SBS 2003 mailbox limit and warning over 2GB

Its not often that I don't find an answer to an SBS admin question on Daniel Petri's excellent website. He's got a post about loading up ADSIEDIT to set a mailbox limit warning higher than 2GB. Basically the standard Exchange Server Manager won't edit the values higher than 2GB so you have to dive into obscure Active Directory attributes to load a bigger value.

At one particular client that didn't work and he kept getting daily warnings, which in turn meant I got a daily prompt ;-) There is a global setting that affects all mailboxes fortunately and it worked at this particular client.

I tracked down an article to set the global mailbox limit higher than 2GB. Use ADSIEDIT but drill down to the attributes at this location:

Configuration [YOUR_SERVER.YOUR_DOMAIN.london]

CN=Configuration,DC=YOUR DOMAN,DC=london

CN=ServicesCN=Microsoft Exchange

CN=YOUR_DOMAIN

CN=Administrative Groups

CN=first administrative group

CN=Servers

CN=YOUR_SERVERNAME

CN=InformationStore

CN=First Storage Group

CN=Mailbox Store (YOUR_SERVERNAME)

Move Sage Payroll data

Just had a client going from Sage Payroll 2011 on a standalone PC to a network version on the server.

It was surprisingly straightforward! I just copied the Company.001 directory from the PC's payroll directory in to a shared folder on the server.

Then ran the latest Payroll setup CD on another PC and told it to open the payroll.mdb from that shared location when prompted.

The answer to telling the original standalone PC to switch to the network data was prompted by this post http://www.great-one.co.uk/archives/132

But on this version of Payroll I had to copy the paydata file from the new PC to the old.

Advantage of doing this was I could easily revert to the standalone Payroll if there was a problem with the network version.

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.

SBS 2011 undeliverable local email after migration, 0x8004010F

Just completed an SBS 2011 migration from SBS 2003 using the Microsoft method. Two of the mailboxes failed to transfer correctly and I had to manually create and import them. Subsequently some staff were unable to email one of those mail accounts.

They received an undeliverable error which showed the new server name but trying to route to the old 'First Administrative Group' on the 2003 server. Download Offline Address Book gave error 0x8004010F, not found.

Creating a new OAB in 2010 Exchange Management Console didn't appear to fix the problem. Found the key bit of info here
http://forums.msexchange.org/fb.aspx?m=1800473258
Create the new OAB with a different name. Then allocate it to the Mailbox Database. Going back to Outlook and clicking Download Address Book worked straight off and email routing was successful.

IT Support

"Taking IT apart is easy, putting it back together in the right order is what you pay for"

SBS 2008 DHCP server not registering DNS from workgroup XP

Made sure I was set for
- secure and unsecure registrations
- separate username in DHCP
- member of DNSProxyUpdate group
- deleted reverse records
- restarted services repeatedly

and kept getting DNS registration failed in DHCP audit log

but this KB saved the day
A Windows Server 2008-based DHCP server does not register DNS records for earlier version DHCP clients that do not send option 81 to the DHCP server

the hotfix dowload didn't actually work for me - was a Vista x64 version that reported incompatbile with SBS 2008.

However going back to the problem PC and adding the local domain suffix (xxx.local) into the TCP/IP settings did the trick

AppleCare Protection for iPhone - what could go wrong?

So I just purchased an AppleCare Protection Plan from O2 to go with the shiny new iPhone which has 12 month warranty on a 2yr contract - bit nervous about those second 12 months.

This is how the protection plan arrived.

What could possibly go wrong if they have to take a look at the iPhone? An iPhone can bend like that can't it?

SBS 2003 R2 server NTFRS event error 13552 and 13555

The NT File Replication Service (NtFrs) was throwing up errors on a Small Business Server 2003 R2 box. There's only one server in that organisation, so no additional domain controllers to worry about.

Typically every morning there was an Event ID 13552 for source NtFrs:
The File Replication Service is unable to add this computer to the following replica set: "DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)"

Followed by Event ID 13555
The File Replication Service is in an error state. Files will not replicate to or from one or all of the replica sets on this computer until the following recovery steps are performed

Restarting the File Replication Service or rebooting the server wouldn't clear the errors. The following steps did clear the problem.

- Stop these services: Net Logon and File Replication Service
- Take a backup copy of the C:\WINDOWS\NTFRS\JET directory
- Delete all the files and directories out of that JET directory
- Restart Net Logon and File Replication Service

If you look in the Event Log you should see entries reporting the NtFrs service has started ok AND no more 13552 and 13555 errors :-)

HP Color (Colour !) LaserJet 2500 - Density sensor out of range

HP CLJ2500 was showing error 54.7.0 Density sensor out of range and refusing to print from the main paper tray (tray 2) but was ok from manual feed (tray 1)

Printer maintenance company that attended site first offered to sell client a new fuser for £150 or a replacement Panasonic printer - thanks guys, don't miss an opportunity will you!

I loaded hp color LaserJet 2500 series toolbox from the original HP CD (unfortunately not available as a download - couldn't find it in HP Easy Care either).

- Fire up the Toolbox,
- go into the Troubleshooting tab
- choose the Cleaning Page option from the left side.
- It prints a page with a big black diagonal line across it.
- You put that face down in the manual feed tray 1
- go back to the Toolbox and choose the Clean button.
- Then press the green button on the printer for a manual feed.
- It will print really slowly

and it cleared the '54.7.0 Density sensor out of range error' ... I'm sure a new Panasonic printer would have fixed the problem too ;-)

Dell Teac CA-200 card reader drive icons in Windows 7

My Dell Vostro 200 came with a TEAC 13-in-1 memory card reader (not the one with the Bluetooth option). Since I upgraded to 64-bit Windows 7 I've not had the drive icons that were on Vista previously. There's no official driver support at the Dell site for Vostro 200 or the card reader and this OS.

Its not a biggy and certainly doesn't stop anything working but rather than having several generic drive icons which look the same as flash drives when connected (I'm easily confused) - I'd rather have the old TEAC drive icons that showed exactly which memory type was on which drive:
They also greyed out when not in use, so you can see at a glance what's loaded, which is a nice touch.

I found a some articles that put me on the right track, but involved quite a bit of registry work to fix, e.g.
http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/262307-need-help-missing-flash-drive-icons-file-open-save-dialog-box-2.html

Here's the easier option - you need to download the Vista 64 bit driver for TEAC CA-200. I found it on the Dell support site here (its download R176598 - same as R175675)
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R176598&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=240261

Run the download and it will unpack into C:\Dell\Drivers\R176598, auto-run and fail with a waning about incompatible Windows. Now if you go look in that directory you'll find a file called IMGR64B.EXE, right-click on it and choose Properties then Compatibility (you may need to click Change settings for all users).

Tick the 'Run this program in compatibility mode' and choose Windows Vista SP2 then tick the 'Run this program as an administrator' at the bottom. Click OK and run the program. It will install successfully this time. Make sure you give it plenty of time to finish as it will remove the current drive letters and reinstall them - takes a few minutes and it may not appear to be doing much at the time.