VMWare Server 2.0 problem with disconnected network cable

I ran into an interesting problem with VMWare Server 2.0 this week on a laptop. When the network cable is not plugged in and you're not on a wireless network, you can't open a browser to connect to the console of currently running virtual machines. (I really miss the old Console app).

The workaround I use is to create a Loopback Adapter on the host machine:
2003 instructions:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5647584.html
XP instructions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839013

Once created, assign a static IP like 172.16.180.1 or something similar. The loopback adapter is always on and always appears connected. Reboot and then use the loopback adapter's address to get into the VMWare admin web console. https://172.16.180.1:8333 or whatever address you chose to assign your loopback adapter. (Keep in mind you want to choose an address that isn't likely to conflict with other networks when you travel. Using the loopback adapter is perfectly safe and won't affect how your virtual machines operate. This workaround just pertains to how the web console is bound to IIS.

copy user - parameter is incorrect error

So recently I've been trying to fix an issue that was preventing me from copying existing user accounts. You'd get to the final step and click finish and be rewarded with an error box stating: Windows cannot create the object such and such because: The parameter is incorrect.



As it turns out, this error is caused by bad data in one of the user Attributes. The good news is that it can be fixed, the bad news is that it may require some perseverance to find it. The following steps and screenshots were done on a Win2k8 controller so some things might look different. The user and computers MMC is currently in 'advanced' mode (View-> Advanced Features)

Open up a known good user that you can copy and on another window or another dc open up the problem user. Go to the Attributes Tab and set the Filter in the bottom right to "Show only attributes that have values" and repeat in the other window. (That is unless you like spending LOTS more time doing this). This will narrow the search down considerably.



Now do a side by side comparison and look for values that either exist in only one user or that look odd.



In my case, when I went to Edit the msRADIUSCallbackNumber attribute, I found that it had garbage in it. Just hit the Clear button and OK out.



After I torched the msRADIUS values on mine, I was able to copy the user without any problems. And due to a shortage of time, I didn't get around to writing a powershell script to dump it out to excel but maybe if I get bored one day...

Dell Latitude E6400 first impressions

Where to begin? It has a completely redesigned exterior and IMHO looks a bit more like the stinkpad laptops. That aside, the slick black top does look nice. The battery has been relocated to the rear of the unit and they added firewire, usb powershare (which allows you to charge devices off of it while it's off), HDMI output, SD Card slot, eSATA port, and an optional built in webcam for the lid. It also feels lighter but I'm haven't decided yet if it feels as sturdy as the D630 series that it replaced. The only downside so far is that it only has 3 USB ports but honestly it's a fair trade. The power cord has a glowing blue light near the plug which is probably just for bling but to me it's a power system troubleshooting tool (confirming power is getting there).

The new BIOS interface looks like it was designed by the guys who did the UI for the diagnostics CD. It has built in mouse support and a few menu tweaks. It didn't prompt with an option to go into BIOS from the boot Logo so I used the F12 boot menu option to get into it. One step backward is that it wouldn't let me use special characters in the admin password (ie $%^@). These type of things are common for major version changes and will probably be ironed out in a few patches.

The new docking station selection is pretty snazzy and come with multiple elevation options. The one I got has Dual DVI and HDMI ports as well as the base VGA port.

Overall the performance has been good so far.

Updated: 10/12/08 - Upon closer inspection, it's actually a DisplayPort in the back and not an HDMI, but you can buy an adapter from Dell. It appears they're still trying to push the DisplayPort technology even though the rest of the world is going HDMI.

Error when starting Data Collector Sets

So if you're like me and went overzealous in locking down your 2008 servers, you may run into a nice error message when trying to start your Data Collector Sets in the Reliability and Performance Monitor:

When attempting to start the Data Collector Set the following system error occured:

The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or
because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

I finally figured out which service it was complaining about - "Performance Logs & Alerts". It was set to disabled which I believe occurred after I had locked it down with the Security and Configuration Wizard. Set this service to Manual and then your data collector sets will be able to run.



You'll also want to set Task Manager to Automatic if you want to be able to schedule your Data Collector sets to run on a schedule.

Microsoft Press Practice Test - Errors on Vista - application.WriteTestRecord

So I had just finished crawling through ye olde MCTS exam prep book and decided to install the Practice Tests. The installation went fine but when I tried to launch a Lesson Test, I kept getting errors.

An unacticipated error has occured in the application.WriteTestRecord

An unanticipated error has occured in the application.UpdateTimer

The latter was so much fun, I had to go and End Process Tree for MSLocalWare.exe to get rid of the endless error messages.

