I recently came across an issue on customer site where backup to tape jobs were failing because the tapes inserted were showing up in the DPM console as “Suspect Tape”. The reason for this is actually to do with the way DPM identifies the tapes.

A suspect tape is when a tape or tapes have conflicting identification information. If your tape library has a barcode scanner then check that no two tapes have the same barcode if they do you will need to assign one of the tapes a different barcode. Also there can be conflictions with the on-media identifier (OMID) which is written to the start of each tape and is read before using the tape.

To resolve this issue of conflicting OMID’s firstly remove the suspect tapes from the library, then rescan and inventory the library. After this we need to run the ResolveSuspectMedia.cmd script. This can usually be found in %SystemDrive%program filesMicrosoft DPMDPMbin, if not you can enter the following in a text editor and save as ResolveSuspectMedia.cmd:

osql -E -S localhostMS$DPM2007$ -d DPMDB -Q "UPDATE tbl_MM_ArchiveMedia SET IsSuspect = 0"

Finally enter the tapes back into the library and inventory and hey presto you should now be able to use the tapes to perform successful tape backups!

I’ve recently been engaged on a project where we have multiple web servers (IIS7.5 on 2008r2 for those interested) which require exactly the same content and configuration (they’re sitting behind a Forefront TMG server using a web farm).  The configuration in IIS for this application happens to be complicated & while I have documented how to configure the servers, doing it over and over will not only be tedious but probably introduce some human error. 

To resolve this issue I implemented IIS 7’s shared configuration and put a process in to replicate the content between web servers.

You will need a domain account (or local account on each web server if your web servers aren’t domain joined) which will be used to access the shared configuration (it only does this – your web applications continue to run under what ever application pool identity you have set) and a file share to store the configuration on.

Assuming you’re at the stage of having a configured web server with the IIS configuration how you want it you need to export the configuration:

1. On the first web server / machine which will host the shared configuration create a directory & share it giving full share and ntfs permissions to the service account created, all other permissions should be removed.
2. In IIS manager on the server with IIS configured as per the previous steps click on the server node in the left pane, then open shared configuration in the right pane, then finally select the export configuration option on the right, store the export in the directory created in step 1, entering an encryption key (this should be recorded as it is needed for all nodes which will be accessing the shared configuration).
3. When exported tick the ‘Enable shared configuration’ box, enter the UNC path to the configuration (eg \machinenameiisconfig) enter the username domainserviceaccount and the password for that account, press apply, you will be prompted for the encryption key provided in step 2.
4. Restart the server to apply configuration, then check IIS is still functioning and the IIS manager can be accessed.

The above steps will reconfigured your already configured web server to work from the shared configuration, now we need to replicate the web content and configure all other web servers to work from the same configuration.

There are several ways of replicating the physical content, DFSR is one option, however I chose not to use it as the content on the web servers is staying static so frequent updates to the other nodes will not be required and it gives the operator responsible for the servers more control over how content updates are deployed.  So instead I used robocopy (which has been built in since Vista / Server 2008) to mirror the content from the configured server to all others (this was executed on the web server to be copied to):

robocopy \configuredwebserverc$inetpubwwwroot c:inetpubwwwroot /MIR

Once the file content was in place two quick steps are required to configure IIS to use the shared configuration:

1. Open IIS manager, click on the server name in the left pane, then select the shared configuration option in the right pane, tick the ‘Enable shared configuration’ box, enter the UNC path to the configuration as specified on the first web server (eg \machinenameiisconfig) enter the username domainserviceaccount and the password for that account, press apply, you will be prompted for the encryption key.
2. Restart the server to apply configuration, then check IIS is still functioning and the IIS manager can be accessed.

This process will replicate all application pools and IIS configuration, however if you have ODBC data sources etc.. (things external to IIS which your web applications are using) then you will need to find a way to replicate these settings as well. 

An important point is how IIS behaves if the configuration becomes unavailable, under Server 2008 (not R2) if the configuration disappears IIS will essentially stop, under R2 the server will detect this, continue working and reconnect when the configuration source comes back online.  You can enable offline files for added resiliency should you require it.

looks like no-one else has mentioned this here so I’ll get in first

The OCS product group have announced an online tool you can use to test your OCS connectivity from the Internet. Nice and useful if you are testing a deployment and don’t have a spare line/3g card fro testing from the outside.

it’s here https://www.testocsconnectivity.com/

If you have a 2 node Exchange 2007 CCR cluster, you may come across a scenario where you create or remove a user account and you find that the OAB is not updating.

