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RemoteIPRanges is truncated in Get-ReceiveConnector
edited by on November 18th 2016, at 14:44

When running Get-ReceiveConnector, the contents of the RemoteIPRanges field may be truncated if there are a lot of entries. You can "expand" the list:

Get-ReceiveConnector MyConnector | Select -expand RemoteIPRanges | FT

This will expand each of the IP range objects and FT makes sure it's nicely formatted in a table. For single addresses, you only need the LowerBound column, but if ranges have been specified, you probably want both columns.

 
Completely uninstall Lync for Mac 2011 (after upgrading to Skype for Business)
edited by on November 18th 2016, at 14:43
Now that Skype for Business 2016 for Mac is publicly available, you could get rid of the old Lync for Mac 2011. Preferably, this should be a clean uninstall. Microsoft has released KB2691870, explaining how to do this.

The uninstall is not very elaborate: dragging the Lync application to the Trash is sufficient but leaves configuration, preferences and chat history on your Mac. To get rid of those, remove the following files:

~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Lync.plist

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/MicrosoftLyncRegistrationDB.*.plist

~/Library/Logs/Microsoft-Lync*.log

Remove these folders:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft   ...
 
Windows 7 stuck in Startup Repair
edited by on November 7th 2016, at 16:40
If your Windows 7 happens to be stuck in Startup Repair, where allowing it to repair your computer still results in going back to Startup Repair, and restoring a restore point doesn't help either, you could try to manually restore the Windows Registry to the last known good configuration.

Allow your computer to boot into Startup Repair, but rather than letting it perform the automatic repairs, click to go to the System Recovery Options menu. From there, you can open a command prompt.

Locate the system drive: this is usually the C: drive, but if not, navigate to other drivers and look for folders like Program Files, Users and Windows.

Once you've found the correct drive, navigate to the fo  ...
 
Convert PKCS12 files to separate key and certificate (.crt)
edited by on November 3rd 2016, at 15:41
An SSL certificate and private key can be stored in many formats. Sometimes, it may be necessary to convert from one format to another. One such case is where you have a private and public key (certificate) in PKCS12 (PFX-file) format, and need the individual certificate and private key in X509 format. You can use OpenSSL to perform the conversion.

A PFX-file generally contains both the private and public key (certificate) and is usually secured with a passphrase. If the PFX-file you want to convert is secured with a password, you will need this in order to perform the conversion. If you do not have the password, there's no way to reset this and the PFX-file will be unusable. When performin  ...
 
Backup Brocade FC switch configurations
edited by on October 28th 2016, at 08:58

You can easily backup the complete configuration of a Brocade FC switch through the CLI. It works similar to that of a Dell or Cisco switch, allowing to copy the configuration to a remote server. FTP, SCP, SFTP and others are supported.

Log on to your switch through the CLI, then:

Switch1:admin> configupload
Protocol (scp, ftp, sftp, local) [ftp]: scp
Server Name or IP Address [host]: 1.2.3.4
User Name [user]: remoteuser
Path/Filename [<home dir>/config.txt]: /home/remoteuser/switch1.txt
Section (all|chassis|switch [all]): all
remoteuser@1.2.3.4's password:

configUpload complete: All selected config parameters are uploaded
 
DataProtector: putting the internal database into the backup mode failed
edited by on October 27th 2016, at 11:34

If you encounter the following error message while trying to backup the internal database (IDB):

Error
Putting the Internal Database into the backup mode failed.

The reason might be due to the backup being initiated by the Inet process which may run as a certain user account that has not been added to the impersonation of the cell manager.

To resolve, follow these steps:

  1. Start the DP GUI. Choose "Clients"
  2. Right-click the cell manager, delete the existing impersonation.
  3. Add a new impersonation and enter the correct credentials (usually the service account).
 
Checking for syntax errors in PowerShell scripts
edited by on October 12th 2016, at 15:46
I found this little snippet online that allows you to preparse your Powershell scripts to ensure there are no syntax errors in it. This is useful if you need to know the script is error-free but are otherwise unable to run it.

