Category: Microsoft

ADK for Windows 8.1 Preview Available

Here is a quick summary of the changes in ADK for Windows 8.1. MDT 2013  and ConfigMgr 2012 R2 requires ADK for Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1 Image Size (Preview)
  • Windows 8.1 Preview Code Image (x86), 2.13 GB (WIM), 7.65 GB expanded on disk.
WinPE 5.0
  • Profiling in WinPE 5.0 is removed
  • WinPE 5.0 x64 supports 4 TB of RAM (still 64 GB for x86)
  • Scratchspace set automatically to 512 MB when having more than 1 GB of RAM, otherwise 32 MB
USMT 6.3
  • Support for Windows 8.1
  • You cannot use USMT 6.3 to migrate settings from Windows XP to Windows 8.1
  • Supports Office 2013 (hotfix available for USMT 5.0).
Windows 8.1 Upgrade / Update
  • You are likely to have more free space available on the disk after upgrading Windows 8 to Windows 8.1
  • Windows 8.1 upgrade time, less than 20 minutes
Misc. Updates
  • Export compressed recovery image (/Export-Image)
  • Cleanup base components when superseded. (/StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase)

 Download

Office Web Apps 2013 KB2592525 not installing

I’ve recently installed Office Web Apps 2013. The installation is straight forward and documented on Technet . However, there was on tricky issue. KB2592525 is a prerequisite and the PS New-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet checks if the KB2592525 is installed. I was installing on a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with all the actual patches. But KB2592525 was not installed and the KB2592525 installer refused to install on this machine. One way to get around this issue is to force the update using pkgmgr.

  1. Download KB2592525 to folder on your system
  2. Create a new folder called “files”
  3. Extract the MSU: expand Windows6.1-KB2592525-x64.msu –F:* .\install
  4. go to files
  5. Install using Pkgmgr: pkgmgr.exe /n:c:\install\Windows6.1-KB2592525-x64.xml

That’s it, and the New-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet will accept this workaround.

How to Improve Move Request Performance in Exchange 2010

This article provides step-by-step procedure about How to Improve Move Request Performance in Exchange 2010.

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service is responsible for Mailbox Move requests.
MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config is Mailbox move request configuration file located in the following location: <Exchange Installation Path>\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin

How to Improve Move Request Performance in Exchange 2010:
1. Go to Exchange Mailbox Server
2. Navigate to the <Exchange Installation Path>\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin folder
3. Make a backup copy of MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config before making any changes in it.
4. Open the Original MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config file in notepad.
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5.Modify the following values to increase the performance
MaxActiveMovesPerSourceMDB = “50″
MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB = “50″
MaxActiveMovesPerSourceServer = “200″
MaxActiveMovesPerTargetServer = “200″
MaxTotalMovesPerMRS = “300″
6. Save the file and Close it
7. Go to Services console
8. Restart the Microsoft Mailbox Replication Service

Windows 2008 (R2) Network tuning to Increase Move mailbox Speed:
1. Go to Start –> Command prompt –> Right Click –> Click Run as administrator
2. Execute the following command: netsh int tcp show global
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3. Disable TCP Chimney Offload and Receive Side Scaling on the network adapters
netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled
netsh int tcp set global rss=disabled
4. Run the following command and make sure Chimney Offload State & Receive-Side Scaling State is disabled.
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5. Restart the Server.

Configuring disks to use VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters

PVSCSI adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. PVSCSI adapters are best suited for environments, especially SAN environments, where hardware or applications drive a very high amount of I/O throughput. PVSCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments.

This table shows the support matrix for use of Paravirtual SCSI adapters for data disks and boot disks for the various guest operating systems and ESX versions. Support shown in the table is from the listed ESX/ESXi version and later versions.

Guest operating system

Data Disk

Boot Disk

Windows Server 2012 (64 bit only)

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi 5.1

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi 5.1

Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit only)

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows XP (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Because the default type of newly hot-added SCSI adapter depends on the type of primary (boot) SCSI controller, hot-adding a PVSCSI adapter is only supported for those versions that support booting from a PVSCSI adapter.

Paravirtual SCSI adapters also have these limitations:

  • Hot add or hot remove requires a bus rescan from within the guest.
  • Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains when used on Paravirtual SCSI adapters if memory on the ESX host is overcommitted.

Exchange Server 2013 Architecture Poster

Microsoft released the Exchange Server 2013 Architecture Poster.
To download just click on the picture

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ADK for Windows 8.1.

News. Teched is coming… New version of ADK & MDT 2013

Here is a quick summary of the changes in ADK for Windows 8.1. MDT 2013 and ConfigMgr 2012 R2 requires ADK for Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1 Image Size (Preview)

  • Windows 8.1 Preview Code Image (x86), 2.13 GB (WIM), 7.65 GB expanded on disk.

WinPE 5.0

  • Profiling in WinPE 5.0 is removed
  • WinPE 5.0 x64 supports 4 TB of RAM (still 64 GB for x86)
  • Scratchspace set automatically to 512 MB when having more than 1 GB of RAM, otherwise 32 MB

USMT 6.3

  • Support for Windows 8.1
  • You cannot use USMT 6.3 to migrate settings from Windows XP to Windows 8.1
  • Supports Office 2013 (hotfix available for USMT 5.0).

Windows 8.1 Upgrade / Update

  • You are likely to have more free space available on the disk after upgrading Windows 8 to Windows 8.1
  • Windows 8.1 upgrade time, less than 20 minutes

Misc. Updates

  • Export compressed recovery image (/Export-Image)
  • Cleanup base components when superseded. (/StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase)

Active Directory Replication Status Tool

The Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS) analyzes the replication status for domain controllers in an Active Directory domain or forest. ADREPLSTATUS displays data in a format that is similar to REPADMIN /SHOWREPL * /CSV imported into Excel but with significant enhancements.
Specific capabilities for this tool include:

    • Expose Active Directory replication errors occurring in a domain or forest
    • Prioritize errors that need to be resolved in order to avoid the creation of lingering objects in Active Directory forests
    • Help administrators and support professionals resolve replication errors by linking to Active Directory replication troubleshooting content on Microsoft TechNet
    • Allow replication data to be exported to source or destination domain administrators or support professionals for offline analysis

System Requirements

Supported Operating System

Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista, Windows XP

      • ADREPLSTATUS does not install on server core installs of Windows
      • Windows 2000 not supported due to lack of support for .NET Framework 4.0

    Domain membership requirements:

      • Must be joined to the Active Directory domain or forest you intend to monitor

    .NET Framework requirements:

      • .NET Framework 4.0 (you may be prompted to install .NET Framework 3.5.1 first on Windows Server 2008)

    Required User Credentials:

      • Target forest/domain user account

    Supported DC OS versions that can be monitored by ADREPLSTATUS:

      • Windows Server 2003
      • Windows Server 2003 R2
      • Windows Server 2008
      • Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows Server 2012

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Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (SP3) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2010 SP3 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2010 SP3 customers.
For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB2803727.

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Active Directory Accidental Deletion – Prevention

Accidental deletions in active directory can cause havoc and unfortunately. This may have been avoided and secondly could have been fixed in less than 10 % of the actual time spent if the environment was using one of the latest features that we included in Windows 2008 R2 ( Active Directory Recycle Bin ). Most critical situations arise due to accidental human /tool interference or configuration and it is important to be able to come out of such situations within minimal down time, Accidental Deletion in Active Directory is one such situation.

Powershell Enable Protected From Accidenta lDeletion:
Get-ADobject -Filter * -SearchBase “DC=wardvissers,DC=local” | Set-adobject -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $true

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