Kicking and Screaming I am Bloggin

So in my previous post I menetioned a slight problem, I thought I would share my log of the repair process in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

Disable Exchange Service, let’s not lose any mail in the process

Restore C Drive to alternate location on usb drive, just to have these files on hand, we know C: is hosed

Fly to Sunny California

Download update bios & firmware, burn to cd’s

Flash Intel Serverboard bios

Flash Intel Raid controller firmware

Boot to Shadow Protect IT Edition, to use it’s tools
Unfortunatley I had not had a chance to image this system yet.
Btw Storage Craft’s great support bailed me out in this disaster, as I lost my IT edition disk and they were able to provide an ISO first thing Monday morning.

Delete C partition

Create C partition bootable (sorry can’t do bootable)

Boot to sbs cd1 repair console

Bootfix, sucessful

Bootcfg, fails

Verify boot.ini

Copy files from alternate restore location on usb drive

Copy root files from backup to xp machine, remove attributes

Copy to root of server from repair console, ntldr snd ntdetect will still not copy

Boot to IT Edition again, find clean spot to install w2k3

Start gold w2k3 install to W:, not going to be time efficient

Contact kb get download of SBS R2 w/slipstream beta I just tested for them, Thanks Kevin !

Do Time bombed install to G:, no key

Boot to DSRM

Do system state from 6/24/07, pre original corruption

Disconnect Internet Cable

Boot to OS I hope, yippee it boots

Do online exchange restore of 7/27/07 bu, it fails

Do offline restore of the 3 chunks of mdbdata to original locations

Reboot, stores mounted :>)

Breathe

Verify mail via owa locally, we got mail

Connect Internet Cable let mail flow

Send and receive test message, we are talking to the world

Logon to bookkeeping station, ok

Test 4 QB Data Files, one needs to be rebuilt

Rebuild successful.

Logon to Kenny’s station, logon denied

Take off domain

Put on domain

Logon OK profiles intact

Logmein to remote, verify mail flows via Outlook Anywhere

Image Server with SP IT

Set backup to run tonight

Go to hotel for the evening, 11 hours is enough for one day

Logon to marketing station, logon denied

Take off domain

Put on domain

Logon OK profiles intact, CRM will not open, credential problem

Duh moment, I rolled system state back to before CRM rollup 2 was applied, system grumpy

Apply CRM rollup2 and reboot, CRM opens fine now

Logon to sales station, logon denied

Take off domain

Put on domain

Logon OK profiles intact

Logon to process station, logon denied

Take off domain

Put on domain

Logon OK profiles intact

Logon to lab station, Logon OK profiles intact

Logon to shipping station, logon denied

Take off domain

Put on domain

Logon OK profiles intact

Logon to accounting station, Logon OK profiles intact

Need 4 updates on server from wsus allow all 4 and reboot

Delete demo install and gold install used to restore system state

Reconfigure backup to run regularly

Re-enable offsite copy scheduled task

Verify Hazard Waste database is operational

Clear Logs

Grab jpg of drive layout save to C:\

Grab ipconfig /all save to C:\

Image again with Shadow Protect IT

Install Shadow Protect Server

Give Kenny the good news, no data lost everyone back online

Goto Bella Vista tonight to celebrate :>)

Tomorrow back to hot and humid North Carolina

Talk about rotten luck, I had a drive go out in a raid 5 array Thursday, the hot spare kicked in like it was supposed to, life is good or so I thought.
I had one of the guys on site (who had done this before) put in a new spare for me while I walked him through the process over the phone, did I mention this happened in California and I am in North Carolina. Well we brought the server back up and told it there was a new drive available for the spare pool and it still looked like life was good.

Fast forward to this morning were there were a number of errors in the logs and after some troubleshooting it turned out there was some corruption on the C Drive. Not too tragic, the OS is on D, nothing on C but logs and boot files. Nothing to worry about, had this happen before just run chkdsk right? Ever seen the message mft is corrupt and chkdsk is aborting? Not the way to start the day. A little googling and it seems the /r switch will usually fix that, we will give it a try. It fails same message, but now explorer says unrecognized media, insert good media in drive C. Now we have gone from annoying problem to tragic situation, the server is still running I don;t dare reboot with no C Drive, but the SQL logs and Exchange logs all live on C: so not much is working on the server.

Did I mention that we just tore up three bedroom to get ready for the drywall guy who is starting Monday and we are now living in the living-room, literally.

Well anyways, time to make some plane reservations and try to find a room, because you guessed it, this is the peak season in Silicon Valley, rooms are scarce and expensive. Well got over that hurdle, have my flights booked although some annoyingly long layovers, still I managed to find semi-reasonable fares, got a room locked up and a car. Time to do some last minute errands and pack for the trip tomorrow, I go to my local bank and notice the screen looks funny, then it hits me, does this CR@P happen to anyone besides me? Click the picture for a larger view.

So I am reading my normal slug of e-mail as I drink my coffee this morning and I see this messges in my inbox from ExchangeDefender.

Not wanting to miss a chance to annoy Vlad I sent him this note,

I think your system is suffering from an identity crisis, it does not recognise itself :>)

In his normal helpful manner (you can find this Vlad on his business sites, not Valdville his personal site) he sent me back the following explanation,

It could be SPAM,  not everything from ownwebnow.com is implicitly trusted because it could be web based generated junk.

Unfortunately before I got his reply thinking I was so smart, I approved it as always trust sender, so now I have to go back and figure out how to undo that setting. Probably just go into the white-list and remove it.
And just to make matter worse for my favorite smartass (me), turns out the message was a note from the blog engine asking me if I wanted to approve a reply that had been generated by a robot and contained nothing but spam.

