Tag: Server 2008 R2

Exchange 2013 and .NET 4.5 fixes KB2803754 & KB2803755

Microsoft published an important hotfix for .NET 4.5 earlier this year. It wasn’t picked up on by many, therefor a quick write up on the matter.

Since Exchange 2013 is built on top of .NET 4.5, it is recommended to install the hotfix on all Exchange 2013 Mailbox and Multi-Role servers. The hotfix will reduce the memory consumption of the store worker processes.

If you’re using Windows Server 2008 R2, the hotfix is KB2803754 and can be requested here; when using Windows Server 2012 the hotfix is KB2803755 which can be requested here.

After installing the hotfix, you need to do one of the following things:

  • Set the following registry key:
    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework\DisableRetStructPinning=1 (REG_DWORD)
  • Set the COMPLUS_DisableRetStructPinning environment variable to 1

I’d prefer the first option. Note that you need to restart the server for the change to become effective.

Thanks to EighTwOne

Z-Hire Active Directory User Creation Tool

I want you to inform about a great tool.

Z-Hire automates the IT user account creation process for Exchange mailbox, and Active Directory and Lync accounts. With just a click of the button, your Exchange mailbox, and Active directory user, Lync account and SalesForce User account will be created simultaneousy. Z-Hire serves as the platform for new hire accounts by allowing auto-creation of major IT accounts with the option for custom scripts. Z-hire will decrease your account deployment time by 600%, without the need for complicated and expensive identity management solutions. This tool makes creating Active Directory users a breeze. Some of the features include:

– Environment Auto discovery (AD/Exchange/Lync/SalesForce)
– Support for Active Directory user, Exchange, Lync 2010 and SalesForce user accounts
– Template based deployment (allows consistency for all user accounts)
– Active Directory user creation with major attributes
– Active Directory group selection
– Active Directory user duplicate SamAccountName detection – Lync 2010 / 2013 user account creation supporting all policies
– SalesForce user account creation supporting all attributes
– Faster performance (compared to previous version)

Supported Environments / IT systems
– Active Directory (all versions)
– Exchange 2007 (all versions)
– Exchange 2010 / 2013 (all versions)
– Lync 2010 / 2013 (both Standard and Enterprise versions)
– Office 365 Cloud
– SalesForce Cloud

Screenshot #1 – Active Directory
Screenshot #2 – Active Directory
Screenshot #3 – Active Directory
Screenshot #4 – Exchange
Screenshot #5 – Lync
Screenshot #6 – Supported Systems

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
– .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0
– Domain Joined

COMPATIBLE OS
– Windows 7 X64
– Windows Server 2008 X64
– Windows Server 2008 R2 X64
– Windows Server 2012

Please download administration guide:1
http://www.zohno.com/docs/Z-Hire_V4_Administration_Guide.pdf

Download: Z-Hire

Z-Term Active Directory User Termination Tool

I want you to inform a about a great tool Z-Term Active Directory User Termination Tool

This application allows IT administrators to automate common tasks when an employee leaves the company. Usually, IT administrators use multiple consoles and perform variety of tasks to terminate user accounts. This tool allows IT administrator to automate:

Active Directory Tasks
– Disable Active Directory Account
– Reset Active Directory Password
– Move users to dedicated OU
– Remove Active Directory Group membership
– Clear Manager field in AD
– Set Description field
– Set Notes field
– Remove Active Directory Account

Exchange Tasks
– Change Distribution List ownership to
– Set customAttribute5
– Set out of office reply
– Forward Email
– Grant full access permission
– Hide user from Global Adress List
– Remove Calendar items from resources.(remove calendar items where user is an organizer of)
– Cancel meetings from termined user’s mailobx(cancel meetings where user is an organizer of)
– Disable mailbox
– Export mailbox to PST format
– Remove ActiveSync device partnership
– Remote wipe user’s ActiveSync device

Lync
– Disable Lync Account

Office 365
– MSOL User – Reset Password
– MSOL User – Remove Office 365 License
– MSOL User – Remove User
– MSOL Exchange – Clear Out of Office Reply
– MSOL Exchange – Hide User from GAL
– MSOL Exchange – Change Distribution List Ownership
– MSOL Exchange – Set CustomAttribute
– MSOL Exchange – Set Out of Office Reply
– MSOL Exchange – Set Grant FullAccess Permission
– MSOL Exchange – Set email forwarding
– MSOL Exchange – Remove calendar items from resource mailboxes

File Operations
– Move home folder
– Export user settings to XML (dump all user data to xml as backup)
– Run custom script ( for advanced users only, contact support for more info )

Screenshot #1 – Active Directory
Screenshot #2 – Exchange
Screenshot #3- File Operations

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
– .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0
– Domain Joined

COMPATIBLE OS
– Windows 7 X64
– Windows Server 2008 X64
– Windows Server 2008 R2 X64
– Windows Server 2012

Please download administration guide: http://www.zohno.com/docs/Z-Term_V4_Administration_Guide.pdf

Download: Z-Term

Office Web Apps 2013 KB2592525 not installing

I’ve recently installed Office Web Apps 2013. The installation is straight forward and documented on Technet . However, there was on tricky issue. KB2592525 is a prerequisite and the PS New-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet checks if the KB2592525 is installed. I was installing on a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with all the actual patches. But KB2592525 was not installed and the KB2592525 installer refused to install on this machine. One way to get around this issue is to force the update using pkgmgr.

