Month: March 2010

Active Directory Design Guide – now available for download

I was digging around looking for some good information related to Windows Server Directory Services and stumbled across a new guide that looks very nice.  Although the guide states up-front that it was written with the healthcare industry in mind, I didn’t see anything in it that led me to believe you wouldn’t benefit regardless of the industry you serve.

image

Sound interesting?  Sure it does.  Head on over to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=88f0184c-8f03-4f0f-b3f9-5109255fb461 and snag your copy.  It’s PDF format and easy to navigate.

Back Up and Restore the System State

On Windows Server 2008 R2, there are approximately 50,000 system state files, which use approximately 4 GB of disk space in the default installation of an x64-based computer. The fastest and easiest way to back up and restore a server’s system state is to use Wbadmin. With Wbadmin, you can use the START SYSTEMSTATEBACKUP command to create a backup of the system state for a computer and the START SYSTEMSTATERECOVERY command to restore a computer’s system state. (Note that when you select a system state restore on a domain controller, you have to be in the Directory Services Restore mode.) To back up a server’s system state, type the following at an elevated command prompt:
wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backupTarget:VolumeName
Here VolumeName is the storage location for the backup, such as F:.

To restore a server’s system state, type the following at an elevated command prompt:
wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -backupTarget:VolumeName
Here VolumeName is the storage location that contains the backup you want to recover, such as F:.

Additionally, you can do the following:

  • Use the –recoveryTarget parameter to restore to an alternate location.
  • Use the –machine parameter to specify the name of the computer to recover if the original backup location contains backups for multiple computers.
  • Use the –authSysvol parameter to perform an authoritative restore of the SYSVOL.

You can also recover the system state by using a backup that includes the system state or by performing a recovery.

From the Microsoft Press book Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, Second Edition by William R. Stanek.

Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

You have tried to use XP Mode in Windows 7 in the past, then you may have seen the below error message:

vpc.jpg

This error was caused because the machine in question is trying to start a virtual computer using Virtual PC, on a computer that has a CPU that does not support hardware-based virtualisation. So, something that might be good news to the people experiencing this issue is that Virtual PC for Windows 7 no longer requires a CPU with hardware virtualisation. This means that XP Mode is now available to many more people 🙂

Now, you can install a simple update to Windows 7 in order to unblock this restriction in Virtual PC and use XP Mode.

You can get the update here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977206

How To Backup and Restore Group Policy

By now you have probably Created a Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates and imported the Terminal Server & XenApp Tuning Group Policy, but what about backup? Did you know that Microsoft have created Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) scripting samples that makes it extremely fast and easy to backup Group Policy Objects (GPO). With these sample scripts you can backup all or single GPO’s, grant permissions, import, restore, list and more. Check out the script examples here.

Download and install the GPMC Scripting Samples and create a weekly scheduled task.

Command line example :

cscript "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Group PolicyGPMC Sample ScriptsBackupAllGPOs.wsf"
"%XA%Group PolicyBackups" /Comment:"GPO Weekly Backup on %DATE%_%TIME%"
/Domain:ctxlab.local

If something should happen to your GPO it’s very easy to restore it, with a script or simply by selecting “Restore from Backup” within GPMC shown in the picture above.

Register for Visual Studio 2010 Beta Exams

If you pass one of the beta exams, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.
By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications. The following exams are a part of this beta offering.

Exam 71-511, TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Exam 71-515, TS: Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Exam 71-513: TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Exam 71-516: TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Exam 71-518: Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Exam 71-519: Pro: Designing and Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Read more about these new beta exams here @ Borntolearn.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS Client Setup Keys

This guide describes Microsoft® Volume Activation deployment concepts. Volume Activation consists of two technologies—Key Management Service (KMS) and Multiple Activation Key (MAK)—that allow Volume Licensing customers to activate Volume License editions of the Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems. The Volume Licensing Service Center at https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/ provides more information about Volume Licensing.

Windows 7 KMS Client Setup Keys:

Windows 7 Professional – FJ82H-XT6CR-J8D7P-XQJJ2-GPDD4
Windows 7 Professional N – MRPKT-YTG23-K7D7T-X2JMM-QY7MG
Windows 7 Enterprise – 33PXH-7Y6KF-2VJC9-XBBR8-HVTHH
Windows 7 Enterprise N – YDRBP-3D83W-TY26F-D46B2-XCKRJ
Windows 7 Enterprise E – C29WB-22CC8-VJ326-GHFJW-H9DH4

Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition – FKJQ8-TMCVP-FRMR7-4WR42-3JCD7
Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter – 74YFP-3QFB3-KQT8W-PMXWJ-7M648
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise – 489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y
Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems – GT63C-RJFQ3-4GMB6-BRFB9-CB83V
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard – YC6KT-GKW9T-YTKYR-T4X34-R7VHC
Windows Web Server 2008 R2 – 6TPJF-RBVHG-WBW2R-86QPH-6RTM4

More information about activation can be found here.

Gui for 2008 r2 Recycle Bin

Here’s a quick post about a nice feature download from Microsoft.

I have just found a GUI to our Recycle Bin Powershell command line. Check it out and download from  here.

http://www.overall.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40:adrecyclebin&catid=15:adrecyclebinexe&Itemid=64

Features

  • Supports Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory Recycle Bin technology
  • Supports Object reanimation in earlier versions of Active Directory
  • Review deleted objects
  • Restore multiple objects at the same time