Since the practice tests were installed from a CD, I went to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Press Training Kit Exam Prep folder and unchecked the Read Only checkbox. (The same thing happened on my 32 bit vista install as well). Sometimes you find that apps that have been copied from CDs love to retain their read-only flags on files. Just for overkill, I also added the Everyone Group as full control on the folder.

And voila, the practice tests have worked fine since.

Migrating from SYSVOL to DFS-R in 2008

FRS will soon be obsolete. Microsoft has replaced it with DFS-R in 2k8 which offers better capacity, better performance, and is easier to troubleshoot.

First upgrade all domain controller to 2k8, then raise domain functional level to 2008.

Migration is done with DFSRMIG.EXE and consists of 4 states
0 - start
1 - copy SYSVOL to SYSVOL_DFSR. FRS still active
2 - SYSVOL redirected to SYSVOL_DFSR. all clients now use the new one
3 - SYSVOL replication stopped. original must be removed manually

To start, run dfsrmig /setglobalstate 1
then dfsrmig /getmigrationstate until it says that all domain controllers have been synched. It took 6 minutes on my single domain (3 DCs) but microsoft says allow up to an hour on larger setups. It's like watching grass grow so go get some coffee or something for a few minutes.
Then dfsrmig /setglobalstate 2
repeat the same /getmigrationstate

*Now you can rollback and go back to the way things were by running /setglobalstate 0 or 1. Once you change to state 3, you can't go back. You don't have to do step 3 yet in case you want to run it for a few days but keep in mind that you shouldn't do any changes to policies, etc until you complete this as replication to the old SYSVOL share isn't working anymore. I personally am only on step 2 and am going to give it a try for a few days this week. (checking event logs, listening for complaints, the usual). I'll update this post if anything goes wrong. :)

When you're ready to finish this, run dfsrmig /setglobalstate 3
Do the /getmigrationstate until it says you're done.

References (with much more detail):
http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2008/02/14/sysvol-migration-series-part-2-dfsrmig-exe-the-sysvol-migration-tool.aspx

http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?editorialsid=2516

quick way to check if a mailbox has delegates - exchange 2007 SP1 - powershell

Sometimes you get those calls where a user is getting strange meeting invites and they just don't know why. Your first guess is that they're on another user's delegate list. So you go through the list of people on the meeting invite and try go figure out who the culprit is. Prior to Exch 2k7 SP1, you had to either track each one down or create a bunch of profiles and search. Now you can do it from powershell.

# script to check delegates for a particular mailbox
$UserToCheck = get-mailbox UserName
#check what users have access:
$result = $UserToCheck.GrantSendOnBehalfTo
#display results
$result

GlobalNames Zones - somewhat of a band-aid for phasing out WINS

So I've been reading up in preparation for my Microsoft upgrade exams and I noticed a new DNS feature. Since WINS doesn't support IPv6 they came up with the GlobalNames Zone as an interim solution. Their description is:

"The GlobalNames Zone is a new feature that provides single-label name resolution for large enterprise networks that do not deploy WINS and where using DNS name suffixes to provide single-label name resolution is not practical"

In other words, you don't want or can't use WINS anymore but you've still got these irksome boxes that have to be referenced by simple names like "Webserver1".

To set it up, you first have to be using Windows 2008 DNS servers. (Note that they say that it'll work if not all the AD servers are upgraded). Now from a command prompt run:
dnscmd servername /config /enableglobalnamessupport 1
and repeat on all your authoritative DNS servers. Reboot them for good measure.

Note that if you run dnscmd /? or dnscmd /config /? you won't see this flag listed anywhere. Nothing gives you confidence like running switches that don't appear to be documented.

Once that's done, go into DNS Manager and create a new Forward Lookup Zone. The type will be Primary, and Stored in Active Directory. Name it GlobalNames

Now you should be able to start creating your single name records in the DNS Manager.
Since all the Microsoft examples I've seen so far use the command line to do this, I'll stick with that approach. Basically all we're going to do is attach a CNAME record to redirect requests for "HONEYPOT" to the FQDN "HONEYPOT.DECOY.LOCAL"

dnscmd /RecordAdd GlobalNames HONEYPOT CNAME HONEYPOT.DECOY.LOCAL

Now they don't view this as a complete WINS replacement since it doesn't do auto-registration from clients, etc but if you've got fairly static servers/resources and you're moving to IPv6 or away from WINS this should do the trick. I do recommend some caution as this is a pretty new feature and I'm going to wait awhile before trying this out in our production environment.

For more information:
Microsoft Paper: DNS Server GlobalNames Zone Deployment

Technet forum:
http://forums.technet.microsoft.com/en-US/winserverNIS/thread/8953820a-3f2f-4929-9a3e-2b0731b80e04