I sent this around to a couple of my user sites today. I was glad to see that some of the users did actually read the notice as I got several replies back saying it made them laugh.
Please note that there are several hoax valentine day cards going around the internet that links to malicious software. If you received a valentines day ecard please do not open it and tell your loved one not to be a cheapskate and buy a real card.
As part of an assessment recently I needed to know if a client had the Transition Pack installed on their Small Business Server – this allows the client to have more than 75 users/devices connected to the server. They were not aware that they had purchased the transition pack (and as it’s expensive I would imagine they would know they have purchased it) yet it looked like they had more than 75 user/devices.
Looking online there didn’t seem to be any information on how to tell if the pack had been purchased and as it is not something you can download and try, it wasn’t possible to just see what happens if it was installed. I also didn’t want to suggest that they purchase the software if they already had and it was already installed.
I put a call into Microsoft to find out how to tell if the Transition Pack is installed and the answer is obvious if you think about it, but it doesn’t scream out “Transaction Pack”.
It would have been nice if it appeared in the Add/Remove Programs but it doesn’t. It can appear as a product id but the absence of the id doesn’t always imply that it hasn’t been installed.
Instead the way to tell is to go into Add/Remove Programs, Windows Components and then see if it is possible to change Terminal Services to application mode. SBS does not support this mode but Windows 2003 does. Obvious now you know the answer, but not an obvious solution if you didn’t know the answer.
This weekend was meant to be the second stage in a NT4 and Exchange 5.5 migration to Windows 2003, Exchange 2007. This process has been a big nightmare so far – this weekend wasn’t helped by the cd being unreadable by any of the machines (although you could see *some* files the setup program wouldn’t completely launch.)
Trying to think of an alternative solution I wondered if the trial version of Exchange that is downloadable from Microsoft would work. However, although Microsoft say you can actually use a purchased key on the trial version, the only trial version available is 32bit and the only supported version of exchange is 64bit. The other problem is that the 64bit version is a 5.5GB DVD so not something you can easily download on a T1 connection 🙂
Eventually we managed to get a copy of the DVD from another branch of the company and I started the install process. Unfortunately it was then that I discovered that you can only install Exchange 2007 into a Native mode AD. Initially I thought it just had to be higher than 2000. Unfortunately as I’m doing an upgrade from Windows NT domain to Active Directory I still had NT4 domain controllers from the original installation and these are not machines that the client is willing to remove. So I’m now stuck with a half finished migration.
Currently my two solutions are to split the nt4 domain controllers into their own separate LAN and then remove the records for the W2k3 servers and delete the NT4 servers from the AD LAn – this should work as the 2 domain controllers are just serving as standalone machines now so don’t really need clients to connect to them but their services are needed.
The other solution (which might be more graceful) is to use upromote to demote the nt4 servers to member servers only. At $99 per server this will be more cost efficient and graceful than splitting the network into 2 lans.
I must say that this whole 5.5 to Exchange 2007 is not an easy migration by any stretch of the imagination and I would certainly not recommend that you try and do it over two consecutive windows – especially if your original NT servers provide extra services to your existing network.
If you read this blog then hopefully you are aware of the $100 off a new Technet subscription. I’ve been toying around the idea with getting one of these – but it would still be $250! However from reading Keith’s blog it looks like Microsoft are offering 40% off Technet subscriptions if you attend one of the Windows/Visual Studio 2008 launch events. My nearest one is in Columbus on March 20th so I will probably be taking advantage of this at that point – the price for the Technet Plus direct works out at about $209.
PS if you are a student then you can get Office 2007 Ultimate for $60 which is a bargain!
Nice to see that flashmobs are still going well Thanks to mydigitallife.
You may have heard that an undersea cable was cut affecting various countries internet access. Initially I didn’t think this would concern me but apparently some of the companies who have off-shored their tech support to India like Microsoft are affected. This explains why it’s been over two days to receive a hotfix from the Microsoft support website. Fortunately I got tired of waiting and called them up for it but I still haven’t received my emailed version either.
It’s been a very long weekend. I’ve been trying to do a migration from nt4 and exchange 5.5 up to Windows 2003 64bit, Active Directory and Exchange2007 and although I succeeded there have been several large hiccups along the way. More details in the extended entry as it will get technical!
A couple of admins posted for questions for some future interviews that they had in the pipeline so I sent in an email about scripting. I’m currently proficient in batch file scripting but really struggled with Powershell scripting which is unfortunate as it looks like this is where admin scripting is going in 2008 with Windows 2008 and Exchange2007. So Steve kindly produced a 10 minute podcast that answered my questions about getting started in Powershell and that was all that was in it – a whole podcast produced for me (but I don’t mind other people listening to it either)- Thanks very much Steve!
I think my daily picture taking process should get a bit easier now. Up until now I’ve been ejecting the compact flash, SD or XD card from the camera and then putting it in the card reader. However tonight I plugged the Canon into the usb cable and saw it come up as a mobile device in Windows Explorer. By right clicking on the device and choosing properties I was then able to select an action on inserting the camera. One of the options is to copy the pictures to a specified directory on the disk AND put them in a subdirectory of todays date, another option is to delete the pictures off the camera afterwards. Seeing as though this is a process I do manually at the moment, this should be really helpful. As the camera has a really good battery life (I’ve just swapped the batteries over for the first time) I’m not too concerned about draining the battery whilst the data is being copied across. I might use the card reader process on Saturday when I get back from the Columbus Ohio Flickr meet at the Southern Theatre. Seeing as though this trick has saved me some time, I thought it was appropriate that the photo for today was Time.
Our blackberry reboots continue to happen (although now that I’m on a 8830 my problem has stopped). In the Blackberry forums there was someone else who had the exact same issue that we did – I thought the person was actually someone else in my company! RIM and Sprint are currently looking at the issue as I blog. The funny thing is that two of the devices have actually rebooted whilst we have been on the phone wiith RIM and Sprint.
Update After 45 minutes on hold whilst the Sprint rep spoke to RIM , we find that RIM do know about this problem and are working on a solution but no eta yet. If you would like to be informed of updates to the software by RIM then send an email to [email protected], subject line Email Update Request for Reboot Issue and in the body put the fact you have an 8703 with issues rebooting at random and that you want email updates on when the problem will be resolved.
