Diary of a Mild man

A christmas present, a curry and a movie

2012-01-22T18:45:00.002Z

There are many pleasures in life but the simple ones are often the best.

Jake wanted to make me a chocolate cake as a belated Christmas present. Having chosen the cake and the topping, we shopped and he made it for me from start to finish on his own. He discovered that over whipping double cream turns it into butter but a butter cream filling (especially with the rum) was equally good.

A great cake.

The new slow cooker was used to make a curry at the same time. A bit of this recipe and a bit of that. Not one I can easily reproduce but it was fabulous.

Then a movie, just the 3 of us.

As Louis Armstrong used to say, what a wonderful world.

Thanks Jake, I know that you get sad at the end of the weekend, but it is great to spend time together.

We're getting the band back together

2011-12-05T19:10:00.004Z

I actually wanted to get an audio clip of John Belushi saying it but I'll settle for text instead.

The band are reforming after 5 years apart - Annirythmics are rehearsing and planning to play gigs during 2012.

Original band members are all reprising their previous roles with the exception of the lead guitarist who has been replaced as he is enjoying success in another band. First rehearsal last weekend proved extremely positive and all band members are very much looking forward to the next rehearsal.

Annirythmics are a five piece band based in Buckinghamshire based on the classic Eurythmics line up.

Their set list incorporates many of the varied songs by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart including early 'Tourists' material such as 'I only wanna be with you'. They also have a full set of covers from other popular artists including songs from Cher, Suzi Quattro, Cyndi Lauper, Kirsty McColl and many more.

This means that they can tailor their shows to your requirements, performing an entire 'Tribute' show, a whole show of covers or any combination that you require.

There is a new web site at http://www.annirythmics.co.uk, there is a Facebook group and a Twitter feed too.

MVP once more - the 7th time running

2010-01-01T16:23:00.000Z

Just had the email to confirm that I am an MVP for 2010 renewed as from today for the whole of the year. This is likely to be my final year for the time being as my life has taken a different direction however I am pleased and honoured to continue to be a part of the MVP group. I am especially honoured to be an MVP alongside the likes of luminaries such as (in alphabetical order) Jimmy Andersson, Mark Arnold, Neil Hobson and Pat Richard – all of whom are extremely knowledgeable experts and use that expertise in their full time jobs.

Congratulations to everyone rewarded today and Happy New Year to you all.

Elephants and giraffes

2009-12-27T17:45:00.000Z

How do you get 4 giraffes in a mini?

Two in the front and two in the back

How do you get 4 elephants in a mini?

Two in the front and two in the back? Nope, it is full of giraffes. You have to take the giraffes out first...

How do you know if there is an elephant in your fridge?

Footprints in the butter.

How do you know if there are 2 elephants in the fridge?

You can’t get the door closed.

How do you know if there are 3 elephants in the fridge?

There’s one elephant parked outside in a mini.

How do you get two whales in a mini?

Straight up the M4 and over the Severn bridge.

My Bagheera

2009-12-21T13:56:00.001Z

After 5 years, I have decided to sell my classic 1970s Matra Bagheera sports car (www.gillott.co.uk/matra) due to lack of use and lack of time. Classic 3 seater, mid engined, rear wheel drive sports car in dark grey with grey cloth interior.

For sale: Matra Simca Bagheera, Series 2 with RHD conversion carried out when new by Hodec Engineering.

Engine: 1442cc 4 cylinder original Talbot Horizon engine reading 18,000km (original French speedometer).

Original and after market stereos provided.

Replacement alloys on vehicle with original steel wheels going with vehicle too.

Recent work carried out by professional machanics:

Complete handbrake mechanism overhaul

Head retorque

Carb removal and clean

New throttle cable

New HT and LT leads

New electric fuel pump and hoses

Pop up headlight mechanism overhauled

Vacuum tube tested and working correctly

New clutch master cylinder fitted

Known issues:

Small oil leak from the old oil sensor plug (needs a bolt in there instead of the unused sensor just to cap it)

Engine loses power after about 25 miles, looks like condenser or coil. Pull over and turn it off, wait 5 minutes and all is well. Some component overheating like the coil or the condenser which should be easy to fix.

Front wheels need balancing.

MOT just done, no advisories at all.

Tax just done.

Cabin condition is very good especially for a Bagheera. Those known issues make a very short list for a car that is 31 years old. Big file with lots of money spent, loads of photos including comprehensive body off restoration.

See also: http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/34144/index.html?no_cache=1 for a 1977 LHD version on sale at €3,500 in Belgium in apparent good condition.

Also: http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-car-page.php/carno/57801 for a 1975 LHD version on sale at €3,950 in Malta in poor condition.

Enquiries by email please.

Car insurance

2009-09-05T10:23:00.000+01:00

I don’t watch much TV but I have seen the advert.

My car insurance came round again and I felt that the renewal was bit steep with little change from £350. The Internet is my friend so I picked a price comparison site at random (there are other price comparison sites available on the market)...hmm, I’ve just thought, I wonder if there is a site to compare the price comparison sites?

Anyway, I typed in all of my details and was astonished. Sufficiently so that I called my insurer to see what they could do to reduce my premium. We ran through all of my details and he corrected my old mileage estimate (low) to my new mileage estimate (higher). Pressing his big red button, he came back with a figure of nearly £400. What’s that all about? He then looked at other options but was unable to reduce the premium. He asked the price I had managed to find online and I told him it was £200 and that it was a sufficient difference that if he couldn’t match or beat the price, I would vote with my feet.

He couldn’t.

But he did speak to his Manager and get a Manager level discount. So would I be interested if they brought it down to £320? Erm...hello? What planet do you come from when £320 is equal to or lower than £200? I cancelled my renewal with them.

My insurance is now with another firm. It was fast, I’m now insured. £170. I just saved HALF.

Oink

2009-08-01T13:03:00.002+01:00

A week away with my son, my girlfriend and her Mother. Somewhere quiet in the English countryside with plans for rest, relaxation and trips to the beach.

Well things didn't quite go according to plan. Jake came down with swine flu on the first full day and was mostly recovered by the time he was returned. He managed to give it to me a few days later and I am still down with it. I just hope not to infect the GF (or indeed anyone) as I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

On the plus side though, I'm off food and booze and am hot enough to cook eggs on which must surely be good for weight loss?

Swine flu is the next diet?

Exchange 2007 and Windows 2008

2009-07-22T20:49:00.001+01:00

Someone asked this the other week and I forgot to blog the answer.

Windows 2008 SP2 has recently been released and now includes a new version of ntbackup that is Exchange aware so now you can back up your Exchange server locally again without resorting to copying ntbackup from Windows 2003.

Someone in Microsoft has been listening to a customer. It will never catch on...

Cured Pigeon

2009-07-20T22:13:00.001+01:00

This was amazing!

Ingredients

6-8 pigeon breasts, bonesless skin off

50g Maldon sea salt

50g granulated sugar

A 6 inch sprig of savory or thyme

3 Bay leaves

5 Cloves

9g Garlic cloves

6 Black peppercorns

1 Orange zest

1 Lemon zest

250ml Red wine

10 Juniper berries

Method

Crush all spices and herbs before using

1. Add salt and sugar to wine and bring to the boil

2. Pour yourself a glass of wine and drink it

3. Remove wine solution from stove and add other ingredients

4. When cool, place pigeon in marinade, cover and chill

5. Pour another glass of wine and drink

6. Turn pigeon every 12 hours for 48 hours

7. When the meat is sufficiently cured it should be fairly firm to the touch

8. If it still feels tender, continue to marinade for a further 12 hours

9. Wipe off excess marinade, wrap in cling film and freeze until solid

10. Unwrap and slice as thinly as possible

11. As you slice, put it on a plate or it will clump

12. Roll up around some wild herbs or serve on a bed of greenery

From Chris Horridge, Executive Head Chef at Cliveden

Out of the mouths

2009-07-20T10:01:00.001+01:00

On Friday night, the end of a long week, I took myself off to see Jake but was remarkably tired. He decided we were going to play Football on his Playstation rather than going swimming and since I was frazzled, I wasn't exactly reluctant.

After about 40 minutes, Jake asked if I wanted a drink and as I was laid on his bed, I was agreeing to most requested that didn't involve me moving. He came back with a pint glass of squash and a straw angled so that I didn't need to move. He also brought a box of Coco Pops and proceeded to feed me cereal a piece at a time.

After a while, he announced that this was what he wanted to do when he grew up...I thought that in fact I'd prefer him to be a Doctor or a Vet but a Carer would be an honest job.

Then the little whatsit said "I want to look after old people".

I'm an Auntie

2009-07-20T09:32:00.000+01:00

Rather earlier than expected, my lovely sis-in-law produced a little girl this morning by the name of Annabel Rose.

Welcome to the world little one and I hope to meet you soon.

Exchange Server 2010

2009-04-15T17:10:00.002+01:00

Woohoo. The announcement has finally come out about the name of the new Exchange Server product to be released to follow in the footsteps of the great Exchange Server 2007.

This one will be called Exchange Server 2010.

Reviews

· Microsoft Exchange 2010 Beta Looks Solid from Core to Cloud (and related slideshow Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Includes Welcome Improvements) – eWeek

· First look: Exchange 2010 beta shines – InfoWorld

News

· Broader Office 14 testing coming by fall - CNet

· Next Exchange features e-mail 'mute' button - CNet

· Microsoft Brands Office 2010, Releases Exchange Beta – PC World / IDG

· Microsoft fends off Google with Web browser-friendly Exchange 2010 - Computerworld

· Microsoft to release Exchange 2010 beta on April 15 - ZDNet

· Microsoft Exchange 2010 to address annoyances & mobility – Seattle PI

· Next version of Microsoft Office coming in 2010 - AP

· It's Office 2010: First technical previews due in Q3 - BetaNews

Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008

2009-03-28T09:51:00.001Z

A trip to Ireland the other week for an email deployment took longer than I expected. No time on site to see what was happening and no project management time meant that the deployment was a “Turn up and do it” style.

Existing site: Single SBS 2003 domain, circa 30 users, mixture of local desktop and remote laptop.

Required outcome: Integrate to new domain accessed over VPN. Use existing hardware for DC and file and print. Deploy new Exchange 2007 into existing org and move mailboxes.

Gotchas:

VPN issues meant we could not get domain connectivity or move schema master to local box.

I had not had sufficient experience with 2008 Server.

