SBS 2008 – How to repair Exchange 2007

FYI – just published repair documentation:

SBS Exchange Repair Documentation Live Today

More announcements from the SBS documentation team today.

How to repair Exchange

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd728006.aspx

Reinstall the Client Access Role in Windows Small Business Server 2008

Reinstall the Hub Transport Role in Windows Small Business Server 2008

Reinstall the Mailbox Server Role in Windows Small Business Server 2008

 

Nicholas King’s blog

Post SBS 2008 migration and now need data from SBS 2003 NTBackup media – what to do now?

(picture is linked to download)

If you find that there is missing information after the migration has completed (or someone in organization suspects this) then you need to access your NTBackup created media and potentially recover data.  But Windows Server 2008 no longer has NTbackup; Vista did the same thing.

What to do?  Download the above nifty utility or go to a Windows 2003 Server you still have access to.  With the utility you can keep it all in house at the business network which keeps thing simple.

KISS is a DU-IT best practice.

ShadowProtect Success – Vista and Server 2008 Restores – Phillip is THE Man

Tomorrow morning some of the good folks from ShadowProtect are in town buying me and many colleagues breakfast and Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and having a nice presentation.  So I thought I’d publish this topical reference I found this past week.

Found this great article by accident and wanted to say thanks to Phillip Elder for figuring this out and sharing this information.  I know a few colleagues that will appreciate learning this ShadowProtect trick.

**below from the linked post***

First Successful Windows Vista ShadowProtect Restore! No Winload.exe Error!

We have had a very disappointing series of problems with restoring any Windows Vista images made by ShadowProtect.

Many black screens later, there is finally information out there on the “why” the problem happens. The main reason has to do with the way Vista keeps track of the system’s partitioning and OS location.

Apparently the newer versions of Acronis’ imaging product compensates for this new partition management structure in Windows Vista. Unfortunately, the folks at StorageCraft are a little behind the game on this topic.

The last restore attempt we made with a client’s system failed with a WinLoad.exe error.

So, it turns out, after a lot of searching, that one needs to perform a preparatory step on the Windows Vista box before creating the ShadowProtect image:

bcdedit /set {default} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot

Place the above series of commands into a batch file and run the batch file As Administrator on the soon to be imaged Windows Vista box.

Historical Post Series – ADSIEdit & ExMerge prep

The Historical Post Series are writings I produced in my former blog on Live Spaces and due their value are being reposted here.  Hope you enjoy these.

ADSIEdit.msc – to install and use for ExMerge Admin Mailbox Permissions

originally posted August 2006

Exchange 2003′s enhanced security permissions leave no default account or group with Read As and Send As permissions to Exchange Mailboxes (Enterprise Administrators, Domain Administrators, & the Administrator).  It is possible to alter the security permissions for a mailstore on its properties sheet by negating inheritance and then overriding the settings.  The only thing is it isn’t as easy to put the Genie  back in the bottle once you’re done with whatever task required this security breach.  With ADSIEdit it is possible to make the needed changes and revert back in a much cleaner way.

ADSIEdit is part of the Windows 2003 server resource tools.  In SBS these are found on disc 2 under the SUPPORTTOOLS directory.  Click support.msi, agree to the EULA, and they install.  Now you are able to type ADSIEdit.msc into the command window provided in the newly added Windows Support Tools program group.  This will invoke the tool.

A word of CAUTION.  Accidental keystrokes or mouse clicks could be extraordinarily calamitous and dangerous when using this tool – proceed with due caution.  You have been warned!

You will have to logoff and logon for the security token to be reissued with the changes.

Historical Post Series – Auto-eject Script and Email Alert for SBS 2003 Tape Backup

The Historical Post Series are writings I produced in my former blog on Live Spaces and due their value are being reposted here.  Hope you enjoy these.

auto-eject script and email alert for SBS tape backup

originally posted October 2006

I created a folder C:batch then inside it a 5633.vbs file with the following contents:

‘begin code
On Error Resume Next
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strCommand = "rsm eject /LGA2A90879A1994371BDE6D8713FF2061C /astart"
Set objWshScriptExec = objShell.Exec(strCommand)
Set objMessage = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
objMessage.Subject = "SBS Backup – Completed Successfully"
objMessage.From = "administrator@sourcedomain.com"
objMessage.To = "me@mainaddy.com"
objMessage.Cc = "metoo@altaddy.net"
objMessage.TextBody = "SBS Backup Succeeded"
objMessage.Send
‘end code

This VBS script uses both the RSM command which you can explore for more information on the switch options.  Initially I tried using various switches and ended up having to learn how to identify and then use the GUID of the Library used.  The GUID in red is unique to this library and you would of course have to modify this to suit your specific situation whether a library, drive, …etc.

The next step uses this script using the "eventtriggers" command.  Under the context of what I’ve created above you would then on one line at a command prompt enter the following exactly:

eventtriggers /create /tr SBSBackupSuccess /eid 5633 /t INFORMATION /tk "c:batch5633.vbs" /ru "System"

Event 5633 is for a successful backup and complements event 5634 for a failed backup.  SBS has a built in alert for event 5634 but no provision for a successful backup.

Go into the Health and Monitoring Console and see how this has been added and how this now works.  It will intuitively explain a lot of what the SBS alert wizard sets up and how to go outside that box.

**Credit and much thanks given to Bob Haley and Marina Roos for their large contributions.**