Visa preparation

I've started to work through the visa process for entering Japan. There is a strange disconnect between a couple of the governmental organizations that handle immigration that's kind of interesting. The consulate systems offer two ways to get a visa as a spouse of a Japanese national: either via a Tokyo-based pre approval process or through a Seattle-based one-time approval. Since we're not in Tokyo, we're interested in the Seattle-based process. However, when my wife called the central immigration office, they insisted that the Tokyo-based approval process (Certificate of Eligability) is the only option for obtaining a visa. But the consulate disagrees.

All this back and forth makes me a little uncomfortable. If there is a SNAFU that comes up and delays my visa, I hope that the company that offered me the job doesn't get scared off.

There are times I hate dealing with the government - any country's government, really.

Looks like I'm going to Tokyo

After a couple of back and forth questions, I think I'll be taking this Tokyo position. It will be a bit of cultural shock but it's a hell of an opportunity. Pretty solid pay and benefits, too.

Microsoft's Exchange group has a odd view of scale

If you look at Microsoft’s install documentation for Exchange 2007, they seem to have an odd sense of scale.
Planning for a Standard Exchange Organization
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124367.aspx
…Other distinguishing characteristics of the standard Exchange organization include:

• The Service Delivery Location (SDL) and Client Service Location (CSL) reside on the same local area network (LAN).
• There are more than 1,000 mailboxes in the organization.
• There are fewer than five routing groups, and between one and five Active Directory directory service sites. Multiple locations and Active Directory sites introduce the multi-site routing protocol and role discovery algorithms, as well as a requirement to use IP site links.

Standard = 1000+ Mailboxes? I don’t think I have a single STANDARD installation, then…

This also explains the lack of support and tools for smaller companies.

VBScripts

I've decided to post some of the VBScripts I've built over the past couple of years. I'll try to organize them as I go along but here's some:

• Clear temporary AutoCAD files from a Server
• Clear temporary AutoCAD files from a Workstation
• Setting the AutoCAD Flex License Server
• An example of a multi-purpose logon script that maps drives only if servers are pingable, sets internet favorites, and configures zone settings.

I've made the majority of my scripts with a help menu available from a /? command line call

Change the Version History page in SharePoint v3.0 to show metadata for all versions

I did a lot of experimenting today and found out that the following change:

If you want to change the view so that is shows the full metadata for every line, perform the following steps:

• Logon to the server hosting the SharePoint site
• Create a backup of the Versions.aspx page at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\versions.aspx
• Open the Versions.aspx page
• Delete lines 528 through 533:
  528 object val = itemcurr.GetFieldValue(field); <% object val = itemcurr.GetFieldValue(field); %>
  529 object valprev = null;<% object valprev = null; %>
  530 if (itemprev != null) valprev = itemprev.GetFieldValue(field); <% if (itemprev != null) valprev = itemprev.GetFieldValue(field); %>
  531 if (((val != null) ? val.ToString() : String.Empty)<% if (((val != null) ? val.ToString() : String.Empty) %>
  532 != ((valprev != null) ? valprev.ToString() : String.Empty))<% != ((valprev != null) ? valprev.ToString() : String.Empty)) %>
  533 {<% { %>
• And delete line 558:
  558 }<% { %>
• Save the file and then all sites will have this view of the version page:
• Repeat the process on all front end servers.

Now, I'll go back and see if I can get it to bold the changes...

Microsoft support was correct this time

After the long and painful process of moving 1.2 terabytes of badly organized data from one server to another, I found out that Microsoft Business Critical Support was right this time. In my last post, I was wondering if they were full of it when they said it had to be a hardware issue. However, after destroying and re-building the external array, the DFS sync worked perfectly.

If you're wondering why it took so long to move data, it was because this client regularly exceeds 256 character file names and command line copy utilities like XCOPY and RoboCopy fail routinely. I have to use BackupExec or NTBackup to do a full backup and restore.

Oddball problems with DFS and hardware

I moved an external arry from one server to another and suddenly have a bunch of DFS problems. I opened a case with MS critical support we walked through a ton of options to figure out what's wrong and they finally settled on a hardware issue. I think they might be blowing smoke but we'll see later this week.

It's over a terabyte of data so I'm not looking forward to this migration process.

DFS doesn't scale well

After working with DFS for several clients now, I've decided that DFS just doesn't scale well. The problems of what happens when replication breaks down across a WAN is just too ugly with large amounts of data.

At one client with 400 gigs on the DFS, the replication broke down and took two weeks to iron out all of the kinks. At another, it was 1.2 gigabytes of data and I had to ship the server back to get that working again.

I've also noticed very odd peformance when someone VPNs in, too.

I think I'll revise my earlier post and recommend using DFS for just application installation.

Let's get serious

I've been trying to get serious about this blog and I just read How To Achieve Ultimate Blog Success In One Easy Step http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000983.html and I'm going to try and stick to a three per week schedule.

Wish me luck.

Long time between postings

August? That's way too long between postings. Well, a lot has been going on? I guess I can use that as an excuse, even if it is pretty lame.

I did manage to take all of the tests and wrap up my Microsoft Certified IT Professional for SQL 2005. And, about a week later, they annouced the release date for SQL 2008. I just looked at the documentation for '08 and it looks like SQL 2005 Service Pack 3. I'm just not seeing the big advantages. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Offline address book

The Exchange 2007 migration process is an enormous pain in the ass. In all three I've done so far, the Offline Address Book completely fails for all Outlook 2003, XP, and Outlook 2000 clients. It causes so much pain and suffering and there is almost no technical documentation as to possible causes. Why can't some of this stuff be documented somewhere....