.Net 3.5 on 2008 means decidedly unhelpful errors with Exchange 2007. In addition to the other installations, use ServerManagerCmd -i net-framework

Notes to the wise:

Read your notes and don’t guess.

Deploy .Net Framework 3.0 despite Exchange saying it has a .Net installation and is happy. It isn’t.

Four days including travel both ways. Migration complete and users happy including a load of client side updates and use of my spring clean document. In isolation I would probably have had more trouble but I was part of a team of 3 people doing the work and had help very late on Sunday evening from Nathan Winters as I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Installing Exchange 2007 into an organisation is fairly straight forward. Doing it on a site you have never visited into an org you don’t know and to a deadline is enough to give you a nosebleed.

I didn’t even get any Guinness.

Exchange Configuration - More on certificates for Exchange 2007

2009-03-21T10:28:00.000Z

I was looking through my old certificate notes and found this. Might come in handy for someone.

Exchange Configuration - Certificates for Exchange

Prologue

This document is aimed at IT staff / Systems Administrators who wish to understand more fully the role of Exchange Server and are looking to implement the product. This is not a hard and fast document and any actions taken from reading this document are done so at your own risk entirely. It is understood that prior to reading this document, you are familiar with the concepts of the following:

Certificate services

Command prompt J

Exchange Server 2007

Windows Server 2003 with the admin pack installed

Introduction

Certificates are simple to implement in Exchange Server 2007 unless your internal domain and your public domain have different names.

Project aim

How to generate and install a certificate for Exchange 2007 that will support internal MAPI access for Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003 and external access to OWA activesync and Outlook Anywhere. This document assumes you are using:

1. Microsoft certificate services to generate a self certified certificate.

2. An internal domain name that differs from your external domain name (FQDN).

When your internal domain name is different from your external conventions then the certificate must be generated with “Subject Alternative Name” or SAN for short. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s certificate services do not support this out of the box so you first have to enable it. To do this, logon as an administrator to the server running certificate services. START, Run, cmd to start a command prompt. At the command prompt, enter the following commands:

certutil -setreg policy\EditFlags +EDITF_ATTRIBUTESUBJECTALTNAME2

net stop certsvc

net start certsvc

To undo this command, start a command prompt and enter the following commands:

certutil -setreg policy\EditFlags -EDITF_ATTRIBUTESUBJECTALTNAME2

net stop certsvc

net start certsvc

What has this done? There is now a new registry key called "policy/editflags" in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CertSvc\Configuration

which has a value of editf_attributesubjectaltname2

You could set that attribute using the following .reg file if you wish:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CertSvc\Configuration] "policy/editflags"=hex(7):65,00,64,00,69,00,74,00,66,00,5f,00,61,00,74,00,74,\ 00,72,00,69,00,62,00,75,00,74,00,65,00,73,00,75,00,62,00,6a,00,65,00,63,00,\ 74,00,61,00,6c,00,74,00,6e,00,61,00,6d,00,65,00,32,00,00,00,00,00

Ensure that you have restarted the Certificate Services service before continuing. This can be done manually at the command prompt as above or by using the Services Control Panel.

Creating and installing the certificate

Using Internet explorer navigate to \\servername\certsrv where “servername” is the name of the server running certificate services.

Select “Request a certificate” then select “Advanced Certificate Request” Followed by “Create and submit a request to this CA”

In the name field enter your external domain name for the server such as domain.com, and the other identifying info as required Change the certificate type to “Server” Select “Mark keys as exportable”

In the attributes box enter your domain information using the following syntax: san:dns=mail.externaldomain.com&dns=mail.internaldomain Where mail.externaldomain.com is the FQDN for OWA / Outlook Anywhere access that you use from outside the LAN and mail.internaldomain is the server name and domain name used internally on your LAN. In the friendly name enter your external domain name such as mail.externaldomain.com

Click Submit.

Go to the “administration tools” and run the certificate authority program to issue the certificate by using Internet explorer to navigate to \\servername\certsrv Select “View the status of a pending certificate”, then select your server certificate Then select “install this certificate” and click “Yes” to install.

Exporting the certificate

Click Start, Run, “mmc.exe” (without quotes). Click “File” “Add/remove snapin”, “Add” and then “Certificates”. Click Add once more

Select “My user account”, “Close”, “OK” Navigate to “Personal” “Certificates”

Right mouse click on your certificate and select “All tasks” then “Export” Click “Next”, “Yes” (for the private keys export), “Next” Enter the password (twice) then “Next” Enter a filename eg “c:\cert.pfx”

Click “Next” then “Finish”

Close the MMC then copy the file “c:\cert.pfx” onto the Exchange 2007 Server that holds the client access role (CAS).

Importing the certificate

Log onto the exchange 2007 server that holds the client access role.

Start, Run “mmc.exe” (without the quotes), select “File” “Add/remove snapin”, “Add”, “Certificates”. Select “Computer account”, “Close”, “OK”.

Navigate to “Personal”, “Certificates”, right click on “Certificates”, select “All tasks” then “Import”.

Select “next” and then enter the path and filename to where you copied the certificate, such as “c:\cert.pfx”.

Enter the password.

Important note: Do NOT select the “mark this key as exportable” box!

Click “Next”, “Next”, “Finish”.

Run the IIS manager, select the “Default web site”, right click and choose “properties”.

Select “Directory security”, “Server certificate”, “Assign an existing certificate” and select the certificate.

Assigning the certificate to the SMTP receivers

Run “mmc.exe”, select “File”, “Add/remove snapin”, “Add”, “Certificates”.

Select “Computer account”, “Close”, “OK”.

Navigate to “Personal” “Certificates” , double click on the certificate that you added and select the details tab.

Scroll down to the thumbprint field and make a note of the value / copy it to the clipboard.

Load up the Exchange management shell and enter the following command: enable-exchangecertificate -Thumbprint <Thumbprint as per above number> -Services SMTP

Exchange will now be able to work with both the internal and external domain names and Office 2007 will not give certificate warnings.

Note: The same certificate that has just been generated will also need to be attached to the “Listener” service on ISA 2004/2006 to allow SSL bridging to your Exchange server.

Exchange 2007 - post service pack roll ups

2009-03-14T11:08:00.001Z

In the olden days, when I had dark hair, you used to have to reapply post service pack rollups every time you made a change.

Example:

Install Exchange 2000.

Install Service Pack 1.

Install a roll up.

Downstream you add Outlook Web Access. To patch this you would then apply service pack 1 again and then reinstall the roll up.

Exchange 2007 is different and it feels like it flies in the face of logic. Here is how you would *think* things would work...

Install Exchange 2007 hub transport role.

Install Service Pack 1.

Install latest rollup.

So now you want to add the client access server role. Those files will create and then populate the \Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ClientAccess folder. Surely you would need to reinstall service pack 1 and then the roll up after adding that role?

Well, that is no longer the case.

The MSI service knows about the MSI and all MSPs installed for a given product. It actually 'calculates' and combines the MSI and MSP to figure out what the install should look like. It then installs that onto the machine. It doesn't add the role from the RTM MSI and then install the MSP which also makes sense. It does a more direct approach of taking the MSI and MSP, combining them together, and then forcing the machine to look like what it sees needs to be on the machine.

Now, that is logical thinking and means that once you apply a service pack or other roll up onto a machine you are then covered during any changes to the application. However, you do then need to leave the MSI available on the machine otherwise the update will fail and at best you are leaving your machine unupdated (I just made that word up). At worst you could have a problem with the application.

Checking your delegates and SoBos

2009-03-07T00:00:00.001Z

There is a lot of time spent on the forums on removing delegates on a mailbox when the delegate has left.

What happens if you are experiencing delegate failures on calendar requests to the group but you don’t know which member of the group has the delegate trouble?

The answer is to turn to AD and specifically to Kris Waters’ script.

http://krisdev.blogspot.com/2005/06/vbscript-for-all-domain-users-write.html

This will pull out of AD all relevant information that you need to focus on for Delegates and Send on Behalf of problems.

Exchange licensing

2009-02-28T00:00:00.002Z

I recently saw an Exchange deployment in excess of 50 servers within the organisation. Big deal, there are plenty of larger ones...this one however had a huge amount of nags when you start EMC – all about licensing.

In a test environment I can understand about not wanting to licence your boxes however this was a live org! Exchange 2007 has the option to have the serial number entered or not – without it, you get a nag screen every time you start EMC and Exchange acts like a fully working demo for 120 days. Even after that you still carry on working though you get nagged to enter the product key!

It isn’t rocket science though – you get serial numbers when you buy Exchange and entering the key is not that difficult. In fact it is downright simple and you don’t even need to touch the server in question...yes folks, Powershell...

Set-ExchangeServer –id YourExchangeServerName –ProductKey ‘90210-999-5552323-90210’

The best bit though is wondering WHICH of your servers are licensed and which are not. Obviously this means PowerShell again...

Get-ExchangeServer | Where {$_.ProductId –eq $Null –and $_.AdminDisplayVersion –Like ‘*8.0*’} | Select Name, RemainingTrialPeriod

Since you can set your product key at any time, you can script your entire Enterprise using PowerShell which I’ve mentioned before. So in your DR plans you can put all of your deployments of all of your Exchange Servers as PowerShell scripts including all of the serial numbers too.

Vehicular transportation

2009-02-26T11:15:00.001Z

My carefully looked after car was finally laid to rest this week after 9 years of ownership and 47,000 miles. It has been replaced.

My carefully looked after motorbike was picked up this week from the garage who charged me £100 to get me running again but have informed me that there are troubles that mean another £800 bill asap.

So either I pay that money to get the bike going again or I trade it in for something else which would cost more. Either way, no bike means no seeing Jake.

Looks like the moths will get disturbed again soon.

OOF not working and Autodiscovery messed up - Part 2

2009-02-25T14:06:00.001Z

The Autodiscover problem was caused by Exchange 2007 being installed on a Windows 2003 x64 domain controller.

There might be ways of resolving all of the little issues and gremlins that were found and highlighted in the last blog article but the installation is not supported.

The OP installed a new server, attached it to the existing Exchange organisation and then migrated everything over.

So the bottom line is...if you are experiencing ESE events 9518,454,492,413, and 485 then just have a double check to see if your Exchange 2007 server is sitting on a Windows 2003 domain controller. If it is, THAT is your problem not the little gremlins you are seeing.

