Journeys of a cranky community organizer..
RSS icon Email icon Home icon
  • Where is blog.sbs-rocks.com?

    Posted on April 29th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    Well a couple of weeks ago the gods of bits and bytes decided to sacrifice my blog for some unknown reason.

    All attempts by mere mortals to restore or resurrect it from the ashes have failed.

    What you see here is a last ditch attempt to save some of the content from my NewsGator Aggregator thanks to a an idea from the Diva herself. So please be patient as I restore these pages one at a time without losing too much hopefully. And please excuse the dates being completely out of whack.

  • Seiko Labels from CRM?

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    One of the members of my group was looking for a way to print a label for a contact from CRM to his Seiko Smart Label Printer. I told him unfortunatley there was no single click button like in Outlook, even with the Outlook client loaded, the Smart Capture sees no data. I told him I had a work around and in putting together a small how to for him, it seemed like a good thing to share here and maybe someone will reply with a more elegant solution (are you out there Anne?).

    What we did was to create a Word mail merge document and save it. Then you highlight the contact you want a label for and open the saved merge doc and merge it and then hit the Seiko icon in Word to print the label I used this label which is close to the SPL-2RL we use.
    .I used this label

    Go through the steps for the first mail merge to labels and save it when it looks like this
    Click to enlarge

    Then when ever you need a label just highlight the contact in CRM and click Actions, Mail Merge, and New Document from Existing Document

    New from Existing Document
    and then click the Seiko icon in Word.

    Click to enlarge

    So like I said it is not the most elegant solution, but it does beat typing out each label.

    Maybe one of these days Seiko will give us a button like the one in Word.

     

  • A Day in the Life of HA

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    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

     

  • This can only happen to HA

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    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.

    ATM Problems

     

  • oops, ha is too quick to blame this morning

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    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.
    Identity Crisis

    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 :>)

     

  • Hide User from Gal

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    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 listsHide User from GAL

    double click image to enlarge it.

     

  • In regards to your question about streaming audio

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy 1 comment

    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 :>)

     

  • So you don’t know who HandyAndy is?

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    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 . 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

  • Storage Craft Shadow Protect IT Edition

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    Tonight I did a demo of Storage Craft Shadow Protect IT Edition 3.0 for my IT Pro Group, Triad SBS Group and they asked me to post the steps I followed during the demo. So for all of them and anyone else who may be interested here is what I did to image an SBS 2003 Premium with CRM SBE from a single processor Intel desktop class machine to a dual processor Intel Xeon server. This system had 6 partitions and was about 24 Gb of used disk space. I completed the entire process in a little over an hour enlarging all the partitions in the process. What follows are my notes to myself to do the demo.

    1. Make sure DSRM password is known!!
    2. Make sure drive lettering is known!!
    3. Make sure IP Addressing is know and which nic will be which!!
    4. Backup from live SBS (20 min) (did ya notice nothing is installed to the system)
    5. Mention issue with vpc and usb drives, recommend VM Ware for testing to avoid usb problems
    6. Restore 6 partitions and run HIR (20 min) (don’t forget, refresh volumes as you create partitions)
    7. Boot DSRM load Intel Inf’s & fix drive lettering on this pass (10 min)
    8. Make sure nics are connected to active hub/switch
    9. Boot Safe w/network (10 min) (will need to wait for network timeout)
    10. Check if nic drivers loaded (load if necessary) configure IP addresses and order (5 min)
    11. Final Boot (5 min)
    12. Rerun CEICW, check logs (5 min)

  • Shadow Protect Enable Lan Communications

    Posted on April 8th, 2009 iamhandyandy No comments

    New Article on my SBS-Rocks.com website
    Shadow Protect Enable Lan Communications
    a.k.a. How to create an XP Firewall Exception GPO in SBS

    So as you may know I have been working with imaging products and have pretty much settled on Storage Craft’s products.Well I hit a road block the other day trying to control the desktopversions of Shadow Protect from the Shadow Protect Server Console.

    This article explains how to allow these communications as well as being a good intro to the XP Firewall GPO.

    Enjoy,
    HA

    Updated 6/22/2007 Thankx to Bob Haley who just wrote and sent me an ADM Template for Shadow Protect, I have updated the article on my site with the new instructions Shadow Protect Enable Lan Communications