In order to rename a Windows system remotely you need to use the NETDOM command:
The command has been knocking about for a while now and is standard in Windows 2008. In Windows 2003 you can find it in the Windows Resource Tool Kit
Example:
netdom renamecomputer old_name /newname:new_name /userd:domain_admin_login /passwordd:domain_admin_pwd |
netdom renamecompuer domold-W7 /newname:domnew-W7 /userd:administrator /passwordd:Passw0rd |
Arrrhhh! Why did Microsoft do with the Windows 7 start menu stored/saved shortcuts location?
What ever happened to just dumping it in the C:\Users\Public\Start Menu?? – I’m sure some boffin will say there was a good reason behind this? You can find the locations here:
User Start Menu Items: (I’ve listed the combination of getting to this)
Share Start Menu Items:
I’ve been working with the windows backup. One downside of this in Windows 2008 is that you can’t schedule a routine backup job to a network device. A work around is use a scheduled task and the WBAdmin tool.
Scheduled Task: (Create a scheduled task and us the following switches)
wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:\\server\backup$\ -vssFull -allCritical -quiet |
This command will backup the entire drive including a system image. I don’t think the “allcritical” will work if you then specify items to exclude.
Show Backups Running:
Wbadmin get status |
Full list of switches: cc742083
From all the reading I have done on SSDs this is a known list of best practices in order to minimise read/write and maintain its health for longer:
Disable SuperFetch (Windows 7) this performs the same as Prefetch:
Disable Disk Defragmenter Schedule (Windows 7):
Disable/Move Pagefile (Windows 7):
Disable Disk Indexing (Windows 7):
Also disable the Search Service
Active Directory Trust Relationships
Windows Remote Management (WinRM) required by Windows Remote Shell command-line tool, Winrs, event forwarding, and Windows PowerShell 2.0.
WinRM service starts automatically on Windows Server 2008, but must be started manually on Windows Vista.
Performs the following operations:
Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384372(v=vs.85).aspx
With the migration of many BPOS accounts to Office 365 there have been some major changes to the back-end resulting in a different method connecting via PowerShell in order to use command line syntax.
To use the PowerShell command line syntax for Office 365 you first need to initiate a connection to the 365 servers:
Powershell using “Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell”
You may experience the following error when running Powershell Commands:
“File cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system”
You can run this command to remove the execution restriction.
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted |
In order to carryout an offline domain join you can use the following steps using an admin account or permissions to perform domain joins etc:
Logon to Domain Controller or Server (2008 / 2008R2)
djoin /provision /domain mydomain.com /Machine WorkstationName /SaveFile C:\Off-CLI.DJoin |
/domain – Specifies the name of the domain to join.
/Machine – Specifies the name of the computer that you want to join to the domain.
/SaveFile – Saves provisioning data to a file.
Logon to the client PC/Workstation/Laptop (Windows 7)
djoin /RequestODJ /Loadfile C:\OFF-CLI.Djoin /LOCALOS /WINDOWSPATH %systemroot% |
/Loadfile – Specifies the output from a previous provisioning command. (Where the offline file is)
/LOCALOS – Specifies the path to the Windows directory of the offline image.
/WINDOWSPATH – Specifies the path to the Windows directory of the offline image. (who doesn’t put this on c:\??
Don’t try and run this same piece of import code for other machines. The djoin import is unique to the PC name, therefore you will create a conflict. I found this out the hard way by getting “The trust relationship between this workstation and primary domain failed.” Error. If you do get this error message simply run through “My Computer -> Properties -> “Network ID” Wizard” or remove it from the domain and rejoin.
This is a nice little method for easy domain join, although have found that even with the system added to the domain you still can’t login as a user in order to create/setup their profile, so without a fully automated install / setup process it doesn’t save much time.
Microsoft DJoin Syntax: http://goo.gl/J7vsV
When using Logmein the local printer is automatically redirect to the server/pc by default. This can be turned off by either deleting the printer from “devices & printers” or unticking the printer on the logmein icon bar. Unfortunately the printer will simply reattached itself when you logoff / logon again. In order to stop printer redirection permanently you will need to update the use this regedit (this was confirmed by logmein support 2011/12/22)
I was experiencing the problem with users of a terminal server remotely printing to my PC by default while I was “admining” the server.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\LogMeIn\V5\RemoteControl]
"EnableRemotePrinting"=dword:00000000
Setup of “Remote Desktop Services Profile” Paths.
