This is the archive for older Windows 7, 8, Server 2012, 2008, 2003, R2 information that was previously on TechNet.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/
Category Archives: SBS 2003
Hotfix: Resolve Issues in mixed Windows Server 2003 and 2012R2 Domain Controller environments
The issues were documented here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2014/07/23/it-turns-out-that-weird-things-can-happen-when-you-mix-windows-server-2003-and-windows-server-2012-r2-domain-controllers.aspx
The main issue is that users could not log on to the domain and Kerberos errors (EventID 4) were logged. This could lead to issues, and frustration, especially in migration situations.
The hotfix can be obtained here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2989971
Migrating Email from SBS Exchange to Office 365
In the past few months, I have been working with some clients on moving their existing Small Business Server (SBS) systems over to the Microsoft cloud based Office 365 email system. There are a number of issues and possible gotchas in making this transition which will be discussed here. Note that this blog post is targeted to the small business community with existing SBS 2003, SBS 2008 or SBS 2011 deployments that are looking to move their email services to Office 365, while maintaining their existing network. We will not be considering Office365 migration method in this move as the costs and complexity of implementing this in a small business are prohibitive.
The pre-requisite when performing such a migration, is to plan and work out a migration path for email services. Questions to be considered are:
- Do we need to migrate all the old email data, or should some be archived?
- Are there old accounts that can be decommissioned?
- What distribution groups and contacts need to be migrated across?
- Are there any Send As and Send on Behalf of permissions that need to be addressed?
- Are there individual permissions on Calendars and Folders that need to be recreated?
- How will we move the old email data from Exchange on premises to Office 365?
Moving Email data from On-premises Exchange to Office 365
Central to the entire issue is retaining old emails and settings. There are a number of ways to move the data across to Office365.
- Export-Import. This method involves exporting the current emails to PST and re-importing them into Office 365 once Outlook has been configured.
- Migrationwiz.com is a fast and easy way to move mailboxes at a low cost.
- Office365 Migration wizard. This is a built in tool from Microsoft to help in performing a migration from on-premises Exchange. It requires an Azure subscription and the installation of the Directory Sync tool and has some tough pre-requisites for SMBs. The process is detailed on technet here – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj573653.aspx
One main drawback from using any method that does not synchronize the Office 365 platform to your existing Active Directory is dealing with the issue of Auto-Complete or Suggested Contacts. After the migration, it is quite likely that replies on old emails or emails sent using the stored contact information in Auto-Complete or Suggested Contacts will result in a Undeliverable error as follows:
IMCEAEX-_O=MyDomain_OU=First+20Administrative+20Group_cn=Recipients_cn=bOldLastName@domain.com
#550 5.1.1 RESOLVER.ADR.ExRecipNotFound; not found ##
Create Users and Set up Domain in Office 365
In this step, you need to set up and recreate all the users, distribution groups, and domains to match what you have on-premises. In the public DNS, set the MX records to point to your on-premises Exchange until you are ready to receive emails at the Office 365 service. Ensure that the Autodiscover and other DNS services are set up properly.
Setting up the Outlook Profile
One of the main issues with setting up Outlook for Office 365 on an existing SBS domain is the existing autodiscover configuration set up for each user account. The following steps should be followed to ensure a simple, incident free set up of Outlook on Office 365.
- Log in to the PC as the user. The configuration is done per user.
- Update your PC with a the latest patches, especially Microsoft Office patches and Service Packs.
- Log in to the Office 365 portal using the users email address and assigned password.
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Install software and connect it to Office 365
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You will need to sign in to Office 365 again using the user’s credentials.
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The Office 365 setup application will note that manual steps will be required (which involves setting up the Outlook profile as detailed here).
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Once the set-up is completed, you will need to create 6 new registry entries. (thanks to https://gothamweb.com/esupport/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/133/26/outlook-2007-connecting-to-a-local-exchange-server-instead-of-hosted-exchange)
For Office 2007, the registry key is [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover]
For Office 2010, the registry key is [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\AutoDiscover]
The six entries are all DWORD. (NOTE: all but one entry are set to 1)
“PreferLocalXML”=dword:00000001
“ExcludeHttpRedirect”=dword:00000000
“ExcludeHttpsAutoDiscoverDomain”=dword:00000001
“ExcludeHttpsRootDomain”=dword:00000001
“ExcludeScpLookup”=dword:00000001
“ExcludeSrvRecord”=dword:00000001
They should be displayed among other entries like this.
