Category: Microsoft

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V.

MAP helps make the following IT planning projects faster and easier:

  • Migration to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010
  • Migration to Windows 7 compatible versions of Internet Explorer
  • Migration to cloud-based services
  • Server virtualization with Hyper-V
  • SQL Server consolidation and migration to SQL Server 2008 R2
  • Assessment of current software usage and client access history for simplified software asset management
  • PC security assessment and migration to Microsoft Forefront Client Security

You can use MAP to inventory the following technologies:

  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows XP Professional
  • Office 2010 and previous versions
  • Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2
  • Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
  • VMware ESX
  • VMware ESXi
  • VMware Server
  • Linux variants
  • LAMP application stack discovery
  • SQL Server 2008
  • SQL Server 2008 R2
  • MySQL
  • Oracle
  • Sybase

Download MAP 5.5 HERE

Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2010

Microsoft has released rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2010:

This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2010 customers.

For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB2407113.

The is only one fix:

You cannot uninstall Exchange Server 2010 RTM after you install Update Rollup 2, Update Rollup 3, or Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010

Download the rollup here. 

Note to Forefront users:

If you don’t disable Forefront before installing a rollup or service pack, and enable afterwards, you run the risk of Exchange related services not starting. You can disable Forefront by going to a command prompt and navigating to the Forefront directory and running FSCUtility /disable. To enable Forefront after installation of a UR or SP, run FSCUtility /enable.

Favo links for Microsoft Lync

The Lync Server Open Interoperability Program is now available

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg131938.aspx

Other useful Links:

Hardware Requirements. Link

Bandwidth Table. Link

Lync New features – server side. Link

Lync New features – Client Side. Link

Port Requirements. Link

Lync Server 2010 Protocol Workloads Poster. Link

Architecture – Server Roles. Link

Architecture – Topologies. Link

Publishing Outlook Anywhere Using NTLM Authentication With Forefront TMG or Forefront UAG

This white paper provides detailed information about publishing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 using Forefront TMG or Forefront UAG to secure access for Outlook Anywhere when using NTLM Authentication.

When you publish Exchange, Microsoft offers two software-based options: Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 and Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010. Both options offer publishing wizards and security features to provide secure access to Exchange when it’s accessed from outside the safety of the corporate network.

This white paper provides detailed information about publishing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 using Forefront TMG or Forefront UAG, including how to choose between them for different scenarios, and provides specific steps you can take to configure Forefront TMG and Forefront UAG to publish Exchange 2010 while using NTLM authentication for Outlook Anywhere access.

Download details Publishing Outlook Anywhere Using NTLM Authentication With Forefront TMG or Forefront UAG

Microsoft Lync Error: Microsoft.Rtc.Common.Data.SqlConnectionException Cannot open database xds requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user Domain\administrator.

Lync

Error:

An error occurred: Microsoft.Rtc.Common.Data.SqlConnectionException Cannot open database xds requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user CONTOSO\administrator.

When Installing Lync there is automatically added a firewall rule that opend the port for the SQL Server Service

Solution:

Create a Windows Firewall port exceptions to enable access to the SQL Server Browser service, follow these steps:

    1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
    2. Open the Windows Firewall program.
    3. Click Change Settings to open the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box.
    4. Make sure that Windows Firewall is turned on, and then click the Exceptions tab.
    5. Click Add port to open the Add a port dialog box.
    6. Enter a name for the port exception, such as SQL Server Browser Service.
    7. Make sure that UDP is selected, and then enter UDP port number 1434. This is the default port that the SQL Server Browser service listens on.
    8. Click OK two times to close the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box

Microsoft Lync Error: "Microsoft.Rtc.Management.Deployment.DeploymentException" "Cannot determine where to install database files because Windows Management Instrumentation on the database server is unavailable from your computer or user account. To continue, you can resolve this issue, or you can specify where you want to install the files."

Lync

When Installing Lync I get the following error:

Error: An error occurred: "Microsoft.Rtc.Management.Deployment.DeploymentException" "Cannot determine where to install database files because Windows Management Instrumentation on the database server is unavailable from your computer or user account. To continue, you can resolve this issue, or you can specify where you want to install the files."

Solution: Make Sure that Windows Firewall is Enabled on Windows 2008 R2

Step 1:

  1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Open the Windows Firewall program.
  3. Click Change Settings to view the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box. 
  4. Verify that Windows Firewall is turned on, and then click the Exceptions tab. 
  5. In the To enable an exception, select its check box window, scroll to locate the Remote Administration Program or Port exception.
  6. Make sure that the Remote Administration Program or Port exception is selected.
  7. Click OK to close the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box.

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Step 2: I had named the pool different than the server name, so I needed to add an A record or CNAME Record to DNS to get past.

Microsoft Certified Master Exchange Video Preview

There is one Microsoft exam that I find very interesting. That is the Microsoft Certified Master for Exchange program.

I found a nice video what tells what we actually do in the classroom during Microsoft Certified Master rotations?  Well, here is a 30 minute summary of the Exchange 2010 header firewall from  Brian Reid, one of our regular MCM instructors.  Brian covers the header firewall and much more during his two and a half day delivery of instruction and labs on Exchange Transport.

You can find the video HERE

HyperV Monitor 1.8 Released

HyperV_Mon screen shot

HyperV_Mon is my free tool for monitoring and diagnosing performance issues with Hyper-V.

After prompting from a user with a lot more processors then the test systems here, I updated the HyperV_Mon tool to handle resizing in general, and to adjust the root partition processor display.  This new version is a minor release (1.8.0).

In the works will be a version 2.0 that will look at 2008 R2 with SP1 changes.  This should come out in Q1 of next year.

Download it HERE

Exchange 2010: An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: An error occurred while preparing to mount database

Failed to mount database ‘Mailbox Database 1’. After recovering a Exchange 2010 SP1. I had no Database Backup. Because I am only using this exchange server for test only. I would use the recovered database but I get the following error:

Error:

Couldn’t mount the database that you specified. Specified database: Mailbox Database 1; Error code: An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: An error occurred while preparing to mount database ‘Mailbox Database 1’. Error: Could not find a part of the path ‘D:\Exchsvr\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 2133499474’. [Database: Mailbox Database 1, Server: WARD-EX01.wardvissers.local].

An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: An error occurred while preparing to mount database ‘Mailbox Database 1’. Error: Could not find a part of the path ‘D:\Exchsvr\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 2133499474’. [Database: Mailbox Database 1, Server: WARD-EX01.wardvissers.local]

An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: An error occurred while preparing to mount database ‘Mailbox Database 1’. Error: Could not find a part of the path ‘D:\Exchsvr\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 2133499474’. [Server: WARD-EX01.wardvissers.local]

An error occurred while preparing to mount database ‘Mailbox Database 1’. Error: Could not find a part of the path ‘D:\Exchsvr\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 2133499474’.

Could not find a part of the path ‘D:\Exchsvr\Mailbox\Mailbox Database 2133499474’.

Screenshot:

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Solution:
Make sure that all folders exist that are given with the error.

Recover an Exchange 2010 SP1 Server

Recover a Lost Exchange Server

1. Install the proper operating system and name the new server with the same name as the lost server. Recovery won’t succeed if the server on which recovery is being performed doesn’t have the same name as the lost server.

2. Join the server to the same domain as the lost server.

3. Install the following 2008 R2 HotFixes

The following hotfixes are required for the Client Access server for Windows Server 2008 R2:

4. Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType Automatic

5. RUN –> E:\Setup.com /m:recoverserver /InstallWindowsComponents

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