The Random Musings of an IT Consultant.......

Remote Web Workplace after the updates of 11/08/2009 (that's 11th August)

Ian Watkins — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:32:00 GMT

Had calls from two of our client's staff this morning who are working from home and connecting to an SBS 2003 server from their own PCs.

Both had had this month's security updates downloaded to their PC last night and could not connect to RWW this morning.

It turned out that we had to place the URL for their company's SBS box in Trusted Sites in IE. Why it wasn't already there and why it had worked before (they both were running SP3) is a mystery.

HMRC CD

Ian Watkins — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:57:00 GMT

If any of you are struggling to get this paragon of brilliantly written software to run on your PC, just unplug the network cable.

Seriously.

You couldn’t make it up.....

Possible issue with Outlook 2007 SP2 and access to GAL with RPC/HTTP

Ian Watkins — Sat, 09 May 2009 13:23:00 GMT

Sandy Donald has recently reported on the UKSBSG Yahoo! group that he has seen an issue with Outlook 2007 connecting to the GAL over RPC/HTTP (or Outlook Anywhere if you prefer).

He reports the following in his post:

"I did some more digging and testing. My conclusions are that after the application of Office 2007 SP2, Outlook cannot reconnect to directories over http. It can reconnect to mailbox and public folders but not directories. So, GAL is not available and the offline message appears.

I have restored a client to the pre Office SP2 install status using System Restore (having proven the issue on this client by installing SP2) and after the rather lengthy process of Office 2007 having to do a lot of reconfiguring when Outlook is started (after the System Restore) including an apparently necessary reboot, and error 1719 Windows Installer, - but no reboot occurred. Anyway Outlook 2007 is back to SP1 and, hey presto, Gal is visible and directories are connected over http. You know, on the Outlook client you do CTRL, right click over the Outlook icon in the notification area and then select Connection status and it's evident from there.

I have now confirmed this on XP Pro and Vista Business - only with Outlook 2007."

If you are seing similar problems then Susan Bradley kindly pointed us at the following blog posts to assist with the uninstall of Office 2007 SP2.

http://blogs.technet.com/odsupport/archive/2009/05/08/how-to-uninstall-office-2007-sp2-using-the-2007-office-sp-uninstall-tool.aspx

SP2 for Office 2007 is the first service pack for Office client that can be uninstalled. We have a great technical reference available on the Office 2007 Resource Kit (ORK) website that covers SP2 uninstall in detail here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd723551.aspx

This blurb from the ORK article above is worth mentioning here before we start the uninstall steps:

"The uninstall tool allows the removal of a service pack release, which is a collection of patches. In this case, the release is 2007 Office system SP2. The uninstall tool removes all patches in a given release.

It does not uninstall per patch or per product. For example, if you have Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer Service Pack 2, and Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Service Pack 2 installed on a computer, the tool uninstalls all these patches at the same time because they are part of the same release. Because of the complexity of shared files and shared Windows Installer packages (MSI files), there is no support currently for uninstalling per-product service packs."

I'm going to walk through the minimal steps required to uninstall Office 2007 SP2 using the 2007 Office SP Uninstall Tool, or oarpman for short.
Oarpman does additional reporting and logging that I will not cover here, but is covered in detail on the ORK site.

1. Download 2007 Office SP Uninstall Tool from this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=b97e6ecf-8da5-455d-b3bb-8ff2223f97c4&displaylang=en

2. Double-click office2007spuninstall.exe. Accept the terms and click Continue.

3. Make a new folder called oarpman at the root of C and click OK.

<http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/odsupport/WindowsLiveWriter/HowtouninstallOffice2007SP2usingOARPMAN_828D/image_8.png>

4. Open up an administrative command prompt.

* Windows XP/Server 2003 - Click Start > Run. Type "cmd" and press Enter.
* Vista/Server 2008/Win7 - Click Start > All Programs > Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and click "Run as Administrator"

<http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/odsupport/WindowsLiveWriter/HowtouninstallOffice2007SP2usingOARPMAN_828D/image_14.png>

5. OARPMAN needs a release name to start the uninstall. To get it, type the following in your command prompt window: c:\oarpman\oarpman.exe /report and press Enter.

<http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/odsupport/WindowsLiveWriter/HowtouninstallOffice2007SP2usingOARPMAN_828D/image_18.png>

6. To start the uninstall of SP2 type the following in your command prompt window: c:\oarpman\oarpman.exe /remove O12SP2 and press Enter. This process may take some time to complete.

