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Server 2003 – Large Memory Support

By default, Windows server 2003 standard and 2003R2 standard will only recognize 3GB of physical memory (even though 4GB is supported).

This can be changed by using the “/PAE switch” to allow large memory support. To do this, you will need to edit the boot.ini file on the root drive. The line may look similar to this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /fastdetect /3GB /NoExecute=OptOut

add the /PAE switch:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /fastdetect /3GB /Execute /PAE

Reboot your server. Once back up, your system properties should show this:
Install renewed SSL Certificate on Exchange 2007
This article will show the steps needed to install your renewed SSL certificate.

First step is to aquire the certificate. For this job i used a 3rd party vendor called Go Daddy. Once the certificate had been issued i downloaded it. It came in the form of a zip file which contained 2 files:

“mail.companyname.com.crt” & “gd_iis_intermediates.p7b”. We will use the first one. Importing the new certificate is all via the Exchange Management Shell. These are the steps:
1. Save your certificate somewhere easily accessable. I save to the root directory: “C:mail.companyname.com.crt”
2. Use the Import command. Import-ExchangeCertificate -path c:mail.companyname.com.crt –FriendlyName “mail.companyname.com” This step will also provide the thumbprint, so copy that down for the next step.
3. Use the Enable command. Enable-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint <thumbprint goes here> -Services SMTP, IIS (choose services the certificate will be used for – separated by commas).
4. At this point you may get an error. The reason for this is that due to an error in the import commandlet, exchange will sometimes damage a certificate during install.
5. Now you will need to run the Certificate Repair Utility. First you need to obtain the certificate serial number.

6. We use the command. certutil -repairstore my “4b00f1676b7849″. If done correctly you will see a message “CertUtil: -repairstore command completed successfully. Now you can go back to step 3 and run the Enable command. Now if successful, it will ask if you wish to overwrite the existing default SMTP certificate. Press “a” and enter.

That will be it, you have successfuly imported your new certificate.
Adding a static route – Thompson Speedtouch

To add a static route, you will need to do this via telnet. Putty is the tool i used, it can be downloaded here.

Once you have connected to the speedtouch, you will be presented with a window similar to this:

————————————————————————

                             ______ SpeedTouch 716
                         ___/_____/
                        /         / 6.2.29.2
                  _____/__       /
                _/       /_____/___ Copyright (c) 1999-2007, THOMSON
               //       /        /
       _______//_______/         / _/______
      /      /            /    / /        /
   __/      /          /    / /        / ___
  / /      /     _______/    / /        / /   /
/_/______/___________________/ /________/ /___/
          ___________               /
  _      /          /            ___/
           /          /             /
      _____/          /        ________/
           /__________/          /
              _____       /_____/
             /    /     /___/
             /____/ /
                 /___/
              ____/

————————————————————————
This will mean that you have been logged in succesfully. The following needs to be entered

This is the starting point

_{root}=>ip

We use the route add command
{root}[ip]=>rtadd

This will be the destination subnet
dst = 172.17.2.0

This will be the destination net mask
[dstmsk] = 255.255.255.0

Label (if required)
[label] =

This will be the gateway
[gateway] = 172.16.48.2

The interface to use
[intf] = LocalNetwork

Other info
[srcintf] =
[metric] =

Summary
:ip rtadd dst=172.17.2.0/24 gateway=172.16.48.2 intf=LocalNetwork

Save command
{root}[ip]=>saveall
Assigning IP Details – Linux

If you are like me and have had very little to do with Linux, then there may come a time where you need to either find out or assign a Linux box’s IP details.

Here is a quick guide:

(NB: you will need to be logged in as “root” or use “sudo” before each command).

This is the info you are given:

IP: 192.168.1.5

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.1.1

DNS: 192.168.1.10

If unsure if your NIC has the name “eth0″:

# ifconfig

Assigning the IP address:

# ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

# ifconfig eth0

Assigning the gateway:

# route add default gw 192.168.1.1

Assigning the DNS server:

# nameserver 192.168.1.10

Help:

# ifconfig --help
Cannot Access WebUI for Ebox
I had an error this morning where our client could not connect to their remote server. They were able to connect via the external IP. I was able to ping the VPN box internally and from the remote server. I was however unable to ping any other devices (printer, router etc…) from the remote server.

I assumed there was an error with the VPN box and it would need a rebuild. I came across an article about a log file (collectd.log) using too much space (over a GB). What needs to happen is for that log file to be deleted and for the eBox to be rebooted. This is how i did it:

For this particular case i am connecting via vSphere, if the eBox is local you can connect directly. So this is what i got when connecting via Firefox to the eBox IP (you can also use Chrome)

So what you need to do is access the console in Administrator mode. Ok so close the “timed out” Firefox page. This will put you on the blank eBox dashboard. Right-click and a menu will appear with various options

Choose the second option “Administrator (root) Console”. This will open a command window

At the console type the following:
- cd [press enter]
- cd /var/log [press enter]
- dir [press enter]
Now you will see the file “collectd.log”. We now want to delete that file. So in the console type: rm collect.log [press enter]. Now we need to reboot eBox. At the console type: sudo reboot. You will be prompted for your password. After the reboot your eBox should start normally and reconnect.
Unable to mount Public Datastore after Restore
Today’s IT Support case of the Day.

We had a user at a client in Skipton that decided it would be a good Idea to delete an entire folder in the public folder database in Microsoft Exchange 2007.

After a simple Public folder database restore (as per below) the Store would not mount.

