Category Archives: Tech

SBS 2008 Migration Tips

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I recently attempted an SBS 2008 migration to new hardware. It didn’t go well, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the server I was moving from was not working well. This was the main reason for the hardware migration attempt, but it also made actually getting the migration to succeed quite difficult. In this case, there was actually an NTFRS issue that was actually stopping the server from becoming a domain controller correctly, which was making the migration attempt when it tried to replicate the AD to the new SBS server. This is bad because it leaves the source AD with a half-installed domain controller that you need to get rid of. Plus, it takes about an hour or so to get to that point, so retries of the procedure are expensive.

Things I would recommend:
1. MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO OUTSTANDING ISSUES ON THE SOURCE SERVER. Run the SBS Best Practices Tool. Run the Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner. Fix anything you find there. Check your event log for errors and fix them as well. Make sure you’ve got a clean, recent backup. (That one really should go without saying, and I’m lucky it didn’t apply to me in this case).

2. Follow the migration document. I did have an issue where the new Domain Admin user I created didn’t seem to have rights to check some things. Follow the advice, create a new domain admin, and test it for some domain operations before using it for the migration.

3. Don’t run the migration in unattended mode. This migration is quite fiddly and you need to be able to check what’s going on at different points. You’re going to be sitting there waiting for it to finish anyway, toughen up and do it manually.

4. I had issues with trying to install updates during the migration as well. Not sure how much they were related to the other issues, but personally I would prefer to play it safe, and do the updates afterwards. If necessary, you might need to disable the WSUS in the new server while you install, to prevent it auto-updating the install while it’s occurring. Just remember, do the updates before moving your inbound connections from the internet to the new server.

Blackberry Enterprise Server troubleshooting

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Okay, so here’s some common issues with BES and the fixes:

  • Emails not being received on the device: This is the catch-all error. Things to check are: BES Admin permissions on Exchange, mapi32.dll and cdo.dll versions.
  • Calendar appointments being received as emails: Almost certainly a CDO mismatch. Check the CDO versions.
  • Calendar appointments not arriving: Could be to do with an obscure property of the AD user called homeMTA. If you are getting MAPI_E_NETWORK_ERROR errors in the MATG log, check this link: MAPI_E_NETWORK_ERROR

Shred^Max and a lesson on routers

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So, I borrowed Shay’s axe from Mal last night for some shredding action at Marc’s place. I’m always surprised by how much having other people watching you makes you focus in that game. Oh, and a pro face off against a similar-level of skill player = AWE. SOME.

I learned a valuable lesson on configuring routers yesterday: Always assume it’s not going to work, no matter how much preparation you do. All you can do is mitigate the amount of time it takes you to figure out the inevitable problems by having as much reference material as possible easy to hand.

I didn’t have any reference material yesterday, so it took me six hours to find the two commands I needed to enter. I was tired.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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Forgive me my little Darth Vader moment there – but I seem to have managed to kill the 40G HD in my file server, which means I’ve lost my file archive – which among other things had patches and savegames dating back to ’96 or so, and my graphics archive, which was about 3G of images, including all the photoshop work I’ve ever done. And I lost my whole collection of definitely-legally-obtained videos too, aside from what’s on my xbox.

On the plus side, it looks likely that I may have enough money soon to be able to buy a new PC, which means that my current PC can be retired to file server, and I’ll be making sure I have a DVD burner this time.