Bleeding car salesmen

2009-02-18T23:40:00.001Z

Bought a car yesterday. Bit of a problem with the programming of the ignition key that meant the alarm kept going off.

Cue numerous calls to different workshop experts all of whom gave differing advice on the cure (none worked). One of which is that when the alarm is going off, disconnect the car battery which will reset the car alarm. Err, no...that will make the alarm continually go off since the system thinks the car is being broken into.

So the alarm went off as expected. Same expert revises judgement to leaving the alarm going off for 30 minutes whilst the battery drains. It did. So did my patience – by this time I’d been waiting several hours for them to fix the issue so that I could go home.

During the removal of the battery connector, the sales manager cut his hand and for the next hour dripped blood everywhere.

The experience was so farcical that I had to stay to the end and maybe tomorrow I’ll pick it up. Or maybe not.

Currently in the same old creaking car as I’ve had for the last 9 years but have paid for a replacement car that won’t start. Paperweight anyone?

OOF not working and Autodiscovery messed up - Part 1

2009-02-14T09:39:00.002Z

I have had a long email chat with a guy in the US. In fact, I took offline a thread about messed up Autodiscovery and combined with a similarish problem experienced by fellow Tek Tips member Mark MacLachlan.

John’s problem was that autodiscover was refusing to cooperate and he’d even reformatted and reinstalled the OS. He was getting a 500-19 error in Autodiscover which was pointing to a problem with a malformed or corrupt web.config file in /Autodiscover.

Testing went as follows:

When I run Test Email Autoconfiguration, it finds the url through SCP, starts then ends with http status code 500.

Here are the results from Test-Outlook Services:

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>test-outlookwebservices |fl

Id : 1003

Type : Information

Message : About to test AutoDiscover with the e-mail address Administrator@domain.local.

Id : 1007

Type : Information

Message : Testing server test.domain.local with the published name https://test.domain.local/EWS/Exchange.asmx & .

Id : 1019

Type : Information

Message : Found a valid AutoDiscover service connection point. The AutoDiscover URL on this object is https://test.domain.local/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml.

Id : 1013

Type : Error

Message : When contacting https://test.domain.local/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml received the error The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error.

Id : 1006

Type : Error

Message : The Autodiscover service could not be contacted.

So now what?

Vista is rubbish

2009-02-12T11:51:00.000Z

Here is a comment made to me on the phone yesterday.

“Vista is rubbish. We’ve got this computer and it has got Vista on it. I put Office 2007 on it and I use that for my work but whenever I send Excel spreadsheets to the office, I can’t read them. It is also incredibly slow”

1. Vista is an operating system, not an application.

2. Your speed problem is a combination of children loading every application and trial they can find and the meagre 1GB of RAM.

3. Office 2007 uses XML for its document type. This is new. Sending that file to a version of Excel that doesn’t know about XML will result in this issue.

Analogy…you speak English and have a friend who speaks English and French. Your new friend speaks English, French and German. New friend says something in German to you but you cannot understand.

Obviously your new friend has rubbish legs.

Need a few extra bob til the end of the month?

2009-02-11T18:23:00.001Z

If you are caught short between now and pay day, borrow some money from a responsible lender http://www.flex-loans.co.uk/.

They list themselves as responsible lenders and are honest and up front with their interest rates of 1845%. So if you want to borrow £200 today and repay them on payday in a fortnight, you need to give them the £200 back plus interest of £141.53.

Bank loans at the moment are low, overdraft limits are surely not that level and employers must surely be able to advance you a bit if you are in need of difficulty. I think I’d be feeling pretty desperate to be prepared to repay that level of interest.

Exchange 2007 SP1 rollup 6 now available

2009-02-11T17:36:00.001Z

Yesterday, Microsoft released rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (959241) to the public.

If you're running Exchange Server 2007, you are strongly advised to install rollup 6 onto your box. If you are not running service pack 1 for Exchange, suggest you download and install that first.

Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is a cumulative installer so you do NOT need to install rollup 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 5 before doing number 6.

What does this one do?

Here is a list of the fixes included in rollup 6:

959239 MS09-003: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange could allow remote code execution
950675 Downloaded .xls file attachments are empty when you open the files by using Outlook Web Access on Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
955443 Some free/busy messages are not replicated from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2003 servers after some mailboxes are migrated from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007
956356 The Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service uses lots of memory and processor time when Exchange Server 2007 processes many OABs
956624 The Microsoft Exchange Transport service crashes continuously after you enable journal rule or deploy an antivirus application on an Exchange Server 2007 server
957748 The custom message class of contact object is overwritten by the normal IPM.Contact class when an Exchange 2007 server replicates the contact object to any other public store

Download the rollup from this link here and also remember it is available via Windows Update directly from your Exchange server.

Exchange 2007 - Autodiscovery Part 1

2009-02-07T13:11:00.001Z

Keywords: Exchange 2007, Exchange 2003, Interoperability

How to fix problems caused by broken AutoDiscovery. First off, the most difficult task is to understand that your problem comes from a broken Autodiscovery!!

OP: [Quote]Just switched everyone's Outlook 2007 to our new Exchange 2007 server.
Everything seems to work great except for the Out of Office. Each person
can access it using the OWA but when they use the menu item in Outlook they get the error:

Your Out of Office settings cannot be displayed, because the server is
currently unavailable. Try again Later.

Anyone have any idea why everything else works fine but not the Out of
Office Assistant?

One note: I redirected the default web so we could use mail.<domain>
without the /owa. Could that be affecting the AutoDiscover? I had to
change the link for the other virtuals but did find anything for the
Autodiscover in the Exchange Management Console.

[/Quote]

OK, so we wondered about just switching everything back which works fine except Out of Office though you can change that in OWA or Outlook 2003. At that point, things point very much to Autodiscover.

Jeremy Clarkson tells it how it is

2009-02-06T17:52:00.001Z

According to http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090206/tuk-clarkson-labels-pm-one-eyed-idiot-6323e80.html good old Jeremy Clarkson has said “We’ve got this one-eyed Scottish idiot” referring to PM Gordon Brown.

Well, Gordon lost the eyesight on one eye as the result of an accident playing rugby as a teenager.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People said “Mr Clarkson’s description of PM Brown is offensive. Any suggestion that equates disability with incompetence is totally unacceptable”.

Erm, hang on. JC wasn’t equating disability with incompetence. He wasn’t being racist, he wasn’t being blindist. He was doing his usual of stating “facts according to the Gospel of St Jezza”.

Mr Brown only has sight in one eye.

Mr Brown is Scottish.

Jezza feels that Mr Brown is an idiot.

Therefore his statement should not need an apology.

Global warming

2009-02-06T17:41:00.001Z

The planet is warming, the ice caps are shrinking. Many theories have been proposed. Here is a new one...

One hundred years ago, there were few cattle and no television. People worked long hours, toiling away in manual jobs, eating what they could afford. There was no problem with global warming.

Today there is fast food. This requires large amounts of cattle to produce the burgers. The cattle produce methane which is warming the planet. The cattle are exothermic which is warming the planet. Millions of people are now obese from eating too much fast food. The fatties produce methane which is warming the planet. The fatties are exothermic which is warming the planet. These fatties are sitting at home warming their houses with electricity from fossil fuel supplied power stations which are warming the planet.

There is now a problem with global warming...

The solution is easy. Reduce the amount of cattle on the planet. This will have the knock on effect of raising prices of fast food. This will mean that fatties need to get out and get better jobs. This will improve the economy. They will be getting more exercise so they will get slimmer. This will reduce their methane output. Fewer cattle will produce less methane too. Being out of the house more often will cut electricity consumption. This is good for the world.

You can reduce the amount of cattle by not eating fast food, causing the chains to require less meat.

Save the polar bear...boycott a burger.

Hi Larry

2009-02-05T15:23:00.001Z

If the last Secretary of State was Colin Powell, pronounced “Coe Lyn”, is the new Secretary of State to be called “Hi Larry” Clinton?

Snow joke

2009-02-05T15:12:00.001Z

Wonderful...Monday was very snowified. Took a 2 hour walk in the stuff and it was great. The main roads were gritted and it was all a bit of a damp squib in the end.

Tuesday was fine, took the car up to London. No worries and much of the snow had melted.

Wednesday was entirely enjoyable and no sign of snow even at bed time.

Got up this morning to find 7 inches of snow had fallen between midnight and 6am. Coolio.

Have built me a snow wall along the side of the drive, a mini igloo, cleared the drive and taken a decent length walk.

On the way back, some eejit decided to overtake a car going through the next village over, throwing the slush far and wide right across me and the GF. We were NOT amused.

Hoping for more snow tonight. J

Backing up Exchange

2009-01-31T09:07:00.001Z

This one is to save me time ranting / repeating myself in forums.

It is now ten years since I started using Exchange Server with a stunningly stable and solid product called Exchange Server 5.5. In “those days”, the product of choice was Backup Exec around version 6. Backup Exec was a great product and in fact the ntbackup product built into Windows from the days of NT up to and including 2003 was a slightly modified version of Backup Exec with rather less functionality.

Its chief advantage was that as well as backing up the server and integrating into the scheduler service, when you installed Exchange Server onto the box, you additionally could back up your Exchange Server properly. For free.

So, what do we mean here?

Despite my ten years in Exchange and the number of deployments that have been made and required troubleshooting, newbie admins are *still* trying to do odd things to get their backups complete. Or not.

Examples of what NOT to do:

Ignore backing up, you’ll be fine

Stop all Exchange Services, back up priv.edb and priv.stm (if applicable), start all Exchange Services

Script the line above to do it out of hours with no intervention

Use ntbackup to back up priv.edb and priv.stm

Only back up one store

Just delete “those annoying little log files that fill up my drive”

No, children. No...

Backing up your Exchange Server isn’t rocket science and it isn’t supposed to be difficult to back it up or restore it. NTBackup is free, it is part of the OS and will sort out the log files.

PLEASE just look at the simple route. In ntbackup, tick the box next to “Microsoft Information Store” for your server and carry on. Oh and take that completed backup file off the server – just in case.

This will give you a backup.

It will remove the log files that are clogging up your hard drive.

It will not make your Exchange database smaller.

You will not pass Go.

You will not collect $200.

Your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments.

Etc.

Exchange 2007 Performance - Underneath

2009-01-24T00:00:00.001Z

It doesn’t matter how much tweaking you do in Exchange 2007, you’ll almost certainly get more performance wrung out of your box by optimising Windows as well.

