A speed bump on the information super highway.
I’m getting ready this weekend to replace one of my windows 2003 domain controllers. This DC is a DNS,DHCP, and WINS server.
Moving DHCP from windows 2000 to 2003 was a royal pain if both machines where already DC’s
Microsoft has much improved this process for 2003 to 2008
Here’s the steps to follow from a MS KB Article
When your Windows XP does not start, then there could be various hardware or software related problems behind it. Some problems can be sorted out using some or the other workaround while some of these problems are so rigid that these can only be corrected by reinstalling the operating system. However, in such cases there is always the risk of losing your data. In such desperate circumstances, I would advise you to use a professional data recovery software to safely recover all the valuable data.
Let’s consider a situation wherein you are not able to start your Windows XP system. The following STOP error is displayed in the process:
“STOP 0x0000000A (0xBFD14AAC, 0x000000FF, 0×00000000, 0x8000F67C)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
***Address 8000f67c has base at 80001000 – hal.dll”
Cause:
This kind of error message appears when any one or all of the following conditions is true:
· The system tried to touch the pageable memory at a reasonably high process internal request level.
· A hardware driver is using an incorrect memory address.
· A device drive is incompatible with the operating system.
· There is a general hardware error that is causing the issue.
· There is an incompatible software that is having conflicts with Windows XP.
Resolution:
In such situations, you should perform the following methods to fix the problem:
· Troubleshoot third-party driver problems: If there is any problem with the third-party drivers, then you should perform the following methods:
◦ Analyze third-party software that are recently added: If a third-party software is causing this problem, then try to remove or disable it.
◦ Analyze third-party hardware that are recently added: If you have added a new hardware that is causing the problem, remove it and see if it solves the problem.
· Restore Windows: You should try to bring Windows to a former state using the following methods:
◦ Use the ‘Last Known Good Configuration’ feature: This feature brings the system to the state when it started successfully.
◦ Repair the Windows XP installation: If the previous method does not work, then try to perform a parallel Windows XP installation.
◦ Use the ‘Rollback Driver’ feature: Try to start the system in Safe Mode. Then, see if you can replace the existing driver to the previous one that worked.
◦ Use the Windows XP ‘System Restore’ feature: Try the System Restore method, if you are able to start the system using Safe Mode.
If the system does not start even after doing these methods, then the situation calls for a third-party data recovery software to recover data. These data recovery tools possess rich user interface that makes it easy for the user to easily understand its features.
To learn SharePoint I am developing a Project Site for work. We have a deal with a SharePoint consulting group for weekly meetings to help me get past my stucks.
Right now I’m working on the forms for the Projects.
Our projects have five different stages, so I’m using SharePoint designer to create a form for each stage. Each stage has different required fields. So in stage one there’s only about seven required fields, by stage three its up to eighteen fields.
A quick way to create a form in SharePoint designer is to create all of your columns in the list first.
Then click on the details of the list, you’ll see the list of forms in the right side column.
You will have three options for the type of form you create (new,edit,display)
By default the new forms will include all the fields from your list. What I did for each form is just create the first form then do a SaveAs for the other forms. Now I’m going back and removing the fields and columns I don’t need for each stage.
When I’m done I’ll have a total of twelve forms. I’m creating one of each type for all stages. I might not need them, but since we are still working through the process flow and how this is going to work. I figured it would be good practice to create them all.
Next I’ll start with workflows that will be triggered by the submit button.
A few things I ran into:
After I added all the new feeds, I had to create a “new” form before I could create an edit form with the new fields. If I didn’t the edit form just contained the original fields.
I just started testing the workflows and it seems like I cannot add actions to the default save button that is auto created on the form, it looks like I have to delete that and add my own button object they edit that to do a commit and custom action.
I’ll continue these post as I learn more and get stuck.
Category : microsoft
Image via Wikipedia
We are preparing to add our first windows 2008 R2 domain controller. So I started collection blogs and tips on the process and what to look out for.
First is a thread from the technet forums – Moving from 2003 Active Directory to 2008 R2 Active Directory (Mixed Mode for now.)
The big thing here is to remember windows 2008 R2 is x64 only. But the Adprep EXE for x32 is included on the DVD, you’ll need to use that to run ADPREP.
Speaking of ADPREP, next up is a great post detailing what,why and how you should go about running ADPREP -
If your also running DFS (like we are) there are some additional things you need to keep in mind. Again a post from technet forums gives some detail on this -
DFS on windows 2008 and Domain Windows 2003 R2 AD servers
If your running an older version of Exchange make sure Exchange supports the scheme version you plan on moving to – Exchange Server Support Matrix
Finally, its the dirteam they have a bunch of post about this:
Upgrading your Active Directory to Windows Server 2008
Transitioning your Active Directory to Windows Server 2008 R2
Considerations when upgrading your Active Directory to Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2
Hope these links help you and I’ll update the post once we start the process. First thing we have to do is get SP2 on an Exhange 2003 server in China.
later,jb
UPDATE: Found another great post about adding the first 2008 R2 DC – http://sharepointgeorge.com/2009/introducing-windows-2008-r2-domain-controller/
Category : microsoft
We are running the beta of sharepoint 2010 and testing all the features and functions. One of the things I found very funny is by default the search is not scheduled to crawl. The default crawl scope is setup and includes all sharepoint web applications. But its not scheduled to crawl.
Once I figured out there was no schedule I tried to run a crawl manually and it keeps failing, the account I have setup as my default content access acccount
is sharepointsvr-svc
This account is setup in the policies to have full Read access to all my web applications.
