Forcing Kerberos to use TCP

We have been having issues with a 2008 r2 SP1 Hyper-V cluster, the Dell guy told me to set Kerberos to use TCP rather than UDP. This needs doing on all DCs and node in the cluster.

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\ Kerberos\Parameters
   Note If the Parameters key does not exist, create it now.
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type MaxPacketSize, and then press ENTER.
5. Double-click MaxPacketSize, type 1 in the Value data box, click to select theDecimal option, and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Restart your computer.

Also check the binding on the hyper-v hosts, make sure the management NIC is first, then the LiveMigration and then the heartBeat.


Reference:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244474

Removing ghost NICs from VMs

After rebuilding a VM in Hyper-V and reusing the old VHD you are left not being able to use the old NIC name and IP address.

To fix this open a CMD prompt with elevated previledges and type in:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

start devmgmt.msc

Once the device manager opens you need to select 'showhidden devices' from the view menu. Expend the Network cards and remove any grayed out NICs.

Reference:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269155

VMware - Backing up ESXi configuration

Backing up your ESXi Configuration:
To backup your ESXi configuration you’ll be using the vicfg-cfgbackup.pl command as follows:


Download either the vMA or vCLI 
Launch vicfg-cfgbackup.pl:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –save –server 192.168.15.253 –username root –password password backup.bak 
Note: The backup will be stored relative to your user “AppData” path:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ 
Restoring your ESXi Configuration:
Restoring your ESXi config can be done after you have the host up and responding over the network again by using the following:


C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –load –server 192.168.15.253 –username root –password password backup.bak


Note: You will be asked to reboot the host on restore.

Fixing Storage Alignment for Virtual Machines | Tech Blog

A great article on disk alignment.

Fixing Storage Alignment for Virtual Machines | Tech Blog

Also this PDF from NetAPP

Best Practices for File System Alignment in Virtual Environments

A good webpage on alignment

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd758814(v=sql.100).aspx

The Autodiscover service could not be contacted.

[PS] C:\>Test-OutlookWebServices | fl

Id      : 1013 
Type    : Error 
Message : When contacting https://owa.domain.net/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml received the error The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized. 

Id      : 1006 
Type    : Error 
Message : The Autodiscover service could not be contacted.


You might need to run .\new-TestCasConnectivityUser.ps1 from the scripts to create the test user account needed for the tests.


Fix: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896861

Removing Public Folder database during Exchange 2007 to 2010 Transition

During the decommission of Exchange 2007 you need to delete the public folder database on the Exchange 2007 box.


You might see this error:

One solution if you have configured all your replicas correctly is to issues this commands to nuke all public folders allowing the database to be removed.

Get-PublicFolder -server E2007SERVERNAME “\” -Recurse -ResultSize:Unlimited | Remove-PublicFolder -server E2007SERVERNAME -Recurse -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue

Get-PublicFolder -Server E2007SERVERNAME “\Non_Ipm_Subtree” -Recurse -ResultSize:Unlimited | Remove-PublicFolder -Server E2007SERVERNAME -Recurse -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue

After I nuked the PFs I got this error from the EMC:

The solution is to remove the public folder database from the Exchange 2010 EMS, first get the 'idenitiy' of the public folder database from the Exchange 2007 server by issuing this command.

Get-PublicFolderDatabase -Server EXCH07 | fl name, identity

Once you have the output you can issue this command on the 2010 EMS

Remove-PublicFolderDatabase "EXCH07\Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database"

Now you can remove Exchange 2007 via the add/remove control panel.

How to install Exchange Server 2007 SP3 on a computer that is running Windows SBS 2008:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982423