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Download and run the two AgileIT tools from http://www.agileit.com/news/office-365-autodiscover-xml-tool-released/. Just enter the domain name and click OK.
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Now you can Add a new Outlook Profile from Control Panel-Mail (32-bit). You will see the existing Outlook Profile there, which can be kept as a backup, as you may need it later for export to PST purposes.
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The local autodiscover settings that have been configured earlier will kick in and set up the account. You will need to log in using the Office 365 credentials.
You can also add the on-premises Exchange profile to this new profile, if you are planning to export the old email data or manually transfer information over to the office 365 account.
With smaller sites, this is a quick and easy way to manage your Office 365 migration. With larger installations, the Office 365 migration wizard using Azure and Directory Sync may be a more efficient method. In the end, it is up to the business owner, with advice from the IT consultant, to work out which method is preferred.
UPDATE: There is a really good article on how to use Azure Active Directory to handle password sync between your local AD and the new Office 365 AD – www.infostream.cc/dirsync-aadsync
Goodbye SBS!
Microsoft announced today the next release of their Windows Server operating systems, and thus ended the branding and name Small Business Server. Read the announcement here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/07/05/windows-small-business-server-essentials-becomes-windows-server-2012-essentials.aspx. Also check out the new line up for Windows Server 2012 here – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/2012-editions.aspx.
Here is a brief history of SBS. Google “Small Business Server” for more information on this.
- 22 Oct 1997. BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0 is introduced, based on Windows NT Server 4.0 SP3. Allowed 25 client licenses.
- 24 May 1999. BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5 is released, based on Windows NT Server 4.0 SP4. Allowed 50 client licenses.
- 21 Feb 2001. Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 is released, based on Windows 2000 Server. Allowed 50 client licenses.
- 9 Oct 2003. Windows Small Business Server 2003 is released, based on Windows Server 2003. Allowed 75 client licenses.
- 29 July 2006. Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 is released, based on Windows Server 2003. The main updates here included the introduction of Windows Server Update Services and expansion of the 18GB Exchange database limit to 75GB.
- 21 Aug 2008. Windows Small Business Server 2008 is released, based on Windows Server 2008. Allowed 75 client licenses, and introduced a new Console for administration and management.
- 13 Dec 2010. Windows Small Business Server 2011 is released, based on Windows Server 2008 R2. The product was split into a Standard and Essentials version, where the standard version carried forward the 75 client license limit as seen in past releases. The new Essentials version was introduced from the Windows Home Server codebase and included 25 client licenses built in.
- late 2012/early 2013 (estimate). Windows Server 2012 Essentials will be released, based on Windows Server 2012. Includes 25 client licenses.
With the introduction of Windows Server 2012 Essentials, the Small Business Server brand name will be lost. Here are some screenshots of the administration console as it developed in SBS2000, SBS2003, SBS2008, SBS2011 Standard and Essentials.
For more information on Small Business Server features, go to www.microsoft.com/sbs. SBS2011 is available right now. This is your last chance to get a fully integrated server for small business which integrates on premise Email, collaboration, update services, remote web access gateway, and much more.
What is in the SBS BPA?
The SBS Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) is a tool that collects information about your server and analyzes this information to produce a report on how you can configure the server to perform better. It is not a comprehensive 100% check of the entire system. It checkes your server against a specific set of configuration rules and reports when these rules are not properly followed.
