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DSQuery Operating System Service Pack Version

Sheen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:59:27 +0000

I had a requirement recently to get the service pack versions for all workstations on the domain. I tried a few different options but the easiest option was to use the extremely useful dsquery tool.

Without further ado, this is the command:

dsquery * -scope subtree -attr “cn” “operatingSystem” “operatingSystemServicePack” -filter “(&(objectclass=computer)(objectcategory=computer)(operatingSystem=Windows XP*))” -limit 100000

The output of this command would be as follows:

cn                 operatingSystem                      operatingSystemServicePack
WRK001   Windows XP Professional     Service Pack 1
WRK002   Windows XP Professional     Service Pack 2
WRK003    Windows XP Professional     Service Pack 3

Where, cn is the workstation name and the others are self explanatory.

Share your handy little tips and tricks!

Symantec Backup Exec Error 0xe00084af (All Versions)

Sheen — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:35:43 +0000

I have been tearing my hair out for a couple of weeks with this error and Symantec wasn’t of any help. We had this error with version 12.5 of Symantec Backup Exec and it started on a server apparently out of the blue after having no issues for over 2 years.

Out of ideas and with no help from Symantec, we upgraded to version 2010 hoping that this would fix the error. No go. The backups still failed. We were back to square one.

I knew that it was something that had gone wonky with VSS that was throwing things in disarray. I ended up going back to the good old trial and error method to fix this issue. I first tried killing the vsssvc.exe process before the backup started – didn’t really fix the issue. I tried one thing after the other with VSS but it all failed.

Then one day, I tried stopping the SQL VSS Writer – I dont know why I did it but I guess it was a hatred deep down I now had for VSS that made me stop that service but Halleluijah! it fixed the issue. I know this wont make any sense – it still hasn’t made sense to me – I don’t know why an SQL VSS Writer would mess up a file system backup, but lo and behold the problem was history.

If you have lost hair and time working on this issue, go ahead and add ‘net stop SQLWriter’ to the pre-command and ‘net start SQLWriter’ to the post command and you will not have these issues anymore.

Drop me a line if you think this post helped you.

Script to Hot Backup VMWare ESX Virtual Machines

Sheen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:25:01 +0000

I was searching for the best way to implement vmware-cmd to snapshot live VMs and then rsync them to another location of my choice and look what I found!

There is a free script called ghettoVCB.sh that does the trick.

The script allows you to backup live virtual machines and also maintains only a selected number of snapshots that you would like to keep. Check it out!

OCS 2007 Protocol Stack Error Event ID 14517 When Starting Services

Sheen — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:03:11 +0000

You may come across this error message when you install Office Communications Server 2007 for the first time in your environment. This error generally is seen after you run through the initial steps and are trying to start the OCS services for the first time.

This event ID will contain the following message:

ERRORS:
Two server roles at FQDN [server.domain.com] have different ‘Treat As Authenticated’ options. First server has GUID {58BDE507-1C48-4BA4-BCDF-06FB59ADF9CE} and role ‘Enterprise Edition’ (option is set). Second server has GUID {BD77F03B-4451-4171-A035-FC7FB264383D} and role ‘A/V Authentication Service’ (option is not set). Two server roles at FQDN [server.domain.com] have different server version numbers. First server has GUID {58BDE507-1C48-4BA4-BCDF-06FB59ADF9CE} and role ‘Enterprise Edition’ (version 3). Second server has GUID {BD77F03B-4451-4171-A035-FC7FB264383D} and role ‘A/V Authentication Service’ (version 0). Two server roles at FQDN [server.domain.com] have different ‘Treat As Authenticated’ options. First server has GUID {58BDE507-1C48-4BA4-BCDF-06FB59ADF9CE} and role ‘Enterprise Edition’ (option is set). Second server has GUID {1719A023-DDB4-5170-836D-3299D4F067C6} and role ‘Edge Server’ (option is not set). Two server roles at FQDN [server.domain.com] have different server version numbers. First server has GUID {58BDE507-1C48-4BA4-BCDF-06FB59ADF9CE} and role ‘Enterprise Edition’ (version 3). Second server has GUID {1719A023-DDB4-5170-836D-3299D4F067C6} and role ‘Edge Server’ (version 0).

WARNINGS:
No warnings

Cause: The configuration is invalid and the server might not behave as expected.
Resolution:
Review and correct the errors listed above, then restart the service. You also wish to review any warnings present.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

This error can be misleading. The primary reason you see this error is simple – You have had a previous installation of OCS in the domain and there are still a few entries in Active Directory that haven’t been cleaned up even though you did a clean uninstall of OCS.

This is what you need to do to fix the error:

Please Remember – You are following the instructions below at your own risk.

Open up adsiedit.msc and browse to the system configuration partition under Domain –> DC=domain,DC=com –> System –> Microsoft –> RTC Service.

NOTE: This is safe to perform only if you do not have a current working installation of OCS in your domain or forest.

Select and delete everything under this key.

Now go ahead and run the setup again (you will have to run the forest prep again) and you will be all set!

Using Rsync in VMWare

Sheen — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:51:00 +0000

VMWare ESX runs a modified Linux Kernel. Sometimes, when you are doing basic administration tasks, you might find that there are certain Linux tools that you miss. One of the tools I miss most is the rsync tool. Its a very handy tool when it comes to data transfer. I searched high and low for a proper tool to do the job but never found one until now.

The problem with installing a standard Linux package into VMWare ESX is that it will almost certainly mean that you go down the path of installing a whole bunch of dependencies along with it and eventually something might stop working. The best way around this, obviously, is to compile a static package from source with all dependencies included.

Thus, searching around the internet, I found this rsync package that was statically compiled to work on VMWare ESX 3.5. on the VMWare communities page here. I have used it and found it to work without any issues on VMWare ESX 4.0.

Please remember – this is not supported and if you decide to use this, you do so at your own risk.