So I sit here out of coffee and red faced eating crow, but have to admit ExchangeDefender Really Rocks!

!!disclaimer for conspiracy nuts out there, yes I am a reseller for ExchangeDefender & OwnWebNow, but that does not make the services any less valuable. Corollary, just because I am paranoid does not mean they are not watching :>)

A reader on the MCP Mag SBS Forum asks how hide a users e-mail address from the GAL?

Open the user properties and click the Exchange Advanced tab

Check the box called Hide from Exchange address lists

double click image to enlarge it.

Yet another one of my clients asked me today about their employee’s using web radio, as I started to answer him it occured to me this was a better venue to respond, so when the next client asks me I can just point to the response.

So here is what I started writing to him.

Hi Larry,

In regards to your question about streaming audio, here is my take.

Other than the obvious loss of productivity while folks search around for what they want to listen to.

1. Streaming Audio (like web radio) uses a portion of the bandwidth we purchase from BellSouth, so the more people listening to different streams the less bandwidth is available for our folks doing real work on the internet, like research, remote connections, timely mail service, ect. We do not have unlimited bandwidth, we purchase a fixed amount and the connection is just like a car with a governor on it. It ain’t gonna go any faster or in this case move anymore data.

2. The more streaming that is going on, on our internal network the more sluggish the response will be for people doing real work. Remember that music is traveling around our network as digital data and competing for resources on the network just like all the other data moving across it.

3. Anything we do on the internet carries some amount of risk, although we run industrial strength antivirus and antispam software, there is always the risk of something coming through. The best way to limit this exposure is to only use it for business related issues. Of course this is no guarantee we won’t pickup something, but short of porn sites, music sites have the worst reputation for being infected

I know my views on this are not popular and I will admit, I loose this battle at some clients, where they are willing to put up with the list above. My job is not to tell you how to run your business, just to point out things you may not have considered. Personally I really don’t internet radio anyways, real radios are really inexpensive nowadays, use no bandwidth and are not targeted by degenerate spammers and script kiddies.

So I hope that answers your questions, and you will see a charge on the next invoice for a Kevlar vest to protect me from your employees :>)

Yesterday in Vlad’s post http://www.vladville.com/2007/07/the-south-shall-rise-again.html he talks about the reorganization of the Southeast District and mentions a few MS folks. One of whom is Tom Harshbarger who is the best thing to happen to the SMB Community in this region EVER! Tom just gets us. He not only knows what we need and want, he understands what we don’t want. He knows we are mostly little shops with not enough time and so doesn’t over burden us with endless marketing. Sure he keeps us up to-date so we know what is going on, but he does so in an unobtrusive way. I highly recommend getting on his spam list (as I joking call it) send him a note to {tomhar at microsoft.com} and ask to be added. Give him a break if he doesn’t respond immediately, he and his wife just had their second child in less than 2 years, Congratulations Tom & Margaret

So as Vlad was saying in http://www.vladville.com/2007/07/who-knew-that-riff-raff-was-the-red-button.html I couldn’t let you all down, so hop on over to http://www.cafepress.com/sbsriffraff and pick up something nice to wear to SMB Nation. If you haven’t registered yet you can do it at http://www.smbnation.com/SMB%20Nation%202007%20Fall%20Conference/2007%20SMB%20Nation%20Fall%20Conference.htm. Maybe we can get a group photo of all us riff raff in our shirts and get it published in Harry’s SMB Magazine :>)

Btw, there is another shirt with the definition front and back but I am not sure if the link works from the outside world, guve it a try http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/product.aspx?clear=true&number=%20153277535, it is the one I will be wearing.

The graphic is a little hard to make out so here is  a closeup of it.
You can double click it to see a larger view

 C Ya in Redmond,
HA

So in reading some of the recent comments on my new blog (Thankx Vlad for talking me into it)  it occurred to me that some of you may not know who I am. So if you would like to find out a bit about me, look at the appropriately named page on my regular site http://www.sbs-rocks.com/aboutus.htm you can also gain a bit of insight at the Microsoft MVP Site or stop by my Monthly SBS Chat hosted by SBS Migration and chat with me and other MVP’s in person. You are also welcome to stop by the SBS Forum at MCP Magazine a.k.a. Redmond Magazine and post a question, I tend to hang out there a lot (I am the forum moderator). Or if you find yourself in the Triad North Carolina area, stop by my IT Pro Group Triad SBS Group which is a chapter of SMBTN the Small & Medium Business Technology Network.

Hi Gang,

My pal Vlad convinced me to try his blogging service and since I liked the way I could use my own url Blog.SBS-Rocks.com I gave it a try. So far I really like it so if you are looking for new content from me take a look at the new blog http://blog.sbs-rocks.com

See Y’all Round the virtual watercooler,
HA

http://www.vladville.com/2007/07/are-you-going-to-smb-nation.html 

So let me start out by thanking you Vlad for including me in the riff-raff, for I couldn’t think of any group I would rather spend time with than the SBS Community. And I for one am glad that Harry was wise enough to listen to us and yes even you when we all told him at the end of last years conference that SMB Nation was broken. I am greatful that he put it in Dana and Arlin’s capable hands to bring it back to it rightful place as THE Must Attend SMB Conference, and I will certinally be there to do what I can to support him, them and my community of fellow Riff-Raff. Sometimes it is not about the value that you are going to get, it is about the value that you can add. I sure hope you reconsider coming because I think you have allot to offer the SMB Community, if only they weren’t so affraid of ending up on your blog. I for one will not only be at SMB Nation but I will be wearing a shirt at least one of the days that says Rif Raf and Proud of it! Susan is your shirt guy taking orders :>)