May
23

System Builder: Replacing that OEM COA

by admin

For those of us that are OEM System Builders we can request a replacement COA label if the original one was damaged beyond recognition or the case it was affixed to needed to be replaced.

We just replaced a case for a client that has an integrated power supply. So, we needed to apply for a replacement COA.

When we did so the result was:

image

So, we sent an e-mail off to the address with all of the relevant information. Hopefully we get word back.

In this case the Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM software package was purchased through legitimate distribution channels here in Canada. And we are the system builders. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

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Reprinted from: http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/

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May
22

Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica

by admin

Found on Microsoft's Download site:

We head on over and download both the executable as well as the Word document that accompanies it.

image

Then on to:

image

And finally:

image

Ooops. We are looking to assess a Hyper-V Replica that is set up and online already!

Well, like any good IT Professional the next step is to actually read that manual! ;)

image

Based on the FAQ later in the document we will need to run this tool against some VMs hosted on Server 2012.

So, the next step for us will be to run some tests against the required Hyper-V environment to get an idea of what the tool will be reporting.

More to come on that . . .

The link for this little tool comes to us via Susan Bradley the SBS Diva.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

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Reprinted from: http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/

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May
22

May SMBKitchen Author Chat available for download

by amy

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On May 20th we held the May edition of the SMBKitchen Authors chat. We are holding these once a month for subscribers to the SMBKitchen Project but this one was special because we invited the general public to join us. Now we’re making the recording of that event available for you to download. At these chats we talk about items recently published, those coming up and we answer questions from the subscribers. Susan Bradley, Phillip Elder, and Amy Babinchak were the authors on hand.  It was a jammed packed hour that really flew by! We talked about security, the demise of the Intel Modular Server and alternatives, BYOD and consulting in the new era.

You can download the chat here. You’ll notice that our recording missed the first few minutes so you get to jump in right after I finished the introductions. We hope you enjoy it and will consider subscribing.

Not a subscriber yet? Join in. It’s $180 for the full year, paid at $15 per month. http://www.thirdtier.net and learn more.

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May
21

Repeat After Me: DHCP and DNS Belong on a DC

by admin

When configuring any network one needs to have an understanding of just how DNS works.

If DNS is not set up correctly there are so many things that break it is not funny.

Unlike mail routing (MX records) that offer a priority system for directing mail to the final destination where the system compensates for an offline mail server DNS operates in a round robin fashion.

So, if DHCP is set up on a router and delivers the following IPs for the client’s DNS queries:

  • 192.168.99.5 (local DC)
  • 192.168.99.1 (router)
  • 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS server)

Guess how many times the client’s on-premises resource DNS queries, in general, will fail.

If you guessed “67%” then you would be right.

It seems that folks are missing the reason for “Domain” in “Domain Naming System” or DNS for short.

The primary excuse we’ve heard so far to set the above DNS server IP settings on clients and even Remote Desktop Services servers and other servers is:

  • I want my clients to be able to browse the Internet if the DC and DNS goes offline.

There is, however, a fatal flaw in that line of reason . . . the missing “Domain” in DNS.

Or, to be blunt: A lack of understanding how DNS works on-premises and on the Internet and why the two are separate from each other.

Let’s have a look at this very crude drawing:

image

The left hand box is the on-premises Domain network. On that network MYDC is authoritative for that domain. Everything inside the box boundary for the network belongs to that DC and its on-premises DNS setup.

MYDC is the Start of Authority (SOA) for that domain (DOMAIN.LOCAL).

Being that our MYDC has the SOA means that no other DNS server _anywhere on the planet_ will be an authority for that domain. At least, for _that_ particular domain name in that particular location.

Not to mention the Top Level Domain (TLD) .LOCAL is not to be found anywhere on the Internet either.

What that means is that any client that queries DNS where MYSQL is will get the correct IP address from the DC that hosts the on-premises _domain’s_ DNS because that server is _authoritative_ for that domain.

Now, what happens on the client if they query DNS for MYSQL.DOMAIN.LOCAL and Google/OpenDNS server IPs are on the client’s DNS “where to query” server list and they respond?