  1. Download KB2592525 to folder on your system
  2. Create a new folder called “files”
  3. Extract the MSU: expand Windows6.1-KB2592525-x64.msu –F:* .\install
  4. go to files
  5. Install using Pkgmgr: pkgmgr.exe /n:c:\install\Windows6.1-KB2592525-x64.xml

That’s it, and the New-OfficeWebAppsFarm cmdlet will accept this workaround.

Configuring disks to use VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters

PVSCSI adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. PVSCSI adapters are best suited for environments, especially SAN environments, where hardware or applications drive a very high amount of I/O throughput. PVSCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments.

This table shows the support matrix for use of Paravirtual SCSI adapters for data disks and boot disks for the various guest operating systems and ESX versions. Support shown in the table is from the listed ESX/ESXi version and later versions.

Guest operating system

Data Disk

Boot Disk

Windows Server 2012 (64 bit only)

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi 5.1

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, ESXi 5.1

Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit only)

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1, ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Windows XP (32 and 64 bit)

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

ESX/ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x

Because the default type of newly hot-added SCSI adapter depends on the type of primary (boot) SCSI controller, hot-adding a PVSCSI adapter is only supported for those versions that support booting from a PVSCSI adapter.

Paravirtual SCSI adapters also have these limitations:

  • Hot add or hot remove requires a bus rescan from within the guest.
  • Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains when used on Paravirtual SCSI adapters if memory on the ESX host is overcommitted.

Active Directory Replication Status Tool

The Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS) analyzes the replication status for domain controllers in an Active Directory domain or forest. ADREPLSTATUS displays data in a format that is similar to REPADMIN /SHOWREPL * /CSV imported into Excel but with significant enhancements.
Specific capabilities for this tool include:

    • Expose Active Directory replication errors occurring in a domain or forest
    • Prioritize errors that need to be resolved in order to avoid the creation of lingering objects in Active Directory forests
    • Help administrators and support professionals resolve replication errors by linking to Active Directory replication troubleshooting content on Microsoft TechNet
    • Allow replication data to be exported to source or destination domain administrators or support professionals for offline analysis

System Requirements

Supported Operating System

Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista, Windows XP

      • ADREPLSTATUS does not install on server core installs of Windows
      • Windows 2000 not supported due to lack of support for .NET Framework 4.0

    Domain membership requirements:

      • Must be joined to the Active Directory domain or forest you intend to monitor

    .NET Framework requirements:

      • .NET Framework 4.0 (you may be prompted to install .NET Framework 3.5.1 first on Windows Server 2008)

    Required User Credentials:

      • Target forest/domain user account

    Supported DC OS versions that can be monitored by ADREPLSTATUS:

      • Windows Server 2003
      • Windows Server 2003 R2
      • Windows Server 2008
      • Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows Server 2012

      image

Microsoft Office 2013 KMS Volume License Pack

Volume license editions of Office 2013 client products require activation. This download enables IT administrators to set up a Key Management Service (KMS) or configure a domain for Active Directory-Based activation. Either of these volume activation methods can locally activate all Office 2013 clients connected to an organization’s network.

Download

Overview

If you want to activate volume license editions of Office 2013, Visio 2013, or Project 2013 with a KMS host or Active Directory-Based activation, you need to first install Office 2013 Volume License Pack. When an Office 2013 volume edition client is installed, it will automatically attempt to activate via either Active Directory by using its existing domain pairing or a DNS-discoverable KMS host on your organization network. To set up Active Directory-Based activation, you must be running Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, or newer.
All volume editions of Office 2013 client products are pre-installed with a Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) key, which supports automatic activation for both KMS and Active Directory-Based Activation, so you will not need to install a product key.
This download contains an executable file that will extract and install KMS host license files. These license files are required for the KMS host service to recognize Office 2013 KMS host keys. On Windows Server 2012 and volume license editions of Windows 8, you can use your same KMS host key to set up Active Directory-Based activation.

System requirements

Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

    • KMS Host: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 (volume editions), Windows Server 2012, or Windows 8.
    • Active Directory-Based Activation
      • Set-up and Configuration: Windows Server 2012, Windows 8 or newer.
      • Domain controller: Active Directory Domain Services with the Windows Server 2012 schema installed.

Instructions:Microsoft Office 2013 Volume License Pack

  1. You need to perform this step only if you’re setting up a KMS host on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 (volume editions). Download and run the update contained in the KB article below. This update enables your Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7-based KMS host to successfully activate Office 2013 clients that are running on Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012:
    KB 2691586
  2. Download and run the executable file on this page on a supported operating system.
  3. Enter your Office 2013 KMS host key when prompted.
  4. Activate the product key online.
  5. If setting up a KMS host, open port 1688 to allow the KMS host service through the firewall:
    1. Open Control Panel and click on the Windows Firewall icon.
    2. Click the “Allow a program through Windows Firewall” link.
    3. Click the Change Settings button.
    4. Check the box for Key Management Service.
  6. To learn more about configuring your KMS host with slmgr.vbs, see the TechNet documentation found on this page.

