Windows

Running a “datacenter”

It has been way too long since my last post.

In my spare time, along with two other partners, I run a virtualization datacenter in a collocation facility. In addition to generating income, it also serves as an excellent test lab for open source products. It is my conviction that the small business market can seriously benefit from open source applications.

Pfsense, for example, will match up to any mid-level commercial router/firewall for a fraction of the cost (hardware needed to run pf). Virtualization further reduces this expense. Much of the current server hardware in use today will run VMware ESXi (not open source, but no charge). VMware estimates that most desktop and server hardware is only in use 5-15% of the time. Server virtulization reduces physical storage space, cooling requirements, energy consumption, all part of total cost of ownership. VMware certainly is not the only server virtualization host available. Check out offerings from MS, Citrix or Ubuntu. There are others as well.

Note: yes, ESXi is 100% $FREE. There is no requirement to purchase support.

For data storage, we have successfully proven (many times over) that linux (Ubuntu server) NFS is a solid, valid option for shared storage. Production MS Windows and *nix-based virtual machines run flawlessly. MS Windows Server 2008 (all versions) runs particularly well in a virtual environment.

Note: MS Enterprise license allows four instances of server to be installed on a virtual host. Further reduction of expense.

Virtualization is also excellent as a test platform. Windows or *nix servers and desktops can be spun up very rapidly on a single host. I will frequently load a server to install an application evaluation. There is no fear of corrupting existing production servers. If I choose not to use the app, I simply delete the vm and resources are recovered.

I am also successfully using an open source VoIP PBX. Various distributions based on asterisk are very strong and offer all of the common phone system features found in key systems and even pbx.

Today’s take-away: check out virtualization. Check out open source. The benefits will  be clear. The savings will be immediate.

Sharepoint error: Cannot connect to the configuration database

Starting seeing this on a few clients servers after a recent patch management cycle. It appears to be KB934525 that takes the blame here. After attempting a repair install on one of the systems I eventually found this buried at the bottom of some page that references KB934525. Your application event log will most likely be full of these:

Unknown SQL Exception 33002 occured. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.

Access to module dbo.proc_getObjectsByClass is blocked because the signature is not valid.

The long and short of it is this: Try running the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard and accept the defaults. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, read on for more…

Post-installation information
After you apply this hotfix package, you must run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

To do this, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

Important Because of a problem with the hotfix installation, you must not run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to complete the installation if you are running a Windows SharePoint Services stand-alone installation that uses the Windows Internal Database Engine. Instead, you must use the Psconfig.exe command-line utility. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Change to the following directory:
system drive\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin
3. Run the following command:
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b
If you ran the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, you may experience a long delay, and the wizard may not be completed successfully.

Alternatively, the configuration process may be unsuccessful, and you may receive the following error messages:

Configuration Failed
An exception of type System.Data.SQLClient.SQLException was thrown. Additional exception information access to module dbo.proc_MSS_GetConfigurationProperty is blocked because the signature is not valid.
Additionally, the following event may be logged in the Application log:

Event ID: 5586
Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3
Unknown SQL Exception 33002 occured.
Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.
Access to module dbo.proc_MSS_GetConfigurationProperty is blocked because the signature is not valid.

If you experience these issues, use the Psconfig.exe command to manually complete the installation of the hotfix.

–himuraken

Hyper9 GuessMyOS

This falls under the category of Fun Apps. I recently installed GuessMyOS by Hyper9 (who make several virtualization management apps). This is a plugin for VI3 and vSphere4 client. GuessMyOS replaces the generic VM icons with OS-specific for Linux and Windows. Personally I like seeing the penguin.
This is tied to the client so must be enabled for each client instance.

Hyper9

– habanero_joe

VMware View 4 Evaluation

After attending the VMware View 4 Launch tour in Tampa a couple of weeks ago, I loaded up the evaluation to give it a good field test.

NOTE: I recommend reading the documentation BEFORE installing…

A few points to consider prior to rolling out the product:
1) View Server requires a MS Windows Server (2008 is not supported yet) that is a domain member.
2) View Composer requires vCenter Server and is installed as a service on vCenter.
3) So far only Windows desktop OS is supported.
4) There is a 32-bit Open Source client available (Google it).

Note: View Composer is not required to evaluate View but it is worth the slightly extra work to see it in action. Composer certainly makes it easier to rapidly create multiple desktops from a single template.

Observations after a couple of weeks:
After the initial set up, I have not had to do anything other than reboot the View Server after it became non-responsive. This caused a seemingly unrelated error when trying to connect with View Client.

My next steps are to get the Open Source Client working and hopefully to get a PCoIP “zero client” device to test. My initial thought is why would I connect to a Windows desktop from a Windows desktop?

More later…

– habanero_joe

Recreate OWA Virtual Directory IIS7 / Exchange 2007

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

Breath a little life into your Small Business Server

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

Hiding Windows User Accounts

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.

User Pending Deletion in BES/BPS

Ran into this one today… Client’s BlackBerry Professional server 1 user license and I had to remove the user from the configuration. After several minutes I attempted to add the user back in and was told that I was out of licenses. The status page showed that a total of one user(s) was configured, while the user page showed zero. I restarted all services and attempted a few other things before running into the following commands which worked immediately.

1. Open a command prompt on the BES/BPS database server and run osql -E

2. Next, enter the following commands one line at a time, pressing enter after each command:
-a. use BESMgmt
-b. select DisplayName from UserConfig
-c. go

3. You should get a name(returned) by the database.
-a. use BESMgmt
-b. delete from UserConfig where DisplayName="name-to-remove"
-c. go

You can now open or refresh the BlackBerry Manager and check the number of licensed users which will not be minus one.

–Himuraken