Exchange Tips for Tracking Outgoing Mail

Exchange Tips

Yesterday we had some trouble with outgoing email, and while our bridgehead server is in another location, we do have an Exchange Server here that I am responsible for. I am brand new to administering an Exchange Server, so I had to find some tips online for at least getting a feel for what may be happening and where things may be hanging up.

I wanted to do some basic troubleshooting for when messages are not going out, and a quick Google search for this turned up a few sites, the best of which was Exchange 911.

At their site, I found these tips that I used to begin tracking issues:

1. Try to find where the message has gotten stuck by using the Message Tracking Center in the Exchange System Manager.

2. Check the services running on the server where the messages are stuck to make sure all critical Exchange Services are indeed running.

3. Checked the Event View on my server to make sure there were no obvious problems or sreaming errors.

Another Gift Idea for the Techie on Your Christmas List

I need to add some more technical posts here soon, but I see that lots of folks want the gift ideas as well, so I thought I would share my newest top of the list "wanted" gift.



It is this Timex Watch and I just saw it in my Women's Health magazine for this month, and I want one! This watch does it all, and at Amazon it is under $100.



It connects to your iPod, without a cable, and it also has a 50-lap memory, three alarms, a countdown timer, two interval timers, and a chronograph function.



If you have a techie on your list who also likes to keep in shape, this may be the perfect gift.

Great Site and YouTube Help

Last night my daughter asked me if I could download the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special to my ipod so she and her grandmother could watch it on the TV. She had found them online at YouTube but wanted to see them on the big screen. I said, "sure I can do that," before realizing that I had actually never done that.

I had read through a couple of articles and message board posts that had me wondering just how possible this task was, when a further look down my Google search page revealed that my favorite daily blog, lifehacker had an article and a recommendation for me.

I read and then quickly downloaded iTube (also called Ares Tube). I am very happy to say that it was incredibly easy then to download and import the YouTube clips I wanted. In no time at all I had my daughter and mother quite happily watching Charlie Brown, which got me in bed at a very decent hour.

Fixing Software RAID-0

I had to fix a stripped array this morning, and that got me thinking (yes, and reading) about the correct way to fix software RAID volumes.

So, I thought I would quickly put down here the steps to restore RAID-0, RAID-1, and RAID-5 software arrays if you loose a disk and have to replace it for some reason, like I did this morning. I will spend the next three posts explaining how to do this for each one. Today, RAID-0 or a striped array.

RAID-0 (striped)

While stripped volumes do provide the best performance and storage option, they are not fault-tolerrant, so I sure hope you have a good backup of the lost drive or have the software handy to recreate the data on this drive.

Once you have determined that your drive is bad, or you have had to fix an error on the drive more than once, you can go ahead and delete the volume by right clicking on it in the bottom pain of the Disk Management screen (right click on My Computer, Manage, under Storage choose Disk Management).

If your new drive isn't installled go ahead and do so now. Once it is installed, Rescan Disks (on the View menu in Disk Management) if you don't see it as unallocated space in the drive view window.

Before you can create the new volume, you will have to make this a Dynamic Disk by right clicking on the disk name. Once this is done, you can right click on the drive and choose the option New Volume. From there, follow the promts to add the new drive to the Selected disks.

This is by no means a step-by-step or complete guide, there are other sites that do this much better than I can here, and I highly recommend the first one, as it has pictures and all:

Beginners Guide at PCStats

Disk Management from the Microsoft TechNet

5 Fun Gifts for the Geek on Your Christmas List

Do you have any Geeks on your list?

You know the ones, they dress in dark colors, and may sit in a cubicle or an office, but come 6pm, they are sitting in their basement in front of at least 2 monitors playing the latest online RPG.

Here are a few fun ideas if you have any of these folks on your list:

1. Have a mobile IT person in the family? Are they often running from system to system or location to location fixing computer issues? If so, they may need an Ironkey. This is a secure way to keep passwords handy and be able to browse the internet safely from any location.

2. When I first got into the IT business, someone got me a Wave, I had it only a month before I noticed dear hubby using it. I have not seen it since, but this is definitely a great stocking stuffer for anyone who likes to tinker.

