I experienced a problem today where I could not search for e-mails older than 1 day in Outlook. As I have over 10,000 email messages the search function is crucial to quickly find emails. The solution seemed to be a Windows 7 Rebuild Search Index. Continue Reading
Recover an Exchange 2007 Mailbox using DPM 2012
I needed to recover an Exchange 2007 mailbox using DPM 2012 recently and thought I would share with you the steps I took.
Although there have been many – very good – advances made in System Center Data Protection Manager 2012, the Exchange Item Level Recovery is still in need of some work. Continue Reading
Installing Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012
I have had a huge amount of fun installing Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 (he says sarcastically!).
I will just say one thing – SQL Server Collation!
I actually carried out the complete install only to find Reporting failed to install.
I went back and re-installed the SQL server with the correct collation;
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
The details can be found on the following page;
Supported Configurations for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh205990.aspx
Another pre-requisite you will need for both the full install and later when you come to install the Operations Console is;
Microsoft Report Viewer 2010 Redistributable Package
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=6442
Another interesting page is the deployment guide here;
Deployment Guide for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh278852.aspx
This also has a walkthru install (but without the pretty picture).
Any other pre-requisites which fail upon install are pretty self-explanatory and can be easily fixed and then re-check the pre-requisites.
And so on to the install……. Continue Reading
Updating System Center VMM 2008 R2 to System Center VMM 2012
I though I would do a quick blog to recount my adventures with “Updating System Center VMM 2008 R2 to System Center VMM 2012”.
The big problem I had here is that our existing System Center VMM 2008 R2 was running on SQL Server 2005 Express.
Here are the links for – System Requirements for System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610592.aspx
Most particularly – System Requirements: VMM Database
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/gg610574.aspx
One of the other Pre-requisites is to update WAIK –
The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5753
So – on to the install; Continue Reading
Error 1719. Windows Installer Service could not be accessed – error message when installing application
We had an issue with a Windows 2008R2 64Bit Server recently where we could not install Windows Updates or any other applications, we got the following error message in any relevant logs -“Windows Installer Service could not be accessed” error message when installing applications.
Looking at the Event Viewer Application logs showed the following error messages;
Event ID : 11719 – Error 1719
Event ID : 1023
This all pointed to the Windows Installer Service
I had a look around for other advice from people with the same issue and found some interesting steps to try.
I carried out a sfc /scannow
I de-registered and re-registered MSIEXEC;
%windir%\system32\msiexec.exe /unregister
and
%windir%\syswow64\msiexec.exe /unregister
I even changed
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer
to
C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\msiexec.exe /V
But still could not install.
I then thought I would try some more Registry tweaks and here is the disclaimer;
I take no responsibility for any damage caused by following any instructions in this blog post!
I exported the
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer
Reg key.
I also exported the same Reg Key from another (fully functional) Windows 2008 R2 64Bit Server, copied the reg file over and imported (double-clicked) it!
What do you know – Bob’s your uncle – it started working!
The main difference between the reg files was in the “RequiredPrivileges” key, I am not sure if this is the actual solution but I now have a working server again.
Hope this helps someone!
System Center DPM 2012 Problem – DPM AccessManager Service
Following on from my previous blog post;
During the process of making all my replicas consistent something went wrong.
I don’t know as of yet what caused the issue but will investigate further later.
Basically the DPM Administrator Console suddenly shutdown and would not start back up, claiming the DPM Service was not running.
I checked my services and it was actually running however the DPM AccessManager service was stopped.
I checked the Windows System Logs in Event Viewer and found multiple instances of the following error;
Event ID: 7034
Description: The DPM AccessManager Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 7 time(s).
I searched around but could find no-one with a similar problem or more importantly a solution, I did stumble across a post on the Microsoft Website;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb808877.aspx
Which mentioned the DpmSync command;
“DpmSync is a command-line tool that enables you to synchronize the DPM database with the state of the disks in the storage pool and with the installed protection agents. The DpmSync tool restores the DPM database, synchronizes the DPM database with the replicas in the storage pool, restores the Report database, and reallocates missing replicas. “
Using the DPM Management Shell, I ran the command;
dpmsync -sync
dpmsync
I then re-tried the DPM Administrator Console and all was good in the world again.
As I said I do not know what cause this problem but this procedure repaired the problem and I have had no issues since.
Upgrading System Center DPM 2010 to System Center DPM 2012
Here are the steps I took in upgrading System Center DPM 2010 to System Center DPM 2012.
I have tried to keep it as simple as possible with nice pictures to make the process easy to follow.
Amazon Kindle Fire Running Windows 7 via Citrix VDI-in-a-Box
As a Proof of Concept, I wanted to deliver a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to a tablet based device, Kindle Fire was the ideal candidate.
I can only provide positive comments for the Kindle Fire, it does exactly what you would expect from an Amazon device. As long as you accept the limitations of the device; no Bluetooth, no GPS, no camera, no Android Marketplace, and accept that the device is incredible low priced you can only agree that this is an excellent example of what a tablet device should be.
Techradar.com reviewed the Kindle Fire here.
I have used the Citrix VDI-in-a-Box product on an old server we had available.
The server is Windows 2008R2 with the Hyper-V Role installed.
As far as the Citrix VDI-in-a-Box product is concerned, it was perfect for my needs. I had a Windows 7 Professional (VDI-in-a-Box 5.0 does not support dynamic memory so no need for Enterprise) template deployed in half a day containing all the relevant software, Office, Photoshop, Anti-Virus etc. I also included the Microsoft App-V client in the image to enable the deployment of Virtual Apps.
I then configured the Kindle Fire, installed the Citrix Receiver, connected to the VDI-in-a-Box portal address and that was basically “Job Done”
Kindle Fire - Google
Kindle Fire - Win7 Start Menu
Kindle Fire - Close Up
- Kindle Fire
We have also tested the Citrix Receiver client on Mac OSX, Windows, Iphone and thin client, all with outstanding results.
I must admit this implementation is very exciting. The implications of a reasonably priced tablet device utilising a VDI can only make the case for BYOD stronger.
Also because of the cost involved this solution lends itself very easily to an educational environment.
Quickly Create Batch Files in Windows Server 2008R2 Core
I needed to quickly create batch files in Windows Server 2008R2 Core in order to carry out admin tasks on the server.
For instance to create a batch file to launch the Iscsi control panel type;
“echo start iscsicpl.exe >iscsi.bat”
The “echo” command echoes whatever follows it to the screen usually, however because we have the pipe “>” command it will be sent to the file “iscsi.bat”
this means that in future you can then simply type “iscsi” and you will have the iscsi contol panel launched.
This is particularly handy for programs such as the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite which is located in “c:\program files\broadcom\bacs\bacs.exe”
This takes me back to the good old DOS prompt days!
Hope this helps some of you!