Author Archive

How to: Bulk export mailboxes to PST in Exchange 2010

Today I’ve to create a temporary solution to backup the Exchange 2010 environment. There’s one simple solution to export all the mailboxes to PST, this is not a prevered solution for a production environment, but it works :) I’ve used the following powershell commando’s.

1.) New-RoleGroup “Mailbox Import Export Group” -Roles “Mailbox Import Export”
2.) Add-RoleGroupMember “Mailbox Import Export Group” -Member “Administrator”
3.) New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox mswi -FilePath \\SRV-EXC01\Z$\Export_PST\mswi.PST

When you want to export all the mailboxes in your Exchange environment, you can use the following powershell command.
foreach ($mbx in (Get-Mailbox)) { New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox $mbx -FilePath “\\win2008srv01\c$\PST\$($mbx.Alias).pst” }

 

Migrate mailbox from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010

Today I had to perform a migration from Microsoft Exchange 2003 to 2010. The new “Move Mailbox” option is replaced with the “Local Move Request“. By default there’s a maximum of two threads at one time…so when you’ve to migrate 1000 users, you’ll have to wait a long time!

You can edit the maximum of two threads within the following file; MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config. This file is located in the installation directory of Microsoft Exchange. In my environment it is D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin

Change the following settings:

  • MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB = “2″

The default value (as of SP1, version 218.15, at least) seems to be 2. Change the 2 to a 5, or an 8, or whatever you’d like it to be.

  • MaxActiveMovesPerSourceMDB – 5, 0, 100
  • MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB – 5, 0, 100

Save the file, and restart the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service. Now you can perform 5 move requests at one time!! Cool… ;)

Install Microsoft Hyper-V Server R2 from USB device

Not all servers have a DVD player installed. Sometimes it’s handy to boot from a USB device and install Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 from the USB device.
Use the following steps to create a bootable USB stick and place the Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 content on the device.

Requirements:
- 2GB USB memory stick or more
- Download the Hyper-V server 2008 R2 ISO named GRMHVxFRE1_DVD.iso

Clear the USB stick and create a partition on it by using the following command’s:

1.) Open the command prompt
2.) Diskpart (run diskpart as administrator)
3.) List disk
4.) Select disk USB number
5.) Clean
6.) Create partition primary
7.) Active
8.) Format fs=fat32 quick
9.) Assign
10.) Exit

Mount the ISO  and copy all the content o to the USB device. For mounting the ISO I used Deamon Tools Lite.
Now the bootable USB device with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is ready for use.  Boot your server and select the USB device as the boot medium. You’re now able to install  Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 :) Cool!!

Find all Obsolete computerobject in SCCM 2007

When you have a big Microsoft SCCM 2007 environment, it’s very handy to have an overview of all the obsolete computerobject within the SCCM database. This query gives you this overview.

1.) Create a new Collection. (In my example it is All Obsolete Computerobjects)
2.) Create a new query. (In my example it is Query All Obsolete Computerobjects)
3.)  Edit the query statement. Use the following query:
select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,
SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,
SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.Obsolete = 1

4.) Run the “Update Collection Membership”
5.) View the result

Failover Cluster Validation failed with status 87…

Today I had to build an Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 cluster environment with two nodes. One server with Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server and the Hyper-V role enabled. The other server with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. After configuring the NIC interfaces, teaming, IP addresses and storage the nodes are ready to join the cluster.

The Failover Cluster Validation check faild with status 87 “Failed to prepare storage for testing on node HYPERV01.hyperv.local”. After same troubleshooting I found the following solution! This error results from bit lock creating a partition in the first 100 MB of your primary drive and then not setting a drive letter. Given the command line interface for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, I had to assign the drive letter by using the command lines.

1.) Open the command prompt CMD.exe
2.) Type diskpart
3.) Type list volume
4.) Type select volume 4 (or 1, 2, 3…)
5.) Type assign

Repeat this step for all the nodes in the cluster. Now your Failover Cluster Validation check will run succesfully!

       

Microsoft SCVMM 2008 R2 Library add folders

When you install Microsoft SCVMM 2008 R2 (Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager) and you’ve created a library, mabye you want to create some custom folders. When you create some custom folders in the Library share, in my example C:\SCVMM_Data, the new folders didn’t show up in the SCVMM Management Console. After I coppied some files (.iso, .ps1 and .xml) to the share, the folders shows up!

This is by default. When you place some files in the folders, SCVMM detects this and the folders will show up now! The following file types are indexed during a Library Refresh (default every hour)

- Virtual Hard Disks: .vhd (Hyper-V, Virtual Server), .vmdk (VMware)
- Virtual Floppy disks: .vfd (Virtual Server), .flp (VMware)
- ISO image files: .iso
- Scripts (answer files): .ps1 (Windows PowerShell), .inf or .xml (Answer Files)
- VMware templates: .vmtx (VMware)

When you want to force a Library Refresh, right-click on the SCVMM Library and choose Refresh.

       

Microsoft SCCM 2007 Build Numbers

This overview shows you all the available Microsoft SCCM 2007 versions with there service pack.

4.00.5135.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1
4.00.5125.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1 Escrow
4.00.5221.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1 Refresh Escrow
4.00.5224.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1 Refresh
4.00.5571.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 2 Escrow
4.00.5574.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 2 Escrow Update
4.00.5578.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 2 with a hotfix
4.00.5578.0002 – SCCM 2007 RC0 Preview
4.00.5790.0000 – SCCM 2007 RC0 Preview
4.00.5815.0000 – SCCM 2007 RC0
4.00.5924.0000 – SCCM 2007 escrow
4.00.5931.0001 – SCCM 2007 RTM                             
4.00.6086.1000 – SCCM 2007 SP1 (prerelease)          
4.00.6221.1000 – SCCM 2007 SP1                              
4.00.6425.2000 – SCCM 2007 SP2 beta                       
4.00.6468.2001 – SCCM 2007 SP2 RC
4.00.6487.2000 – SCCM 2007 SP2 RTM
4.00.6487.2157 – SCCM 2007 SP2 R3

Happy New Year…

Wishing you a happy new year and all the best for the next year 2011, with again nice blog posts!