A write up about the BPA can be found here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/04/08/introducing-the-windows-server-solutions-bpa.aspx
The following is a list of checks that the BPA does for SBS 2011 (from http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/04/25/windows-server-solutions-bpa-checklist.aspx)
Small Business Server 2011 Standard Edition
Checks the following service’s start mode:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartModeSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartModeSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartModeSection
- Remote Registry – RemoteRegistryStartModeSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGatestartModeSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatestartModeSection
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator – DTCStartModeSection
- Netlogon – NetlogonStartModeSection
- DNS Server – DNSServerStartModeSection
- Windows SBS Manager – SBSMgrstartModeSection
Checks that the following services are started:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartedSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatesStartedSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartedSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartedSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartedSection
- Remote Registry – RemoteRegStartedSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGateStartedSection
- Windows Time – W32TimeStartedSection
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator – DTCStartedSection
- Netlogon – NetlogonStartedSection
- DNS Server – DNSServerStartedSection
- Windows SBS Manager – SBSmgrStartedSection
Checks the following service’s logon account:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartNameSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatesStartNameSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartNameSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartNameSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGatewayStartNameSection
- Windows Time – W32TimeStartNameSection
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator – DTCStartNameSection
- Netlogon – NetlogonStartNameSection
- DNS Server – DNSServerStartNameSection
- Windows SBS Manager – SBSMgrStartNameSection
Other Checks:
- SKUsFoundSection – Returns the Operating System Platform name
- PingDefGtwySection – Checks to see if the server is not able to ping the default gateway
- PingDefGtwyOKSection – Checks to see if the server is able to ping the default gateway
- Check2IPsSection – Checks to see if there are multiple IP addresses on the network card
- IPFilteringSection – Checks to see if IP Filtering is enabled
- HyperVSection – Checks to see if the Hyper-V role is installed
- IPv6Section – Check to see if IPv6 appears to be improperly disabled
- KernelAuthEnabledSection – Check to see if Kernel Mode Authentication is enabled in the applicationhost.config for IIS
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials
Checks the following service’s start mode:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartModeSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartModeSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartModeSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartModeSection
- Remote Registry – RemoteRegistryStartModeSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGatestartModeSection
- Windows Time – W32TimestartModeSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatestartModeSection
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator – DTCStartModeSection
- Netlogon – NetlogonStartModeSection
- DNS Server – DNSServerStartModeSection
Checks that the following services are started:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartedSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatesStartedSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartedSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartedSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartedSection
- Remote Registry – RemoteRegStartedSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGateStartedSection
- Windows Time – W32TimeStartedSection
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator – DTCStartedSection
- Netlogon – NetlogonStartedSection
- DNS Server – DNSServerStartedSection
Checks the following service’s logon account:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartNameSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatesStartNameSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartNameSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartNameSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartNameSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGatewayStartNameSection
- Windows Time – W32TimeStartNameSection
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator – DTCStartNameSection
- Netlogon – NetlogonStartNameSection
- DNS Server – DNSServerStartNameSection
Other Checks:
- SKUsFoundSection – Returns the Operating System Platform name
- PingDefGtwySection – Checks to see if the server is not able to ping the default gateway
- PingDefGtwyOKSection – Checks to see if the server is able to ping the default gateway
- Check2IPsSection – Checks to see if there are multiple IP addresses on the network card
- IPFilteringSection – Checks to see if IP Filtering is enabled
- HyperVSection – Checks to see if the Hyper-V role is installed
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials
Checks the following service’s start mode:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartModeSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartModeSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartModeSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartModeSection
- Remote Registry – RemoteRegistryStartModeSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGatestartModeSection
- Windows Time – W32TimestartModeSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatestartModeSection
Checks that the following services are started:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartedSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatesStartedSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartedSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartedSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartedSection
- Remote Registry – RemoteRegStartedSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGateStartedSection
- Windows Time – W32TimeStartedSection
Checks the following service’s logon account:
- DNS Client – DNSClientStartNameSection
- Windows Update – AutoUpdatesStartNameSection
- DHCP Client – DHCPClientStartNameSection
- IIS Admin Service – IISAdminStartNameSection
- World Wide Web Publishing Service – W3SVCStartNameSection
- Remote Desktop Gateway – TSGatewayStartNameSection
- Windows Time – W32TimeStartNameSection
Other Checks:
- PingDefGtwySection – Checks to see if the server is not able to ping the default gateway
- PingDefGtwyOKSection – Checks to see if the server is able to ping the default gateway
Windows MultiPoint Server 2011
Checks the following service’s start mode:
- Windows MultiPoint Server Host Service – WMSSvcStartModeSection
Checks that the following services are started:
- Windows MultiPoint Server Host Service – WMSSvcStartedSection
- Remote Desktop Services – TermServiceStartedSection
Checks the following service’s logon account:
- Windows MultiPoint Server Host Service – WMSSvcStartNameSection
Other Checks:
- SRCShellAccountExistsSection – Verifies the SRCShell local account exist
You can also find the BPA for all versions of SBS from here – www.sbsbpa.com
PowerShell Not Your Father’s Command Line
There is a great 31 part blog post on PowerShell that is in developement (part 23 of 31 at this moment). Everything you wanted to know about PowerShell and some great scripts that can be used.
The main landing page for the blog is here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/matthewms/p/powershell.aspx
Here are the titles.
Part 1 of 31: Why PowerShell?
Part 2 of 31: The Basics on How to Read PowerShell
Part 3 of 31: Where Did All the Good Cmdlets Go?
Part 4 of 31: Who Ya Gonna Call For Help?
Part 5 of 31: What’s in it for Devs?
Part 6 of 31: A Cmdlet By Any Other Name Would Be An Alias
Part 7 of 31: Conjunction Function PowerShell What Are Functions?
