Ran into an issue today where a clients SBS 2008 server stopped servicing requests made to hostname/owa. I am still unsure as to what caused this issue but find a fairly simple way to recreate the OWA virtual directory for IIS. Many admins are familiar with this procedure / howto for Exchange 2003 but are unable to find something similar for Exchange 2007. While the step that I will describe below is not as in depth as the previous link, it did resolve my issue.
If your OWA is giving you the dreaded 404 treatment try this: Open IIS Manager and delete the OWA virtual directory. Next you will need to open the Exchange Management Shell. Enter in the following command and press enter afterwards: New-OWAVirtualDirectory -OwaVersion:Exchange2007 -Name "OWA" .
That will rebuild / recreate the OWA virtual directory and start accepting client requests immediately. Please note that this recreates the OWA virtual directory under Default Web Site, not under SBS Web Applications like a default SBS / Exchange 2K7 install.
Hopefully, this one liner will save you some trouble.
–Himuraken
RighteousHack welcomes our newest author, Psythian to the blog. Psythian brings years of network and systems insight to our blog. Among other things, Psythian’s expertises lie within the small business and local government markets.
Welcome to the blog Psythian!
–Himuraken
We can all agree that virtualization has numerous benefits. One of the obvious benefits is that virtualization makes systems hardware agnostic. This is one of my favorite features of going virtual. I am responsible for the network operations of many businesses and being able to forget about hardware compatibilities on the OS level is a major advantage.
We experienced the benefits of this ourselves today while upgrading one of our servers. We added additional RAM and changed CPUs. The memory was no surprise, it is rarely an issue. When it is, it is a hardware issue not an OS one. CPU swaps are generally more complex. I have seen many Windows systems become unstable after increasing or decreasing the number of processors/cores.
So when we got the chance to upgrade one of our ESXi servers from two dual core processors over to two quad cores we had to test it. In true anticlimactic fashion everything worked perfectly. The VMware server booted flawlessly and now shows the additional cores and RAM.
So if you can get your hands on upgrade parts or new servers all together, go for it!
–Himuraken
This one seems like an obvious one, but I will post it anyways. Chances are that you have deployed and/or maintain Windows 2003 Small Business Server. Many small businesses purchased SBS during “the good times” of 2003-2008.
Due to the licensing restrictions imposed on the product by Microsoft, these servers are always one boxed. That is to say that they have too many servers and services on the same hardware. Most of these systems are reaching their end of life and are running slower than ever.
These 32bit boxes are usually maxed on RAM (4GB) and are starving for more. Lately I have been auditing the list of installed applications and removing as needed. The memory hog is usually some SQL server running even though it isn’t in use. Take into account Backup Exec, WSUS, SBS Monitoring, and Sharepoint and you begin to see where all that RAM is going. Almost all of my clients have been moved over to a managed services platform which handles Windows Updates and system monitoring. That takes out two standard SQL databases/instances right off the bat.
So the long story short is this: Reevaluate the needs of your aging servers and get more from them by removing obsolete tools.
–Himuraken
RighteousHack welcomes our newest author, KiddAMD to the blog. KiddAMD brings years of network and systems management to our blog. The Kidd has vast experience working with small businesses, web development, and hosting to mention a few.
Welcome to the blog KiddAMD!
–Himuraken
Interested in creating a hidden local maintenance account for a Windows box? Is easy to do, just go to the registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList, create a new dword and name it the exact same as the account you want to hide. A value of “0″ hides the account and a value of “1″ displays it at the welcome screen. That’s all it takes. This works the same on a Vista or Win7 box.
RighteousHack welcomes our newest author, habanero_joe to the blog. Habanero_joe brings years of IT management and hands-on experience to our blog. When asked about himself he simply states that he “Enjoys candle lit dinners and long walks on the beach.” I pretty much have zero questions left after that.
We look forward to the insight and experience that habanero_joe brings to our humble site. We have imported all of habanero_joe’s posts from his Blogger site so that our readers can enjoy his previous posts. You can view his previous blog here.
–himuraken
Woke up nice and early this morning in lovely Tampa, FL for the VMware View Launch Tour. I have been playing around with various virtual technologies for quite awhile now. What I haven’t used at all is any form of VDI or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. In my ever evolving quest to learn all that I can, I signed up for the View Launch Tour so that I could learn more. The event was informative overall, even though the presentations from VMware and Dell contained the usual sales pitches. VMware focused on View, ThinApp, and related technologies while Dell gave a full demo of the Dell EqualLogic SAN. This is the third or fourth time that I have seen a demo on the Equal Logic and I am always impressed with the simplicity of the system. Anyways, desktop virtualization is a rapidly expanding sector in the virtual world and is well worth a look.
You can find additional information on the tour here: VMware View Launch Tour
–himuraken