That query goes OUTSIDE of the domain network to Google or OpenDNS and the response back is, “I have no clue who, what, or where the chicken DOMAIN.LOCAL is. Check ROOT SERVERS.” And of course, they answer same.

So, we have 67% of our on-premises queries failing DNS resolution.

Let’s think about that for a moment.

. . .

67% of our DNS queries are FAILING.

That means poor network performance, network print problems, LoBs that depend on database/SQL connections losing their connections, improper RDP routing, and so much more.

The _proper_ way to configure a domain’s DNS is as follows:

  • On the only DC on the network
    • AD and DNS are properly integrated
    • DHCP on the server
      • Name Protection Set (Ticks on 2003):
      • image
      • Admin credentials set to update DNS with IP:image
  • The DC NIC properties:
    • IP: 192.168.33.5
    • SN: 255.255.255.0
    • GW: 192.168.33.1
    • DNS0: 192.168.33.5 (SELF ONLY)
      • AD integrated DNS takes care of delivering IPs for other DC with DNS on the network. There is NO reason to put any other IP in DNS1.
  • DHCP configuration:
    • Scope Options:
      • 003 Router: 192.168.33.1
      • 006 DNS Servers: 192.168.33.5 (and other AD integrated DC/DNS server IPs)
      • 015 DNS Domain Name: DOMAIN.LOCAL
    • That’s it. Google/OpenDNS server IPs DO NOT belong here.
  • DNS Server service
    • Forwarders Tab
      • OpenDNS IPs or ISP’s DNS server IPs (at least two).

DHCP belongs on the server. Period. Full-stop.

If DHCP is on the router with DNS pointers to Google/OpenDNS or ISP DNS servers served to the on-premises DHCP clients then changes need to be made to put DHCP back where it belongs. . . on the DC.

If there is a concern about the only DC going down and leaving the clients helpless then make sure the backups are good.

If a need for redundancy is there then install an HP MicroServer with a Standard license and DCPromo that box into the domain. Make sure replication and AD integrated DNS are functioning between the now two DCs on the domain (we’ve seen situations where the second DC or RODC had no SYSVOL due to broken replication).

Or install an online cold backup device but make sure that the primary server has Software Assurance as Cold Backup is an SA only option.

For Small Business Server networks there _is_ a caveat to having another DC on the domain when in a disaster recovery situation.

In the end, a good chunk of the problems on a network such as connectivity, Line of Business application problems, performance, and more can have their source in an improperly configured DNS structure.

It is our job as IT “Professionals” to know the “WHY” things work so that we can set things up properly.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

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Reprinted from: http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/

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So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
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May
21

Why Going Back To The Basics Matters

by edwin
I was thinking of posting this in my non-technical blog but realized that technical professionals will find value in the …

Continue reading »


Reprinted from: http://bassplayerdoc.wordpress.com

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So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
We're Third Tier. We provide advanced Third Tier support for IT Professionals.
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May
20

SMBKitchen Project Open Chat Today

by admin

We will be having an open chat with the SMBKitchen Authors this afternoon/evening at 1600Hrs Mountain (1800Hrs Eastern).

Please make sure to use the full Lync client as the Web based client seems to not pick up audio streaming properly.

The feedback on my How-To video for setting up Hyper-V on Windows 8 as well as a greenfield VM based DC with DNS and DHCP along with setting up the Hyper-V networking and a 2008 R2 Standard VM as a router.

I go through step-by-step for setting up the vSwitches, NIC(s) on the VMs, installing and configuring the operating systems, and then finally setting up AD/DNS/DHCP on the 2012 VM and RRAS in NAT mode on the 2008 R2 VM.

We will discuss our current content along with the content we should be posting over this coming month.

This chat is open to everyone both subscribers and not.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

 Subscribe in a reader

Reprinted from: http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/

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So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
We're Third Tier. We provide advanced Third Tier support for IT Professionals.
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May
20

Reminder SMBKitchen Chat tonight. Everyone welcome

by amy

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Join us at 6pm eastern. Find out about the SMBKitchen Project, chat with the authors and basically have a great time speaking geek with us. We always get into some interesting conversations. This month I’d like to highlight the future of small business IT consulting but you can bet our conversation will wander into hyper-v, security, patching and more. It always does!