3. I love this laptop tote. I am adding it to my own list right now.

4. I haven't tried the Sun Jar yet, but with all the attention that green gadgets are getting this year, I will definitely be adding a couple of these to my list for my siblings.

5. And last but certainly not least, if you have been putting off getting yourself or the top receiver on your list an iPod, now is the time. With so many to choose from, you can get one for almost everyone on your list.

Office Assistant & Unzipping Files in Windows XP

Office Assistant Error
I have a user who is getting this error:

There is no office assistant character files present on the system.
Please run setup in maintenance mode and install at least one character.

After a quick search, it seems this is because we often update Office 2000 around here by adding Outlook 2003. When this is done, a second Office Assistant is installed and the two then fight over control.

The instructions on this site suggest an uninstall/reinstall should fix my issue. I have plans to do so tomorrow.

Unzipping Files in Windows XP
I often have new users of Windows XP asking me to install WinZip for them, and while this is a fine product, it is no longer needed.

I found a nice site with pictures that I like to send to users so they can do this on their own, and wanted to document it here. There is no need to reinvent the wheel on this one.

gOS

Today I am playing with gOS in the hopes that we can use it here for a stand-alone web application station. This is also the much talked about OS that is coming pre-installed on the new WalMart $200 PCs that we keep hearing about.

At first glance, I like it. It has a Mac/Doc looking app running along the bottom of the desktop with links to most web applications that I think the typical user/teenager would want.

I just need a workstation here where employees can surf the web and check their email during lunch in our lunchroom, so this seems to be a perfect fit. I got the live distro, so I figure it is realatively safe to continue running it from the CD drive. We will shut the PC off overnight and reboot it each morning.

I am having some trouble getting it to recognize the crappy nic on this old home PC I am working on, but I will get it eventually. I will post more once I have had some time to play around with this a bit more.

Backup Changes on Graphics Server & Spooler changes

Backup Changes

I was studying for my 70-290 this weekend by reading through some chapters in my Microsoft Press book. As I was reading and actually beginning to understand some of the backup information, I realized I need to make a couple of changes to my backup schedule here at work.

I was again convinced that I need to do a bi-weekly normal/full backup of the main graphics server, and then run Differential backups each night for the next two weeks. This insures that I need only the full backup tapes (of which there are 2) and the differential tape in case of a system failure.

I thought I had set this, but it turns out I was running incremental backups and so I switched that today.

I also turned off the verify switch. I had sort of thought before that I didn't really need to do it, but with the new tapes I just got, it seems silly.

Spooler Changes
I changed the location of the spooler on the main server. It was on the C drive, it is now on E:\spool\PRINTERS.

Symantec Error

Symatec Error
I have had the situation twice now where a user received the following message:

"The add-in 'C:\Program Files\Symantec_Antivirus\vpmsece.dll could not be installed"

From the Symantec site I did find a solution. It seems you just need to delete the extend.dat file from the c:\Documents an dSettings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder.

Graphics Day

I spent part of this week in the Graphics Department here learning about what each person there does, and how they use their computers, and what we can possibly do in IT to make their jobs easier or more efficient at least.

MS Office for the Mac
We really need to purchase this. The guys in graphics get files often from clients and CS Reps that are either word, or Powerpoint documents, and each time they do, they go over to the PCs and try to figure out how they will get them on the Macs. This seems silly to me, so I plan to ask for a copy for at least two of the guys there.

Pitstop
Some of the guys in the department use Pitstop, but some can't because there are not enough licenses. Again, this is silly . . . they should all have it or none should use it. I have some digging to do there, and the manager says he has a plan?

Memory
The main designer has an older Mac now than some of them, and he appears to need a bit more for the intense graphics programs he uses.