There are a couple of obvious things first:

1. Uninstall it unless you need it.

2. Move the pagefile to a different spindle and set it to RAM + 10MB.

3. Disable any services you don’t actively need on that box.

4. Delete contents of %TEMP% and I also remove the hidden windows update files in the Windows folder. No idea if it speeds things up, but fewer files on the disk can’t be all bad J

Then follow this 5 year old blog article http://www.techzonez.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-4720.html for anything you feel comfortable doing.

Remember that a fast Exchange server means fewer complaints to the HelpDesk. This in turn boosts your morale which is a good thing.

Obviously it also minimises problems too as part of your proactive toolkit, so Management get used to your Exchange server running nicely with excellent uptime. Catch 22 – if it goes down too often, they get fed up, if it stays up a long time, they get used to it.

Dictionary corner: Quorder

2009-01-21T22:16:00.001Z

This is one that all men can read, understand and nod in a knowing manner.

Quorder: Verb.

An order, given by a woman to a man in the form of a question.

Examples:

Can you hang the washing out?

Are you able to drive me to the shops?

Exchange 2007 - sizing

2009-01-18T11:05:00.001Z

I’ve been collecting numbers!!

Maximum database size for Exchange 2007 is 16TB (Note: Maximum theoretical rather than maximum recommended. Recommended maximum is 100GB without CCR, 200GB with CCR). That is PER database so if you need to store more than 16TB of email on one server, you will need more than one database!

That wasn’t actually the reason for the sizing article though, this one is about RAM. A number of forums posts are highlighting hardware specifications without resorting to checking if these specs are appropriate.

Someone actually listed a server with Windows Enterprise and 32GB of RAM but seemed to have no idea about implementation. So I will pose the question – how can you spec up a server with 32GB of RAM without a rationale behind it?

Taking it as read that you know you need 2GB of RAM for the mailbox role, another 1GB for other roles, how much extra RAM do you need? Any?

The answer is yes – you need more RAM once you have users connecting. 2MB per light user, 3.5MB for a medium user and 5MB for a heavy user. Scale that up across your enterprise and even with 1,000 heavy users on a mailbox server means you only really need 7GB of RAM. However, there is another consideration – storage groups. It used to be the case that Exchange 2007 needed 0.5GB per storage group but this has now reduced.

Old calculation 0.5GB per storage group

New calculation 2GB plus storage groups/4 except for 1-4 storage groups where you only need 2GB.

So, when deciding how much RAM you need for Exchange 2007 with 48 storage groups on a dedicated mailbox server with 5,000 heavy users, you need:

Exchange requirement: 2GB

Storage groups requirement: 12GB

User requirement: 25GB

That makes 39GB of RAM so you’ll need Windows Enterprise Edition.

Since we came in with the 16TB per database, what can we do with that? 48 storage groups, each containing 1 database of 16TB means 768TB of emails on that server. That’s a *lot* of spindles and we haven’t even thought about the IO requirements and therefore the number of spindles required.

Ordering a server and a set of RAID arrays to match that box will make someone’s year – maybe there is a small child somewhere who received a very big Christmas present from a father who received just such an order.

If that’s you, do you need any odd jobs doing?

64 bit humour

2009-01-15T14:58:00.004Z

32 bit computing is limited to 4GB of RAM, we all know that.

Here is 11 gig of ram...

Gig...stage...I'll get my coat.

Goodbye old friend

2009-01-12T10:38:00.001Z

Michael, one of the IT team where I used to work, has left the building. Having got married last month, he boarded a plane bound for Australia on Saturday with a one way ticket.

I’ve barely seen him do anything but smile, I’ve never seen him badly dressed. Clever, friendly and articulate with a thoroughness that is rare. During our friendship I have seen him endure hardships that were greeted with a resolute will and he came through them well.

So go my friend and know that England’s loss is Australia’s gain.

Microsoft Songsmith

2009-01-12T10:13:00.001Z

Go and download Songsmith from Microsoft Research at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/index.html

It is fun and the demo version allows 6 hours of use but not 6 hours from time of install – 6 hours of actual use of the application.

OK, so the demo shows it being run on an Apple Mac and a number of people may not see the point or use of the software but I like the version numbering – Year.Month.Day.Build. Really simple and something everyone can understand.

Karaoke by email in a convenient format. Now where did I put my Elvis wig?

Exchange 2007 - Mail store considerations #2

2009-01-10T15:00:00.001Z

How should you split your users inside the stores?

My preferred naming conventions are to call the storage groups:

· First Storage Group

· Second Storage Group

And so on.

The upside is that everyone can see what is going on, the folder hierarchy on disk has the same names and the documentation is easily comprehensible. Calling them Fred, Barney, Daphne and Wilma is entirely equally valid of course.

Consider though your recovery plan. When Exchange goes, you implement your recovery plan and assuming you don’t have the luxury of CCR with its few minutes of downtime, you need to recover from some form of backup. Backups work in alphabetical order! Therefore, in my preferred naming strategy, “Fourth Storage Group” would restore before “Second Storage Group” which caught me out first time.

You may (legitimately) think therefore that all key users should go into “First Storage Group” or at least the first one alphabetically. But before you implement that, think strategically for the firm. How about these group names?

“1 – Directors”

“2 – Senior Managers”

“3 – Middle Managers”

“4 – Everyone else”

In that instance, during the restore, the Directors will come back first and can get on with their work and mailboxes will arrive back in hierarchy order. Great! But if you only lose one storage group due to corruption on disk, you can bet your arse that it will be the one with all of the Directors. What happens when one Director loses his email? He goes to see his team. When they all lose email? They all come and see you.

Should you spread the risk? Well, that’s not one I can answer because as with so much in Exchange...”it depends”. Maybe that should be the title of my book.

Microsoft likes Apple again

2009-01-07T13:20:00.001Z

Microsoft have announced that they will once again release a product for the Mac that will support Exchange Server.

According to http://tech.yahoo.com/news/macworld/20090106/tc_macworld/expomicrosofttoenhanceentourageexchangesharepointonthemac (and probably other places too), they'll be releasing a version of Entourage that uses Exchange Web Services.

Who cares? Well, Macintosh users account for about 5% of the user base although probably less when it comes to those with access to an Exchange server. Nonetheless, the media industry loves Macs and Mac users don’t like Outlook 2001 for Mac which was clunky and only ran under OS9 / classic mode.

With this announcement, Microsoft are showing that they support the Mac platform and Administrators will no longer need to use Entourage as an IMAP4 client and have to pick up the GAL over LDAP which was a pain unless you had someone incredibly knowledgeable and talented to configure it called Matt.

To support it, you’ll need Exchange 2007 SP1 or later. Eric Wilfred, the General Manager of the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) announced this in conjunction with the Document Collaboration Companion which integrates the Mac into Sharepoint, Document Library and Office Live Workspace.

At the moment, a Mac user has a choice of Entourage as an IMAP4 client to Exchange or Outlook Web Access Light (due to the lack of ActiveX controls on the Mac browsers). Not only will this go away with the EWS enhanced version, but there’s a public Beta this month and a full release later this year and its FREE.

Exchange 2007 - Mail store considerations #1

2009-01-03T11:41:00.001Z

Well I may as well start putting #1 on these articles rather than assuming I will only do one (famous last words?).

“How big should my mail store be? Microsoft says 50GB for Exchange 2003 or 100GB for Exchange 2007 and 200GB in particular circumstances.”

It isn’t a hard and fast rule and the real answer (unfortunately) is “It depends”.

Let’s go to extremes…

2 users with a 50GB mailbox each and you have the choice of 1 or 2 mail stores (obviously in the same storage group, see earlier article). With 1 store you are risking hitting a 100GB store size if there is no single instance effect. However, consider the process of emailing a 10MB document from one user to the other.

Single store. 10MB of transaction logs are generated for the email plus 10MB of store traffic / changes / increase in store size if there is no white space.

Two stores. 10MB of transaction logs are generated in EACH store plus 10MB of store traffic / changes / increase in store size if there is no white space in EACH store.

However, going to the other extreme, 1,000 employees with draconian 50MB mailboxes each would give you a mathematical 50GB store assuming no single instance effect. The performance hit of everyone hitting one store with one set of logs would be sizeable as would the impact of losing that store.

A happy and healthy compromise needs to be reached.

Eileen Brown, Google Reader and the IE RSS feed

2009-01-02T21:14:00.001Z

I don’t normally pass comment on the Blogs I read but feel the need here:

Quote from Eileen Brown: “3: Google Reader. I whizz through my feeds (over 500 of them) in no time. Star what i want to return to and blog it later. Yes, i know that you’ll be thinking that i should ONLY use Microsoft products, but i like this reader MUCH more than the IE version of the RSS reader – and when we produce something that’s better – I’ll switch to that.”

OK, so Eileen is very well respected within Microsoft and is “allowed” to say that, but as one of the most read Blogs in Microsoft (last seen), that’s quite a statement and I hope the programmers take it seriously. I’ve not tried Google Reader but the IE RSS feed is a bit cumbersome.

The next paragraph doesn’t say too many complementary things about MSNBC either. http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown/archive/2008/12/31/final-thoughts-of-the-year.aspx

If it isn’t right, let’s say so and fix it – push people to produce great products not just adequate ones. Now, how about that UK economy Eileen, how can we fix that?

Exchange 2007 - CCR Part 3

2008-12-27T11:55:00.001Z

So we know WHAT and we know WHY.

Let’s cover CLEVER.

Because the cluster is essentially running as a shipping server and a receiving server, there is no clever gadgetary in between. This not only allows the servers to be in separate data centres but also means that the performance hit of CCR is practically non existent on the hardware.

Obviously, because you are replaying every single transaction (and that therefore includes internal traffic and housekeeping as well as inbound and outbound traffic), you need to look at bandwidth between the servers.

If your existing Internet connectivity is running at 30% with your inbound and outbound email, you will double that usage figure just shipping that traffic over to your passive node. Add internal emails and mailbox level changes and pretty soon you will hit a bottleneck if you are shipping off site.

Failover

If you fail the nodes over, the active node becomes the passive node and vice versa. Yes, obviously! The transaction logs shipping completes and the process reverses AUTOMATICALLY so that the new active node ships its logs back to the old active node without admin intervention. As long as the firewalls in between allow the communication is both directions, it should all be seamless. Failover would typically take less than 5 minutes and so for testing purposes would be done as scheduled maintenance!

