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theholycow 02-09-2009 05:55 PM

IT Thread
 
We need an IT thread. This could be for questions or just general IT-related chat, I guess.

My Microsoft Exchange setup is pretty hefty, and a bit complex. It was put together by a contractor and I'm going to add a new database to it, but if they taught me how, I've forgotten. So I'll muddle my way through...anybody know much about this stuff?

stonehenge 02-09-2009 05:56 PM

I don't know shit about exchange. All I do right now are setup account on the domain, samba shares, password resets, keep an eye on the backups, and lately manage our WSUS server.

Corey 02-09-2009 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 707)
We need an IT thread. This could be for questions or just general IT-related chat, I guess.

My Microsoft Exchange setup is pretty hefty, and a bit complex. It was put together by a contractor and I'm going to add a new database to it, but if they taught me how, I've forgotten. So I'll muddle my way through...anybody know much about this stuff?

What do you mean by new database? new Mailbox database or new folders database? Also Exchange 2003 or 2007?

theholycow 02-09-2009 06:12 PM

New Mailbox database, Exchange 2007 (running on Windows Server 2008). I'm working through the GUI, letting the wizards do the work, but I've just had a failure.

In the Exchange Management Console --> Server Configuration --> Mailbox --> Database Management, I created a new Storage Group successfully, then created a new DB. It claims to have succeeded creating the DB but failed to mount it. I go to where the DB file should be and it's not there.

Corey 02-09-2009 06:21 PM

I haven't done anything with adding an additional storage group so I can't help you there. Why are you adding the extra storage group?

theholycow 02-09-2009 06:33 PM

I'm following the previous architecture. Each DB has its own Storage Group as configured by the contractor who built the system. Maybe I'll try creating a DB in an existing SG and see what happens.

Corey 02-09-2009 06:39 PM

Ah I see, yea I can't help you out any there.

theholycow 02-09-2009 08:00 PM

Ok, so I tried creating DB in an existing SG, and I got this error:
Quote:

Continuous replication only allows one database per storage group.
We have both CCR and SCR, and I don't know which one (or both) doesn't allow more, but that explains why we have a SG for each DB.

I removed the attempt and tried again. This time, I unchecked "Mount this database" and then the "Database file path" text box un-greyed and had appropriate stuff in it by default. I finished the wizard and everything worked. Then after it was created, I mounted it. Looks like success!

Corey 02-09-2009 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 749)
Ok, so I tried creating DB in an existing SG, and I got this error:

We have both CCR and SCR, and I don't know which one (or both) doesn't allow more, but that explains why we have a SG for each DB.

I removed the attempt and tried again. This time, I unchecked "Mount this database" and then the "Database file path" text box un-greyed and had appropriate stuff in it by default. I finished the wizard and everything worked. Then after it was created, I mounted it. Looks like success!

awesome to hear, I'll have to remeber that

theholycow 02-09-2009 08:08 PM

Is there anything else you can think of that I might need to do, or can I just start adding users to the new DB?

Corey 02-09-2009 08:10 PM

should be able to start adding users to it.


Has anybody done anything with thin clients?

theholycow 02-09-2009 08:17 PM

We haven't but we've talked about it. It would ease some of our administration work and possibly deliver better service to the student labs.

Corey 02-09-2009 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 756)
We haven't but we've talked about it. It would ease some of our administration work and possibly deliver better service to the student labs.


Yea my boss just came to me and wants a cheap and easy to manage thin client solution that we can market to our k-12 schools

theholycow 02-09-2009 08:59 PM

I just found out that Windows Media Player streaming can go all over the place on random UDP ports. I was using Wireshark when I saw clumps of packets on these weird UDP ports and freaked out....then the user's computer wouldn't let me remote in and the user wasn't answering her phone. Turns out that messed up firewall settings prevented VNC, and I assume she was on the phone when I tried to call.

theholycow 02-09-2009 09:45 PM

Ok, here's another basic dumbass question: How can I get started deploying GPOs to push configuration changes through my domain?

I've been using login scripts, but I'd like to use GPOs. I've got a laundry list of things I'd like to do...

Corey 02-09-2009 09:52 PM

Server 2008 has a lot of new GPO's you can configure, use group policy management and start looking through the avaliable options. We have a test computer here that is in its own OU and we test all our group policys on before we deploy them across our or customers domains.

theholycow 02-09-2009 09:57 PM

I've never done anything with GPOs in a production environment. Years ago I took a course where I learned about it with Server 2000 but I've totally forgotten everything about it.