Files and Their Usage
A couple of things here that I am still considering . . . but they have a consistency problem, a storage problem, and a process problem. First, they have one guy who is creating a job with a standard set of folders and names, and another two that aren't following this system. I would like to encourage them to standardize this all. Second, the guy who has a standard way of doing things, is copying all of the fonts that he uses in a job into the job folder, which is somewhat wasteful of resources, as we already have all the fonts in our fonts folder. We are then taking up extra room on the server, and in many cases the fonts can't be used this way and get corrupt as well. Finally, we seem to copy all of our graphics files in several locations, which again, seems to leave much room for error and also wastes our limited resources. CS Reps put the graphics file in CRPublic. Graphics Guys open and create a set of Job files on the Graphics Server. When they are finished they put a copy of the files in the PDF to Email folder (in CR Public folder). I need to think on this some more . . . but this seems wasteful to me.

Viewing the GPO Settings on a Windows 2003 Server and Fun with Manager

Windows Server 2003 Fun

I had some strange settings showing up today, and needed to view the applied GPO settings for one of my member Windows Server 2003 computers. I will look into other ways to view this, but one quick and dirty was is the following:

• Go to Start --> Help and Support --> Tools --> System Information
• View the Advanced System information
• View the Group Policy Settings, Applied

Fun with Manger

Every now and again one of our users calls us to say that her orders are coming in from Manger. I am told this is either one of two things:

1. If she can ping the servers internal address, the vendor needs to be contacted
2. If she can't ping the internal server address, she should be given a new ip address and walked through running an ipconfig /release /renew

Opening Office 2007 Packages

Embarassing, yet true

This is the second time I have nearly cut my fingers off trying to get into the new Microsoft Office 2007 packaging. So, as embarassing as it is, I am making a quick note here of the process.

1. Remove the red and clear label on the side of the fancy clear case.
2. Remove (or at least break the seal) of the completely clear circular label at the top.
3. Pull the red tab sticking out of the case on the top.

I know, I know, it really doesn't sound that complicated, and yet, there are several of us here who couldn't figure that out for the longest time. . .so I have to ask. . is it really necessary to do that? To make it sooooo hard to get into? I mean, come on!

Access 2007 Issues With Spec Sheets

Two fixes for Today

We have recently installed Office 2007 on new computers we are ordering, and our Spec Sheet that all of our cutomer reps use would not open. It turns out that there are two fixes that must be applied.

First, we have to set Access to not show the "Action Queries"

• Click on the Office 2007 symbol on the top left
• Click on the "Access Options" button at the bottom right
• Go to the Advanced Tab
• Look Under the Editing and Confirm options
• Uncheck the third box down, "Action queries"

Second, we also need to change the Trust Center Settings

• Click on the Office 2007 symbol on the top left
• Click on the "Access Options" button at the bottom right
• Go to the Trust Center Tab
• Click on the link to go to the Trust Center Settings on the right
• Click on the Trusted Locations option
• Put a check in the box to "Allow trusted locations on my network"
• Add the location (server) of the Spec Sheet

Intenet Explorer 7 Hack and Interesting Website

FTP hack for IE 7

I needed for some of my users to be able to open FTP sites up by default in Windows Explorer rather than as a website. I am sure this is much less secure, but since when do we really care much about security around here.

It takes a registry hack:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_INTERNET_SHELL_FOLDERS

Name: iexplore.exe
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x0 (default) or 0x1

Restart PC and it takes FTP sites right to Explorer


Intesting Website

I ran across a website that I really want to work through today as I was reading some email. I want to remember this one, and use it, and perhaps even suggest it to others. I don't know much about it yet, and the name, Hacker High School, is perhaps not quite right.

I am a FLYbaby

What the heck is a FLYbaby?
Ok, I will finally admit it outloud. . I am not organized, and organization does not come to me naturally. Not only I am not natively organized, I have almost no routines and usually avoid them at all cost. So, it comes as no suprise to most that I don't exactly have a perfectly clean home that my family can't wait to get home to. I was not taught how to clean by habit and routine, and therefore, when company is coming, it is usually a several day ordeal that contains much hollering and lots of stress.

Last week, I realized that not only was my house disorganized and not clean, but my house really was only a reflection of the chaos I had accepted in all areas of my life. I was also at a loss as to how I was going to encourage my ds (dear son) to care about school and get himself together. So I did what I always do when I am in a crisis and need advice, I used google.