<http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/odsupport/WindowsLiveWriter/HowtouninstallOffice2007SP2usingOARPMAN_828D/image_20.png>

That's it. SP2 is uninstalled, and Office 2007 is reverted back to a patch state prior to SP2 being installed.

Hope this helps someone if they are facing the same issue.

Please let me know if you are and we can co-ordinate with Microsoft.

Cheers,

Ian Watkins

Testing connectivity to Exchange Server

Ian Watkins — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:31:00 GMT

We have just being doing some work for a new client who's SBS box was in a real mess.

We took advantage of Business Critical Support as part of our Microsoft Partner benefits and one of the sites the MS Engineer pointed us to was https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/

It's in beta at the moment, but looks as if it could be a useful resource.

Adding a Windows 2008 Server Core box as a Domain Controller into an SBS2003 domain

Ian Watkins — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:19:00 GMT

We've installed a Server Core box into our network here so we can run Hyper-V as well as VMware ESX. We have also set it up as a DC and DNS server so that of our SBS box is offline things might continue to work a bit better than they have up until now :-)

Instructions on how to do this are a bit sparse and my Technician got this information from the SBSC Newsgroups:

From your description, I know that you want to add Windows Server 2008 Server Core to SBS domain. If that's not correct, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Unfortunately there is no article talking about how to add Windows 2008 Core to SBS domain. You can add Windows 2008 Server Core to SBS domain with the steps below on the SBS server:

1. Open a Command Prompt window. To do this, Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

2. Perform the following commands in the sequence noted:

Note

In these instructions, "drive" represents the letter of your DVD drive on SBS server with Windows 2008 DVD inserted.

2. At the command prompt, type drive:\sources\adprep\adprep.exe /forestprep

3. At the ADPREP warning, type c and then press ENTER.

4. At the command prompt, type drive:\sources\adprep\adprep.exe /domainprep

If you are installing the additional server as a read-only domain controller, at the command prompt, type drive:\sources\adprep\adprep.exe /rodcprep (on the SBS server)

5. On how to join the Windows Server Core to SBS 2003, please refer to "To join a domain" of the article below:

Server Core Installation Option of Windows Server 2008 Step-By-Step Guide

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753802.aspx

Related info:

Adding a Server Running Windows Server 2008 to a Windows Small Business

Server 2003 Network

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc708131.aspx

I hope that helps someone else doing this.

As an aside if you are an SBSC and are not using the SBSC Newsgroups for support you are doing yourself and your clients a great disservice.

Puzzle of the week......

Ian Watkins — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:33:00 GMT

Why does it take so long to prepare the desktop on a Windows 2008 Core server when you RDP to it?

I mean it's only a command prompt.....

VMware Consolidated Backup and Backup Exec

Ian Watkins — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:54:00 GMT

We've implemented a VMware ESX farm in our offices (and we do have a Hyper-V server as well) and I have been looking at using VMware Consolidated Backup along with our NFR copy of Backup Exec to take snapshots of the VMs. I'm cheap see :-)

I have got the VCB command line utilities working fine with the given documentation but whan I set BE up it failed with invalid username or password.

This has been doing my head in.

However looking around I discovered one post where someone had improved the JavaScript files that come with BE integration module and this gave me the idea to see if I could find out what username and password were being passed. I edited glue.js and wrote the username and password out to STDERR.

In the CONFIG.JS I had put the username and password in (I'll lock down when it's all working) and was using a domain user in the form of domain\username. When I looked at the output in the logfile I was seeing domainusername all together. Being a JavaScript file it needed two \\ between the domain and username - domain\\username.

Now it's working and my head is slightly less done in.

Problem with PureMessage can cause Exchange to be unresponsive

Ian Watkins — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:57:00 GMT

We have had problems both with our own Exchange server and with another client’s this morning. Sophos released a Support Advisory last night and the KB article is here: http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/42245.html To resolve the problem we tried restarting the PureMessage services, the Sophos Services and the Exchange Services but the only thing that really seems to have solved it is rebooting the SBS box...... Hope that might help someone else.....

SVCHOST.EXE taking 100% CPU - Windows Update Service

Ian Watkins — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:57:00 GMT

We've just had an issue at one of our non-mmanaged clients where they have had a number of machines running at 100% CPU due to the Windows Update Service going bonkers.

The solution we have used on all machines is as follows:

On the machine in question carry out the following:

Log in as administrator.

Download updates from step 1 and 2 from KB927891 into C:\

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891

Go to Start>Run, type net stop wuauserv.
Kill the process ‘svchost.exe’ using 100% CPU if service fails to stop.

