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″

But it was really fun. First because we four were a quite good team Most things worked out as planned. So we’ve got our job done in a timely fashion. But the really exciting and fun part was pushed from our main host, the Assistant of the Managing Director of our factory. She was so helpful and kind and showed us a lot of the city. Thanks again Parisa J

I think we’ve got a really good impression of this city and Iran itself. And honestly, don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper or hear on TV about Iran. As every time you should get an impression by yourself and after that make create your opinion. For me this journey was eye-opening, because I personally had a wrong impression before.

I hope I can visit this city and especially the whole country again in future.

You can find some pictures we took here.

_Hans

I’m sorry. Most of my sites were offline today for a couple of hours. There are some issues with my hoster.

I’m currently working on the problem to solve it asap. In the meantime some services are down.

I’m sorry. But i hope that that does not happen again.

Kind regards
_Hans

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 because I mainly use Windows 7 at the office and at home (have a Debian-Dualboot at home, but mainly use Win7) I wanted a Windows Sidebar Gadget to display the Icinga Status.

After a short web search I’ve found Nagstatus, which is a very nice look Windows Sidebar Gadget which grabs the status from a XML-Stream which is provided by an own CGI.

There are just a few steps to get it up and running.

First download the most current version from http://nagstatus.com/pages/category/release . Currently it is 1.5.3. Just open the ZIP-File. Inside the folder “XMLProviderScript” you’ll find the nagxmlstatus.cgi, which must be copied inside the CGI-BIN-Directory from your Icinga/Nagios Installation. CGI-BIN it just the alias, in the file systems it’s the sbin folder. On a default installation you’ll find it at:

/usr/local/icinga/sbin/
or
/usr/local/nagios/sbin/

Furthermore you have to change the permissions so it’s executable for your webserver. (Yes, I know that I permit more than is really necessary, but I’m not so paranoid as some people are )

As mentioned on the website from Nagstatus it’s Perl and use the LibXML-Libraries. If you don’t have installed those libraries already, do it by run:

aptitude install libxml-perl libxml-libxml-perl

After the installation is completed you must provide the path to your status.dat file.

So just open the nagxmlstatus.cgi with your favorite editor and edit the $STATUSFILE-Variable on Line 15.

To try that it works correctly just run the following inside Bash

./nagxmlstatus.cgi -n host -e current_state

An XML-Stream should be displayed with the current state of your hosts.

So, the last step is just to configure the Nagstatus-Gadget to point to your server.

Just rename the before downloaded ZIP-File to *.gadget and double-click it.

You should choose ‘Install’

The newly installed gadget will appear somewhere on your desktop. Just look around In the default-state it will give you a hint what we have to do next =”XML Provider URL is unset. Please enter a valid URL in settings.”

So we’ll do that.

Move your mouse onto the gadget and a small screw wrench will appear. Click on it so the options will pop up.

Just enter the missing information and confirm the settings with OK.

And voila

When clicking on the gadget a more detailed windows hovers up.

In my opinion it’s a real cool looking gadget and at least for Windows a good replacement (or addition) to Nagstamon.

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

Puh, I though it’s time for a new purpose of my Nabaztag-Bunnies. So I’ve solved this problem with the following steps. You can see the result at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyhCD34xJNo

First and the most important part: Winamp. Furthermore I need something to easily access the controls of it. So I’ve found a very cool plugin called Winamp Web Interface (v.7.5.10).

This minimalistic web interface is also cool on the Mobile. Tested it with HTC HD Mini and HTC Touch Diamond (Win Mobile 6.5 and Win Mobile 6.1) J

But it isn’t useable for Nabaztag L

So first I started to write a small PHP Script which parses the output of the ‘original’ Web Interface and provide me a smaller and easier view. OK, I have not the full functionality, but because I can control it with GET-Requests it’s easier to handle with Nabaztag.

So, I have included also a small logic which queries the current status and if the playback is stopped it will be started and vice versa. So it’s possible to use the same URL for Nabaztag, because there I can use configure a simple URL where it will execute a GET on it.

So basically when a Nano:ztag (the little Bunnies) come in the near of the real Nabaztag’s it’s sending a GET-Request to the above URL with a parameter. If this parameter is specified I send a GET from PHP to the Winamp-Webserver, parse the Output and so I’ll find out which is the current state. And whatever state it is, I make a new GET to the Winamp-Webserver with the opposite task

So all in all quite simple J

I’ll attach the PHP-Script later on. But I think I should rewrite it. Currently it’s not a nice coding style

So let the force be with you J

_Hans