Source: https://rkeithhill.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/powershell-quicktip-preparsing-scripts-to-check-for-syntax-errors/# Contents of file TestScript.ps1param($path, [switch]$verbose)if ($verbose) { $VerbosePreference = ‘Continue’}trap { Write-Warning $_; $false; continue }& `{ $contents = get-content $path $contents = [string]::Join([Environment]::NewLine, $contents) [void]$ExecutionContext.InvokeCommand.NewScriptBlock($contents) Write-Verbose "  ...
 
Key server time out when trying to add a GPG public key
edited by on September 19th 2016, at 11:59
If you get a keyserver time out when trying to download a public key from a public GPG server, you may need to check your firewall settings. When receiving a public key, gpg connects to TCP port 11371, which not commonly opened up when you are behind a strict firewall. Luckily, most key servers also listen on port 80, allowing to get the public keys through that port.

When attempting to download a key and you are not able to connect to the default port, you will get something like:

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 94558F59gpg: requesting key 94558F59 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.comgpg: keyserver timed outgpg: keyserver receive failed: keyserver error

To force gpg to d  ...
 
About VMFS Extents...
edited by on August 19th 2016, at 16:17

Found this interesting read on VMFS Extents and some of the (negative) myths that have arisen over the years:

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/vmfs-extents-are-they-bad-or-simply-misunderstood.html

 
Private MAC address ranges
edited by on August 16th 2016, at 14:30
Like private IP address ranges (defined in RFC 1918), there are also private MAC address ranges. These are called Locally Administered Address Ranges which are never used by devices or other vendors. MAC addresses in these ranges can be safely used, assuming they are unique within your network:

x2-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

x6-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

xA-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

xE-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

The ranges may seem odd but is explained best by this excerpt from Wikipedia:

Universally administered and locally administered addresses are distinguished by setting the second least significant bit of the most significant byte of the address. If the bit is 0, the address is universally administered. If it is 1, the address  ...
 
List all mailboxes to which a user/group has access
edited by on August 10th 2016, at 15:31
It may not seem evident to find out which mailboxes are accessible by a particular user or group. Through EAC, there is no apparent way to do this, as giving access for a user to a (shared) mailbox can only be done through the shared mailbox and then providing the user/group access. There is no way to query a particular user/group and show a list of mailboxes that user/group has access to. Fortunately, it seems that Powershell (EMS) does provide an easier answer.

These cmdlets work in both Office365 and on-premise Exchange 2007 or newer.

List mailboxes to which a user/group has access to:

Get-Mailbox | Get-MailboxPermission -User user1

Although the cmdlet states a user name, replacing th  ...
 
Re-enabling F8 to boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode
edited by on August 8th 2016, at 16:10
Microsoft has disabled the F8 key so you can no longer boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode right after powering on your computer. Safe Mode (although it's no longer called that) is still available but is only accessible if you explicitly asks for it when running Windows (there are plenty of articles that explain how this works). Windows 10 also has a mechanism for detecting boot problems and will automatically start in Safe Mode if normal startup is no longer possible. But what if you're not able to start Windows 10 the normal way, and the detection mechanism doesn't work? You can then opt to boot using a Recovery Drive (can be a DVD or USB stick). Or, you can simply re-enable the F8 key... (needs   ...
 
VSS snapshot logs event ID 8230 in the Application event log
edited by on August 8th 2016, at 12:31
When performing a backup using VSS, a warning is logged in the Application event log of Windows with ID 8230 while taking the VSS snapshot. The backup may subsequently fail.

The warning states:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Failed resolving account Administrator with status 1376. Check connection to domain controller and VssAccessControl registry key. Operation: PrepareForSnapshot EventContext: Execution Context: Writer Writer Class Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485} Writer Name: Registry Writer Writer Instance ID: {0c8f797c-42cb-410d-a2c3-2877a6c93e38}Error-specific details: Error: NetLocalGroupGetMemebers(Administrator), 0x80070560, The specified local group does   ...
 