This allows the direction/location of user profiles when using “RDS” although this process may seem straight forward, I forgot the config for this (must have been one of those days)
You can also configure this using GPO which will overide this setting. The GPO is located under: “Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Profiles”
If you get the “Your interactive logon privilege has been disabled” in the RDP connection you need to untick the “Deny this user permission to log on to any Terminal Server” Again this can be set using GPO.
Remember the “Local Path” is purely for a local drive i.e. C:\ D:\ and the Profile path can be mapped to a hidden share, this will prevent users getting confused where their files are if they also operate from a home folder which is visible on the network.
Excellent Best Practice on folder redirection in RDS here: http://goo.gl/aF5kB (Probably best just to follow this guide for it all)
Sources: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742820.aspx
This issue can be resolved via a GPO. Unfortunately Office 2010 GPOs are not integrated into the standard GPOs within Windows Server so require an additional download.
Finding out MAC address using ping and IP address
Finding out MAC address using NBTSTAT and machine name.
Finding out MAC on local host
Updating “Remote Desktop Services Default Connection” text
Server 2008 R2
Edit the entry in the RDWebAccess.Config file.
C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\App_Data\RDWebAccess.Config (Default location)
Server 2012 (Powershell):
set-RDWorkspace SYNTAX Set-RDWorkspace [-Name] [-ConnectionBroker] [-Name] |
Example:
set-RDWorkspace -Name "My Remote Desktop Name here BLAH BLAH" |
Adding “Remote Desktop” icon to the Remote Apps list:
Click on Parameters and select the Always use the following command-line parameters. Type the following in the text box: /v: <FQDN of the RDSH server>.
References:
Just a quick not to clarify what each option actually does…
Disconnect: Disconnects a user from a session. The session remains attached to the terminal server in the disconnected state and currently running applications continue to run. When you attempt to reconnect to the server, you are reconnected to the same session from which you disconnected, even if you are reconnecting from a different computer. Applications that were left open when you disconnected remain running when you reconnect to the session, with no loss of data.
Reset: Enables you to delete a session instantly. Be aware that resetting a user’s session without warning can result in loss of data at that session. Reset a session only when it malfunctions or appears to have stopped responding.
Loggoff: Enables you to log off a user from a session on the server. Be aware that logging off a user without warning can result in loss of data at the user’s session. When you log off a user, all processes end and the session is deleted from the server.
Source: technet.microsoft.com
HP Microserver 1: AMD Athlon II Neo N36L 1GB RAM 160GB (P/N: 612275-421)
I finally got round to benchmarking some Graphics cards on the HP Microserver. Although I have not played around with much benchmarking before I thought I would start here as it seems to be a hot topic at present.
My first thoughts were “What do people really want out of the HP Microserver?” – Originally I wanted it as a replacement to my Acer Aspire Revo 3600 and run it as my dedicated HTPC. However this developed through time to become a replacement for my NETGEAR MS2000 Stora NAS while streaming the shares and content to my Acer Aspire Revo 3600 running XBMC.
I was previously using the Negear Stora, but was not satisfied that if the drive failed that I could easily get the data from one of the mirrored disks due to its XFS file system. There are some guides to doing this and I played around with accessing the XFS HDD from a Linux VM but this got quite messy and I had to refer to the good old rule “K.I.S.S.” therefore decided to purchase 2 x 2TB hard drives for the Microserver, RAID1 them and then dump all my media onto here and share using the Dreamspark version of Windows Server 2008 with shared folders. A nice method, however this didn’t allow me to use Streaming Media to my DNLA enabled devices, TV, iPhone, WDTVLive & other Windows 7 Computers.
With the release of Windows Home Server 2011 and dedicated DNLA support I decided I would install this as a VM on top of Windows Server 2008 R2 – 100% NOT SUPPORTED and definately frowned upon by many. But it is all in the name of testing and experimenting with the system. The reason I did this was that in order that I was still able to play around with Hyper-V and Windows Server 2011.
HP Microserver Number 2: AMD Athlon II Neo N36L 1GB RAM 250GB (P/N: 633724)
I recently purchased my 2nd Microserver to play around with Citrix Xen Server and would allow my current Windows Server/Home Server 2011 to stay in one piece. Xen works fine on this box, however I have not put it to the test and only had a limited number of VM’s on the system so will look at the development of this later on.
