Robocopy and Server 2008 Script Error

If you are going to use Robocopy with Windows Server 2008 as a script you are going to run into a few errors. The first is that you have to allow the account you are using to execute the script to be allowed to log on as a batch job.

Local Security Policy > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Log On As A Batch Job > Add User or Group

Next add the user account to the Backup Administrator's group in Computer Management > Local Users and Groups

You will also need to tweak the job in Task Scheduler to have the following things: Select "Run whether user is logged on or not" and check "Run with Highest Privileges". If you do not select the "Run with Highest Privileges" check box then you will get the following error:
-------------------
ERROR : You do not have the Backup and Restore Files user rights.
***** You need these to perform Backup copies (/B or /ZB).

ERROR : Robocopy ran out of memory, exiting.
ERROR : Invalid Parameter #%d : "%s"

ERROR : Invalid Job File, Line #%d :"%s"
--------------------
That box is the equivalent of right click, "Run As Administrator" on the command prompt window.

Weird Event Log Event

This box has a dying systemboard and one of the error messages I saw in the Event Log I have never seen before...

Error Source: i8042prt
Type: Information
EventID: 12

Description: The ring buffer that stores incoming mouse data has overflowed (buffer size is configurable via the PS/2 mouse properties in device manager).

Bulk DNS Update via CSV File

So here is the scenario:

All of my DNS static entries are going to get nuked and changed to a completely different IP space (yes, the computers too). However since this is such a massive task and we have minimal time to make the change we would like to complete as much ahead of time as we can. All of my DNS servers are DCs running AD-Integrated Zones. The only way I can think of to do this ahead of time is by creating a spreadsheet and filling in the hostnames and the new IPs and then on the day of the IP change import the new records into DNS. So, the question is how exactly can I update the DNS tables on an AD Integrated Zone using a script or file import?

Here is what I found:
The simple answer is you can't :) However there is a workaround...
1. Export your DNS information to a CSV File
2. Modify the DNS information to show the correct IP information. I acomplished this by using Excel Spreadsheets sent to users to be filled in with the new IPs. Then using SQL I imported the Spreadsheets into a database and then scripted a massive UPDATE statement on the master DNS list. Then exported the updated master DNS list as a TAB DELIMITED file.
3. Next I needed to remove all my DNS Servers except one. Pick one to keep, uninstall DNS on all others.
4. On the remaining DNS Server I changed all my zones from Active-Directory Integrated Zones to Primary using the following: (right click on each zone) > Properties > General > Change Type > (Uncheck) "Store the zone in Active Directory"
5. Repeat for all zones
6. Keep the "Load Zone Data on Startup" at "From Active Directory and registry"
7. Open the DNS zone files (.dns) located in c:\windows\system32\dns\
8. Modify the DNS zone file with your new information keeping the proper TAB Delimited format.
9. Reboot the DNS server, this is gonna take a while but if you don't you are going to get an error like "the specified directory partition does not exist".
10. Open DNS Manager again and move all of your zones back to AD-Integrated Zones. Steps are the reverse of Step 4.
11. Reinstall DNS on all the other DNS Servers that we uninstalled on Step 3.
12. Once DNS is installed on all the other DNS Servers check to make sure that they have the latest DNS entries. They should and at this point you are done.

Piece of cake :)

Good 'ole UPS

This replacement laptop keyboard was shipped from HP to one of my Field Users via UPS Ground. It's one of those new "bendable after being run over by a truck" types :)



Hope this made you laugh; we need to more often...

Converting .WMV to .MP3

Here is a great little tool that I just discovered after finding out the Audacity was not a good tool to convert .wmv files to .mp3. Very easy to use and fast...

WinFF
http://winff.org/html/

It appears to have quite a bit of conversion options so if you are doing any conversions check it out.

Exchange 2007 Merge Fails with "Operation was cancelled" error

During an Exchange 2007 restore I was attempting to do a merge from the RSG into my target mailbox and ran into an error. The error occurs in the Application Event Log after the Exchange Wizard reports that the operation was successful. The error text is the following:

Source: Exchange Migration
Event ID: 1008
Category: Restore Mailbox
Description:
The restore-mailbox task for mailbox 'XXXX' failed.
Error: Failed to copy messages to the destination mailbox store with error:
The operation was cancelled.

As odd as this sounds the fix is to skip the wizard and run the same commands in the EMS (Exchange Management Shell) directly. Here is the syntax:

Restore-Mailbox -identity "Target Mailbox" -RSGDatabase "Recovery Storage Group\RSG Datastore" -RSGMailbox "Mailbox to be restored" -TargetFolder "Folder in -Identity to place data in" -BadItemLimit "Int32"

Serv-U FTP Server 8.0 Windows Authentication Changes

It appears that there is a change in the new version of Serv-U FTP Server that affects Windows Authentication. This change is that the Windows AD user must be a member of the "Domain Users" AD Group or Serv-U FTP Server will give you an Access Denied error upon connection. In the past you just needed an AD User account and could assign it to a "No Permissions" group so that it could only be used for FTP, however that is no longer the case.