23 Photos That Will Make Anyone Who Works In IT Satisfied
edited by on August 5th 2016, at 10:49

Or: How IT rack cabling should be done...:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables#.lrA32V2pV

 
Dell Rapid Recovery: SQL Server backup fails with VSS error
edited by on August 4th 2016, at 17:25
Backup of a SQL Server may fail with a VSS error.

From the log, the following message can be found:

One or more errors occurred. ---> Replay.Core.Contracts.Transfer.VssGeneralErrorException: There was a problem with the VSS subsystem on '(agent-machine)l'. ---> Replay.Agent.Contracts.ShadowCopy.ShadowCopyWriterFailedException: The VSS writer 'SqlServerWriter' failed during the 'DoSnapshotSet' phase with error WriterErrorNonRetryable. The VSS writer state is FailedAtPrepareSnapshot ---> Replay.Common.Contracts.ReplayException

In the Application event log on the machine, event 8229 is logged:

Event 8229
A VSS writer has rejected an event with error 0x800423f4, The writer experienc  ...
 
Find and unlock AD accounts with Powershell
edited by on August 4th 2016, at 10:57

Using ADUC, it can be quite a hassle to find and/or unlock AD accounts. Powershell solves this by providing some neat commands for a system administrator to use.

To list all locked out AD accounts:

Search-ADAccount -LockedOut

To get more info about these accounts, you can do a Full-List:

Search-ADAccount -LockedOut | FL

Furthermore, you can pipe the output to quickly unlock some/all AD accounts:

Search-ADAccount -LockedOut | Unlock-ADAccount
 
Configuring Aerohive with RADIUS authentication
edited by on August 3rd 2016, at 18:18

A very good guide on how to configure your Aerohive wireless network to use RADIUS authentication to authenticate users against a Windows Active Directory, and setting network access (VLAN) based on their group membership:

http://boundless.aerohive.com/blog/how-to-configure-microsoft-nps-to-pass-user-profile-attributes-to-an-aerohive-ap.html

 
Windows 10 extends free upgrade for users requiring assistive technology
edited by on August 2nd 2016, at 12:31
Although the free upgrade period for Windows 10 is over (it ended July 29th 2016), users that require assistive technology still can upgrade their OS to Windows 10 for free. If you have any assistive technology in use, you can benefit from the offer. Microsoft does not restrict to any particular assistive technology, and the upgrade offer period currently has no ending date.

The reason for the extended offer is that there are still numerous AT devices out there that are still not supported on Windows 10. Microsoft extends the offer so that manufacturers have more time making their devices compatible with Windows 10, allowing the end user to still benefit from the free upgrade to Windows 10.  ...
 
Launch processes as the SYSTEM account
edited by on August 2nd 2016, at 09:54

Sometimes, being an Administrator just isn't enough. In that case, try being the SYSTEM account... You can run processes as the local SYSTEM account quite easily with PsExec (64-bit).

Use it as follows:

psexec -i -s cmd.exe

The command above would run a command prompt as the SYSTEM account. You can replace cmd.exe with something else, although from a command prompt, you can basically run anything else, all as the SYSTEM account.

Use with caution
Running processes as the SYSTEM account can be potentially dangerous as you will bypass several built-in security restrictions. But I guess that's the reason why you want to use the SYSTEM account...
 
(Freshly downloaded) Mac OS X app is damaged and can't be opened
edited by on July 15th 2016, at 15:28

When running an app, you may encounter the following error:

Error
Application is damaged and can't be opened.

When attempting to reinstall the app, the error persists.

To resolve, try running the following command from a terminal:

sudo xattr -rc /Applications/Application.app

Replace Application.app with the full path of the application that has the problem.

I had this problem when installing Wineskin Winery on a Mac OS X 10.8.5. A freshly downloaded copy immediately gave the error but after adjusting the attributes on the app, it worked properly.

 
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