Levels: There exist 4 Stratum-Levels which define the preciseness of your time source:

• Stratum 0: An atomic or radio clock which is direct attached to a host
• Stratum 1: A host which directly synchronize with a Stratum 0 source (some public NTP-Servers or your own host if you’re using a radio clock)
• Stratum 2: The 2^nd level of a sync hierarchy. Stratum 2 servers gets their time from Stratum 1
• Stratum 3: Not too hard to guess I think Stratum 3 servers get their time from Stratum 2 sources.

NTP in an Active Directory Environment: Every domain controller in your AD is also an NTP-Server. By default every DC get it’s time from the PDC-Emulator. If you don’t know which DC is your PDC-Emulator you should study your AD more Or alternatively you can execute “netdom query fsmo” on a command prompt.

In the above screenshot we see that W2K8SRV1.bluesky.local is my PDC (and holds also the other FSMO-Roles, which is normal in an AD with just one DC ) So, now get familiar with w32tm.exe, your main config tool in Windows for NTP. So, first of all let’s check what your current time source is by running “w32tm /monitor”

What does this information mean?

• Line 1 tells use the time source for this host is W2K8SRV1, that this host is the PDC of the domain and it’s IP-Address (an IPv6 Address in my lab).
• Line 2: The Network-Delay we have to this host measured by ICMP. We have currently no delay because our time source is the local host.
• Line 3: The time offset between the local host and the NTP-Server.
• Line 4: Here will be the source of our time server displayed. Because we haven’t yet configured a NTP-Server the source is LOCL. If you’re unsure what a former admin has configured or basically want to start from scratch you can set your time settings to default values by executing:

  sc stop w32time & w32tm /unregister & w32tm /register & sc start w32time
  

   

  This command stops the Windows Time Service (w32time), removes it as service, reinstalls the service and then starts it again.

   

Now you can configure your external NTP-Sources with the following command:

Explanation of the parameters:

• /config => we’are configure something /update => It’s an update, so the time services is notified about that
  
• /manualpeerlist => we provide a manual list of NTP-Servers to sync from
  
• /syncfromflags:manual => we explicitly want to sync from the manual peer list
  
• /reliable:yes => this is a ‘good’, a reliable time source for our domain controllers. Other DC’s will sync with this time source.
  

Now you can check if the external servers are used correctly by executing w32tm /query /peers

As shown in the output I’ve specified two peers. One Stratum 1 server (the first one) and a Stratum 2 server. As we will see in the following screenshot Windows will always try to sync the most accurate time source, in our case the NTP-Server with the .net – TLD.

To control that your config works you can execute “w32tm /monitor“. This command will check the time offset of all your Domain Controllers with the PDC.

OK, but what is now the difference between a physical or a virtual Domain Controller?

From the normal operation perspective => Nothing But there is one huge difference with the time sync.

In every virtualization software (at least all I know like VMWare, HyperV, Citrix Xen, Xen Source, KVM, OpenVZ, Virtuozzo) the Guests are getting their time by default from the Host.

So if the time on the Host isn’t accurate, all the guests are running with a wrong time. Furthermore normally the time sync from the virtualization environment takes precedence over a (maybe) configured NTP Daemon inside the Guest.

So what happens when you run your PDC as a VM-Guest and syncing all your VM-Hosts with one of your Domain Controllers?

You’ve created a loop and you’ll never get the right time. Even when you configured an external time source the VM-Host time will overwrite any change with it’s own time. So one resolution for that would be to run an physical domain controller too (which would be a good decision) and move the PDC-Emulator FSMO-Role to this DC. If you have no possibility to run a physical DC (Damn IT Budgets L ) you have still another option.

Simply disable the time sync between the Guest and the Host!

On Hyper-V just edit the Settings the of the desired VM and within the option “Integration Services” disable “Time synchronization”

With VirtualInfrastructure from VMWare you have also to edit the properties for the Guest. Within the “Options“-Tab select “VMware Tools” and uncheck “Synchronize guest time with host”

After these changes the NTP Daemon inside the Guest will be responsible again for the time sync. Ff everything is configured correctly you should have an accurate time on all AD-Computers.

Hope this post was a little helpful. Please let me know if anything is missing or not clearly described.