Exchange 2007 - CCR Part 2

2008-12-20T00:01:00.001Z

I missed some points off the CCR article.

Because CCR is ASYNCHRONOUS, it means that the live server is AHEAD of the passive node.

As the log completes i.e. once it has completed, it is sent to the passive node. On receipt that is played forwards.

Upsides: Passive node doesn’t need high speed connectivity / instant response link to Active node.

Can be different hardware.

Can be lower spec hardware (terms and conditions apply!)

The Passive node does NOT need to have a copy of all of the logs.

Downsides: Well there aren’t any really other than needing a second server with RAID array, copy of Exchange Server and so on.

Exchange Storage Groups #3 - DR planning

2008-12-16T11:44:00.001Z

Further to the last article, here is another compelling reason to use the “one store per storage group” rule.

It is called continuous clustered replication.

A lot of people break out into a cold sweat with the word “clustered” as they think of Windows clusters, complexity, Active/Active nodes and tend to think of it as black magic. Not any more.

Continuous clustered replication is clustering but in a totally clever way...the live email server sends a copy of its transaction log to your passive node which receives that log and plays it forward in its own copy of the mail store. Consequently it is only ever about 1MB behind the live server and is working – minimising the downtime by removing the time spent recovering.

That doesn’t sound like DR so why is this titled DR when it is more about continuity and high availability? Well because you are shipping logs which can be done over the Internet without the need for both servers connected to each other (quorum). So if one server burns to the ground, assuming you have prepared for it (!), your remote CCR node is not only your high availability node but is also your DR plan.

You *have* got a DR plan, right?

Exchange Storage Groups # 2 - Transaction Logs

2008-12-15T09:52:00.001Z

Following on from yesterday’s article about storage groups, here is another tip.

Transaction logs.

Transaction logs are created on a “per storage group” basis. i.e. if you have 2 stores in one storage group, you will generate a very mixed bag of transaction logs that are an amalgam of both stores within the group. Therefore your TL volume is filling up at twice the rate and in the event of a database failure of one store, the play forward after a restore will not be as efficient.

This reinforces the reasoning for using one storage group per store. Keep it simple.

Company holidays

2008-12-15T09:51:00.001Z

You are the administrator of your company Exchange Server. The office manager asks you about distributing holidays to employees to show local events such as company days out, holiday period office closures, away days and other company specific events.

How should you best distribute these?

1. Meeting request.

2. Outlook.hol file.

3. As text in an email.

Let’s discount option 3 for a start – sending out a list of events and expecting staff to either remember them of transcribe them into email is a lot given the speed of the 21^st century.

Option 1 – meeting request. You create a new meeting request called “Office closed” and distribute to all staff (there should be a group for that). You set the date and time, put in your own notes about whether security will be there, who to contact in emergency, mark it as “Out of office”, set the category and hit send.

Option 2 – outlook.hol file. You close email and edit your outlook.hol file in notepad having spent a while looking for the file. You remember the format and remember to update the number of events in the section. You close and save the file then open Outlook to find that one event is missing because you used the UK date format of yyyy/dd/mm instead of yyyy/mm/dd. You correct this. The outlook.hol file gets sent to all staff, 50% of whom read it and ignore it, 30% of whom read it and overwrite their outlook.hol file but fail to update Outlook, 10% phone the Helpdesk to help them and the other 10% get all steps done themselves.

There are other ways to implement this, but a meeting request is fast and visible.

Stick of chocolate?

2008-12-12T15:37:00.001Z

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7728144/Maxell-Chocolate-AROMA-8GB-USB-Flash-Drive/Product.html

I give up. USB drives that smell of chocolate? Either desperation or alcohol must surely have been involved.

Exchange Storage Groups

2008-12-12T00:00:00.001Z

This one cropped up a while ago actually but might benefit others moving to Exchange 2007 from earlier knowledge of Exchange.

In the olden days when the world was black and white and we weren’t in a recession, you put all of your Exchange database stores in one storage group. This was due to a memory leak when you used more than one storage group but it was addressed.

People who went on the training courses or read the books had it drummed into them that you filled the storage group with stores before creating the second storage group.

That was old school.

Now you fill the server with storage groups putting one store into each until you run out of storage groups before putting a second store in the first group.

This applies to Exchange 2003 and 2007.

Exchange Performance Guideline # 2

2008-12-10T00:00:00.001Z

Following on from yesterday’s article about disks and volumes, here is a further gem that a minority of people are thinking.

Bigger is better – no, it isn’t

I can kind of see the thought process though. You are on the whizzy Dell site, configuring your new Exchange server and you see that the 146GB drive can be upgraded to a 300GB drive for a few extra pennies / dollars / yen.

If you don’t need the extra space, don’t order the drive. The analogy doesn’t work perfectly, but think about your garage – if you have a small garage you can probably find your hammer quite easily. Make the garage 10 times larger and you’ll take longer to find it.

Horses for courses. 10 terabytes of disk space for 100 staff isn’t always a cost effective future proofing plan.

Exchange 2007 Performance Guideline

2008-12-08T00:00:00.001Z

This came up from a question on a forum that should be on about page 1 of the Exchange Server deployment guide but seemingly it isn’t known by everyone.

Disks – these are the physical drives within the server. The more you have the faster things will run – by and large.

Volumes – these are logical drives that sit on disks. You can cut the disks up as you wish into volumes.

Can you see a “BUT” here?

If you have one disk and put 3 volumes onto it – C, E and F (D is the DVD drive here) then accessing C for the operating system, E for the Exchange application install and F for the Exchange database means that the disk head has to do a huge amount of moving which will actually slow things down.

Rule of thumb – one volume per disk. Increase the disks not the volumes.

Exchange 2007 turbo

2008-12-06T00:00:00.001Z

OK, maybe people don't know about this tool. Perhaps they think it only applies to older versions. Possibly they even feel that this tool is beneath them?

The fact remains that the Exchange Best Practice Analyser is one of the fundamental applications within the Exchange engineers toolbox / arsenal / portfolio.

It shows you very quickly and in a neat format how to cure many of the common issues that could be seriously affecting performance.

www.exbpa.com

Seeing in 3D

2008-09-16T14:15:00.001+01:00

Divorced.

I was married but unhappy.

Divorce does not mean that you failed, it means that you had the courage to stop being unhappy.

Courage tempered with the strength and support of friends helped me during a time of upheaval.

Dad.

I reserve the right to feel the loss of not seeing my son each day because I know that I offer him greater quality time when we are together.

I reserve the right to play with him like I am his older brother, to teach him the things I learned as a child that I see were useful to me as a man.

I reserve the right to cuddle him when he cries and tuck him in at night when he is asleep.

I reserve the right to behave like a mischievous Uncle and allow him to get away with actions that I deem safe.

Dignified.

I will not feel wrong in moving on with my life, being happy, enjoying myself or otherwise being positive.

I will not worry over not seeing one friend when I am seeing another.

Divorced, Dad and Dignified. I am 3D.

My route to the shop

2008-09-10T14:16:00.003+01:00

Between my office and my local supermarket...saw this and it tickled me.

Vigil in a wilderness of brain mist

2008-08-27T17:24:00.001+01:00

Ingredients
One large adult
One small boy
One inflatable mattress
One tent

Preparation
Combine all ingredients except small boy then add small boy directly to mix every 20 minutes throughout the night.

In the morning you should have a tenderised adult and a refreshed child.

Now where's the massage area?

Vigil in a wilderness of brain mist

2008-08-27T10:48:00.001+01:00

Tuesday night in the house

2008-08-26T21:42:00.001+01:00

Tuesday sees the start of the holiday with the boy. Camping, bbq, running around (obviously him not me) and cabaret. 3 days of fun filled days...hope I get some sleep in between the speed of the day and the wriggling night time child.

Monday's child is full of memories

2008-08-18T12:18:00.000+01:00

The weekend was good. Jimmy and Carola finally tied the knot, she looking gorgeous (as ever), he looking well dressed and short (as ever). Great fun times, long days and chatty nights. If you need to guess which well known member of the group was watching sunrise from the hot tub filled with Swedish men, you don’t know the group too well!!

Thanks to Mr Arnold for making with the driving – 100 miles each way from the airport to the reception venue. Beautiful countryside and plenty of chat along the way.

Daniel and Nicole next?? After all, they had a new addition to the family as of yesterday.

The inbound trip

2008-08-18T12:12:00.003+01:00

Boarding time came and went, take off time came and went. Still no sign of the plane at the gate. No barbarians though plenty of crying babies. The natives are getting restless...

Little Jimmy does Sweden

2008-08-18T12:12:00.001+01:00

Little Jimmy is happy, going to see his alter ego, Jimmy the Swede in Stockholm for the second MVP wedding of the year.

The sea of the great unwashed floods past us in the departure hall, the detritus of conversations lapping at my ears like waves. The learned Mr Arnold had a bad experience in Mancland but airports are a necessary evil and my bile duct is smaller than his.

So what can we expect of the weekend? Fun for sure and a possible libation. Catching up with friends will be great but tinged with sadness...once Jimmy and Carola get married, we'll have to get used to Jimmy being grown up.

Rithmatic

2008-06-06T09:39:00.001+01:00

The BBC quotes:
"Adult skills scheme 'on target'

People are most likely to choose to improve their literacy
A £5bn scheme to boost the literacy and maths skills of 2.25m adults in England by 2010 is on target, a watchdog says." (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7438483.stm)

In fact, 3 ministers worked out they were not on target, 1 minister worked out that they *were* on target but the collective decision by the 8 of them was that the ratio meant they were on target.

Obviously though that was only after they had done their expenses.

New year, new job

2008-05-08T22:44:00.003+01:00

Well that was rather timely...having been made redundant recently after the previous company shed half of its staff leaving me without a meaty role, I seem to have landed on my feet.

Starting next week I'm going to be Head of Infrastructure and Support for a large training company.

What does it mean for me? Who knows, but from first sight it looks like I get to work with some really knowledgeable people, with a great guy called Joe Fawcett who I have known for some years and work for a manager mentor.

Bigger company, more opportunity, technical and mentoring manager, great technical team. It sounds rather good, all I need to work out is where to park and see if I have found a firm who will understand how to pronounce and spell my name.

So in about 6 weeks I've gone from one firm to another via a week of bimbling, a week with Jake, a week on a course, a week of bimbling and a thick week of holiday. Found out today that I passed the course which has made this week even better.