Products : Microsoft Exchnage 2007 SP3 Standard edition backup up by Symantec Backup Exec 12.5

Restore Method:
- Unmount public folder database
- Insert tick in “This database can be over written)
- Run Restore in Backup exec 12.5 select relevent database and logs
- leave all other selections as default
At this stage Backup Exec, informed us that all was Fine and Dandy! So we went to mount the store and promptly recieved error ID 9519:
“Error Database is in inconsistent state starting database “Second Storage GroupPublic Folder Database” on the Microsoft Exchange Information Store.”
and error ID 9518:

“Error Database is in inconsistent state starting Storage Group /DC=local/DC=medic/CN=Configuration/CN=Services/CN=Microsoft Exchange/CN=Medic International/CN=Administrative Groups/CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/CN=Servers/CN=MEDIC-EXCHANGE/CN=InformationStore/CN=Second Storage Group on the Microsoft Exchange Information Store.

MDB failed to start.”

After wiping a bit of sweat from our brow’s we simply ran:</p>

“eseutil /p” on the Database</p>

Below is a dump from the command prompt</p>

C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerMailboxSecond Storage Group>eseutil /p “c:program filesmicrosoftexchange servermailboxsecond storage grouppubl ic folder database.edb”

Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server Version 08.03 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Initiating REPAIR mode…         Database: c:program filesmicrosoftexchange servermailboxsecond stor age grouppublic folder database.edb Temp. Database: TEMPREPAIR8344.EDB

Checking database integrity.

The database is not up-to-date. This operation may find that this database is corrupt because data from the log files has yet to be placed in the database.

To ensure the database is up-to-date please use the ‘Recovery’ operation.
                     Scanning Status (% complete)           0    10   20   30   40   50   60   70   80   90 100           |—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|           ……………………………………………
Scanning the database.

Scanning Status (% complete)
          0    10   20   30   40   50   60   70   80   90 100           |—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|           ……………………………………………
Repairing damaged tables.

Scanning Status (% complete)
          0    10   20   30   40   50   60   70   80   90 100           |—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|           ……………………………………………
Repair completed. Database corruption has been repaired!

Note: It is recommended that you immediately perform a full backup of this database. If you restore a backup made before the repair, the database will be rolled back to the state it was in at the time of that backup.

Operation completed successfully with 595 (JET_wrnDatabaseRepaired, Database cor ruption has been repaired) after 16.954 seconds.

Hope this helps Any further IT Assistance or Microsoft Exchange help, give us a shout @ Comprendo 0845 5274394
Anthony
Backup Exec – Cannot run utilities (Inventory & Eject)

When you try run the utility tasks manually, they fail. You may get a similar error:

Problem: Schedule an eject, the job starts running (or initialising). A few minutes later the Job Status changes from “Running” to “Communication Stalled”. Then after 15 minutes the job fails. The same happens when trying to run an inventory.

Solution: Go to the Devices tab and right-click on the media server. Choose the pause option and leave it paused for a few seconds. Then un-pause it. Next re-start the Backup Exec services. Once the services have re-started, you should have no trouble running the utility operations.

Need help with your backup devices or IT related issues? Contact Comprendo either via email, call 0845 527 4394 or find your nearest branch via our website: http://www.comprendo.co.uk
Extend a Partition on Windows Server 2003
Recently we needed to extend the partition on a Windows 2003 server for an It support customer in Skipton

Follow these steps to extend a partition on your Windows 2003 Server:
1. At a command prompt, type diskpart
2. Type list volume to display the existing volumes on the computer
3. Type Select volume # where volume number is number of the volume that you want to extend.
4. Type extend to extend the partition the remaining free space
This method works great if the storage is local or stored on SAN like an HP EVA. If extending data partition is successful in disk management but it does not show up in Windows Explorer Then Use FSEXTEND to resolve the issue…. Download FSEXTEND, copy it to a folder. Open a command prompt and navigate to the folder. Run FSEXTEND drive letter: and press enter

Make sure that you are on a different partition than the one you are trying to extend.

You can extend a Windows 2003 server system using a Vista workstation. Open system manager on the Vista workstation. Connect remotely to the windows 2003 server with system manager. Open disk manger and right click on the partition you wish to extend and click extend.
CSC Folder – Where did all my disk space go?

Recently I logged onto a Windows XP machine for an IT support customer in Skipton.

Problem: I received an alert that C: was running low on disk space. This was odd because all that is installed on this PC is Office 2003 (the hard disk is 30GB in size). I checked all the usual folders size, all looked normal. No unknown or hidden files or folders.

Solution: Last thing I checked was the size of the Windows folder. It was sitting at 29GB!! on further inspection I saw a hidden folder “CSC”. Turns out that this is the location for stored files (if offline files is enabled). To check this, open up windows explorer, click the tools menu, click folder options. The last tab is “offline files”. If this is enabled, your “CSC” folder will grow!

I disabled offline files and then deleted the CSC folder. Problem solved!
Terminal Services – Client temporary license issue

Problem: Recently I logged onto a Windows XP machine for an IT support customer in Skipton. The client has been logging onto the same Terminal Server and until recently started receiving an error message: “Your terminal service temporary client license will expire in 4 days. You should contact your administrator to get a permanent license.”

Solution: This is easily resolved by editing a registry key on the clients PC.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMSLicensingStore

Remove the licenses from this registry key and try to connect again.

For all other Networking, Software and Hardware problems you can contact Comprendo either via the Main office number 0845 527 4394, the website or email.