Cheers
_Hans

Have a look at http://speedtest.sperrgebiet.org. I’ve included a Speed Test (Bandwidth Test) on my sites. The main part of the Test is from http://www.brandonchecketts.com/open-source-speedtest - Fancy Speed Test. I’ve modified just the web page to modify so it fits my imagination. You can run the Download/Upload Test just by hitting start or if you don’t trust the measurement of the download speed (i had some troubles with it while testing it behind a proxy) you can also just download a simple file (with different file sizes of course). That was primarly done so so (and i too, of course) can also test it with wget or lynx.

The whole stuff is located on my Root-Server at Germany with an average available bandwidth of about 50MBit/s. So it should be enough for testing your DSL-Account

So here is the URL again: http://speedtest.sperrgebiet.org

Cheers
Hans

First of all you have to start the required Web Service. So within the Central Administration click on the link “Manage services on server“.

There you’ll find the “Managed Metadata Web Service“. Use the “Start“-Link on the right side to start it.

Now we have to create a service application which handles the managed metadata. In Central Admin within the Application Management use the Manage service applications link to get an overview of the currently created service applications.

Side Note: Service Applications are the follower of the Shared Service Provider (SSP) in SharePoint 2007.

Use the New Button at the Service Applications Ribbon and choose “Managed Metadata Service“.

Enter your desired options. The options are self-explaining.

After the creation process you find your new service application in the list. Click on the Name of the Service Application or highlight it and use the Manage Button within the Service Applications Ribbon to enter the Term Store Management Tool.

First of all we have to create a new group for our Term Sets. When moving the pointer over the name of your Service Application (in my case its “Managed Metadata Service SA”) a little arrow appears. After clicking on this arrow the below showed menu appears. Now use the New Group link and enter the name of the group.

After entering the name you can hit Enter and the properties of this group are displayed. I think the options here are self-explaining as well.

Now create a Term Set which will hold our Terms (Metadata). The Term Set is the part which will be used in a column. Basically it’s the same process as the creation of the group. Move the pointer over your group, click on the small arrow and choose New Term Set. It’s also possible to import a CSV-File.

After hitting Enter again you’ll find yourself in the properties of this new Term Set. Especially the “Submission Policy” setting is interesting. If you want a dynamic list (which is extendable by your users) you have to change this option to Open.

Once again, we have to use our little arrow to create new Term’s inside this Term Set.

You can define multiple synonyms for each term. If this synonym is typed by one of your users the right Term will be displayed as suggestion.

So, after all you Term Set was created we should also use it

Create a new column in a List or Document Library within your Site Collection.

Enter a Column name and choose “Managed Metadata” as information type.

Puhuu, what’s that? I’m not sure if it’s just a bug within the RC1-Edition, but we have to enable the Term Navigation through PowerShell. Yep, the required feature isn’t available through the “Site Feature” list inside the “Site Settings”.

Start PowerShell and add the SharePoint SnapIn so the required cmdlets are available.

Get-PSSnapin –Registered
Displays all PowerShell-Snapins which are available on your machine

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell
Adds the SharePoint-Snapin to this PowerShell session

If you don’t trust me that you have to enable the feature you can check it

Get-SPFeature –Site <URL to your Site Collection>
Displays a list of all already enabled Site Features

Enable-SPFeature -Identity 73EF14B1-13A9-416b-A9B5-ECECA2B0604C -Url <URL to your Site Collection>
Enables the “TaxonomyFieldAdded” feature for the specified Site Collection. This one is required for the Taxonomy Browser.

Get-SPFeature | where {$_.displayname –like “*tax*”}
A list of all available features on this Farm are displayed which have tax in their name. This would be an option to get the ID of the feature. The other option would be to try to create a column while this feature is disabled. You will receive the error: “The Taxonomy feature (Feature ID “73EF14B1-13A9-416b-A9B5-ECECA2B0604C”) has not been activated.<br>A term set or anchor point was not selected”.

So, feature is activated and we’re ready to use it. Refresh the page. Now your Managed Metadata Service Application with the Group and Term Set is display.

If you want the Term Set to be dynamically extendable set “Allow ‘Fill-in’ choises” to “Yes“.

After using the “OK-Button” to create the new column just upload a document. Our column is displayed and while you’re typing a value relevant suggestions are displayed. You can also click on this tiny cards (or whatever it should be) on the right side of the input box to display all available Terms. This is also the required step if you want to add a new Term.

Use the “Add New Item” to, what a surprise, add a new term

That’s it You can also try to add a column which is using your Term Set on another Document Library and even on a DocLib within another Site Collection and you’ll find all Terms.