Exchange 2007 Anti-Spam

As part of this Exchange roll out, I've experimented with the built-in anti-spam features of Exchange 2007. I expected it to be horrible and it wasn't as bad a I feared.

The good:

• Simple, easy to understand interfaces
• Easy setup

The bad:

• No manual sender whitelist
• Not much control over whether the mail gets dropped or redirected
• You have to have an Edge server to get the best benefits.

That's right - to get the best benefits of the built in anti-spam, you have to sacrifice a whole server license of Exchange 2007 to get the half the functionality of ORF or any of a half dozen open source RBL filters. I am shocked that is sucks that badly. I really don't get it...

I found the Exchange 2007 error

I finally opened a business critical support issue with Microsoft and found the problem. The KB that I got pointed to was both right and wrong. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936907

The description of the issue was 100% accurate

If you copy and paste the LDAP query string exactly as shown, you're install will fail because there is a typo in the KB.

That was a first for me. The string shown for the All Users query has an extra space in the last portion of the string. The correct string is:

(& (mailnickname=*) ( (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(homeMDB=*))(!(msExchHomeServerName=*)))(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)((homeMDB=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*))) ))

Exchange 2007 Setup

The Exchange 2007 setup is an annoying process. I've done a couple now and they all seem to generate the strangest errors. I'm getting a couple of fun ones:

When running setup.com /PrepareAD:

Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unattended Setup
Preparing Exchange Setup
No server roles will be installed
Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
Organization Checks ......................... COMPLETED
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Organization Preparation ......................... FAILED Active Directory operation failed on sabeydata.Sabeyco.com. The object 'CN=All Contacts,CN=All Address Lists,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=Domain,DC=com' alreadyexists.

I got pointed to one possible lead http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936907 that looked promising but didn't pan out.

The system log has an error similar to this from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555854/en-us

The following error may appear in the event log:
Event Type: Error Event Source: MSExchange ADAccess Event Category: Devices Event ID: 2152

Description: The following information is part of the event: ExSetupUI.exe; 4912; 1753; Error 6d9 from HrGetServersForRole

This error may occur due network adapter binding error issue or/and disable File and Print sharing on the network adapter.

That still didn't get me anywhere...

ISA 2006 SSL publishing

I'm not a big fan of Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) server but it many of my clients can get it for free. The documentation is pretty bad, though. Here' s the latest irritation I found.

Publishing a SSL protected site through ISA is more complicated than the MS technet articles show. The how-to’s and technet articles are slanted towards an enterprise-wide certificate authority instead of third party SSL certificates. At the size of the Centro target market, I don’t expect many organizations would have their own PKI infrastructures. The changes to the setup that should be noted are:

• After installing the third-party web certificate on the web server, open the IIS management consoleo Right click the SSL protected website and select properties
• On the directory security tab, press the Server Certificate button to start the certificate wizardo Select “Export the certificate to an PFX file” and select a password and file location
• At the ISA server, select Start >> Run and enter MMC to start a new MMC console
• Select File >> Add and Remove snap ins
• Add the Certificates snap in
• Select Computer account in the next screen.
• Once the MMC console is open, right click the Personal node and select Import
• Browse to the location of the PFX file and open ito Enter the password and click through the remaining dialog boxes to import the cerficate.

If you just open the PFX file, the certificate will get automatically placed in Current User >> Personal and the only location that ISA will accept the certificate and private key is Computer >> Personal – a point that is not mentioned in the ISA documentation. The import wizard available from opening the PFX file will not give you that option.

I guess this is a more secure way to access an SSL protected website but it seems very complicated.

Why the $#%# is Vista so slow?

I have a brand new IBM T60p with 2 gigs of RAM and Vista absolutely sucks! I don't get it. I've been though the system and disabled as much of the junk as I can, I've removed all sorts of applications, and followed Daniel Petri's http://www.perti.co.il/ recommendations and it still drags. Between turn on and fully ready to go (outlook open) is almost 10 minutes.

I have a ton of devices that don't work correctly, too.

I don't remember these kinds of problems with the Windows 2000 roll out. I'm starting to agree with Joel's philosophy about MS http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

Getting used to Exchange 2007

I've had to roll out an Exchange 2007 upgrade at one of my clients and it did not go well. I can't believe how much Microsoft changed the interface around. I can't find anything! Exchange 2007 is no longer tightly integrated with Active Directory users and computers so you don't get "exchange tasks" options or any way to assign a mailbox to a new user inside AD. The paradigm has shifted to "adjust Active Directory inside Exchange Manager"

The documentaiton is less than ideal as well. I strongly recommend waiting until SP1 to do serious deployments.

First thoughts on SharePoint 2007

After wrapping up that class, I'm still not sure what I really think about the new version. The new version is signficantly better that before but I'm not sure if my clients will actually care about it. The portal version - Microsoft Office Server - has so many bells and whistles that might be useful but that version is pretty expensive.

Here are some of the good things:

• The workflow systems that trigger actions based on new events could really be the "killer app" for small businesses.
• The search options in the portal version are significantly better than before. You can index and search against existing NTFS shares
• Groove's "offline SharePoint" effect would be great but you have to by Enterprise Office to get Groove
• The Content Management System of the portal makes editing the site collection quite a bit smoother

I think a deep exploration of the differences are needed.

SharePoint 2007

Right now, I'm taking one of the MS/IT Mentor SharePoint 2007 boot camp training courses and I'm really impressed. I think the new V3 version of SharePoint is significantly better than the previous versions and could be heavily used by even small clients.

I'm going to have to work on more deployment ideas, though.

Remote Support for the Mac - Finally

CoPilot (www.copilot.com) from Fog Creek Software seemed to be paying attention to a suggestion that I (and probably several others) suggested. CoPilot works on Macs!