If you’ve played around with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services, you will probably be familiar with the snapshot feature within NTDSUTIL. The feature allows you to take snapshot of the volumes that host the AD components and to then mount the snapshot. Once mounted, you can use DSAMAIN.EXE to expose a read-only copy… Read More »
Since the 24th October I’d been getting the error “Invalid Update Control CTF File” when trying to update AVG 8.0 on my home PC. I think I remember having this before and it went away after a few days, so I had been ignoring it until today. Anyway, I found two control files for AVG… Read More »
The other day I had a customer ask what the recommended maximum database size is for Exchange Server 2007 mailbox stores. I knew I had seen the information somewhere on-line, so I did some Googling. Initially, I didn’t have much luck. First of all I found the article below, which recommends stores grow no… Read More »
Last week I initiated a discussion on the ActiveDir.org mailing list about running Windows Server 2008 Domain Controllers on Server Core. I was curious to see whether there were any good reasons why all DCs (RODCs and RWDCs) should not be run on Server Core as a best practice. The conclusion reached was that,… Read More »
Yes, I know PST files are BAD, but due to circumstances that would take too long to explain, I still use SMTP and POP3 with Outlook 2007 for my home email. The other day I had a power outage that caused a corruption to one of my PST files. I know that you can… Read More »
Yesterday I fired up an old Exchange Server 2007 VM lab environment. The first thing I saw when I started the Exchange Management Console (EMC) was a pop-up message saying, “The following servers in your organization are currently unlicensed”, as shown below. After clicking OK, I got the another pop-up message saying, “The server… Read More »
Next to ADFIND.EXE, LDP is the tool I probably use most often when working with Active Directory. It’s an LDAP client that was originally developed for use purely within Microsoft. It can be used for browsing, searching and making changes via the LDAP protocol. Because of its usefulness, Microsoft included LDP in the Support… Read More »
I encounter a fair number of AD implementations as part of my work. Some are good, some bad and some just plain ugly. Here’s a more or less random collection of bad habits that I see quite regularly and some tips on how to avoid and/or kick them. 1. Poor or missing Active Directory… Read More »
It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged, so here’s a more or less random collection of snippets for you to enjoy/delete at leisure. Quest acquires Netpro Wow, this one took me by surprise, especially as I have been contracting to Quest on and off for the past 10 months. Two of the biggest… Read More »
When running through final preparations for a presentation to a few hundred people (well, tens of people…ok, at least 5 people…proabably) the last thing you need is for your Hyper-v environment to start misbehaving. This is exactly what happened to me and I’ve just found the cause, so am feeling a lot more relaxed about things. I… Read More »