There are still some open questions for me where I have to play more with this feature. Especially with permission on the Term Sets and Groups. But all Managed Metadata would solve a lot of troubles we all had with SharePoint 2007.

In my opinion it’s just important to clearly understand the impact of Managed Metadata and to plan it carefully. It’s like with Content Types => A good concept is everything

However, I thought it must be possible through the setup Config-Files.

To see the predefined files you first have to extract the setup bits.

So fire up an command prompt and go to the directory where the big executable is in.

Then run: file.exe /extract:<DESTINATION PATH>

After a few seconds you’ll find a lot of folders inside the destination folder. We have to concentrate on the “Files” folder. Inside that one you’ll find a couple of folders which are for different setup scenarios.

You can edit one of the predefined ones or just copy and edit it. I took the Config.xml from the SetupFarm folder.

There you’ll find some interesting options. First of all you can provide your License Key within the <PIDKEY> Tag. But more interesting is the <Setting ID=”SERVERROLE”> Tag. There you’ll find a value of “APPLICATION”. This setting basically means a full installation. You’ll find a detailed list of all options in TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261668.aspx

So after made the desired changes we can fire up setup with the /config parameter. There we have to specify our config.xml

The rest of the setups are just the default steps. Don’t panic, the screen of the component selection won’t appear, but it will do the right stuff like specified in config.xml

,

Voila, as seen on the last screenshot, just my default instance of MS SQL2008 is running.

I’m not sure if this is a bug or just because of the setup where I have everything on one machine. Maybe I’ll find the time to try the setup again on multiple machines

I tried to create an Enterprise Search Center within a site collection in SharePoint 2010. But I’ve received this error message all the time. I’ve also tried to create a new site collection, but without success.

Suddenly I had the idea to try it with SharePoint Designer. And voila, I’ve got an error message I can work with.

So the next step was to enable the Publishing Infrastructure feature. Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Site collection features -> SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure and click on “Activate”

After this step you can also create the Enterprise Search Center without any error messages

So after you bought a couple of harddisks you would have enough space to store all your files. But do you ever invested a thought to a Backup? Of course, modern hard disks would live longer than they are used, but we all know Murphy’s Law’s. So never trust too much in technology

After thinking about some possibilities i ended with the “Cloud-Solution”   I mean storing all my data on a the storages of a company anywhere in the world has a couple of advantages:

• Easy sync of local data (rsync, FTP, Webdav…)
• Your data is also available when you’re abbroach
• If a real big disaster occur to you equipment (got stolen, fire, water, whatever) you still have it available
• You haven’t care about the data handling
• No additional hard disks which lay around your desk
• If you’re creative enough you’ll find some more

But the most Cloud-Storage provider were too expensive for my little private budget After some searching i’ve found Online Storage Solution http://www.onlinestoragesolution.com/

They provide unlimited online storage for just 19$ per year. Yes, it’s an ANNUAL FEE.

So I’ve ordered an account to try it out and since about an month i’m an happy customer. Some features of this provider:

• Unlimited Storage
• Accessible per Web-Interface, rsync, FTP, WebDAV and CIFS
• Unlimited Sub-Users which can be manged by yourself

I’ve currently about 1TB online and still no troubles Also the bandwidth is OK. I’m getting an average of 5MByte/s (40MBit/s) from US or from Europe.

Some of you may think that there won’t be support if you really need it. But i had troubles a week ago accessing my data. When i’ve logged on i’ve just saw an empty directory . But after sending a mail i’ve got my first response within 15Minutes (just think about the time difference between US and Europe). After about 45Minutes the problem was solved and i’ve got my data back

The most data for the “initial sync” was uploaded with the internet connection of my company (100MBit up/down) via WebDAV. I use BitKinex (http://www.bitkinex.com/) for that job. It’s and freeware FTP, SFTP and WebDav client. You can easily create jobs or queues, automatically syncs and stuff like that. And it’s really stable, so it’s handles 50GB uploads easily

It’s also possible to access your account with different protocols at the same time. So I’m normally have an rsync running from my home Alix-Board (where my external hard disks are attached) and upload some large files (like Movies or ISO’s) from another connection.

I’ve googled a little bit about the company and the most opinions where quite bad. Maybe this service was bad in the past. But i’m quite happy with it. Specially for this price

So in my opinion, if you need a backup of your data, give them a try. I haven’t another service which offers unlimited storage for this little price. And if you don’t trust them, you can still encrypt your data and upload it then