Kicking and Screaming I am Bloggin

So when last we visited our hero, oops wrong story :>)

This past weekend I had another project involving imaging and I found another big gotcha to watchout for. I was using ShadowProtect, but I have a feeling it is not vendor specific. I had forgotten that I wanted to write it up on here until I got a note from Mark Berry thanking me for the original article on Shadow Protect.

This happened to be a larger SBS System and had two different RAID Controller Cards installed in it. One talked to the RAID-5 Array that held the OS and the working files and the other talked to an External High-Rely 7 Bay HotSwap Rack.

Over time the drives in the system array had been swapped out for larger drives and we now had a full set of 300Gb drives in place of the original 120Gb drives. Since this was an older card and didn’t support growing the arrays naively, I decided the easiest course of action would be to take an image of the partitions, blow away the array, recreate it and lay the image back down into larger partitions.

Well being a belt and suspenders kind of guy, I wanted a fallback position or two, so I got there the day before and pulled a new live image with Shadow Protect, then let the back run that night and came in, in the morning verified the backup and did a cold image booting from the SP IT Version CD.  At this point I was pretty confident I was covered so I blew away the array. I created the new array, watched my life tick by as it built parity and then created my partitions and did the restore. Image my surprise when instead of booting it came back and said no boot device found. This was the same hardware, nothing removed or added, it should have just worked.

Ok I thought maybe a problem with the MBR, I will just restore the C drive again and this time take the choice to put down a new MBR. No joy, same error. Ok don’t panic grab that Windows Server R2 install disk boot to the repair console and run fixmbr. Well you guessed it, still no boot device found.

Ok so here is the rub, when you delete the partitions the BIOS on the server board adjusts itself to look at the other RAID Controller as the boot device, needless to say they are all backup drives and none has a MBR, so it just comes back and reports no boot device.

So if you see this message after you do a restore from an image, check your boot order in the bios, even if you only have one RAID Controller, it may just move them around on you.

Hope this saves you some of the stress I went through this weekend.

OK so you have your shinny new Vista computer and you want to fax from SBS, pretty reasonable request.

You do have one of the higher end versions of Vista right, the crippled (less expensive) versions don’t include the fax at all.

OK first make sure you have the ripcurl patches.

Next open a hole in your Vista Firewall,

Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet, Windows Firewall.

On the right click Allow a program through the firewall.

Click OK to the UAC prompt

When the window opens click the add program button

Scroll down to Windows Fax and Scan, highlight it

OK your way all the way out.

Now open the Windows Fax and Scan applet from Start, All Programs.

Click on Fax at the bottom left corner.

Click on Tools, Fax Accounts

Click on the New Button.

Select Connect to a Fax Server (the second choice)

OK here is the tricky part, if you read the directions it looks like it is saying \\servername\fax but look really closley, it is saying \\servernamefax which is really misleading. What you want to put in this box is just \\servername

Once you do this, you will be happily looking at your fax console like nothing ever changed.

Ok, so by now I am sure you have heard that MS released a Best Practices Analyser for SBS, but did you know they also now have a Q&A Page for the BPA?

I am going to have to start reading their blog more often, it is just chalk full of goodies :>)

Direct Link for the BPA KB

Direct Link for the DOWNLOAD

A couple of days ago I get a request from my pal Harry of SMB Nation fame to answer a request from a reader of SMB Partner Community Magazine, of course I said I would do what I could.

Turns out the reader was looking for a way to track when folks logged on and off their computers. Boy did I luck out on this one, just so happens I had to solve this for a client a couple of years ago.

Here is what I did, maybe it can help you also,

First we need to create a share on the server lets call it Logging and lets give everybody write access to it. Make sure the system, the adminsitrator and the company owner has full access to it.

Next lets create a couple of batch files

Note: remove ” on the lines that follow, everything between the quotes is on one line

One we will call “LogOnWhen.cmd”

it will contain one line

“echo %COMPUTERNAME%,%USERNAME%,LogOn,%DATE%,%TIME% >> \\ServerName\Logging\%USERNAME%.csv“

The other one we will call “LogOffWhen.cmd”

and it will aslo contain one line

“echo %COMPUTERNAME%,%USERNAME%,LogOff,%DATE%,%TIME% >> \\ServerName\Logging\%USERNAME%.csv“

Make sure to replace ServerName with the actual name of your server in both lines!

Next create a group policy object or GPO in the advanced section of the SBS Console.

Expand the advanced section and in the GPMC

Here is what it should look like, I called mine Record Logon Logoff, it is always a good idea to use a descriptive name so you remember what it does later.

Once you are happy with your GPO right click on the SBSusers OU and link your new GPO to it.

Make sure to copy the files we created to the directories created in the new GPO

You can find out the QniqueID of your gpo by looking at the Details Tab

Once you know the ID look in the sysvol directory to locate your GPO

Expand the folder for your GPO and put each file in it’s respective directory.

Now you can either reboot your server or run the command “gpupdate /force” from the command line

Now whenever anyone logs on or off their cvs file in the logging directory will be updated.

Originally we had all the info going into the same file, but it turned out to be easier to deal with, having a seperate file for each user.