I'm now a Prince2 Practitioner...professional project manager and certified, or am I just certifiable?

Mr Arnold may have a good deal of luck, but perhaps I'm starting to pick some up too.

Project Management

2008-04-16T18:56:00.002+01:00

Well I've taken the first of two exams this week and everyone on the course passed and everyone on the course has a headache at the sheer amount of information being crammed into our heads.

A full on day every day and several hours of homework means we're seeing much but whether it is all sinking in will be demonstrated on Friday and seen in the results in a few weeks.

Friday is a 3 hour exam...THREE HOURS! Barring some technical exams that I found rather straight forward, I've not done an exam since I was at university and I'm definitely not looking forward to this.

Exchange 2007 failed installation comment

2008-04-03T16:20:00.002+01:00

Grr...

One of my Exchange 2007 HT boxes that failed ages ago keeps prompting me to do some work on my domain and finally get rid of it.

The OS is gone and therefore Exchange is gone. But to the rescue comes setup/removeprovisionedserver. Well actually, no...

The RemoveProvisionedServer parameter tells Setup to remove the placeholder Exchange Server object from Active Directory.

Use this parameter to remove unwanted provisioned servers from Active Directory.

Use Setup /RemoveProvisionedServer: to remotely remove the specified provisioned server. If no server name is passed, Setup attempts to remove a provisioned server with the same name as the local computer.

Not in the case of the server being unavailable it doesn't. And I can't install Exchange unless I install a server with the same name as the old one then use setup /recoverserver. This is where interoperability comes into play, albeit in a rather unfriendly kind of way. See later...

My next problem was that my hub transport server has a mind of its own and will send emails to my 2003 but will not accept them. There's a matched pair of routing group connectors and they've been checked several times. I know, let's rip out Exchange and put it back in - I need to practice.

If you try to uninstall Exchange 2007 for a hub transport server with a bridgehead routing group connector it won't uninstall. Zip. You have to remove the connectors by hand.

get-routinggroupconnector

Marvellous, there they are

remove-routinggroupconnector "Interop RGC"

Multiple entries found...cannot delete. Grr...

Later...

I got fed up with it and it isn't a nice thing to do to an Exchange implementation but both sides of the Interop routing group connector and the failed server were removed successfully.

Exchange System Manager on an Exchange 2003 box. Right click, delete. Job done.

But punters please note - setup /removeprovisionedserver on its own will remove Exchange from the local machine. Whose daft idea was that?

Change of circumstances

2008-03-29T12:40:00.002Z

After nearly 12 years with the same firm, I'm now a gentleman of leisure. With the firm downsizing (from 135 to 70 in 12 months), there is no need for an IT Manager.

Nonetheless, despite knowing this I carried on with the premises move and worked my precious Easter weekend to get them into the new building smoothly. For the last time, me and my team worked superbly. Michael with his patience and diligence, Matt like a howling banshee, whipping through the firm fixing problems before the external consultants could even explain them to him. I also worked through, a mixture of them both.

I am incredibly proud of my two boys (and in fact the others I have managed at that firm over the years), they worked properly and they worked long hours. Good Friday we all worked 10 hours and Easter Saturday we all worked at least 14 hours.

The users arrived on Tuesday expecting chaos. Instead most things were working - much to the chagrin of some of the staff!

I leave that firm running incredibly smoothly with excellent documentation and a clear direction for the department. My head is held high and my pride is intact. Michael remains there under the new manager, Mr Perry, and Matt and I are moving to pastures new.

It may not be a trumpet fanfare from Matt's new company but they will suddenly find themselves running smoother than ever. He's so good at what he does, he can't even explain things out loud - "You just do this and it works". It has been a pleasure to manage him over the last 7 years and I wish him well in his new pursuits.

Stupid EPOS machines

2008-03-29T12:34:00.004Z

Jake and I wanted some nice chocolate cookies while we were shopping last night. Fresh cookies were £1.19 for 4, buy 2 bags for £1.80 saving £0.58 which is done automatically at the cash till.

The nice lady looking at the cut price section pointed out ones reduced to 20p for a bag of 4. So Jake had a bag, I had a bag and we got one for luck. 60p, 12 cookies and they were still soft. Yum.

Imagine my surprise when the stupid EPOS machine noticed the new price of 20p but still gave us a 58p price reduction for the second bag.

Net cost of the 12 cookies? 2p. One more bag and I'd have had 16 cookies and been given 56p as well. That would just have been greedy...

Get rich quick scheme

2008-03-07T15:26:00.000Z

Buy a house, the biggest you can afford. Make sure it is the best area possible but the smallest grottiest house on the road. Spruce it up and rent it out.

Use the rental income as surety to do a second buy to let house. Repeat as per above.

You will make a profit albeit a modest one. Retire to Turkey or Greece and live a modest life for 5 years living only on the rental profit. Return to the UK, do up the properties using a loan then sell them.

Put the profit into a deposit account and live on that until the money runs out.

Then rob a bank.

Jake weekend and a cake to make

2008-02-24T13:56:00.004Z

The boy has been busy...making string in the park, seen Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs, playing with his cousin and going to church.

Here his is making fruit and nut chocolate fudge as well.

The housing market

2008-02-05T14:22:00.000Z

For those of you reading on the wrong side of the pond that's "Real estate".

The UK may or may not be about to go through a house price problem where the prices may stay level or may drop by up to 35% over the next 5 years. Be that as it may, I still need me a house.

Purchase cost + purchasing costs + renovation costs + selling costs = Total expenditure

Profit = Sale price - total expenditure

Even predicting no change in overall house prices in the next 12 months, I cannot seem to find me a house that I can get without making a loss. If I'm going to make a loss on it, I may as well minimise the loss and the figures show I'm best off staying in rented accommodation. This is NOT what I want to do but it minimises the amount of work I need to do, maximises my free time, leaves my deposit account as it stands and minimises my exposure to the housing markets ups and downs.

The trouble is I really wanted one of the houses, I'd paid a reasonable amount of money out towards getting it and it would have been ideal as a base for the next 12 months. Who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be retired and living in the lap of luxury on board a yacht in the Maldives and will have no need for a house in draughty old England.

Alternatively, I could be living with you...whoever you are... :-)

Jimmy's got wheels

2008-02-03T19:14:00.000Z

Inspired by his previous post about the amount of walking required through airport lounges, little Jimmy has organised himself a car.

It is powered by nitro methane, does 40mph and is just the right size for little Jimmy. Probably the right size for the real Jimmy too.

http://jimmyontour.blogspot.com/2008/02/jimmys-motor.html

To lose one may be regarded as misfortune

2008-01-30T14:54:00.000Z

I have just stopped being a home owner after nearly 12 years owning my first home. Blood, sweat and tears went into that place along with bonuses and great ideas.

The house I was going to buy needs a great deal more work than first thought but the vendor won't drop the price.

The rented house I currently have was given notice as I was planning to buy a house (see above).

That's 3 houses I've lost this month - best check down the back of the couch and see if there is one there.

The title quote comes from Oscar Wilde: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness". He also said "Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same". If you are reading this drivel, you need additional culture

Powershell - free space

2008-01-23T15:11:00.001Z

get-eventlog Application | where {$_.eventID -eq "1221"} | select message | select -first 10

This will give you the 10 most recent 1221 events and only show you the message, not the index, time, type, source and event ID.

Little Jimmy on tour

2008-01-23T15:08:00.000Z

Little Jimmy has posted another holiday photo.

Powershell - Disaster Recovery toolkit

2008-01-23T15:01:00.000Z

Right. I've just blogged enough Powershell commands to keep you occupied (or bored). But Powershell is NOT just for Exchange hardcore admins to do fancy things to Exchange server that you would never do in real life.

Let's say you've just installed Windows, hardened it off and your powershell is working.

New-item F:\Stores –type directory
New-item G:\Logs -type directory

The above two lines means that outside the hardcore Exchange world you can use Powershell to automate your installation of Exchange - kept properly, a single powershell script can be used to do EVERYTHING for your DR on your Exchange server. It can set up all folders, directories, set the locations of everything.

The sky is the limit here - all you need to do is read your system documentation and build the script. Now you DO have system documentation, don't you?

Powershell - various subjects

2008-01-23T14:58:00.000Z

Want to do something but don’t know the command? Help…
I need a do something with routing groups…
Help *routing*

Just bought a new company? Add their domain email address to all mailboxes
New-emailaddresspolicy –name whatever –recipientfilter {Company –Eq “Whatever”} –EnabledPrimarySMTPAddressTemplate “@whatever.com”

Want to check the event log event that are Exchange specific?
Get-eventlog application | where { $.Source –Ilike “*Exchange*” }

Standard or Enterprise?
Get-exchangeserver servername

Pipe smoking
Get-mailboxailboxes in the organisation
Get-mailboxes *nick* will return all mailboxes with “nick” in the name
Get-mailboxes nick* will return all mailboxes with “nick” at the start
Set-mailbox “Nick Gillott” –prohibitsendquota 1000 will set my mailbox quota to 1000 bytes
Set-mailbox “Nick Gillott” –prohibitsendquota 2GB will set my mailbox quota to 2GB (yes, GB works and so does MB)
Set-mailbox “Nick Gillott” –prohibitsendquota unlimited will set my mailbox quota to unlimited
Inflexible to type that for each user…so…
Get-mailboxes servername –Eq E2007.domainname.com | Set-mailbox –prohibitsendquota 6GB will set a 6GB mailbox send quota for all users on that server

Queues full following a problem?
Remove-Message –withndr $false will remove all messages in the queue

New meeting room Sir?
New-mailbox –name “Meeting Room 27” –upn meetingroom27@yourdomain.com –database “Your mailbox database” –ou “Your OU” –Room
Notice the last part says “-room” – this creates a different and new type of entry in AD.

Want to easily see the size of mailboxes within a store?
Use Exchange System Manager from an Exchange 2003 server. :-)

Oops, I forgot.
Get-mailbox – and then you forget what you are supposed to type. Just hit tab, just like Unix

In fact there is more Unix than you might think
Dir ~ gives a directory listing of your home directory

Did the backup work?
Get-mailboxserver –status | format-table name, lastfullbackup

Powershell - certificates (not entirely serious)

2008-01-23T14:53:00.000Z

# Create a certificate on Exchange 2007 that allows Outlook Anywhere to work seamlessly
Get-ExchangeProgrammer by Throat | Remove-Appendages –Painfully –Slowly –WithSpoon

You see how the methodology works? Well, certificates in Exchange 2007 don't work quite so easily. So you take the commandlet "get-exchangeprogrammer" by the throat. Then you pipe the output of that to the commandlet "remove-appendages" with the parameters of "painfully", "slowly" and "withspoon".

