Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

Some potential gotchas with clustering with Windows 2008. Don't let this KB article scare you away from using the updated clustering features. They are actually really nice, but it is good to get this information out there.

In Windows Server 2008, a new set of platform APIs has been implemented to provide better functionality, better scalability, and easier manageability for clustering environments. The manageability aspect includes remote management. However, this new set of failover cluster APIs also poses interoperability issues with earlier versions of Windows.

The two items that I find the most interesting from the KB article are:

1. The backup APIs have been removed in Windows Server 2008. You must now use the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) writer to reach this backup functionality in a clustering environment. Additionally, several new APIs have been added, although the pre-Windows Server 2008 APIs should still function.

and

2. Because of a core protocol change in Windows Server 2008, you cannot call failover cluster APIs from earlier Windows clients to Windows Server 2008 clusters. Therefore, the new failover cluster APIs cannot be called from Windows XP or from Windows Server 2003. Currently, the cluster APIs can be called against a Windows Server 2008 cluster only from Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) or from Windows Server 2008.

Most new MS products come with Powershell functionality. It is a good scripting language to learn. I find myself replacing 20 lines of VBScript with 2 lines of Powershell code. Anyone that does Exchange or System Center work should look into learning Powershell.

With that said, here is the second CTP for the next version of Powershell, here.

Here is the official description:
Windows PowerShell V2 CTP2 introduces several significant features to Windows PowerShell 1.0 and Windows PowerShell V2 CTP that extends its use, improves its usability, and allows you to control and manage the Windows environment more easily and comprehensively.

There are many, many file compare utilities out there and I'm trying to find one that can fill a specific need.

Scenario: During a file server migration, I would to be able to compare directory and file permissions on both sides to show if there are any differences between the two. I've tried AccessEnum from SysInternals but due to the sheer amount of data involved, it isn't providing what I need.

Anyone know of a utility out there that can handle about 2 terabytes of file security compares? I don't care about the file contents in this case, only the security that is 'stamped' on both sides. I am sure I am overlooking a simple solution somewhere but I am drawing a blank.

Any help is most appreciated! Please leave a comment on this entry or shoot me an e-mail.

My good buddy Matt Wade spotted a new release of the OC 2007 client here.

This update fixes the following issues:
KB 951870 - Event IDs 8239 and 8206 are logged when you schedule and then cancel a meeting in Communicator 2007

KB 949498 - Error message when a Communicator 2007 user sends a message that contains only Japanese characters to Communicator 2005 users: " cannot receive message in the format you used"

KB 951871 - The presence status changes to Away for all Terminal Server users when an administrator locks the desktop or lets the screen saver run in Communicator 2007

KB 951868 - Registry settings for certain protocols are overwritten, and Communicator 2007 becomes the default application for these protocols when you log on to Communicator 2007

Note: This update now enforces HTTPS in High Security mode. Some services that previously worked by using HTTP will now be required to use HTTPS when they are in High Security mode. These services include the address book service, the custom tabs service, and the custom presence service.

Check it out here.

No "real" content yet, just an announcement so far.

Thankfully, this has nothing to do with the buyout talks.

On May 5, 2008, Yahoo Inc. will move their servers that provide instant messaging (IM) federation with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. These changes may affect users of these products.

This change will affect only those users whose external firewalls accept traffic on TCP port 5061 only from known IP addresses. If your external firewall accepts incoming TCP traffic on port 5061 from any IP address, this change will not affect you.

You can read more about it, and the IP changes, here.

A great little add on for Exchange 2007 and Visio 2007 which will help automatically graphical representations of your Exchange 2007 site topology, including sites, servers, and connections for an organization. It looks like it will be very handy tool for consultants doing an Exchange health check to automate some of the documentation process of the existing environment.

Here is the "official" description from the download site:
The Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Connector makes it easy for Exchange administrators to visualize, explore, and communicate complex information. Instead of viewing single user data at a time, administrators can create data-connected Visio diagrams that display data at a glance and dramatically increase productivity.
The Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Connector is an add-in for Microsoft Office Visio 2007 that you can use to diagram a Microsoft Exchange Server site topology, including sites, servers, and connections for an organization.

Download it from here.

The Pro Photo Tools allow you to add, change, and delete common metadata properties for digital photographs. You can place photos on the Live Earth map and then drag them to the right location. The GPS information will be stored back into the photos. If you have a GPS device, can load track route files from the most popular formats (NMEA, GPX, and KML) and see them on the map. Then you can place your photos on the track route. Again, the GPS info will be stored into your file. When you have the right GPS location for your photos, you can automatically generate location info like country, state, city and even street names. Or if you know the location where a picture was taken, you can type it in and get the GPS location information automatically.

Download it from here.

Something interesting I noticed is that it looks like it only supports 32-bit XP and 32-bit Vista with an English locale. I'm curious to see if it will install and/or work under a 64-bit OS.

According to this site here, the local ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX channels are already uplinked and it is only a matter of time before they 'go live'.

From what I can tell, it is supposed to happen late April or early May 2008. The only channel I can receive OTA without use of a massive UHF Yagi antenna is WZZM 13, which broadcasts not too far away from here. Unfortunately if I use signal boosters to amp the other channels, TV 13 becomes too overpowered for my TV. Honestly, I haven't spent much time on the problem overall.