But my crawls continue to fail do
The next thing I need to do is search the ULS logs, not fun even with the ULS viewer
If anyone has any ideas on what to check/look for next please leave a comment.
At work we have been getting more and more require for accounts that have users that are not “full employee’s” (my term) These are users that do not spend most of their business time in the office, they could be travelling sales, outside sales, consultants. Some only use OWA,VPN, or Citrix desktop or published app. But they all seem to have one thing in comment. How do we let them know their password is going to expire and how to get them to change it.
Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I started looked at ways to address the first issue this afternoon and I’ve found a few script that would send the emails and a few paid solutions.
The 2 vbs scripts I found are a few years old
http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2007/11/13/sending-an-e-mail-to-users-whose-password-is-about-to-expire.aspx
and
I also found an exe that you run via scheduled task
but I think I’m going to try the free solution from NetWrix, they also have a paid solution but I’ll start with the free version. Netwrix also has some AD change tracking I’m going to test but haven’t had time yet. They have some nice free tools with the option to go to the paid version with more features.
We haven’t totally collapsed our AD into a single domain yet, so I still have to deal with managing muliple AD domain name spaces in a single AD forest.
If you know of any other ways to notify the user they password will expire or have tested netwrix products leave a comment.
Category : microsoft
I’m back from sharepoint pro 2010 and I had great time. One of the biggest things I learned is that we need to decide on what and how we are going to use sharepoint before we can start worrying about which tools (sharepoint designer vs visual studio) and the farm layout.
We currently only use WSS 3.0 and it very lite use. We are waiting until Sharepoint 2010 RTM comes out next month. I do have the beta installed and we’ve been running through that. This is our first use of IIS 7 and dotNET applications. One of the things we’ve ran into was every morning the first time you hit the site it was really slow. After some digging I found it was because of a IIS job that clears the cache so the dotNET needs to recompile the code on first use each day.
First I found a post on how to disable this in IIS - Sharepoint slow to load when first opening it up? Tweak it!
The post is from 2004 so its pretty old, I posted by findings on twitter and @erickraus replied and pointed me to here.
Looks like the latest recommendation is to run a scheduled job on the WPE to script a page load to ‘warm’ the cache with the pages. I’ll test the three options listed on this page and let you know how it works.
As I was digging for this information, I also ran into this post about the top tips and tricks for new sharepoint users. The items are for Sharepoint 2007 but they still apply and they are a very good list to get your feet wet.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=4a3a072c-c2a8-4cf7-a1c7-6be5552d0ac2)
Image via CrunchBase
If you are still running Windows 7 RC (like me), just remember the RC expires on Monday. I’ve been running a backup on my install before I install my black edition from my windows 7 house party. The backup has been running for about 10 hours and its only 40% done! Not sure why its so slow. I’m backing up to a USB 2.0 hard drive, using the built in backup utility. I have 300 GB of data including lots of MP3,photos, and AVI files. But this is taking forever! I Just hope if finishes early tomorrow so I have time to install and configure the RTM.
Once I get the RTM installed I want to be better about doing regularly scheduled backups. I’ love to find something that will backup my files local to a USB drive AND back them up to the cloud ( I hate that term) Anyone know of software that will do that?
I’ve been really impressed with Windows 7 and we are just starting our testing with it at work.
Anyone have a tablet PC running windows 7? how do you like it. I wait a tablet, but I want a big one. My current notebook is a Dell D820. I want a large screen to right on, I’m not concerned about the weight. I don’t travel that much, but I use lots of paper notepads, I want to try OneNote 2010 with windows 7 and a large tablet. But they seem to just keep making them smaller not larger 
later,jb
Image via Wikipedia
We are testing Office 2010 at work. I should have it by the end of next week along with windows 7. I’m currently running Office XP with outlook 2003. I was using Xobni, but it seem to eat up RAM and caused outlook to have issues closing. The social features of xobni where nice. But the performance hit wasn’t worth it. I uninstalled it and install windows desktop search. Windows desktop search was just as good if not better than xobni, but I was still missing the social integration. Well it looks like once I get outlook 2010 installed, I’ll be able to test microsoft’s new Outlook social connector, very nice….
In November 2009, we announced both the beta of Microsoft Office 2010 as well as the Outlook Social Connector. The Outlook Social Connector brings together communications history, contact information, and professional and social networking information into the Outlook experience.
We are continuing to deliver on that vision today with two new announcements. First, we’re proud to announce the public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook, which will enable our millions of Office 2010 Beta users to connect the OSC to a public network for the first time. Second, we’re excited to announce partnerships with Facebook — the most popular social Web site in the world, and MySpace — a leading social platform connecting people through expression, content, and culture.
[Continued]
To recap, here is what you can do today to get started with the Outlook Social Connector.
- Download the Office 2010 Beta at www.Office.com/beta
- Download the latest beta version of the Outlook Social Connector from the Microsoft Download Center.
- Get the LinkedIn download for the Outlook Social Connector at www.LinkedIn.com/outlook.
- Keep watching the Outlook team blog for availability of the Facebook and MySpace download for the Outlook Social Connector at http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/.
Outlook Gets Social with LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace
outblog
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT
Image via Wikipedia
I got SharePoint 2010 installed in a 3 tier architecture (1 web,1 app, 1 db)
I’m going to start a series of post on the issues I encounter, and the solutions I find for them.
I found the Microsoft TechNet forums for the SharePoint 2010 beta. I started posting some questions there.
You can also find my SharePoint bookmarks here and I created a twitter list of the sharepoint people I’ve found that are on twitter.