Following on from my original article I decided to see how well the performance was of the Radeon HD5450 Graphics Card. There has been a lot of talk about whether this card will do a good job as it seemed to be the fastest low profile card (at time of this article) that could be found. To try and improve performance I decided to run with Windows 7 x64 as the base OS, this offered fully supported drivers for all the graphics cards.
Windows 7 was installed on an external HDD and attached using the eSATA connection. A good solution if you don’t want to mess around with the current drives and OS already installed.
I ran through a number of tests on the following cards:
I used the following tools for benchmarking: (There maybe better tools available however as I have only played around with this brief this is what I went with)
Passmark Performance Test Scores
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3D Mark Vantage
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PC Mark 7
CPUID Temperature Tests
Power Tests:
Another question I always asked myself was whether the Microserver could be left on all day without costing too much and eating up too much power? The results from a electric meter gave a good indication to this and looks similar to leaving a couple of lights on.
Wattage when Idle (GF8400GS Card, 1 x eSATA & 2 x SATA HDD)
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Wattage when Underload (GF8400GS Card, 1 x eSATA & 2 x SATA HDD)
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I always wondered what the “Managed By” tab was when displaying the properties of a Distribution or Security Group in Active Directory. By adding a user to the “Managed By” tab they can then be delgated to modify distribution lists using Outlook, obviously this helps with admin tasks and people complaning at you when someone is not in the list!!
Checking what users are part of the Distribution group in Outlook
Modifying Distribution group in Outlook (For the delegated user selected in the previous step “Managed By” tab)
Having created a RAID1 mirror using the AMD SB8xx SATA RAID, I recently faced the following problem:
“Logical Drive “HDD” Goes Critical”.
This error would be directly related to disk failure! I decided not to replace the 250GB HDD but instead remove the RAID array and keep as a single logical drive (no RAID). This would prevent the error from displaying eachtime Windows loads. The problem I had was with the wording “Press Ctrl+Y to delete the data on the disk!” prompt when deleting the RAID. Not sure if this meant all HDD Data or just the RAID Data. Rather than taking any chances with precious data, I backed it up before proceeding with the changes…
To Confirm: The removal / dismount of the RAID Array can be done so without any loss of data or disruption to the system workings. I am simply reporting my experience!
Note: This is using the same RAID chipset as the HP Microserver, but actually on a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H (Socket M2) Motherboard
I recently got my hands on the Asus Ge-force 210 and thought I’d reiterate, although a good looking card with a double width low profile bracket, the heatsink clearly won’t fit in the HPMS.
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After a bad day with a Windows Server 2003 AD failure I had to do a system state restore using Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM)
How hard could it be?? F8 in the BIOS before the Windows start right? Wrong!
This was on a HP Proliant ML310 G5 with multiple RAID & ILO devices using F8 as their configuration options, therefore every-time I pressed F8 (trying not to miss my window) I’d simply keep going into these config screens.
The Fix:
Wait until the initial RAID & ILO has loaded and processed to the next item then keep pressing “F5”
Yes F5 not F8!
It all started off with this problem, after being all scatty and trying to get my head around the issue I thought I’d need to document this, hopefully to give a better sequence of debugging the issue rather than the mad chicken running round with no head!…
Problem:
Checks:
Cause:
Solution:
@echo off
rem Script to clean up disk space on SBS 2008 servers
rem Downloaded from SBSfaq.com
rem V1.0 – March 28th, 2010rem Certificate Services Logs
net stop “Active Directory Certificate Services”del c:\windows\system32\certlog\*.log
del c:\windows\system32\certlog\*.chk
del c:\windows\system32\certlof\*.jrs
net start “Active Directory Certificate Services”rem IIS Log Files
Del C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\*.log /f /s
Fix:
Once the disk space issue was addressed we could then restart the “Exchange Transport” service. This then kicked Exchange back into life, although it didn’t comeback up instantly! And the service was restarted a few times for it to register (not sure the reason for this)
Although this has resolved the problem for now, we will need to move the Exchange DB off the C:\ (not sure why there in the first place) so this doesn’t become an issue again…
Move the Exchange Server Data
Links which helped (Thank you)