KevinTM

Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Hangs at 95% (resolved)

kevintm — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:37:19 +0000

Per symantec tech article TECH141655.

Problem. Symantec Backup intermittently hangs at 95% and does not complete.
- typically occurs when multiple machines are backing up to the same destination folder (NAS or network share)

Workaround is to unregister RPAM on each machine that is having the issue.

RegSVR32.exe /U “C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\rpAccess\RPAM.dll”

if recovery pointed need to be mounted for restoring data. The dll will need to be registered.

Renew SSL self-signed certificate in SBS 2008

kevintm — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:51:08 +0000

With Small Business Server 2008, you have the option to use a third party SSL certificate or the default self-signed SSL certificate. By default the self-signed certificate is valid for two years, but how to you renew it without interrupting OWA, Outlook, and Exchange? When the certificate is expired, Outlook 2007/2010 will give you an error message when opening, that the certificate is not valid. Here are the steps to fix it.

1. Goto the Windows SBS Console, click on Network Tab, then Connectivity Tab
2. Click on the certificate icon, then click the “view certificate properties” in the right pane. In the General tab of the new window, it will show the dates that the self-signed certificate is valid for.
3. In the “Connectivity Tasks” area, click “setup your Internet address”, go through the wizard to renew your self-signed SSL certificate.
4. When you now check the certififcate properties, you will see that it is now valid for another two more years.

How to Block Facebook Using Hosts File.

kevintm — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:04:14 +0000

Not to be used typically in a corp settings. However, I deal with a lot of small business users. Sometimes, a user likes to be on facebook just a little bit to much and it conflicts with work.

1) open the hosts file. Hosts file location:

Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 (open notepad as administrator. Then open the file in the following location)
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows 2000
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows 98/ME
C:\WINDOWS\hosts

2) Add the following lines.

# Block Facebook
127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.connect.facebook.com

3) Save

Source

How to Hide a User from the Welcome Screen

kevintm — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:41:45 +0000

1) While being logged in an administrator with local admin rights. Start –> run –> Regedit (run as administrator)
2) HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3) Create a key called SpecialAccounts (plural)
4) Create a sub-key called UserLIst (singular)
\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
5)Create a DWORD (32bit) value with the same value as the user you want to hide.
6) Set Value to 0

Create a self-signed certificate for the Remote Desktop Gateway Server

kevintm — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:39:20 +0000

More or less. You should only use self-signed certificates for testing or lab purposes. I found these steps very helpful when setting up a 2008 Foundation box and testing Remote Desktop Gateway Services with it.

To create a self-signed certificate for the Remote Desktop Gateway server
On the RD Gateway server, open Remote Desktop Gateway Manager. To open Remote Desktop Gateway Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Remote Desktop Services, and then click Remote Desktop Gateway Manager.

In the Remote Desktop Gateway Manager console tree, right-click the local RD Gateway server, which is named for the computer on which the RD Gateway server is running, and then click Properties.

In the results pane, under Configuration Status, click View or modify certificate properties.

On the SSL Certificate tab, click Create a self-signed certificate, and then click Create and Import Certificate.

In the Create Self-Signed Certificate dialog box, do the following:

In the Certificate name box, verify that the correct fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is specified for the self-signed certificate, or specify a new name. The FQDN must match the DNS name that the client uses to connect to the RD Gateway server, unless you are using wildcard certificates or the SAN attributes of certificates.

To store the root certificate in a specified location so that you can manually distribute the root certificate to clients, verify that the Store the root certificate check box is selected, and then specify where to store the certificate. By default, this check box is selected and the certificate is stored under the %Windir%\Users\\Documents folder.

Click OK.

If you selected the Store the root certificate check box and specified a location for the certificate, a message will appear stating that RD Gateway has successfully created the self-signed certificate, and confirming the location of the stored certificate. Click OK to close the message.