The most probable and common cause of this is an incorrect setting in the registry. If you open regedit on each cluster node and navigate to the following registry key:

HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeSAParameters<Cluster Name>EnableOabGenOnThisNode

Make sure that this parameter is set to the <active node name>. If it isn’t, just right click this registry key and modify. If this registry key does not exist then it may need to be created.

I came across the issue the other day when i was updating a server, basically I’ve opened up the Windows Update homepage to apply some updates and i was receiving a 403 forbidden error.

You may also see the Below error in the Event Log also.

Event

Source : crypt32

Event Id : 8

The first thing to check when you get a problem with the windows update is the windows update log. Find the Window update log  in the following location “%systemroot%windowsupdate.log”.

To find the most recent error received we need to got to the very bottom of the log (Ctrl + End). As you can see, the error just jumps out at you

FATAL: Update required for C:WINDOWSSysWow64wuweb.dll: target version = 7.2.6001.788, required version = 7.4.7600.226

So what we need to do is update the windows update agent to the required version. For the Version number “7.4.7600.226” the url is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946928. If you have a different agent version require you should be able to find a download link with a quick Google search.

Thank You

Daniel Davies

To delete a DPM agent which is showing in the DPM Console , you simply right click the agent in question and press uninstall.

Now press uninstall agents at the next window.

You’ll now have a Credential box, so just type your domain credentials and then the task will start to perform and will complete successfully and delete.

If you want a delete an Agent of a server that no longer exists, follow the above steps and you will get the following message.

Simply press yes and this will remove the agent from your console.

Hope this helps

Daniel Davies

Seems to be the week for search related innovation, after Google’s Goggle, etc. MS research announced a really interesting project called entity cube.

http://entitycube.research.microsoft.com/

At the homepage it summarises current hot topics and news

And if you search for someone or an organisation it builds a dynamic page almost like a Wikipedia page about that entity

And even can show a Guanxi map to show the six degrees of separation style results

Sometimes when you are troubleshooting DPM or monitoring , such as tape backups you would like to look for that specific job that is running or has ran and failed without having to sort through all other jobs that are running such as consistency checks and recovery points.

This can be done by creating a filter on in the jobs tab under monitoring.

To create a filter first press “create filter” on the right hand section of the DPM console. For this example we will be creating a filter to view all tape backups that have taken place.

Now name your filter, I’ve named mine tape backups. Now select the job you would like to monitor, in my case it will be tape backup,and save this.

  You will now have your own view of a specific DPM Job

Thank You

Daniel Davies

An easy way in WSUS 3.0 to get space back on the drive that holds the WSUS update, is to run the WSUS cleanup wizard. This wizard gets rid of unneeded updates such as expired updates and superseded updates.

 First off launch the WSUS MMC.

 Now if we go to options and launch the server cleanup wizard.

 Now you will have a selection of options on what you want to do to get some space back.

You have a number of options to choose from, see below to see what each of these options clear up.

Unused updates and update revisions
This removes older updates and update revisions that have not been approved in the last 30 days

Computers not contacting the server
This deletes all client computers that have not contacted WSUS in the last 30 days

Unneeded update files
This deletes all update files that are not needed by updates or by downstream servers.

Expired updates
This declines all updates that have been expired by Microsoft.

Superseded updates
This declines all updates that meet the below criteria.

The superseded update has not been explicitly deployed to a computer group for ninety days or more

The superseded update has been on the server for thirty days or more

The superseded update is not reported as needed by a client

The superseding update must be approved

This should get you back quite a bit of space, around 10-20gb depending on when you last ran the WSUS cleanup wizard.

Hope this Helps  

Daniel Davies

Currently at this point in time you will be unable to monitor your Exchange 2010 environments via SCOM R2. If you install the MP you will come across the below errors and if you go install the required KB you will hit a problem as this update has not current been released.

“Critical hotfixes required for reliable operation of the Exchange Server 2010 and other management packs are not installed on this server. Please see the appropriate KB article for more information, and to download the required hotfix.

For Operations Manager 2007 SP1, install KB 971541 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167911)

For Operations Manager 2007 R2, install KB 974144 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167912 “ 

This is Due to the KB update for SCOM R2 currently not being released, so for the time being you will not be able to monitor your Exchange 2010 environments via SCOM R2.

After speaking to Microsoft the KB should be released before the new year.

Thank You

Daniel Davies