Friday 25 May 2012

Cannot remove AD using DCPROMO

When running DCPROMO to remove AD from a server and it fails stating that
something cannot be deleted see here:

http://anetconfig.blogspot.com.au/2008/08/active-directory-could-not-be-removed.html

You need to have the Support Tools (On Server 2003) installed and run the
"ntdsutil" tool to remove the offending element.

Thursday 24 May 2012

Install .NET 1.1 on SBS 2011

Installing .NET (dotnet)1.1 on SBS 2011 is to be avoided if possible as upon installation because it aggressively changes the IIS & SBS .NET configuration.
Some of the effects of installing .NET 1.1 include:
- "Companyweb" not working
- "Connect" site not working
- Exchange Management Console not working
- WSUS service not working

A saving grace is that core server functionality is still intact.

If you absolutely must install it (e.g. Quickbooks DB Manager) there is a way around the problem:
After installing the .NET 1.1 package...

This is what I did to restore the server to normal :
- Open admin command prompt
- CD to  c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework64\2.0.50727
- Run the following "aspnet_regiis /i"
- Run the same command in c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework64\v4.0.30319
- Run a repair on the .NET 4 install (from the Control Panel)
- Reboot the server

- Open the IIS Configuration console

- For the highlighted entry - change the Executable path to ..\Framework64\.. rather than \Framework\
(the ..\Framework\.. refers to the 32bit version of .NET 4 which is incompatible)

- Ensure all ASP .NET extensions are allowed

- Ensure that all the Application Pools are set to the correct version of .NET as above. (They are all incorrectly set to v4.0 initially)
- Reboot the server.

You should now have a functional SBS 2011 server with .NET 1.1 installed

I cobbled this solution together from the following sources:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2011/04/16/promise-me-you-won-t-try-to-do-this.aspx
http://brendon.davis.to/2012/02/06/sbs-2011-and-net-framework-1-1/
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrdeploy/thread/cee39a9d-5fa0-496c-89a5-aef857014cc1



Friday 18 May 2012

XenServer - Attach an existing HDD based SR

First off, while the server is turned off, physically connect the HDD
containing the SR you need to attach and boot up. Check BIOS to ensure
drive is detected.

Run the following commands in the XenServer console:

1. pvscan
(the above gets the existing SR UUID to use in next command)

2. xe sr-introduce uuid=93937a2a-bf78-af99-bd75-b275e9211e4c type=ext
name-label="Local EXT3 SR 2" content-type=user

3.ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/
(the above lists the SCSI ID to use in next command)

4.xe pbd-create sr-uuid=93937a2a-bf78-af99-bd75-b275e9211e4c
device-config:device=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_Hitachi_HDS7230_MN1221F30D6L7D
host-uuid=37448bb1-fb14-49e3-8637-5aaf51565289
(the above generates a PBD UUID to use in next command)

5. xe pbd-plug uuid=984a0186-6ec0-1e53-4ee2-cbf204109b91

After that the existing volumes should be listed in XenCenter. You will
need to attach them to the relevant VM in the correct order, etc.

Source:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120962

Monday 14 May 2012

USB Autoplay in Windows

If this feature is not working - add/modify the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000095 (change/set data to 91, 95 is XP
default)

Source:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1127219
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/Cc959381

Additional Source for Win7/Vista:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/fix-windows-7-autoplay-dialog-box-missing-or-not-appear-display-and-pop-up/