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Create a OSX Mavericks / Yosemite USB installer
edited by on March 16th 2015, at 11:09
EDIT: added Yosemite (it's exactly the same as for Mavericks).

Creating an USB installer for Mac OSX Mavericks or Yosemite is a little different than previous releases. The InstallESD.dmg no longer contains the complete bootable installation files, so writing that image to an USB stick is no longer a valid option.

There's now a tool within the downloaded OSX Mavericks or OSX Yosemite app which creates a bootable volume with all the required files for installation from a media. You can then unleash the command on any mounted volume (including disk images), provided they are big enough. For USB or other flash media, you'll need at least 8GB or more.

For this to wor  ...
 
Getting Brocade's Switch Explorer (Java) to run
edited by on March 13th 2015, at 14:32

SwitchExplorer for Brocade FC switches no longer works properly on more recent versions of Java, because of security constraints. They can, however, be relaxed so you can still access your switches.

  1. Browse for the installation location for your JRE, and look for the folder lib/security (note: differentiate between 32 and 64-bit on Windows).
  2. Open the file java.security, and look for the line:
    3. jdk.certpath.disabledAlgorithms=MD2, RSA keySize < 1024
  3. Change the 1024 to 256, and save.

Note for Windows Vista and up: open the file elevated, or you won't be able to save it.

 
Exchange 2010/2013: disable mailbox auto-mapping for a single mailbox
edited by on March 13th 2015, at 13:08

Since Exchange 2010 SP1, when giving users Full access to another mailbox, they automatically get that mailbox added to their Outlook (2007 and up). This feature is called mailbox auto-mapping, and has made life a little easier for us IT administrators. But sometimes, you do not want a mailbox to be auto-mapped in Outlook for a particular user.

This can be achieved by setting the access permission through Powershell, and including the parameter -AutoMapping:$false in the cmdlet.

Add-MailboxPermission "Shared Mailbox" -User <user> -AccessRights FullAccess -AutoMapping:$false
 
pfSense NL download mirror (direct link)
edited by on March 13th 2015, at 08:55

http://files.nl.pfsense.org/mirror/downloads/

Contains newest and old releases.

 
Exchange 2013 Message tracking using EMS
edited by on March 10th 2015, at 16:12
You can easily view message tracking logs through the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). The cmdlet to use is called Get-MessageTrackingLog, and roughly provides the same search queries as before, and to be honest, it's faster than using the GUI in older Exchange versions, once you get to know the syntax. And thanks to the power of Powershell, you have a lot more options about exporting said data (e.g. to CSV).

The basic syntax is as follows:

Get-MessageTrackingLog [-Server <ServerIdentity.] [-ResultSize <Integer> | Unlimited] [-Start <DateTime>] [-End <DateTime>] [-EventId <EventId>] [-InternalMessageId <InternalMessageId>] [-MessageId <MessageId>] [-M  ...
 
Reset password on vMware appliances (VDP, VRA, etc.)
edited by on March 9th 2015, at 11:15
You can easily reset the root password on linux-based VMWare appliances through the boot loader. For this to work, you need access to the console of the appliance (i.e. through vSphere (Web) Client), and needs to be performed during offline hours as the appliance has to be rebooted.

Reboot the appliance, and as soon as you see the GRUB boot loader, halt the automatic boot timer by hitting any key (I usually move the selection using the arrows).

Select the first entry, and press e, allowing you to type in some text. At the end of the line that starts with kernel, add the following text:

init=/bin/bash

Do not remove any other text. Then press Enter to confirm.

Press b to continue the boot  ...
 
Restrict access to Exchange Admin Center to local subnets
edited by on March 5th 2015, at 12:35
By default, when opening up OWA (Outlook Web App) access to the internet, you could technically also get into Exchange Admin Center (EAC) by appending /ecp after the external OWA URL, potentionally creating a security vulnerability and increasing the chance for a brute-force attack to succeed.

While it is generally a good idea to deny access to the Administrator user to manage the Exchange-server, this is not always possible or desireable. Additionally, because EAC is a VirtualDirectory within a site in IIS, it is not possible to have it listen on a separate internal IP address and secure it through the edge firewall. Luckily, IIS also has some other mechanisms to secure access. There's an   ...
 
Exchange Powershell: find quarantined mailboxes
edited by on March 4th 2015, at 17:18

You can easily find quarantined mailboxes through Powershell:

Get-Mailbox | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.IsQuarantined -eq $True } | Select Name,Alias

More information about quarantined mailboxes: KB2603736.

 
Exchange/Office365: set OWA language and time zone for users through Powershell
edited by on March 4th 2015, at 15:09
By default, when a user first logs on to Outlook Web App, they are prompted to choose their language and time zone. Sometimes, it's required to change these settings for a certain user, or even, for all users. This can be done by an administrative user through Exchange Management Shell (EMS), and works for both Exchange 2010/2013 and Office365, with the cmdlet Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration.