The first sites I happened across were reform schools and places for troubled teens. Knowing that things were bad, but not quite that bad yet, I kept going. I somehow ended up on a funny little page with a woman in purple wings and blue hair at www.flylady.net. I won't bore you with all the details, but I highly recommmend this site for any woman who may be a perfectionist, works at home or outside somewhere, and is feeling like perhaps things in your life are out of control and you can't organize yourself.

Once I decided to become a FLYbaby, the only natural next step was to organize the second most important thing in my family's life (the house being the first), dinner! I have only begun to use some of the tools posted on the Saving Dinner site.

I can't tell you what to do, and I am sure this system is not for everyone, but I think it is no coincidence that I had my first really good idea for a story today. . .one week into the new lifestyle!

Backup Exec, Mac Troubles, and Exchange Size Limit

Backup Exec
I have spent a couple of pretty darn frustrating days trying to figure out what in the world happened to one of my servers to make my backups stop working. I am using Backup Exec 9 with an internal tape drive on one server to backup files on another server. Suddenly, and without warning, my backups started failing. I tried everything I could think of, including Symantec's advice of redoing the login admin account. Nothing. So what had changed? Well, I had installed IIS to beging testing VMWare on that box, so ok, I figured uninstalling IIS couldn't hurt. Reboot. . .Nothing. I tried every iteration of backup, incrementals, differentials, copies. . .Nothing. Noticed VMWare had added some network adapters, so I figured what the heck, may as well disable them while I am thinking of it and at that moment happened to realize that the windows firewall was turned on for my main nic. . .odd. . .I don't remember that being on. I decided to look at my other nics on my other servers, and sure enough, it wasn't turned on anywhere else. Of course. . .rebooted. . wallah. . backups working!! ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Macs too
In addition to backup fun, I have been helping one of the graphics guys get his new Mac Pro up and running. I don't think that there is too much I want or need to say about that. We also did some Webway work/tweeking while we were at it, and I do want to note that we had some minor issues with viewing proofs that seem to have something to do with login accounts and permissions. ALSO TO NOTE: As the admin down south suggested, I have removed the oldes mac from the network and will now monitor the switch in the Graphics room.

Exchange Note
I did notice yesterday, while I was checking all the server logs to see what had changed, that we were getting a warning on the Exchange Server that we were running into out 18 GB size limit for our DB. A quick note the admin down south confirmed that this needed to be fixed. He said he changed a registry setting to give us 70 GB and that the MS limit was actually 75 GB, so we had some wiggle room if we do get close to the edge. Another registry fix would allow us to continue working long enough to have folks delete much and be operational once again.

Confirmation and Perfmon

Blogging Confirmed
I needed to use this blog today to go back and look at what I had written back in February about moving icons around on the Blackberry, so I learned a valuable lesson today; keep on blogging!

I enjoy blogging, and know that in order to remember some of the tips and tricks I am picking up I need to have a central repository of information, hence Computer Pooh. However, it is not every day that I get confirmation that an idea of mine is a good one, yet here I am blogging about one.

Perfmon
I am continuing to study for my first MCSE test. As a matter of fact, I really want to take the first one here in September, yet I am not sure I am ready.

I have been looking at the performance monitor this week, and wanted to quickly blog here the items that are best to monitor so I can log in an see this from the web.

• Networking: Network Interface- bytes sent/sec and bytes total/sec; Server - bytes rec'd/sec and it should be no more than 50% of bandwidth; TaskManager - Network Utilization should be 30% or lower
• Disks: Physical Disks - %disk time should be less than 50%; Physical Disks - Current disk queue length should be between 0 - 2%
• Memory: Memory - pages/sec should be 0 - 20%; Memory - Available bytes should be 5% + of RAM; Memory - Committed bytes should be less than RAM; Memory - Pooled Non-paged bytes should be steady; Memory - Page faults/sec should be below 5
• Processor: Processor - % Processor Time should be less than 85%; System - Process queue length should be less than 10%; Server Work Queues - Queue length should be less than 4%; Processor - interrupts/sec should be steady to low

Learning Hardware Arrays

RAID 5 Please

In order to repartition an older server that only had a 3GB boot partition, we had to break our RAID 5 array. We demoted it to a RAID 0 and deleted and re-created some partitions, and in the end, had to re-install the OS. Once we did this, we wanted to to re-create the RAID 5 partition, but the software that talks to the controller would not go back to RAID 5 as an option.