Ideally, for the best picture quality, I'd love to be able to pull all the stations in OTA but it just isn't going to happen where we live. Maybe when everything switches over to UHF in early 2009, we will receive better OTA signals.

I often wondered why this essential Bitlocker tool was locked away previously as a 'request-only' KB article/hotfix, but you can now download it freely at this location here.

It is a very handy tool to have to install Bitlocker on your system after you have already installed an OS to an unencrypted volume.

I’m sure the folks at MMS (Microsoft Management Summit) already know this but check out the new features of the upcoming SCVMM release here.

If you don’t know what SCVMM stands for, it’s “System Center Virtual Machine Manager”.

If you want to join the Connect group for SCVMM v2 so that you can download the binaries, go here.

You will have to sign in with your Connect profile to be able to join that group.
Exciting stuff, especially for Hyper-V and Windows 2008.

Check it out the announcement here.

You can check out the Mac site here.

If I had a Mac, I would try it out to see what it is like, but hopefully some others can try it out and leave comments here? That would be great, because I'm curious how well it integrates with everything.

To make a rash generalization, there are definitely three groups of people when it comes to Office 2007. You could almost consider these the "#1 - Hate", "#2 - Accepts", and "#3 - Loves" Office 2007 ribbon acceptance spectrum.

#1. Longtime, hardcare Office users that have tricked out their setup so they can do practically everything with use of their keyboard and macros, right Charlie? For these users, most if not all of their macros break and they have to relearn/redo their way of life. I know Office 2007 lost some of these users to OpenOffice and other platforms due to the lack of a 'classic' or 'legacy' mode. These are the kind of users you don't want to lose, however, because they can be very vocal and very loyal if you treat them right.

#2. Middle of the road users that have used Office versions in the past but aren't opposed to change and don't have any specific needs that are broken by the move to Office 2007. There are a lot of people in this category. They may grumble or be annoyed with the changes at first but eventually figure things out and tend not to go back to the older Office suites. I find myself as a member of this group.

#3. Users that have never used earlier Office versions. They tend to pick up on the ribbon and the user interface right away. The uptake or initial learning curve seems to be less than the earlier suites.

Why am I going on and on about this? Well, there is a cool product out there by a fellow MVP that adds the ability, as close as possible, to get a 'legacy' mode in Office 2007. It is a program called Ribbon Customizer. The free version is all you need to do this. If you want to go crazy with ribbon modifications, grab the professional version.

It might not win back all the people in group #1, because it can't fix broken macros, but people who want the look and feel of Office 2003 as much as possible will love this program.

Note: I don't own or use this program but I have installed it a few times for friends and others that wanted the "Office 2003 feel", so this is definitely not a sponsored post or anything like that. I just post about stuff I think is cool or useful. Nothing more, nothing less.

Check out this update - KB 949260 - here.

Normally I’d write this off as a one-off or an isolated issue, but what caught my interest was the fact that it appears as a High-Priority Update to be installed on all your OCS servers in your organization.

And here is the other oddity that doesn’t seem to be documented very well – which basically requires a LOT of client updates, and makes it sound like someone figured out how to spoof OCS/LCS packets:

This update package replaces the OCS2007-KB946763-x86-Server.msp update package KB 946763 - Update package for Communications Server 2007 (Web Components, Admin Tools, Web Conferencing, Audio Video, Mediation, Archiving, and Server): January 31, 2008

Note: The authentication protocol that is used by Communications Server and its clients has been updated to require a signature in all messages. This includes the first message that carries the challenge response. The version number of the protocol that is advertised in the challenge response has increased to version 4. Challenge responses that use version 4 of the protocol must contain a signature. The signature is a digest of the identifying headers in the message that is calculated by using the session key. To make the Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook work correctly, this update for the Conferencing Add-in must be installed.

Additionally, to make sure that all other clients work effectively against this update, the following hotfixes must be installed on the clients:

KB 948738 - Update for the Conferencing Add-in for Outlook: April 11, 2008

KB 946764 - Windows-based Live Meeting 2007 client update package: April 11, 2008

KB 946164 - Update for Communicator 2007: April 2, 2008

This hotfix includes all earlier fixes that address "Stop 0x000000AB" issues.

KB 951749 replaces 907242, 910362, 918673, 923035, 924806, 925919, 931282, 939442, 944916, and 946068.

The following memory pool leaks were plugged in GDI32.dll, Win32k.sys and Wgdi32.dll:
Gadd, Gcac, Geto, Gffv, Gfnt, Ggb, Gglf, Ggls, Gh*5, Ghtc, Ghx, Ghx4, Ghx7, GhxE, Gl*5, Gla4, Gla5, Glx4, Gpat, Gpfe, Gpff, Gpid, Gqnk, Gsp, Gtmp, Gtmw, Gtvp, Gump, Gxlt, knlf, Uscm, Usd1, UsdE, Usgh, Usjb, Usqm, Usrt and Ussy.

Needless to say, if you want to maximize the up-time and stability of your terminal server, I would investigate/test/install this hotfix! This typically only affects heavily loaded terminal servers or servers that are not rebooted for long periods of time. You could think of these leaks like a slow leak of air in your car tire. Left unchecked, eventually, it will cause problems.