First, open EMS for your on-premise Exchange, or for Office365, connect to Exchange Online using Powershell.

You can then set/change the language and time zone for a user like so:

Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Identity -Language -TimeZone

identity speaks for itself: it can be an alia  ...
 
Zombietown USA, a disease dynamics simulation of zombism
edited by on March 4th 2015, at 14:42
 
Exchange 2013 OWA logon options
edited by on February 27th 2015, at 12:06
By default, in Exchange 2013, OWA prompts the user to type in their username including the logon name. This can be altered so OWA accepts usernames in a different format.



Log on to EMS and run the following Powershell cmdlet:

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory "owa (Default Web Site)" -LogonFormat Username -DefaultDomain your-domain-name

Change your-domain-name to your domain name.

Next, restart IIS to apply the changes:

iisreset /noforce



Note: not entirely correct as, in fact, you change it to the UserPrincipalName, which is not necessarily the same as the e-mail address.

Log on to EMS and run the following Powershell cmdlet:

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory "owa (Default Web Site)" -LogonFormat Pr  ...
 
Opt-in to Microsoft Update
edited by on February 19th 2015, at 15:54
You can manually opt-in to Microsoft Update (allowing installation of updates for other Microsoft products through Windows Update) through a simple script:

VBScript
ServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"
Set NewUpdateService = ServiceManager.AddService2("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d",7,"")

Powershell
$ServiceManager = New-Object -ComObject "Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager"
$ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"
$ServiceManager.AddService2("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d",7,"")

Note that you probably need at least vers  ...
 
Clean up VMware View database inconsistencies with ViewDbChk
edited by on February 18th 2015, at 14:19

ViewDbChk is a free tool that helps you overcome and clean up database inconsistencies for VMware Horizon View, the VMware solution for VDI.

The tool, available for version 5.3 and 6.0, can be downloaded through the link below. When downloading, be sure to select the correct version.

https://labs.vmware.com/flings/viewdbchk

 
Configure message size limit on a Sonicwall E-mail Security Appliance (ESA)
edited by on February 17th 2015, at 13:36
 
Exchange: retrieve a list of mailboxes not using default quotas
edited by on February 17th 2015, at 12:45

Using EMS (Exchange Management Shell), you can quickly retrieve a list of mailboxes not using the default quotas:

Get-Mailbox | Where { $_.UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults -eq $False } | Select Name,UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults,ProhibitSendQuota
 
OneDrive for Business stuck at "We're getting things ready to sync..."
edited by on February 13th 2015, at 11:05

If OneDrive for Business stays stuck at "We're getting things ready to sync..." when syncing a new library, or re-syncing an existing one, try resetting OneDrive for Business.

 
Clear and reset OneDrive for Business
edited by on February 13th 2015, at 11:02
If for some reason (e.g. when synchronization no longer works properly), you can completely clear and reset OneDrive for Business in a few easy steps.

First, close down all Office programs (such as Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.). Next, open Windows Task Manager, look for and kill these processes:

MSOSYNC.EXE

GROOVE.EXE

MSOUC.EXE

I've noticed that sometimes, these processes get restarted automatically, so be sure they are gone before performing the next step.

Next, locate and delete these folders and their contents:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\Spw

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache

If needed, also delete the local copy of all synced libraries. The location depends   ...
 
B-Box2 image reference
edited by on February 5th 2015, at 10:38

For my own reference, the port and LED layout of a Belgacom/Proximus B-Box 2 wireless router:

LEDs

Ports

 
DynDNS.com on Sonicwall
edited by on February 3rd 2015, at 10:24

Last year, around May, DynDNS.com has changed their root certificates, causing Dynamic DNS using DynDNS.com no longer to work properly. The error (Network Error) is displayed immediately after adding the account to your Sonicwall.

The easiest solution is to upgrade to the latest firmware:

  • For 5.8, this is at least 5.8.4.0;
  • For 5.9, this is anything after June 2014.

Dell Support also offers an alternative, although this only works with more recent 5.9 versions:

https://support.software.dell.com/kb/sw11246

 
No more Windows Update at shutdown for Windows 8?
edited by on February 2nd 2015, at 13:49
Since Windows 8 introduced "fast startup", Windows no longer finishes the installation of updates when performing a regular shutdown. The next time you turn on your computer, it will ask again to restart your computer to finish the installation of updates. The reason for this is "fast startup", which does not do a full shutdown, whereas a restart does a full shutdown and startup of your computer.

You could turn off "fast startup" but who would want that, right? Luckily, there is a workaround.

When you hold down Shift, then click on the Shutdown button, your computer will do a full shutdown just this once, enabling Windows Update to finish the installation of u  ...
 
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