In the end, on our ProLiant ML350 Server we had to delete the array and reboot to return to the factory default, which was RAID 5.

I am still try to decipher what I learned from this experience. . .I am not convinced I learned anything at all. Well, I guess I learned that I really know nothing about hardware arrays. I am studying for the 70-290 Windows Server 2003 exam and read about software arrays, and that makes perfect sense to me, but this hardware array stuff is much more difficult.

A Switch in the Certification Plan and Circular Logging

Not CCNA but MCSE

A month ago, I had been planning to pursue my CCNA. However, after talking it over with the boss, he "highly recommended" reconsidering and instead begin work on my MCSA or E. Since I am counting on work to foot the bill, at least in part, I decided the boss must be right, and since both are on my longer list of goals, I decided to follow his advice.

Well, the day after I began studying for the 70-290 test (ins and outs of Win2003 Server) I needed to replace a failing SCSI drive in one one of our 2000 Server PCs. And wouldn't you know, I did indeed use what I had just been studying. . .dynamic disk management.

I have to say that most of what I am learning is directly applicable to my job, and is much easier for me to get my head around than a lot of the networking details I was trying to master while studying the CCNA material.

I have high hopes that someday in the future, in the long away future I am afraid, I will have both my CCNA and MCSE, but for now, I am studying hard to take the 70-290 test in the early fall.


Circular Logging

For some reason, the guy I work with thinks that we have to have circular logging enabled on our Exchange 2003 Server. Yet, he can't quite get his head around why our backups keep failing since he enabled it.

From postings all over the web, and from my trusty Exchange Bible (Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 24Seven by Jim McBee) I see that our problems most likely stem from circular logging being enabled on our server.

So, today I turned it off and am anxious to see if my mailbox backups again run tonight without trouble. Shoot, it is lunchtime, I guess I am off to try that backup.

Google Tips, FSMO Roles, Vista command line, and Server Config Tips

Google Tip for Sys Admins
There was an article published 07/07/07 at the Internet Storm Center that gave a couple of "defensive googling" tips to search for compromised sites on your network.

site:myorg.org porn and
site:myorg.org cialis buy


FSMO Roles
It all started with a check of one of my favorite blogs, Daily Cup of Tech. I was checking it for the first time in a couple of weeks, as things have been busy here, and realized that the author is in the middle of a really good series. It seems he had some server trouble recently and has been kind enough to document some fo the lessons learned there. Lesson #3 is really about riding AD of a failed DC, and while beginning that reading, he mentioned FSMO roles, which believe it or not I have never heard of. So, not wanting to waste a perfectly good opportunity to learn more, I jumped to this very informative site on wikipedia. Flexible single master operation roles (there are 5, 3 Domain-wide roles and 2 Forest-wide roles) or Fiz-mo roles are basically specialized domain controller tasks.


VISTA Command Line
I wanted to flush my local dns cache today, and realized that I would need elevated status in VISTA in order to do this. As it was the first time I needed to do this via the command line, I had to do a quick search to come up with the correct command, so here it is for next time:

runas /u:Administrator "ipconfig /flushdns"
the command to display the cache, by the way, follows here: ipconfig /displaydns


Server Configuration Tips
I am still on the Daily Cup of Tech blog site reading about his server failures and have come across another tip that I very much appreciate and want to remember. He says:

"I generally build my domain controllers with five drives. Two in a mirrored configuration for the OS and three in a RAID 5 configuration for the data. The nice thing about this is that the OS and data are separated. I have experienced three systems now where the OS container on the RAID system corrupted and left all of the data completely in tact. Had I not configured these systems this way, I believe that I would have lost some or all of my data."