iPerf

I have a customer who has multiple remote locations and we was having troubles with the network links from the remote sites. We found that they was filling up the pipe coming back to the main location so they upgraded there links to a faster speed. What we wanted to do is test the links to see if they was getting what  they was  paying for with the new links. I finally ran across a tool called iPerf and it can be used to test the speed between the remote locations and main location and the best thing it is free. Basically on one of your systems at one location you launch the iPerf from a command line with iPerf.exe -s and the -s means it is acting as the server and on the remote location you run it from the command line of iPerf.exe -c ipaddressofserver -w 2M  the -c is for client and the 2M is file size to test. I tested it all the way up to a Gig with no problems.

Til Later just Roger

Windows 7 Pro and SBS 2003 with ISA 2004

If you are trying to join a Windows 7 Pro workstation to a SBS 2003 with a ISA 2004 Server somethings to be aware of to get this to work correctly. Mainly you need to have the server up to date with the Windows Updates i.e SP2 for Windows 2003 and SP3 for the ISA Server 2004. If you have that all done then you can join the server to the domain manually. If you have the hot fixes applied for Vista workstations on a SBS 2003 server and all of the previous connected updates done you can use the connect to server wizard. Basically the problem is the RPC version causes a issue talking to the server and the updates fixes this and allows things to work. You can disable the RPC Addon within ISA 2004 and you can get the workstation to join the domain but when you reenable this Outlook 2003 won’t talk to the server. So bottum line if you want Windows 7 on your SBS 2003 Server then make sure it is all updated and you will be good to go.

Til later just Roger

Microsoft Forefront TMG 2010

For you ISA fans I know this was a long awaited release as it has NAT capabilities with this solution. Plus Malware scanning of the traffic incoming and many other features. I deployed this at one of my sites and have found it to be nice and refreshing to see the same ISA feel but many changes as this product line grows. You can export your Rules out of your ISA 2006 Server and import them into the new TMG 2010. Or as I did I cleaned up a bunch of Rules and created them fresh brand new. Consolidated a few and got rid of some as they now have some filtering built in for websites that you don’t want your users going too. Plus they actually filter like expected. I like that you can add users to by pass the rules or not. More on this later also as I continue to explore this.

Til later just Roger

Windows 2008 R2 DFS Replication Errors

I was setting up Windows 2008 R2 and the DFS Replication for a customer and keep getting errors. Overlapped I/O operation is in progress I finally found a hotfix that I applied to the source and destination server and then this corrected the problem and started to replicate to the remote server.  Here is the KB that talks about it http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977381/en-us

This was the first time I setup DFS and other than this issue I found it worked well right out of the box. I like the options to the amount of bandwidth to use or not use and the times to replicate. I did this from a Windows 2008 R2 DC to a Windows 2008 R2 RODC and it works flawlessly. We will be slowly moving the users over to this and I will have more about it later.

Til later just Roger

Trouble Running adprep /rodcprep on Windows 2008 R2 DC

I have a customer who I was trying to run the adprep /rodcprep command on the main 2008 R2 Domain Controller and I keep getting

Adprep failed the operation on partition DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=xxxxxx,DC=local

And

Adprep failed the operation on partition DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=xxxxxxx,DC=local

I finally tracked down that there was a old failed Domain Controller still showing up as a Role holder causing the problem. I found a MS Article that said how to fix this and the KB 949257 is  and the link for this is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949257

One thing to do on this article is remove the first line of the script they have you create ad that is the ——-fixfsmo.vbs——————

 Piece as it will cause the script to fail. I ran this for both the DomainDnsZones and the ForestDnsZones and then I could adprep /rodcprep the DC so I can bring in the RO DCs

Til Later just Roger

SCVMM 2008 R2 and a Disjointed Domain name

I was installing SCVMM 2008 R2 onto a HyperV 3 Node Cluster and I keep having problems with the adding of the host machines to the SCVMM. I was getting access denied and DCOM launch and all of that. It was not the case and what I finally tracked down was if you are installing this into a site that it’s internal name is single labeled I will call it i.e. domain versus domain.local or domain.com when you install SCVMM 2008 R2 you must specify a user account and not use the Local Account option. I created a domain user just for this and then added it to the administrators group on the local host machines all 3 of them.  Reinstalled and then away I went Hosts would add to the Manager and life was good.

Til Later just Roger

Browsing Windows 2008 Domains or not

If you have introduced Windows 2008 Domain Controllers into your network and you are finding it hard to browse the network. On Windows 2008 Servers the Computer Browser Service is disabled. Change it to Automatic and then start the service and after a while you will find you can browse your network again.

Til Later just Roger

Exchange 2007 Sp1 to SP2 Error

Had a customer who was running Exchange 2007 SP1 and I was trying to prepare them for the update to Exchange 2007 SP2. You have to prep your schema and your AD for this one as they are preparing you for Exchange 2010 and not having to update your schema or Ad then when you do that. Well the first thing I run into was you can’t do this on your Windows 2008 R2 DC so I had to move the Schema role to a 2008 SP2 DC we had and then do the updating.

When I ran setup /PrepSchema I keep getting a error that a previous update had been applied and the server needed to be rebooted. I finally found where there was a printer hanging that needed to be deleted and once I did this away the Prepping went. I found this fix on this article and basically it has you check 2 registry keys and what to do with them. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164360.aspx 

Til Later just Roger

Cloud Computing Part3

I had to comment more on this as I was ready a article about a cell company that had theirservers go down and now all those users had lost data and their contacts. As you have probably figured by now I am not sold on the whole Cloud Computing Scenario. This is another example of what if this happens to you business being out in the cloud. Can you safely put your lifes hand out there and depend on someone else to make sure you don’t lose your data. It is one thing to lose you Cell contacts and whatever data was hosted on this but what would you do if this happened to your businesses data. I am sure that the cell users thought their data was protected also.

Til later just Roger

Where has the time gone

I just realized I had not posted in a while and thought to myself where has the time gone. Well it has been taken up with getting my house addition started. Well actually finding a guy to do the cement foundation and footings dug. What a adventure that was but the good news is we have one and can now proceed with building onto the house.

I have also been pretty busy with work doing the HyperV Storage clustering for some customers and planning on moving other HyperV Customers over to this. I have been busy with a school I take care of the one that we was rolling out the HP c7000 solution at and the fun times of school starting and everything that goes with it. Plus all the other things I have on my plate.

I caught up on what my boss had blogged about and can relate to his one about Are you Ready. My wife’s son Joey had went to Subway here in our home town and he did not see the car going from the west and got T Boned in the passenger side of his car. He was lucky he had a few cuts and bruises and had his door bell ringing for a few days but he was very lucky and you just never know what will happen when you walk out your door each day.

I will be catching up on what I have been up too IT wise and I do have a lot to talk about.

Til later just Roger