Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Exchange 2010 Loop

I just resolved an issue with Exchange 2010 where I was getting loop detected.
Our setup is Exchange 2003 in old domain, Exchange 2010 in new domain with SMTP namespace sharing. http://blog.mimecast.com/2011/06/guest-post-migrating-between-email-servers-smtp-namespace-sharing/

Mail flow was working fine with some users but other users couldn't receive mail at all.

Message tracking logs showed there was a loop
C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\TransportRoles\Logs\MessageTracking
ExchangeServer,,,LoopDetected,,SMTP,DEFER,0,,testuser@contoso.com

The Queue Viewer showed that a local loop was detected


I found that the targetAddress attribute was set in Active Directory


The value of the targetAddress attribute is the address of the user that is outside of the local Exchange  organization that mail should be sent to. When mail is sent to the mail-enabled user or contact, the mail is redirected to the address held in the targetAddress field.

Editing the targetAddress field and selecting Clear sets it to <not set>

After that I was able to send and recieve mail from that account.

BTW the targetAddress attribute can be cleared using Quest Active Server Roles powershell (run on the Domain Controller) here's what I used....

get-qaduser -LDAPFilter "(&(&(&(objectCategory=Person)(objectClass=User)(targetAddress=*)(homeMDB=*))))" | Set-QADUser -ObjectAttributes @{targetAddress=$null}

Let me break it down
get-qaduser get ADuser
-LDAPFilter Filter using an LDAP query
objectCategory=Person Person CategoryobjectClass=User Is a user
targetAddress=* Has the Target Address Set
homeMDB=* Has the homeMDB attribute set - We were doing Exchange 2003 migration in Exchange 2003 this attribute isn't set.
| Pipes users that meet above into our command to change the attribute
Set-QADUser Sets AD Attributes
-ObjectAttributes @{targetAddress=$null} Sets the targetAddress attribute to nothing ($null) in AD this will appear as <not set>

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How to View an F5 ucs file in windows

I recently made an error with an incorrect ip address in when I was deploying an F5 LTM Template.

I had entered the wrong ip in multiple places so I wanted to check the entire config.

Under System, Archives Create a new Archive

















Click on the Archive and download the Archive.
















Once you have downloaded the file open with 7-Zip.
You will then be able to open the im file to browse the entire configuration.


 


Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Unable to install VMware Tools

IBM HS22 Blade with IBM ESXi 4.1update2  USB Key
VMware tools installation fails with the error below...

Unable to install VMware Tools. An error occurred while trying to access image file "/usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso" needed to install VMware Tools: 2 (No such file or directory). If your product shipped with the VMware Tools package, reinstall VMware ESX, then try again to install the VMware Tools package in the virtual machine.
 The required VMware Tools ISO image does not exist or is inaccessible.

Troubleshooting
SSH to the Vmware host reveals that the /usr/lib/vmware is not accessible




ls -l reveals that the isoimages folder is a symbolic link to /productLocker/vmtools/


cd /productLocker is inaccessible




/vmfs/volumes is missing Hypervisor3




The ESXi partition table can be checked using the command fdisk -l













There is a Warning for partition table 8
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 8

And the file system for mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p8 is Unknowm
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p8   ?    740786   1480957 757935405   5a  Unknown

mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p8 should be the scratch disk location.

The fix

It is recommended that the persistent scratch location be set for ESXi

Configuring persistent scratch location using the vSphere Client

You can configure persistent scratch space for ESXi using the vSphere Client:
  1. Connect to vCenter Server or the ESXi host using the vSphere Client.
  2. Select the ESXi host in the inventory.
  3. Click the Configuration tab.
  4. Click Storage.
  5. Right-click a datastore and select Browse.
  6. Create a uniquely-named directory for this ESX host (eg, .locker-ESXHostname)
  7. Close the Datastore Browser.
  8. Click Advanced Settings under Software. 
  9. Select the ScratchConfig section.
  10. Change the ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation configuration option, specifying the full path to the directory. For example:

    /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/.locker-ESXHostname
  11. Click OK.
  12. Put the ESXi host in maintenance mode and reboot for the configuration change to take effect.
Recreating scratch files including Vmware tools iso's.

Once the scratch  location has been set you can run the current ESXi 4.1 update 2 patch this will recreate the Vmware tools installation iso in the scratch file location.

Once the patch has applied reboot the host.

You can check that the vmtools iso's have been created by browsing the persistent scratch datastore.















You will then be able to deploy Vmware tools

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

AD Migration moving data to a new server

During a Domain Migration you may want to move file data from an old server in the old domain to a new server in the new domain.

You can use robocopy http://sjmeyers.blogspot.com/2011/05/migrating-data-between-servers.html to migrate the data but you will still be left with old permissions.


You can run the Active Directory Migration Tool ADMT to do a security translation on the new server to change security on files and folders to the new domain.

Open ADMT Security Translation Wizard

Select Previously migrated objects


Select the old domain as the source and the new domain as the target


Select the computer(s)

Select Files and folders

Select Replace

Select Finish


 Run  pre-check and agent operation
Once Agent has run you can verify the logs


Then check file permissions have changed to the new Domain

Please note permissions will only be translated the the new Domain if the Group was previously migrated and has sid history.
In the example above the Domain users Group hasn't been migrated yet.

The Security Translation wizard can be run more than once on the same server. 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Adding a Printer with Group Policy Preferences

You can add printers using Group Policy Preferences which is new in Server 2008 provided you have the Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions installed on the client machines.

Group Policy Preferences are added though the normal Group policy Console.



You can Create, Replace, Update, Delete as required. You can also set as the default printer.

 

If more granular control is required click the Common Tab.
You can apply the setting only once and use the Targeting Editor to get really specific

 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Migrating Data between Servers

Robocopy is a good option when migrating data to another server.

It has a number of switches that can preserve attributes, timestamps, security, owner info, auditing info, etc...
Also it can include, exclude, add attributes, rerun and much more.

For a full list of operations type robocopy /? at the command prompt.

I recently migrated data to a new server using the following...
robocopy source destination /E /DCOPY:T /PURGE /COPYALL /TEE /LOG+:c:\robocopylog.txt

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.
/DCOPY:T :: COPY Directory Timestamps.
/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.
/COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info (Data, Attributes, Timestamp, Security, Owner, Auditing).
/TEE :: output to console window, as well as the log file.
/LOG+:file :: output status to LOG file (append to existing log).

The method I used was to copy the data over and checked that everything was OK.
I then disconnected the users on the source, reran the command, and pointed the users to the new location.

Using this method the second run only copied over the changes (and removed anything that was no longer there) so took alot less time than the first run.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

How to reclaim Disk Space using Vmware Thin provisioning

If your drive is thick provisioned
You will need to use either Vmware Tools, Shrink or sdelete
Vmware tools Shrink
 
Sdelete
 
Then migrate to a new datastore.
Note: there is currently an issue where you will need to migrate to a new datastore with different block size.

If your drive is already thin provisioned
Vmware Tools Shrink isn’t available.
You will need to use sdelete to zero out disk then migrate to new datastore.
Warning: using sdelete will expand the thin provisioned disk to it’s full provisioned size so make sure you have enough space on the datastore free.
Note: there is currently an issue where you will need to migrate to a new datastore with different block size.