Click OK again to close the RD Gateway server Properties dialog box.

source link

DRAC 4/i login issue resolved

kevintm — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:32:17 +0000

I purchased a replacement DRAC card for a PE1850. I was struggling getting logged in to the damn thing even after resetting the DRAC to default’s via Open Manage on the server as well as resetting the settings via the management utility via boot up. Turns out the problem was that it wasn’t completely reset to defaults.

Solution. On the server with the DRAC installed. I logged in as an administrator. Right click on “command prompt” and selected, “Run as Administrator”.
c:\windows\system32> racadm racresetcfg
Now the DRAC is completely reset back to factory defaults with the login root calvin.
Changed the ip address and all is good now.

Win 7 x86 RAM issue resolved.

kevintm — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:46:49 +0000

Enabling PAE
Windows automatically enables PAE if DEP is enabled on a computer that supports hardware-enabled DEP, or if the computer is configured for hot-add memory devices in memory ranges beyond 4 GB. If the computer does not support hardware-enabled DEP or is not configured for hot-add memory devices in memory ranges beyond 4 GB, PAE must be explicitly enabled.
To explicitly enable PAE, use the following BCDEdit /set command to set the pae boot entry option:
bcdedit /set [{ID}] pae ForceEnable
IF DEP is enabled, PAE cannot be disabled. Use the following BCDEdit /set commands to disable both DEP and PAE:
bcdedit /set [{ID}] nx AlwaysOff
bcdedit /set [{ID}] pae ForceDisable
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: To enable PAE, use the /PAE switch in the boot.ini file. To disable PAE, use the /NOPAE switch. To disable DEP, use the /EXECUTE switch.

How to Distribute Self Signed Certificates in SBS 2008/2011

kevintm — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:03:07 +0000

Since the certs are now CA based, they can no longer be simply installed via the web browser like they were in sbs 2003.
You must install them with the client app the server generates.
Typically this can be found on the server in c:\users\public\public downloads. if the public folder is shared it is usually \\servername\

source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2008/09/30/how-do-i-distribute-the-sbs-2008-self-signed-ssl-certificate-to-my-users.aspx

Old 2003 NTBackup Script remodified.

kevintm — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:21:43 +0000

1st issue. Create a new full .bkf file for each day instead of append or replace.

@for /f “Tokens=1-4 Delims=/ ” %%i in (’date /t’) do @set dt=%%i-%%j-%%k-%%l
@for /f “Tokens=1″ %%i in (’time /t’) do @set tm=-%%i
@set tm=%tm::=-%
@set dtt=%dt%%tm%
@echo Copying backup set: %dt%.
@echo Please wait…
@C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntbackup.exe backup systemstate C:, D: “D:\backup set.bks” /a /d “Backup %dt%” /v:no /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j “%dt%” /l:s /f “\\backups\Backups\_2003-web\Backup %dt%.bkf”

2nd issue. Delete old backups so space does not fill up on the Backup NAS or USB hard drive. *requires forfiles or robocopy*

net use t: “\\backups\Backups\_2003-web”

forfiles -p t:\ -m *Sun* -d -120 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Mon* -d -7 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Tue* -d -7 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Wed* -d -7 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Thu* -d -7 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Fri* -d -7 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Sat* -d -7 -c “cmd /c echo purged @FILE on %date% >> t:\purgelog.txt”

forfiles -p t:\ -m *Sun* -d -120 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Mon* -d -7 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Tue* -d -7 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Wed* -d -7 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Thu* -d -7 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Fri* -d -7 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”
forfiles -p t:\ -m *Sat* -d -7 -c “cmd /c Del @FILE”

net use t: /delete /y

Change the bold text to match your backup drive.

PSConfig Arg

kevintm — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:17:04 +0000

After running a sharepoint sp1 update on a 2011 sbs, backups stopped working. Try this to fix it.

1. Open an Administrative command prompt.
2. Change directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
3. Run PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

Source