Good idea testing on a guinea pig first.

Shaggy 02-09-2009 10:09 PM

I need some walkthrough on figuring out how to tie in a extrenal hard drive to my ps3 and get the ps3 to see the hard drive. Fill me in on this one ;)

Corey 02-09-2009 10:09 PM

Download this http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en and look through it, its pretty handy.

Charles 02-09-2009 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey (Post 752)
Has anybody done anything with thin clients?

Yes. What kind of questions do you have?

Corey 02-09-2009 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles (Post 841)
Yes. What kind of questions do you have?

Just trying to get an idea of what kind of thin clients people have had good experiences with. I've found some linux ones that i'm testing out, but my boss is wanting me to find something that is diskless and uses network boot to load the OS. What kind of thin clients have you used?

Johnny Utah 02-10-2009 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaggy (Post 772)
I need some walkthrough on figuring out how to tie in a extrenal hard drive to my ps3 and get the ps3 to see the hard drive. Fill me in on this one ;)

If it is anything like hooking a thumbdrive to it, then you just plug it in. The PS3 OS will only recognize certain files, such as Mp3's and video files. Other than that, I have no idea.

Charles 02-10-2009 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey (Post 849)
Just trying to get an idea of what kind of thin clients people have had good experiences with. I've found some linux ones that i'm testing out, but my boss is wanting me to find something that is diskless and uses network boot to load the OS. What kind of thin clients have you used?

We had some HP thin clients that booted up a terminal session from one of our Citrix servers. We no longer use them but we didn't really have any problems with them. We have 150+ Citrix servers but no longer deploy desktops on them just applications.

Charles 02-10-2009 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 764)
I've never done anything with GPOs in a production environment. Years ago I took a course where I learned about it with Server 2000 but I've totally forgotten everything about it.

Good idea testing on a guinea pig first.

If I were you I would try to setup a duplicate test network to play around on and try GPOs. If possible, use your backups to duplicate your DC that way you know it's configured exactly as the production one. You do not want to screw up a GPO on the production side. We had to restrict access to people creating GPOs in our environment because they weren't taking into account their impact on people.

Corey 02-10-2009 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles (Post 962)
We had some HP thin clients that booted up a terminal session from one of our Citrix servers. We no longer use them but we didn't really have any problems with them. We have 150+ Citrix servers but no longer deploy desktops on them just applications.

We are using citrix for application deployment right now too. Any reason you all got away from the desktop deployment?

Charles 02-10-2009 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey (Post 965)
We are using citrix for application deployment right now too. Any reason you all got away from the desktop deployment?

Management made that decision. We have people who thought that it wasn't the best way to spend money. It made perfect sense to me. The people who had them now have a 2.4GHz dual core with 4GB of RAM and all they do is sign in and launch Citrix and launch their apps. :roflsquared: Other than Office apps they use everything in Citrix.

I wasn't on this team when management made that decision or else I would have tried to make an argument to reassess it. I was still supporting desktops then. As it is now we have no reason to have 11,000 desktops. We could most likely be down to 1,000-2,000 desktops top with the rest being thin clients.

So do you support the Citrix apps at your work or does someone else? I rarely get to talk to someone that works with Citrix a lot.

Corey 02-10-2009 03:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles (Post 968)
Management made that decision. We have people who thought that it wasn't the best way to spend money. It made perfect sense to me. The people who had them now have a 2.4GHz dual core with 4GB of RAM and all they do is sign in and launch Citrix and launch their apps. :roflsquared: Other than Office apps they use everything in Citrix.

I wasn't on this team when management made that decision or else I would have tried to make an argument to reassess it. I was still supporting desktops then. As it is now we have no reason to have 11,000 desktops. We could most likely be down to 1,000-2,000 desktops top with the rest being thin clients.

So do you support the Citrix apps at your work or does someone else? I rarely get to talk to someone that works with Citrix a lot.

I do a little bit with the citrix, but mostly just adding apps to the access essentials. I mostly do work with firewalls and network audits and now possibly planning a thin client deployment.

Charles 02-10-2009 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey (Post 978)
I do a little bit with the citrix, but mostly just adding apps to the access essentials. I mostly do work with firewalls and network audits and now possibly planning a thin client deployment.

http://www.brianmadden.com

There are some good resources on there to read up on. I went to one of his classes in NYC last year. He is extremely knowledgeable about Citrix and virtualization.

