I was asked by an Exchange Administrator who was new to Exchange 2010 to see if I could set up a simple script that would check the state of the Exchange databases that may affect it failing over in the event of an outage.

The following script simply checks the state of each database copy and the state of the context index. This can be copied and pasted into a text file and saved as a PS1 file and run in an Exchange Management PowerShell window:

###############################################################

write-host "Mailbox Databases that are not healthy or mounted" -foregroundcolor yellow

$mounted = get-mailboxdatabase | Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | Where-Object {$_.Status -ne "Healthy"}
$failed = $mounted | Where-Object {$_.Status -ne "Mounted"}

$failed | ForEach-Object {$db_count++}

$db_total = $db_count -1

If ($db_total -eq 0)
{
Write-Host `n
write-host "All database states are ok" -foregroundcolor green
Write-Host `n
}
ElseIf ($db_total -gt 0)
{
Write-Host `n
write-host "Databases need reseeding, mounting or resuming replication" -foregroundcolor red
$failed
Write-Host `n
}

Write-Host `n
Write-Host `n

write-host "Mailbox Databases that have unhealthy content indexes" -foregroundcolor yellow

$indexes = get-mailboxdatabase | Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | Where-Object {$_.ContentIndexState -ne "Healthy"}

$indexes | ForEach-Object {$index_count++}

$index_total = $index_count -1

If ($index_total -eq 0)
{
Write-Host `n
write-host "All database indexes are ok" -foregroundcolor green
Write-Host `n
}
ElseIf ($index_total -gt 0)
{
Write-Host `n
write-host "Database context indexes are failed" -foregroundcolor red
$indexes
Write-Host `n
}

###############################################################

The script will simply output like this if there is no problems:

If there are any problems, it will list out the indexes or databases that are not reporting as they should be and you can take the corrective actions accordingly.

Cheers

Paul

Here is a quick and easy command line that can be used to bring up the Stored User Names and Passwords on Windows 7:

rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr

This is useful when the control panel item may have been removed by group policy.

Cheers

Paul

Note: This blog is written as if you are migrating a user from Windows XP with Office 2003 to Windows 7 with Office 2010.

If are migrating a user to a new computer coupled with an upgrade to Outlook 2003 you can import the nickname file from Outlook 2003 into the new Outlook 2010 suggested contacts:

1. Copy the NK2 file from the old machine which is usually located in C:/Documents and Settings/USERNAME/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook. This file may be hidden and is called the same as the Outlook profile.

2. Put the NK2 file in the following location on the new PC. %appdata%MicrosoftOutlook

3. Open control panel –> Mail and click on the Show Profiles button:

4. While the mail profile list is open, click on Start –> Run and type in outlook.exe /importnk2 and click on OK

This should launch Outlook and import the addresses into the Suggested Contacts and the users should see the addresses appear from their old Outlook:

Cheers

Paul

During a recent migration of Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 we needed to find out how many users had a mailbox and were not disabled.

In the end I used Active Directory Users and Computers snap in to create a saved Query.

1. Open ADUC and right click on Saved Queries and chose new –> Query

2. Give it a name and click on Define Query button

3. Select Custom Search from the drop down menu and then click on the Advanced tab:

4. In the box put in the following:

(&(&(&(!UserAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)(msExchHomeServerName=*)(objectClass=User))))

5. Click on Ok and the query should fetch out all users with mailboxes in Exchange 2003 and that are not disabled.

Cheers

Paul

Recently I had the need to create shared printers on a Windows Server 2008 R2 print server. The naming convention had to be strict and it was taking some time to set up the printers manually. After looking on the web I came across this site (http://poshcode.org/1462) which gave me the following code to set up the printers via PowerShell calling out the Win32_Printer WMI:

function CreatePrinterPort {
$server = $args[0]
$port = ([WMICLASS]“\.ROOTcimv2:Win32_TCPIPPrinterPort”).createInstance()
$port.Name= $args[1]
$port.SNMPEnabled=$false
$port.Protocol=2
$port.HostAddress= $args[2]
$port.Put()
}

function CreatePrinter {
$server = $args[0]
$print = ([WMICLASS]“\.ROOTcimv2:Win32_Printer”).createInstance()
$print.drivername = $args[1]
$print.PortName = $args[2]
$print.Shared = $true
$print.Published = $false
$print.Sharename = $args[3]
$print.Location = $args[4]
$print.Comment = $args[5]
$print.DeviceID = $args[6]
$print.Put()
}