* Obviously this powershell command is untested and GoDaddy are now selling SAN certificates at sensible money which gets round the problem, but the humour is intended to give a smile and is NOT meant in a violent manner.

Powershell - reporting

2008-01-23T14:52:00.000Z

# Report mailboxes over quota and the mailbox sizes
get-MailboxStatistics | where {"IssueWarning","ProhibitSend","MailboxDisabled" -contains $_.StorageLimitStatus} | format-Table DisplayName,TotalItemSize

# Report mailboxes and mailbox sizes
get-mailbox | get-mailboxstatistics | select-object DisplayName,TotalItemSize

Powershell - store level stuff

2008-01-23T14:50:00.000Z

# Add a disclaimer to all messages sent from the mailbox MayLContact
$ConditionArray = Get-TransportRulePredicate
$Condition = @($ConditionArray[0])
$Condition[0].addresses = get-mailbox MayLContact@domain.com
$ActionArray = Get-TransportRuleAction
$Action = @($ActionArray[14])
$Action[0].Text = "I am May L Contact, your mail contact."
New-TransportRule "MayLContact disclaimer" -Conditions $condition -Actions $action

# Report the mount status for all mailbox databases.
Get-MailboxDatabase -status | fl Name,Mounted

# Disable Out of Office for external email.
# Note that this sets the flag to InternalOnly so you don’t see a “don’t do external”
get-MailboxDatabase "First Database" | set-mailbox -ExternalOOF InternalOnly

# Create a new receive connector that will only receive email from your ISP at 81.1.2.3
New-ReceiveConnector “Receive Connector” -Bindings:192.168.0.1:25 -RemoteIPRanges 81.1.2.3

# Set a journal recipient
set-MailboxDatabase Exchange2007MBXServer\DBName -JournalRecipient domain\username

Powershell - access rights

2008-01-23T14:49:00.000Z

# Grant the user account MayLContact the right to create items in the public folder May Contacts.
Add-PublicFolderPermission "May Contacts" -User MayLContact -AccessRights "CreateItems"

# Grant the user account BESAdmin Send As permission
add-adpermission "Blackberry User" -extendedrights Send-As -user yourdomain\BESAdmin

# Grant the user account BESAdmin Exchange View Only Administrator permission
add-exchangeadministrator BESAdmin –role ViewOnlyAdmin

# Grant the user account BESAdmin Send As, Receive As and Exchange Store Admin rights
add-adpermission –user BESAdmin –accessrights ExtendedRight –extendedrights Send-As, Receive-As, ms-Exch-Store-Admin

# Grant the user account BESAdmin rights to access the store with all Outlook versions
Set-CasMailbox BesAdmin -MAPIBlockOutlookVersions:$null

Powershell - creating groups

2008-01-23T14:48:00.000Z

# Creating a mail enabled universal distribution group
new-distributiongroup -alias unidistgroup -name “The Big Distribution Group” -type distribution -org Punters

# Creating a mail enabled universal security group
# This is not a desperately clever idea otherwise email administrators can add users to this group
new-distributiongroup -alias unisecgroup -name “The Big Security Group” -type security -org Punters

# Creating a mail enabled dynamic distribution group
new-DynamicDistributionGroup -alias dyndistgroup -name “The Big Dynamic Group” -recipientfilter {Company -eq "msexchange"} -org Punters

# Creating a mail enabled AD contact
new-mailcontact -alias ADcontact -name “May L Contact" -ExternalEmailAddress MayLContact@somewhere.com -org Punters

Powershell - Creating mailboxes

2008-01-23T14:46:00.000Z

# Creating a new mailbox in the Punters org
# Asks for a password before creation and uses that password for the user
$pswd = new-SecureString
new-Mailbox -alias "NewTestUserAlias" -name NewTestUser -password $pswd -database “First Database” -org Punters

# Creating a new conference room mailbox
New-Mailbox -alias BigConfRoom -name “Big Conference Room” -database “First Database” -org Punters -resourceType Room

# Creating a new equipment mailbox
New-Mailbox -alias coffeebiscuits -name “Coffee and Biscuits” -database “First Database” -org Punters -resourceType Equipment

# Creating a shared mailbox
new-Mailbox -alias sharedmailbox -name “The Shared Mailbox” -database “First Database” -org Punters -shared

# Creating a linked mailbox
# New-Mailbox -alias linkedmailbox -name “The Linked Mailbox” -database “First Database” -org Punters -LinkedMasterAccount firstname.lastname@domain.com -LinkedDomainController

Little Jimmy

2008-01-21T12:13:00.000Z

Oh dear, Little Jimmy has been on the champagne. Read about this particular adventure at http://jimmyontour.blogspot.com/2008/01/champagne-and-its-effects.html

Don't forget to RSS feed http://jimmyontour.blogspot.com - he is too busy to let you now about his latest scrapes.

Little Jimmy

2008-01-21T09:02:00.000Z

Rather annoyingly, Jimmy the Swede is good looking, elegant and short. Over the weekend and even more annoyingly, he was Best Man at Mark and Laura's wedding which meant that "The Boys" were a man down.

Daniel and I needed a new drinking partner and after a good deal of hunting, like hours, around Philadelphia's shopping district, we finally found a perfect replacement for the tuxedo'd Jimmy the Swede.

This is Little Jimmy.

You can read about Little Jimmy as he (naturally) has his own blog. http://jimmyontour.blogspot.com/

My Mum is great

2008-01-21T08:44:00.000Z

You'll have to work with me a little bit on this one...

My great mate Mark. Exchange MVP, northern roots, wine drinking, fun loving, marital strife a few years ago, level headed and ugly (which at least he admits). He is rather like a brother, so on meeting his Mother over the weekend for the wedding, it was akin to seeing my own. From the first hint of Harrogate twang, Barbara was great - everyone who met her for the first time said the same.

Elegant, stylish, funny and some stories that would make your hair curl. I used to think Mark had a reputation for drinking and he is ex RAF, now I know where he gets his genetics! Midway through the wedding reception, we had a good long chat as she and Sooz swapped seats. In fact it wasn't mid way through, we'd got as far as the wedding cake course. "Ooh, I luv cake" she said. Well it wasn't chocolate so she was only saving me from myself and not long later the plate was empty.

We all adjourned after dinner to the bar and about 1.15 I was just too tired to continue so I went upstairs, accompanying the lovely Sooz leaving Barbara still holding court over the boys.

Barbara: Jimmy, do you know where babies come from?
Jimmy the Swede: No.
Barbara: Right, I'll see you a bit later then.

Sooz asked if my Mum was like that. Oh yes I said. Well, apart from the cake bit.

Mark and Laura - the aftermath

2008-01-21T08:38:00.001Z

Well I'm back in Blighty after a quick weekend jaunt to Philadelphia. Less than 9 hours since I took off, I am here in the office for a day's work and even more bizarrely I was taking wine with the group just 12 short hours ago.

New acquaintances aside (almost), it was great to spend time with an amazing bunch of people. Technical experts from several disciplines but equally adept at communicating, this was no geekfest. They also all scrub up nicely, even me.

Thanks for the laughs guys. And the wine, the buffalo wings, the wine, the pasta, the wine....apparently there was even wedding cake but mine was stolen.

Operation: House

2008-01-02T12:53:00.000Z

My brother is a nice guy. For Christmas, from him, I got an antique grandmother clock, a drinks cabinet and a kitchen workstation amongst other things in readiness for the new house.

Just before Christmas I bought a dining table and 6 chairs for £20. Yesterday I bought a settee for £25.

With friends and relatives pitching in to help me furnish the house, things are very much looking up. I can already hit the ground running on entertaining and relaxing afterwards and as long as guests like air beds and sleeping bags, they can stay the night.

Oh, did I mention that I only have 1 spare sleeping bag?

Beds are difficult to move around and the place needs painting and decorating before the carpets arrive. So I'll buy the beds afterward the carpets go down unless a small group of travelling decorators informs me that they are coming to town and need somewhere to stay.

Battleship Baggy

2008-01-02T12:49:00.000Z

More hours underneath my Bagheera with the resourceful Andy means that late on January 1st, Battleship Baggy left its temporary sojourn bound for pastures new.

Once the weather warms up, there will be regular sailings.

MVP award - renewal

2008-01-02T12:42:00.000Z

I've just been reawarded. 2008 will be spent with "MVP" after my name for my services to the community about Exchange Server. This is now my fifth year of nomination and I am very pleased to continue. I have made a lot of friends through this program and met some truly influential people.

Now that I know I am in the program in April, I can get ready for Summit (www.mvpsummit2008.com). So where did I put my rowing boat and which way is Seattle?

The Top 10

2007-12-21T15:25:00.000Z

Following on from the previous entry about powershell commandlets, I was corresponding with the great and learned Mark Arnold and wondered about just listing the top 10 mailboxes by size.

IM conversation continues:

Nick Gillott (MVP) says: Fancy just the top 10?
Response comes back: hit parade?
Nick Gillott (MVP) says: Take previous PS script, wrap in round brackets and without a space put [0..11]
Nick Gillott (MVP) says: Top 10 mailboxes...
Nick Gillott (MVP) says: Putting [0..4] gives top 3 etc
Response comes back: I feel as if I've missed a meeting. Take what previous PS script.

Only *then* do I actually concentrate on that particular window and find that I am detailing the changes to the PS command to my Mother. Right idea, wrong IM window.

So for the benefit of me when I forget the syntax and anyone except Mother who now knows exactly how to do it, wrap your commandlet in round brackets and append [0..11] without spaces to get top 10. Just start at 0 and add 1 to the number you want.

Simple, if you can read which IM windows you are using.

Powershell commands for the inexperienced

2007-12-21T13:57:00.000Z

Here is something simple I was asked to help with. Powershell script for mailbox sizes and number of items.

So we start with:

Get-MailboxStatistics | ft displayname, TotalItemSize, itemcount

ft is short for format table. Wow but that is messy and totalitemsize is in bytes and dividing by 1024 in your head gives you KB and a headache. There is a function to get that into MB

Get-MailboxStatistics | ft displayname, @{ expression={$_.TotalItemSize.Value.ToMB() }, itemcount

But now the column heading is too big, so let's change the label.

