Buffalo DriveStation backup error on SBS Server 2008 (msexchangeis 9782, error code '2155348010')

Attaching a new Buffalo Drivestation 3TB Velocity USB 3.0 backup drive (HD_LXU3) to an old Windows Server 2008, which is part of Small Business Server 2008, reminded us of an error we'd not seen for a few years.

The standard Windows Server backup failed to run within a couple of minutes, despite having been configured for the new drive.

The Event Log showed an Exchange error from source msexchangeis with event id 9782. This was a little misleading, because all the exchange esetuil diagnostics and repairs will show no fault. A little further on in the event viewer you might also see an error that the backup failed with following error code '2155348010' and event id 517, which is a little more useful.

The fault lies with the fact that the Server 2008 Backup doesn't support larger capacity drives with the newer Advanced Format using 4096 byte sectors. It will only backup to a drive formatted with 512 byte sectors. Note that this is referring to the drive format sector size, not the volume or partition sector size.

If you're lucky, the USB drive you've bought had a download that will allow you to reformat the drive. Western Digital (WDC) have the WD Quick Formatter utility. More background detail and a link in this thread https://social.technet.microsoft.com

Buffalo have a similar utility, but its not available on the UK support page! Instead, if you head over to their Japanese support page http://buffalo.jp/support_ap/support/products/hd_lxu3.html and download the DriveFormatter2 program (its in English), you can reformat with 512 byte sectors. Select the correct drive and choose option 2: NTFS (Win 8, 7, Vista)

How to remotely read a Dell Optiplex Tag number (serial no) via command prompt

There are plenty of management tools that will gather the data for you, but if you're on a domain network and just need a quick way to gather some serial numbers for known computer names, try this method using the command prompt shell.

Dell support have a useful document telling you how to use the command
WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER to retrieve the Dell serial number, aka Tag Number.

Often that command is blocked by firewall and security settings if you try to run it remotely using the /Node option. Similarly for PowerShell commands using the Get-WmiObject command. I also couldn't find any useful info in the registry either via regedit, so no quick shortcut with Remote Registry service.

By far the quickest and simplest way was to take advantage of the Sysinternals PSExec command. This allows you to run a remote command shell from a local computer.


So on your server or PC logged into the domain as an admin, you'd start a command prompt and run the commands:

1)
PSEXEC \\ CMD
   to start a command shell running on the computer called but displaying locally

2)
WMIC BIOS GET SERIALNUMBER
   to retrieve the serial number of the connected computer

3)
EXIT
   to close the remote command prompt and return to your local prompt

Shared printer keeps going offline after a few minutes on Windows Server

Sometimes its just the simple things ... AND you keep forgetting the fix. The copier company has just been and installed a shiny new Toshiba, looks loverly. Installed x86 / x64 drivers on the server, setup the printers, shared on the network, installed on a couple of PCs and watched as the printers promptly went offline again.

Restart the Print Spooler, come back online, wait a few minutes, and they're offline again. Aaargh.

Oh yes the fix - right-click on the server printer and choose Properties (or Printer Properties on newer versions of Windows Server) find the Ports tab, click Configure Port and

make sure SNMP is turned OFF

Access to 1and1 VPS on alternate port 8443 (also 4343) via ISA 2004 server, can't find isa_tpr.zip / isa_tpr.js

One of the hosted management tools is the 1&1 VPS login which uses SSL to port 8443 to login. At one client site they're still using an old ISA 2004 firewall and proxy, which blocks this login.

Adding a rule to allow traffic to 8443 doesn't fix this, you need to allow SSL over port 8443.

There's a good note on isaserver.org, which is probably the best source for this product, however it refers to a download for isa_tpr.js from isatools that is no longer available. After a few dead-ends I found the isa_tpr.zip download on Trend Micro's website. You need to set an SSL port of 4343 for their Worry-Free Business Security (WFBS) console too.

Run these lines in the command prompt of your ISA 2004 server
     cscript isa_tpr.js /add ssl8443 8443
     cscript isa_tpr.js /show

Then restart the Microsoft Firewall service to apply.

Recover Administrator domain password for server 2008 (and SBS 2008) on Hyper-V

I've worked out a top tip for resetting a forgotten domain administrator password in Small Business Server 2008 (SBS) - which is effectively the same for Windows Server 2008 - except its running on Hyper-V and you can't get the Windows-U command to the remote session.

(That is the Windows command key near the bottom left of the keyboard pressed at the same time as the 'u' key)

Follow these instructions from woutware
http://www.woutware.com/blog/post/How-to-reset-the-domain-administrator-password-on-Windows-Server-2008-with-just-the-Windows-Installation-Disk.aspx
(He's also got a link to a Youtube video in case you're having trouble)

which are basically:
* Insert the original Windows Server 2008 installation DVD.
(You'll need to do this in the Hyper-V settings to allocate the drive to the guest OS)
* Reset the computer, boot from DVD.
(watching for the press a key prompt)
* Choose option "Repair your computer".
* Start command prompt.
* C:\
* CD C:\Windows\System32
* MOVE Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak
* COPY Cmd.exe Utilman.exe
* Restart windows
* At the login screen, type Windows-U, this fires up cmd.exe now
* NET USER administrator
* Presto! Login as administrator!
* Now repair computer again and move the original Utilman.exe back.

Now if your server is virtualized with Hyper-V you'll be connected via Remote Desktop or Hyper-V Manager. Pressing Windows-U starts the accessibility program on your local PC not the remote server session.

The trick is to run the remote session in full screen mode (note this is different from maximised). On Hyper-V Manager you can get that option from the View menu or you can press Ctrl-Alt-Break.

In full screen mode, the Windows-U command will be successfully passed to the server and you can complete woutware's instructions to load a command shell and use the NET USER command to reset the password.