-------------------Install updates-------------------
Reinstall WUA 3.0 with option /WUFORCE from step 2.
Install update 927891 from step 1.

-----------------------Re-register DLLs-----------------------
Open Notepad and copy/paste the following text:

regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 msxml2.dll
regsvr32 qmgr.dll
regsvr32 qmgrprxy.dll
end

Save file as WUfix.bat and run batch file.

---------------------------------------------------Delete Windows update cache folders---------------------------------------------------

Open Explorer and Delete these folders:...

\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistributions\SelfUpdate...
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistributions\WebSetup...
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistributions\WuRedir...
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistributions\AuthCabs...
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistributions\DataStore...
\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistributions\Download

Note: Windows will re-create these folders after reboot.

Restart the computer, then give the Windows Update site another try.

Hope that helps someone struggling with this issue.

Proliant Support Pack 8.0 is a bit broken.....

Ian Watkins — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:22:00 GMT

We have one HP ML350 G4p server that we have just started providing full Managed Service for. As a matter of course we install the HP Proliant Support Pack. The latest version is 8.0, but there appears to be a problem with it where it breaks the System Management Home Page .

Only solution according to HP Support is to downgrade PSP to previous version 7.91 which does not require a server reboot.

According to HP there is a fix due RSN, but I'm not holding my breath :-)

Hope that helps someone avoid the same pain!

APC Powerchute

Ian Watkins — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:42:00 GMT

After an exchange with an APC Support person a while back I discovered that you can get lots more information about your UPS by using a web browser.

If you go :3052/">http://<servername>:3052 you get a login page to your attached UPSes. This gives a shedload more information about the UPS then you get from the PowerChute software.

Well worth investigating.

Ping a remote host then if it times out run a TRACERT and send an email

Ian Watkins — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:57:00 GMT

Recently I needed to find out why a connection to a server was failing every so often. I knocked this script up from a few pieces of old wood and a couple of tin cans I had lying around to do just that.

It was nicely indented until I pasted it into here :-)

Run it using the following command line:

cscript <filename.vbs>

Setup a scheduled task to run it when you need to.

' Created by Ian Watkins - Oxbridge Technology Ltd - May 2007

On Error Resume Next

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strComputer = "host.domain.com"

vbCRLF = Chr(13) & Chr(10)

strPingStatus = PingStatus(strComputer)
If strPingStatus = "Success" Then
Wscript.Echo "Success pinging " & strComputer

Else

WshShell.Run "%comspec% /c c:\windows\system32\tracert.exe " & strComputer & " > c:\belfry\testlog.txt" , ,1

Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
Dim fso, f

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'Open the file for reading
Set f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\belfry\testlog.txt", ForReading)
'The ReadAll method reads the entire file into the variable BodyText

Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

objEmail.From = "email@clientdomain.co.uk"
objEmail.To = "youremail@yourdomain.co.uk"
objEmail.Subject = "Exciting and informative subject line"
objEmail.Textbody = "Status - " & now() & " - " & strComputer & " - " & strPingStatus & vbCRLF
objEmail.Textbody = objEmail.Textbody & f.ReadAll
objEmail.Send

'Close the file
f.Close
Set f = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing

End If

Set WshShell = Nothing

'******************************************************************************

Function PingStatus(strComputer)

    On Error Resume Next
    strWorkstation = "."
    Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
      & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strWorkstation & "\root\cimv2")
    Set colPings = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
      ("SELECT * FROM Win32_PingStatus WHERE Address = '" & strComputer & "'")
    For Each objPing in colPings
        Select Case objPing.StatusCode
            Case 0 PingStatus = "Success"
            Case 11001 PingStatus = "Status code 11001 - Buffer Too Small"
            Case 11002 PingStatus = "Status code 11002 - Destination Net Unreachable"
            Case 11003 PingStatus = "Status code 11003 - Destination Host Unreachable"
            Case 11004 PingStatus = _
              "Status code 11004 - Destination Protocol Unreachable"
            Case 11005 PingStatus = "Status code 11005 - Destination Port Unreachable"
            Case 11006 PingStatus = "Status code 11006 - No Resources"
            Case 11007 PingStatus = "Status code 11007 - Bad Option"
            Case 11008 PingStatus = "Status code 11008 - Hardware Error"
            Case 11009 PingStatus = "Status code 11009 - Packet Too Big"
            Case 11010 PingStatus = "Status code 11010 - Request Timed Out"
            Case 11011 PingStatus = "Status code 11011 - Bad Request"
            Case 11012 PingStatus = "Status code 11012 - Bad Route"
            Case 11013 PingStatus = "Status code 11013 - TimeToLive Expired Transit"
            Case 11014 PingStatus = _
              "Status code 11014 - TimeToLive Expired Reassembly"
            Case 11015 PingStatus = "Status code 11015 - Parameter Problem"
            Case 11016 PingStatus = "Status code 11016 - Source Quench"
            Case 11017 PingStatus = "Status code 11017 - Option Too Big"
            Case 11018 PingStatus = "Status code 11018 - Bad Destination"
            Case 11032 PingStatus = "Status code 11032 - Negotiating IPSEC"
            Case 11050 PingStatus = "Status code 11050 - General Failure"
            Case Else PingStatus = "Status code " & objPing.StatusCode & _
               " - Unable to determine cause of failure."
        End Select
    Next