I did take it one step further and create an Excel Workbook with 1 sheet for each user,  their sheet is linked to the cvs file so the owner can open one file and see whatever he is looking for.

I am sorry but I can not show you the spreadsheets as they contain private info.

Don’t ya just hate those errors in your logs that look like they are about to give you important info and leave you hanging?

Well SBS MVP Wayne Small has written a wonderful How To Post on fixing them.

Wayne uses this for an example:

 The description for Event ID ( 17147 ) in Source ( MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event:

but the process should work for which ever flavor of this error you get.

Once again SBSFAQ.com has not fed us, but has taught us to fish.

Thankx Wayne for taking the time to post this, it has been driving me nuts for a long long time.

While reading one of Vlad’s recent posts I could not help but think of the Law of the Garbage Truck that I recently received in an e-mail from a friend in Germany.

UPDATE Original Author Located, thankx Chris http://www.northstarwriters.com/djp025.htm

I don’t know who wrote this, but is wisdom is immeasurable.

How often do you let other people’s nonsense change your mood?  Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day?  Unless you’re the Terminator, for an instant you’re probably set back on your heels.  However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly they can get back their focus on what’s important.   Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson.  I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here’s what happened.  I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station.  We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.  My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!   The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us.

   My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy.  And I mean, he was friendly.  So, I said, “Why did you just do that?  This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!”  And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck.”

   Many people are like garbage trucks.  They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.  As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it.  And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you.  When someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally.  You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.  You’ll be happy you did.

   So this was it: The “Law of the Garbage Truck.”

   I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me?  And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people:  at work, at home, on the streets?  It was that day I said, “I’m not going to do it anymore.”

   I began to see garbage trucks.  Like in the movie “The Sixth Sense,” the little boy said, “I see Dead People.”  Well, now “I see Garbage Trucks.”  I see the load they’re carrying.  I see them coming to drop it off.  And like my Taxi Driver, I don’t make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

   One of my favorite football players of all time, Walter Payton, did this every day on the football field.  He would jump up as quickly as he hit the ground after being tackled.  He never dwelled on a hit.  Payton was ready to make the next play his best.  Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting.  Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses.

   Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about.

   The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day.

   What about you?  What would happen in your life, starting today, if  you let more garbage trucks pass you by?

Here’s my bet.  You’ll be happier.  Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, So…

   Love the people who treat you right.
   Forget about the ones who don’t.
   Believe that everything happens for a reason.
   If you get a chance, TAKE IT!
   If it changes your life, LET IT!
   Nobody said it would be easy…….They just promised it would be worth it!  Have a Blessed Day!

It never fails no matter how well I plan and prepare for these little projects like this, life hits me square in the nose.

So you remember a week or so ago I was struggling with winpe in preparation for my trip? Well fast forward, here I am. Confident because I did all those fire drills, right?

WRONG!

Let me share my weekend with you, please excuse these rough notes, they were meant for my records, but my friend Jeff said I should share them here just to once again drive home the point, you need to have lots of options for dr and/or migrations.

Enjoy,

Saturday Morning
Clean up system, temps , uninstalls, ect
shutdown workstations
open box to add rocket raid, wrong slot
switch to plan B or is that E by now
research adding driver without card
run install hardware, force from cp
add portable drive to orginal server to image to
stop uneeded services, exch, sql & qb
disconnect wan
disable AV
start SP Image 10:45
finish SP Image 11:30
Create Partitions on new server
Start Sp Restore 11:50
Finish SP Restore 12:48
Will not boot to dsrm
run hir, still will boot to dsrm or normal
go eat lunch 1:10
install paralell w2k3
upgrade to sp2, ok
still no joy
Talk to Jeff, recommends checking hal’s
same hals, same hal versions
no minidumps, mount system hive, looks like it is set correct
Talk to Jeff again, says it sounds like video driver issue
reconfigure original server
removed video driver set back to default vga
resetup for minidump in gui
enabled AV
connect wan
maybe I need to quit for the evening
will try again tomorrow
outta here 5:30

ps check tomorrow if pagefile exists on %systemroot%

Sunday,

verify last night’s backup
connect portable drive
disconnect wan
turn off av
disable qb
move isa logs to C, delete old logs on W (it couldn’t hurt)
verify page file on D is large enough
verify autoreboot disabled
Verify mindump enabled
Start new sp image 9:19
Finish new sp image 10:10
Start restore 10:26
finish restore 11:11
will not boot to normal
will boot to command prompt
will boot to dsrm, progress
install chipset drivers from dsrm
boot to dsrm, install video drivers
boot to dsrm, install nic drivers & set lan ip address
boot to normal it is now noon
some services won’t start like sql & exchange,
dummy fix the drive letters
boot to dsrm fix J & W
boot to dsrm fix E & G
boot to dsrm fix F
boot normal 12:45
mail flows both ways
time for lunch, me thinks
ok, back to work peon
Time syncing ok
mount High-Rely backup drive from old server still comes up as H
clear logs
Down server and put back in rack
Clean start, yipee
connect offsite drive now K
remap offsite script to new drive letter K
fireup workstations, everybody seems happy
verify SAV updates
company web works
quickbooks works
crm works
Call it a day, the sun is still shining
outta here by 5:00