$printers = Import-Csv “printers.csv”

foreach ($printer in $printers) {
CreatePrinterPort $printer.Printserver $printer.Portname $printer.IPAddress
CreatePrinter $printer.Printserver $printer.Driver $printer.Portname $printer.Sharename $printer.Location $printer.Comment $printer.Printername
}

I first populated the CSV file with the following headers:

Printserver, Driver, Portname, IPAddress, Sharename, Location, Comment, Printername

I then put in the values required for each of the printers that I wanted to set up and in many of the fields used copy and paste to save time.

I then ran the script under a PowerShell that was run as Administrator and the following is outputted when creating the printer:

The script will create the TCPI/IP port as needed and set up the printer according to the settings that you put in the CSV file.

One thing to note is the TCP/IP port that gets created in this script has been hardcoded to 2 which means create a LPT port. Changing this to 1 will create a RAW port.

Stay tuned for more blogs on using the Win32_Printer command.

Cheers

Paul

Here is a command line that can be used to connect to the users PC without having to go through setting up an invitation file and a password:

msra.exe /offerRA HOSTNAME

or

msra.exe /offerRA IP Address

If you get the following message:

You need to ensure that you are running the command as a user that is a member of the local group “Offer Remote Assistance Helpers”:

Cheers

Paul

Microsoft have recently announced they will be releasing MCITP certification for Office 365. These will be in the form of two exams:

Exam 70-323: Administering Office 365 intended for IT professionals who administer Microsoft Office 365 in an environment that may include Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Lync, and/or Microsoft SharePoint – link . Once passed you will be awarded with Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Administering Office 365.

AND

Exam 70-321: Deploying Office 365 intended for consultants and IT professionals who plan and implement Office 365. This includes migrations to Office 365 (simple and hybrid deployments) – link . Once passed you will be awarded with Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Office 365 Administrator.

Cheers

Paul

For all those out there who are looking to move some of their services to the cloud, there is an free online resource from Microsoft that will take you though the steps required in order to set up your environment for a move to the cloud:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/hh699847

You only need Silverlight installed and each lab is around 20 to 30 minutes in total. It also covers Exchange Online and SharePoint Online.

Used in conjunction with other online documentation answered a lot of questions that I had about setting this up.

Cheers

Paul

Microsoft has recently revealed the new file system RsFS. Much more detail can be found at the following blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/16/building-the-next-generation-file-system-for-windows-refs.aspx

In this blog, I am just highlighting some of the key things to take away about ReFS:

• Only Windows Server 8 will include the ReFS
• Windows 8 desktop will continue with NTFS
• ReFS will not be usable as a boot drive, this will come in future versions of Windows
• ReFS cannot be used on removable media devices (USB Disks)
• Failover clustering is supported
• There will be no way to convert an existing NTFS drive to a ReFS. Creating a new ReFS drive and copying data will be the only migration path for moving files onto a ReFS drive.
• Bit locker encryption is supported on ReFS
• Corruptions automatically detected and fixed

Capacity limits of ReFS:

Cheers

Paul

After being on site where the users are currently being upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2010 we found that a lot of users were struggling with finding some of the basic functions that used in Office 2003 on the new Office 2010.

The following URL will take you to a Microsoft website that will enable users to launch a “virtual” Office 2003 program, find the tool that they used before in the 2003 version and then it will show you exactly where to find it in Office 2010 equivalent:

http://office2010.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/learn-where-menu-and-toolbar-commands-are-in-office-2010-HA101794130.aspx

Simply click on the guide that you want to open, install Silverlight if not already installed, and then it will open the guide of the program that you selected. In this example we have opened Outlook and want to know where I go in Outlook 2010 to open a new meeting request:

Outlook 2003:

Outlook 2010:

These guides can also be downloaded to the local PC in case the user if offline.

Cheers

Paul