Part 8 of 31: Won’t You Take Me To Functiontown?
Part 9 of 31: Another Side of PowerShell Profiles
Part 10 of 31: PowerShell Protecting You From Yourself
Part 11 of 31: PowerShell Providers and You!
Part 12 of 31: PowerShell and The Registry
Part 13 of 31: The Provider Active Directory Style
Part 14 of 31: Sorry I’m Not Home Right Now, Walking into IIS Webs…
Part 15 of 31: ISE, ISE Baby…
Part 16 of 31: PowerShell Take Me Out To The Grid
Part 17 of 31: Who Wants to Manage Active Directory?
Part 18 of 31: So You Deleted A User…On Purpose
Part 19 of 31: Small Business Server, PowerShell, and Me
Part 20 of 31: Hanging with Hyper-V
Part 21 of 31: Knock Knock PowerShell Calling!
Part 22 of 31: Good PowerShell Things Come in Nifty Packages
Part 23 of 31: HUGE Announcements, Disagreements, Best Practices and A Party…Oh My!
Part 24 of 31: PowerShell Did What!?!? How to Mitigate Risk!
Part 25 of 31: Did You Know PowerShell Can Talk VMware?
Part 26 of 31: Start Spreading the News…
Part 27 of 31: It Takes a Community to Raise a Language
Part 28 of 31: What is the .NET Framework?
Part 29 of 31: Demystifying MSDN and PowerShell static syntax
Part 30 of 31: PowerShell Likes the Pretty Blue Eyes of Azure Too
Part 31 of 31: That’s a Wrap and We are Not Done Yet!
Create Custom Email Address Templates in SBS2003 using Recipient Policies
Sometimes, it is necessary to create a custom template for allocating email addresses to users based on certain criteria. In SBS2008, this is relatively easy to do via the Recipient Policy Wizard in the Exchange Management Console.
In SBS2003, this is not easily found. Microsoft KB 822447 Article documents how to do this –http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822447
You can create and edit Recipient Policies in the Exchange System Manager, Recipients, Recipient Policies.
- Create a new policy or double-click an existing one to existing one.
- In the E-Mail Addresses (Policy) tab, click New to create a new policy rule/template.
- The following wildcards can be used:
- %s : Surname (last name)
- %g : Given name (first name)
- %i : Middle initial
- %d : Display name
- %m : Exchange 2003 alias
- %rxy : Replace all subsequent characters x with character y in username. If x = y, the character will be deleted.
For more information, refer to examples from the KB article.
Daylight Savings Time Zone Editor for older versions of Windows
There are still occasions where old Line of Business applications are still in use that cannot/will not/absolutely will never work on newer operating systems. On these PCs, time zone updates for daylight savings are also not updated, and can cause some grief.
To manually create new timezones on these older operating systems, you can use Microsoft’s Time Zone Editor. The Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 can be downloaded here – http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/8/a/58a208b7-7dc7-4bc7-8357-28e29cdac52f/TZEDIT.exe
If you are living in a time warp called Windows 95, 98, or ME, you can download the program from the old Microsoft FTP server – ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/services/technet/samples/ps/Win98/Reskit/CONFIG/
Once downloaded, run tzedit.exe and it will install itself to C:\Program Files\TZEdit. Browse to that location and run the tzedit.exe program.
Creating a new timezone is as simple as clicking on the New button and putting in the details.
Logon Type Codes in the Security Logs
With the prevalance of brute force security attempts, it is not uncommon to see EventID 529 appear often in the security logs. When a failed logon attempt is made on the network, the security logs note down the Logon Type among other information. I use this resource quite often – http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Logon-Types.html to work out what the codes actually mean.
The above resource lists the various logon codes with explanations of what they are.
The most common codesI have seen are:
- Logon Type 2 – Interactive – when someone attempts to logon to the server console.
- Logon Type 3 – Network – when failed attempts are made inside the network to shared resources on the server. These errors coupled with IIS attempts could also mean attempts are being made on the SMTP service or HTTPS service. Unfortunately, no IP data is logged on these types of attempts. This has to be manually found from the SMTP or Web logs.
- Logon Type 10 – RemoteInteractive – Attempted logins to Remote Desktop or Terminal Services. This is often accompanied by useful IP information, which can be used to isolate the offending attacker.
The other codes are described in the article.
IT Security revisited
I was just reminded of the 10 Immutable Laws of Security (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722487.aspx)
Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore Continue reading IT Security revisited