Get-MailboxStatistics | ft displayname, @{ expression={$_.TotalItemSize.Value.ToMB() } ;label=”Mailbox (MB)” }, itemcount

Simple really. But you really want to see the big mailboxes at the top so it needs sorting into descending order of mailbox size instead of randomly given.

Get-MailboxStatistics | sort-object –property totalitemsize –desc | ft displayname, @{ expression={$_.TotalItemSize.Value.ToMB() } ;label=”TotalItemSize (MB)” }, itemcount

And next we may want to do all of our Exchange servers rather than just current server...

get-mailbox |

needs to go in front of the previous statement.

Summary: No, powershell is *not* the easiest of things to master but in some odd way it does actually make some sense. To an Exchange Engineer at any rate.

Three good things

2007-12-10T14:27:00.000Z

Things are going well at the moment but this weekend was particularly good. Quite apart from the tiredness of the last few weeks receding due to a weekend spent with Jake without madly dashing everywhere, just spending time at home with him, I am particularly pleased to report that three good things happened over the weekend:

1. Jake. I got to spend time with him. He is a great kid and he is soaking up knowledge very rapidly. He learns quickly although he has the attention span of a gnat. When I asked him to hurry up last week a lady told me that you can't hurry children. He reminds me to slow myself down and enjoy time together.
2. A new picture. Jake and I found a large picture of Barcelona in a wood(ish) frame in Help The Aged (not an allusion to my friend Glen) for the grand total of £5.99. It looks good on the wall.
3. A new table. My most ambitious eBay purchase to date is a reproduction Georgian dining table in Yew with 6 chairs. A few bits of sanding and varnishing are required and barring a bit of sunlight damage it is looking good for 30 years old. Plus you have to ask what to expect from that much wood and 6 brand new looking seat pads for £20 plus delivery.

It might be blurry but it captures the above 3 in one shot.

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 installation

2007-12-08T15:56:00.000Z

Having a problem installing the service pack?

--------------------------------
Hub Transport Role Prerequisites
Failed

Error:
You must be a member of the Exchange Organization Administrators group to upgrade the first Hub Transport server role in your organization to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1.

Elapsed Time: 00:00:03

Client Access Role Prerequisites
Failed

Error:
You must be a member of the Exchange Organization Administrators group to upgrade the first Client Access server role in your organization to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1.

Elapsed Time: 00:00:03
----------------------

If you see the above message, the resolution is to check the Active Directory Users and Groups entry "Exchange Organization Administrators" group which is likely to be blank and it looks like this only happens on a domain upgrade, not a fresh install.

Nick’s Christmas pudding

2007-12-07T15:03:00.000Z

Following the layout used during my chemistry days…

Apparatus
1 Large Sainsburys Christmas pudding
20ml dark rum
¼ tsp grated or ground nutmeg
20ml dark rum
Large pinch cinnamon
20ml dark rum
Zest of ¼ orange
20ml dark rum
Zest of ¼ lemon
20ml dark rum
50ml stout
20ml dark rum

Method
1. Open the Christmas pudding wrapping and put the whole pudding into a mixing bowl.
2. Note the cooking time and hide the packaging.
3. Break up fully with a large spoon (wooden or metal, it makes no difference).
4. Add all of the solid ingredients to the mix
5. Add such of the wet ingredients as you feel you can part with.
6. Drink the rest of the ingredients.
7. Transfer all of the ingredients to a suitable container and cook according to the instructions without referring to them or you will give the game away.

Results
Fast, easy, tasty and cheaper than buying all of the ingredients and only using 5% of each (except for the rum).

Conclusion
Delia’s One Is Fun (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delia-Smiths-One-Coronet-Books/dp/0340389591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197039760&sr=1-1) …Nick’s one is faster

Exchange 2007 Powershell command for forgetful admins

2007-12-06T15:54:00.000Z

Including me!! I'm not going to recall this one this evening so I'm blogging it for my own benefit.

If you have an Exchange 2007 server and absent mindedly create a user in ADUC on another server and stick the user into 2007 you'll get a legacy user on Ex2007. At this point you can move them to 2003 and then move them back again but that is disruptive to the punters who need to shut Outlook.

Set-Mailbox -id AliasName -ApplyMandatoryProperties

is the way to go. Then just refresh your RecipientConfiguration/Mailbox screen and all is done. Much faster!

IT recruitment cold calls

2007-12-05T10:22:00.000Z

I don't like cold calls. If I want to speak to someone about a technology I will find a company using the Internet and will call them. Stop calling me.

Especially IT recruitment companies. I joined this company in 1996, Matt came to work for me in 2001 and Michael joined the company (if not me) in 2002. There are (now) only 3 of us doing support, yes Gareth I know you are there too but I'm meaning my department, and it isn't going to go up at the moment.

Today's poor sap called from some recruitment company to ask how big my department is, so I looked at Matt and said "About 5 feet 10". Well, Michael is on holiday and I was in a playful mood...

Exchange 2007 SP1

2007-12-03T14:06:00.000Z

Exchange service pack 1 has now been released. Beware of receive connectors without correct server names, other than that, please install (terms and conditions apply).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=44C66AD6-F185-4A1D-A9AB-473C1188954C&displaylang=en

NB, the download is over 800MB for the 32 bit version and also over 800MB for the 64 bit version. Get the right one!!

Exchange 2007 receive connectors

2007-11-19T11:32:00.000Z

By default, when you set up new connectors to interoperate with your Exchange 2003 servers, you will find that the connectors are set with 10MB limits. With any encapsulating overhead this means less than 10MB.

Drop to a Powershell command prompt and type:
Get-Receiveconnector | Select identity,MaxMessageSize

This will list the 10MB limits of both your client connector and default connector (if you have followed standard practice). Now increase it. Since this is for internal traffic, make it large.

Set-Receiveconnector -identity "server\site" -MaxMessageSize: 300MB

Substitute server\site for the exact output in the get- results. Then repeat the get- command to ensure that the new limits are in place.

Out of the mouths

2007-11-15T12:40:00.000Z

Gorgeous little niece Evie claimed a large toy labrador a few days ago following a recent family funeral, deciding to name him "Jess" after her Grandad's labrador - obviously all labradors are called Jess!

Overheard in the back of the car on the way back from the funeral: Evie chatting to Jess: "You're coming to live with us now because Auntie Connie isn't there any more. But don't worry because I will look after you and we'll take you back to Yorkshire sometimes".

England 0 - USA 1

2007-11-15T12:12:00.000Z

The afternoon of November 15th is one of mixed feelings. My great friend, my drinking partner, my mate, the guy who helped me through my separation and who I respect very greatly, has left the building.

Mr Mark Arnold MCSE MS-MVP (Exchange) of no fixed abode boarded a US airlines flight bound for America with no plans to return.

His new life begins today in Philadelphia with the new love of his life and I wish him every happiness I can possibly wish him. To see them together is great - rather nauseous admittedly, but great!

Bon chance my friend and start dropping vowels, forget about 270 countries of the world, be advised that Budweiser is for hardened drinkers and start saying "Y'all". The boys will be stateside in January - don't forget to practice.

Carry On. Abroad.

Thieving scum

2007-11-09T11:26:00.000Z

My great neighbour Paul has had his car off the road for about 6 months now and recently I've been loaning him my Peugeot as I tend to use the bike barring when I'm with Jake.

Because of offering him this, he offered to do some work on the car - first job was the failed head gasket. He's done that, taken photos, flushed everything and so on. I've given him transport, he's given me transport. She still slightly overheats, but nothing major.

Last night he took the Peugeot down to the Internet cafe in the next town. Now there's a big hole where the passenger window was yesterday. They took nothing as there was nothing of value in the car. They left the child seat, the loose change in the pot (under one pound) but they have just cost Paul about £100.

80,000 jail places for 60.8 million Brits. Or places for 0.13% of the population.
Over 2.2 million places (source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm) for 301.1 million Yanks. Or 0.73% of the population.

So per head the US has 5.6 times the number of prison cells as us. Plus the 3 strike rule.

Harumph - bring back hard labour, chaingangs and National Service. Not central heating, TVs everywhere and sentencing reduced due minimise overcrowding. Here's a thought - get prisoners building new prisons then at least they have a vocation afterwards.

And then there were none

2007-11-06T11:19:00.000Z

The three sisters. The golden girls. My Grandmother and her sisters. Three little girls from just outside Sheffield who did well for themselves.

Joyce, my Grandmother, who cooked professionally for many years, liked a tipple and lived to the age of 86.
Florence, my great aunt, dance teacher, full of fun, also liked a tipple and lived to the age of 87.
Connie, also my great aunt, who had many jobs, drove almost everything from newspaper vans to milk vans. Liked the occasional smoke, had no interest in alcohol even when her Doctor suggested whisky in her tea (which she did for a while but did not like the taste) for her low blood pressure.

Connie got engaged once and had started her "bottom drawer" as you apparently did in those days. I have no idea of his name, but she gave everything back as she did not want "any of that mucky stuff".

I remember her playing bingo for hours, uncaring about the wins as she always gave the tokens to me and Mike so that we could get something instead. Drinking tea all day. Living on toast, crumpets and cakes and always thin. The only one of the girls with no interest in make up. In fact, I can't picture her in a skirt or a dress beyond the occasional wedding photo. The super heated house of an old lady and the TV on so loud it felt like the windows were shaking.

Connie died last night aged 86. Today is a sad day.

What are little boys made of?

2007-11-04T21:15:00.000Z

If you take a straw poll of parents of similar aged children with the question of "If you ask your child what they would like for dinner?" there would be very few major items on the list. Chicken nuggets and chips? Burger? McDonalds? Maybe waffles? Crisps?

Having asked the question of himself on Friday night, young Jake decided - without prompting from me - on his menu.

Trout
Buttered leeks
Honeyed red onions
Boiled potatoes

We started with his choice of stater which was breaded goats cheese. After that he was feeling full up and I just didn't see it coming...main course arrived and he practically ignored it, claimed tiredness and went straight to bed without touching the food.

One hour later there was a scurry of activity and then I had frantic activity to clear up after him. Poor lad has been rather ill all weekend.

Shame really as he left the trout and I only got it for him - I'm not really a fish eater. At all.

After very little food all day Sunday, I gave him the option of anything he wanted but this time I listed a few suggestions. So eventually he got chicken nuggets and chips.