Corey 02-10-2009 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles (Post 985)
http://www.brianmadden.com

There are some good resources on there to read up on. I went to one of his classes in NYC last year. He is extremely knowledgeable about Citrix and virtualization.

Thanks I'll have to check that out. I'm going to some Enterasys training in March, I'm sure I can talking him into springing fomr some more classes.

theholycow 02-11-2009 04:40 PM

How about USB troubleshooting?

USB has worked out a lot better than I thought it would back when it came out. It's very functional and usually works without any effort. However, when it breaks, what can I do? With serial and parallel ports, you could specify the port, memory address, and IRQ and then stuff had to work. With USB, WTF!

I've got two users with wonky USB printer connections. It will work then die randomly. No error is displayed on the printer, and if you unplug it then plug it into a different USB port it works.

stonehenge 02-11-2009 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 1284)
How about USB troubleshooting?

USB has worked out a lot better than I thought it would back when it came out. It's very functional and usually works without any effort. However, when it breaks, what can I do? With serial and parallel ports, you could specify the port, memory address, and IRQ and then stuff had to work. With USB, WTF!

I've got two users with wonky USB printer connections. It will work then die randomly. No error is displayed on the printer, and if you unplug it then plug it into a different USB port it works.

buy a new computer and a new printer, should fix any issues :crazy:

Corey 02-11-2009 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 1284)
How about USB troubleshooting?

USB has worked out a lot better than I thought it would back when it came out. It's very functional and usually works without any effort. However, when it breaks, what can I do? With serial and parallel ports, you could specify the port, memory address, and IRQ and then stuff had to work. With USB, WTF!

I've got two users with wonky USB printer connections. It will work then die randomly. No error is displayed on the printer, and if you unplug it then plug it into a different USB port it works.


kick it, thats what I always do but it never seems to solve the problem for some reason

theholycow 02-11-2009 10:08 PM

I'm not sure, but my users might think less of me if I kick their computers...

Maybe if I punch the computer just right, though.
http://digilander.libero.it/happyday...box/fonzie.jpg

stonehenge 02-11-2009 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theholycow (Post 1321)
I'm not sure, but my users might think less of me if I kick their computers...

Maybe if I punch the computer just right, though.
http://digilander.libero.it/happyday...box/fonzie.jpg

eyyyyyyyyy

theholycow 02-25-2009 02:51 PM

I need a small portable program that's good for copying lots of files without giving me any bullshit. I would use it to copy whole hard drives or large folders, such as when replacing a user's computer and moving their profile to the new one.

Windows' normal copy will ask you repeatedly if you're sure you want to copy read only / hidden / system files and if you want to overwrite stuff and so on, then if it has a problem copying one file it aborts the whole operation.

Karen's Replicator does a really great job -- it copies everything it can without giving me any lip, has exclusion list functionality with a built-in filter for temp files, does a great job totalling the results, and gives you a good log of what it's done so you know what files it couldn't copy. However, it is not portable - you're supposed to install it before you can use it (though it CAN be used portably); but more importantly it requires a bunch of work before you can start copying. You have to wade through dialogs 3 or 4 levels deep to setup a job, save it, schedule (or not) it, and then finally run it.

I'm thinking either something like Karen's Replicator with a simpler front-end that lets me just get on with working (and more portable), or something that looks like Windows Explorer (or Windows 3.1 File Manager, or Norton Commander, or mc, etc) and does the job.

Any suggestions?

theholycow 02-25-2009 04:30 PM

Ok, found one that's ugly but claims to be exactly what I want...
http://www.ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en

stonehenge 02-25-2009 07:16 PM

robocopy is pretty badass but not sure if its portable

Corey 02-26-2009 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juan! (Post 2172)
robocopy is pretty badass but not sure if its portable

Robocopy works great. you could put the resource kit on a thumb drive and just install it to the local computer.

stonehenge 02-26-2009 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey (Post 2188)
Robocopy works great. you could put the resource kit on a thumb drive and just install it to the local computer.

true dat

theholycow 03-03-2009 07:36 PM

I know this has got to be a stupid question, but...
I could swear that there's a checkbox / dialog to configure Windows to automatically update its time via NTP, and you could set it to query Microsoft or NIST or whatever. I can't find it on my XP desktop or on my Server 2008 domain controllers/servers!


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