sheenaustin.com

Storage vMotion with Multiple Datastores

Sheen — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:45:45 +0000

One of the problems with using tiered storage used to be that when a VM with disks on different datastores was Storage vMotioned, the disks would end up on a single datastore.

The simple solution to this is to use the ‘Advanced’ option when using Storage vMotion. It allows you to granularly control where each of the VMs hard disks and configuration files go.

Take a look at these screenshots:

When you get to the select datastore part of the migration wizard, click on the “Advanced” button:

Storage vMotion Advanced Button

This will bring you to a screen that looks like the one below. On this window, you can click on “Current Location” to get a drop down menu with a list of available datastores and decide where the individual files go.

Click on "Current Location" to get a drop down menu with a list of datastores.

This feature simplifies sVMotions especially when you have a setup that has tiered storage and you want to preserve the storage tiering when moving between datastores.
Drop me a line if this has helped you.

How to recover Public Folders – Exchange server 2010

Sheen — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:19:36 +0000

The process of recovering an Exchange public folder can be the cause of a lot of pain as it almost always is a very difficult and painstaking process. However, laid out here is a process that works extremely well if you are using Exchange 2010 SP2. This process does not involve restoring datastores or restoring backups to an isolated environment. It can be performed in place.

Here’s how:

Select a public folder server in your environment that was a replication partner for this public folder.
Set the following key to 0. If the DWORD did not exist, please create it. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\\Public-
Now restore the public folder using your backup software to the original location.
Use Outlook to logon to a mailbox that had access to the public folders before they were deleted.
Copy all the folders you wish to restore to another public folder in the hierarchy. Please note that this is the most important step.
Once step 5 is complete, ensure that the replica lists show all the replication partners.
Now, dismount the public folder database, set the replication registry key (path in step2) to 1 and remount the database.
The folders you just restored will disappear as soon as the replication begins but the ones you copied will remain.

This method saves us the headache of creating an isolated environment but forcing replication to be turned off on one of the partners. Let me know if this method helps you!

.Net Framework install issue on Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Sheen — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:19:56 +0000

I’ve been using Windows 8 consumer preview for a while now and one of the issues I faced early on was with installing .Net framework 3.5. The short answer is that you cannot install it using Windows Update at the moment.

This is how you can install it:

Insert your Windows 8 Installation source (USB or CD)
Using an elevated command prompt, run the following commands:
“xcopy e:\sources\sxs\*.* c:\dotnet35 /s“
“Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:c:\dotnet35 /LimitAccess“

Simple backup to USB Script

Admin — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:01:04 +0000

Here’s a simple script to help you backup one critical folder to your USB drive.

Here is how the script works. The script resides on the root of your USB drive and not on your computer. When you insert the drive, an autorun window pops up asking you if you would like to run the backup. If you choose to run the backup, the script checks your computer’s SID against a previously stored SID (I will explain how you can store that SID) and if they match, the script then uses robocopy to mirror your source folder to the USB drive. The SID check was put in place to prevent the script from accidentally removing important data.

How to use the script:

Download the script from here.
Extract it to a USB drive (the autorun files and the _BackupSetup folder need to be on the root of the USB drive.)
Connect the USB drive to the computer you want to back up and then run _BackupSetup\UpdateSID.bat and follow the prompts to create your SID.
Edit _BackupSetup\RunBackup.bat and update the SOURCE variable to point to the directory that needs to get backed up.
Run the Autorun.bat script in the root of the USB drive and off you go!

Update all Windows servers on a network

Sheen — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:57:59 +0000

Microsoft’s patch tuesday is one time of the month when all Windows system admins get cold sweats. Will these patches break something? How much time will I have to spend patching all these servers?
Well, I have no control over Microsoft’s patch quality but I sure have a script that will help ease your pain when it comes to patching servers.

This script will help you update all windows servers on a network with just one click. You will also get an email report when the script has completed patching a server.

What the script does:

Queries AD for a list of all windows servers.
Presents you with the list and allows you to decide which windows servers you want to patch.
Uses the Windows Update API to call the Windows Update agent on each server that you want to patch.
Forces the Windows Update agent to check for all available patches (approved patches if you are using WSUS), then catalogs, downloads and installs them. The script just calls the windows update agent so, this script behaves exactly as the windows update agent would if you were to use it on a server to install patches.
Sends you an email report for each server that is patched.

You can download the script here.

The zip archive has the following files in it:

NetworkPatchInstall.bat – This is the main file that needs to be run when you start patching. IMPORTANT: When running the script in Windows Server 2008 or later, right click on the script and select “Run as Administrator” even if you are logged in as a Domain Admin to make sure that the script runs as expected.
PsExec.exe – This is the executable that the batch file calls remotely patch servers.
WSUSPull.vbs – This is the vbscript that calls the Windows Update API to patch servers. For email updates to work you will have to edit this script. Please read this for more information about the original script and how to configure this script. The script has been modified and in the form that it is supplied in here outputs its results on the remote console of the server that the script is run from and saves a log to C:\WSUSPull.log in addition to emailing you an update (if it is configured to do so).
Thanks to the Rob Dunn at www.wsus.info for creating this script.

PLEASE READ: When the script is first run, the script checks to see if your netlogon share has a folder called PatchInstall. If it doesnt exist, the script creates one (so you need to run this as a domain admin) and then copies psexec.exe and wsuspull.vbs to that folder. These files are really small and wont change after the first time you have run it so it wont add to your replication load. The reason for doing this is to ensure that it works in any Active Directory environment and performs seamlessly across geographically separate sites with no performance impact.

DISCLAIMER: I have been using this script successfully for about 3 years now and have never had an issue with it. This does not mean that this script will work seamlessly in your environment. Please ensure that you test this script before you put it into production. This script is provided as is and you take the risk and responsibility of using this script.