End Function

Enabling Log on as a Service for a local user

Ian Watkins — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:48:00 GMT

I came across a situation on our network where we needed to give a local user the right to "Log on as a Service" on one of our servers. This was to support a LOB application that we run on a server here in our office. The problem I had was that for both the "Log on as a service" and the "Log on as a Batch job" the "Add User or Group" button was greyed out. This is because our SBS 2003 box has a Domain Group Policy which sets the rights to these services at a Domain level and stops any changes being made elsewhere.

To get around this I did the following:

1) Logon to the server in question as Domain Administrator. Open up the Active Directory Users & Computers (ADUC) snap-in.
2) Right click on the Domain and choose Properties. Click on the Group Policy tab and open the group policies. You have to do this unless you install the GPMC on the server.
3) Create a new Group Policy and name it something appropriate.
4) Navigate to Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Local Policies / User Rights Assignment
5) Double click on the item you want to alter and click on Add User or Group.
6) Click on Browse and change the From this Location to the local machine (if you don't do this you only see domain users)
7) Enter the username (or click the Advance button - I'm not going into how to use that here)
8) Click OK a few times until you see the local username in the Properties box.

Now you need to set this GPO so that it only applies to the machine in question. You can do this through permissions, but I decided to do it via a WMI Filter.

1) On your DC with the GPMC installed right-click on the WMI Filter item and choose New.
2) Give it a meaningful name and description and click on Add.
3) You don't need to change the namespace.

Type in the following (or copy and paste if you prefer) into the Query box:

SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE Name = '<computername>'

Change <computername> to the name of your the server you want the GPO to act upon.

4) Click OK a few times.

Now you need to apply this filter to the GPO created above:

1) In the GPMC right-click on the GPO and choose Edit.
2) Right-click on the GPO name at the top of the MMC left-hand column and choose Properties
3) Click on the WMI Filter tab and then click on This Filter and then on Browse / Manage
4) Choose the WMI Filter you created above and then click OK a few times.

I also found that I needed to set the GPO to be Enforced (right-click on it in the GPMC and check Enforced) and to run a GPUPDATE /force on the server. This also required a reboot of the server.

Trust this is of some help to someone.

HP Laser Printer support in Windows Vista

Ian Watkins — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:21:00 GMT

Vlad Mazek (www.vladville.com) just posted on the SBS2K Yahoo! Group a link outlining support for HP printers in Windows Vista.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00808536#N1011C

Knowing how easy the HP site is to navigate :-) I thought it would be useful to post this up here for posterity and so I can find it again :-)

London SMB IT Pro Group meeting Monday 13th November - EVO

Ian Watkins — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:08:00 GMT

The next meeting of the London Small Business IT Pro Group will take place on Monday, 13th November. If you can let me know you're coming that'll be great (just so I've got some idea of numbers) otherwise just turn up.

This month we welcome Matt McSpirit, Partner Technology Specialist for Vista who is coming to talk about all things Exchange 2007, Vista and Office 2007. In fact he would like us to tell him what we'd like to hear about so he can tailor some of his talk to our requirements, so if you let me know you are coming also let me know what subjects around EVO you'd like to hear about and I'll feed that back. Please let me have your input by 9:00am Wednesday.

The meeting will be start at 5:30pm Monday 13th November at Microsoft House, 10 Great Pulteney Street, London, W1F 9NB. Drinks and pizza will be served and the meeting will finish around 8:30pm in time for those who travel any distance to get away and for the locals to retire to the pub :-)

This is as far as I know the last meeting we will be having at the Microsoft Offices. I'm sorry, but I haven't had time this month to persue any other options or even to take some of you up on your kind offers of help! If we want the London group to continue we will have to find somewhere to meet and probably have to pay for it. We've been spoilt so far!

Look forward to seeing you all!