Join Lync Meeting

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May
17

SMBKitchen Author Chat. Open to Everyone!

by amy

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Come find out what the SMBKitchen Project is all about and chat with the authors in this open free flowing forum. We always get into some interesting conversations.

This month I’d like to highlight the future of small business IT consulting but you can bet our conversation will wander into hyper-v, security, patching and more. It always does!

So plan to join us at 6pm eastern time on Monday. Join Lync Meeting or download the iCAL

We’ll use Lync Audio and Video and yes it will be recorded.

Not a subscriber yet and want to be? Join in. It’s $180 for the full year, paid at $15 per month. http://www.thirdtier.net to learn more.

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May
17

Creating a Fixed VHD in Windows 7 and a ShadowProtect P2V

by admin

We have a VHD creation process running in the Windows 7 Disk Management console:

image

The above VHD is being created on a network share hosted by one of our Hyper-V servers (2008 R2). It will be a 160GB fixed VHD that will host the Windows 7 machine’s OS once ShadowProtect is finished.

While that process is running ShadowProtect is taking an image of the Windows 7 machine as it will be P2Vd onto the above Hyper-V host.

image

This image is running to a 2008 R2 file server.

The machine is a Core i7-875K with a pair of 80GB Intel X25-M SSDs running in RAID 0 and is soon to be retired.

We will use our P2V Hyper-V Integration Services (previous blog post) step to get rid of the RAID signature and enable IS in the OS. Then, we will use our Hardware Independent Restore (previous blog post) steps to clean out any left-over devices from the physical machine.

We find out of all products available to us, including Microsoft’s own Disk2VHD too, that ShadowProtect gives us the most reliable method of moving a physical machine into a virtual setting or taking a VM and restoring it to hardware.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

 Subscribe in a reader

Reprinted from: http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/

---
So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
We're Third Tier. We provide advanced Third Tier support for IT Professionals.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
May
9

Sharepoint Service Unavailable 503 Revisited

by amy

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Back in July I wrote a blog post on how to fix 503 errors in your Sharepoint web apps, like Companyweb in SBS. That post shows you how to resync the service account passwords for spfarm, spweb and spsearch so that Sharepoint can starting using them again. The symptom is two fold: You get a 503 and in IIS one or more of the sharepoint app pools is stopped.  http://www.thirdtier.net/2011/07/when-sharepoint-companyweb-503s-on-you-heres-how-to-fix-it/

It was always a mystery why those accounts stopped synchronizing. Small business server runs a script that is supposed to change the password and sync it with Sharepoint and sometimes that stops working. In the intervening months I’ve found some reasons for that.

These accounts are by default in the SBS Users OU. That OU has a password policy applied to it. If you set that password policy to a shorter than default time frame the password on the accounts will change and sharepoint will fall out of sync with those passwords. Since those accounts are always logged in you  might not see the problem anywhere else than in your event logs until you reboot the server. If the Sharepoint password sync runs before that occurs then you’ll be fine, if not your sharepoint web app will be unavailable. If conversely you’ve crippled your password security policy by modifying it so that passwords never expire you have an opposite problem with the same result. The script is unable to do it’s job and so eventually your sharepoint webapp fails too. I’m still trying to figure the why of this one out. I just know that it occurs.

I’ve run across another reason that the app pool aren’t able to start that doesn’t have to do with passwords. So if the password solution doesn’t work for you, it could be that local security account permissions have changed in the Default Domain Policy. This happened to one of my own server and for the life of me I can’t figured out how that occurred but this is IT and odd things occur every day. This Sharepoint TechNet forum post saved the day and make a potentially long day of troubleshooting a quick fix. 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sharepointadminprevious/thread/c396d86b-8c5b-4c01-86eb-6ff64319ef4f

It points out that the farm accounts require logon a Batch right. On your domain controller this is found in the Default Domain Policy in the following location.

Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Log on as a batch job

Add that right to your farm accounts. Do a gpupdate /force afterwards and sharepoint will be happy again.

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So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
We’re Third Tier. We provide advanced Third Tier support for IT Professionals.
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