Windows 8 en Server 2012 KMS Service Activation

For Licensing Server 2012 and Windows 8 on a Windows 2008 R2 server you need to update the KMS Service.

Install the following update: An update is available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS hosts to support Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as described in KB2691586.
If you don’t install this hotfix registering a Windows Server 2012 KMS will throw an Error: 0xC004F050 The Software Licensing Service reported that the product key is invalid

So request the hotfix and install it. Just follow the instructions and you’ll be fine clip_image001

We can start putting our brand new KMS key into action.

Uninstall the current KMS key using slmgr.vbs /upk clip_image002

clip_image003

Now you can install the new KMS key. The key listed here is obviously a demo one clip_image002[1]If you run in to any issues here, restarting the KMS Service can help. Try that first.

slmgr.vbs /ipk NOPEI-AMNOT-GIVIN-GITTO-YOU!

clip_image004

Now activate your brandnew KMS key running slmgr.vbs /ato
clip_image005

We run slmgr.vbs /dlv again and as you can see now we can activate all our Windows 2012 servers and Windows 8 computers

clip_image006

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Solution Accelerator

The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) Solution Accelerator is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the IT pro or solution provider who wants to convert VMware-based virtual machines and disks to Hyper-V®-based virtual machines and disks.

MVMC provides the following features:

  • Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts including Hyper-V on Windows Server® 2012. As part of the machine conversion MVMC converts the virtual disks attached to the source virtual machine. It also migrates configuration such as memory, virtual processor and so on from the source virtual machine to the converted virtual machine deployed on Hyper-V. It adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
  • Converts VMware virtual disks to Hyper-V based virtual hard disks (VHDs).
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 4.1 and 5.0 hosts to Hyper-V.
    • Note MVMC also supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 4.0 if the host is managed by vCenter 4.1 or vCenter 5.0. You have to connect to vCenter 4.1 or 5.0 through MVMC to convert virtual machines on vSphere 4.0.
  • Offers fully scriptable command-line interfaces for performing virtual machine and disk conversions that integrates well with data center automation workflows and Windows PowerShell scripts.
  • Has a wizard-driven GUI, making it simple to perform virtual machine conversion.
  • Uninstalls VMware tools prior to conversion to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
  • Supports Windows Server guest operating system conversion, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 SP2.
  • Enables conversion of Windows® client versions including Windows 7.
  • Installs integration services on the converted virtual machine if the guest operating system is Windows Server 2003 SP2.

System requirements

Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

Before you install MVMC, you must install the following software on the computer on which MVMC will run:

  • Operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012 (full installation)
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 if installing MVMC on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 if installing MVMC on Windows Server 2012

Download

List of Performance hotfixes for Windows 7 SP1

Applies to:
Windows 2008 R2 SP1
Windows 7 Service Pack 1
Windows 7 SP1

Article ID: 2505438 – Slow performances in applications that use the DirectWrite API on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2505438

Article ID: 2505454 – The startup process is delayed on a computer that has a large hard disk installed and is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2505454

Article ID: 2510636 – An update that improves the startup performance of Windows 7 and of Windows Server 2008 R2 is available
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2510636

Article ID: 2523887 – You may encounter file corruption issues when you use the Offline Files feature to synchronize data in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2523887

Article ID: 2524478 – The network location profile changes from "Domain" to "Public" in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2. This problem can affect Group Policy processing at boot time because NLA does not know what network profile to use.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2524478

Article ID: 2525332 – You encounter a long logon time after you enable the "Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline" Group Policy setting in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2525332

Article ID: 2555428 – The Windows 7 startup process is slow when you create many restore points
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2555428

Article ID: 2561285 – You experience a long domain logon time in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 after you deploy Group Policy preferences to the computer
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2561285

Article ID: 2561708 – Offline files synchronization may not finish on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2561708

Article ID: 2581608 – Logon scripts take a long time to run in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2008, in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2581608

Article ID: 2582112 – Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 stops responding when an application performs many I/O operations to a network share
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2582112

Article ID: 2610379 – The Folder Redirection policy does not work if a previous user sets a redirected folder to an offline mode in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2610379

Article ID: 2617858 – Unexpectedly slow startup or logon process in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2617858

Article ID: 2625434 – "ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION" error message in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003 when you try to open a file on an SMB share on a server that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2625434

Article ID: 2640148 – Windows Explorer stops responding if you try to expand a mapped drive in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2640148

Article ID: 2645611 – Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 stops responding if you try to log on a computer that has multiple monitors
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2645611

Delay occurs when you log on to a domain from a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2709630

Article ID: 2709630  2690528 Slow performance when you browse the My Documents folder in the document library in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2690528/en-us

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