WindowsAdvice

DHCP: An error occurred while accessing the dhcp database

philipnet — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:44:00 GMT

I received the error message "An error occurred while accessing the DHCP database. Look at the DHCP server event log for more information on this error" when administering DHCP this afternoon.

It took me ages to track down what the problem was - the clue was that I was adding a DHCP reservation; every time I clicked on "Add" I got the error message.

To troubleshoot it I wanted to get an export or dump of all the entries and configuration of DHCP on the server. After a bit of Googling I came across this:

netsh dhcp server <IP address> dump >u:\dhcpdump.txt

But the first time I ran the command I got the output

The following command was not found: dhcp server <IP address> dump

The answer is to issue the command:

netsh add helper dhcpmon.dll

You just have to do it once - and then netsh will know about the DHCP commands you can use.

N.B. <IP address> has to be the IP address of the DHCP server. It can't lookup the server from the hostname

As for my problem; searching for the MAC address I was trying to use highlighted the issue. A single MAC address cannot be reserved twice in a scope. Unfortunately the error message I was getting wasn't explicit enough (and I don't have the rights to look at the logs on the DCs).

VMWare BSODs: Hard drive related

philipnet — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:29:04 GMT

I’ve been able to isolate my VMWare BSODs to hard drive issues.

No hard drive has failed – yet, but my first clue was when the Windows crash reports stopped saying “Unknown error” and started saying “Hard drive problem – probably nothing to worry about” .

That “nothing to worry about” is actually:
ATA Error Count: 38

Which I found out by logging on to the VMWare host and issuing the commands:
smartctl --all /dev/sda smartctl --all /dev/sdb
as the VMWare installation is RAID 1-ed across both drives

As there isn’t anything wrong with sdb I can safely switch sda for a new hard drive and rebuild the RAID, but that means a few days of little activity on the system.

Server 2003 SP2

philipnet — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:15:38 GMT

Is it me, or are you getting BSODs when installing Server 2003 SP2?

I suspect that it’s the VMWare environment that I’m running it under that’s causing the odd problem – how can I get a BSOD under a 2GB 2processor VMWare machine when I don’t get one with a 512MB 1processor VMWare machine?

Host memory?
Host swap?
Host load?
Host hardware?

On the bright note I did discover that if the service pack fails to install and the system is still bootable, the service pack will uninstall itself.

VMWare: to allocate or not

philipnet — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:36:30 GMT

Through experimentation I found that pre-allocating VMWare disks is the best course of action. Sure, you might over allocate disks sizes on the host, but that can save having to restore a from backup when things go wrong.

I recent had the opportunity to experiment with allocating disk or not allocating disks under VMWare. I was under the impression that pre-allocating VMWare disks was the preferred option, but I wanted to know why. But I found out at my cost.

I wanted to build another DC on my test network. A reasonably high spec PC running VMWare was to be the host and a low 512MB RAM, 10GB and SCSI HDD was to be the VMWare machine.

I installed Window Server 2003 Standard Edition, set it up, added it to the domain and was set to go. I thought that installing SP2 would be prudent before making it a DC; and so I set that going.

Unfortunately half hour later, I was greeted with a BSOD and a rather lengthy memory dump. So I reset the VMWare machine and tried to repair Windows. It wasn’t having any of it, and so half hour later I gave up and did a complete re-install.

Thinking something just went wrong with the first attempt, I updated the drivers before installing SP2 for the second time. The drivers were up to date, so I installed SP2, and thirty minutes latter was greeted by another BSOD.

I was getting rather fed up of this. So I deleted the VMWare hard drive and created a new one – all allocated – for the third attempt.

This time it worked. No BSODs and now one happy DC!

How Can AT&T Be So Cruel?

Jason.N.Gaylord — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:15:00 GMT

I just read an article how AT&T refused to give a fire victim in Southern California any slack regarding one of their receivers. You can read the full article at http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Wants-300-From-Wildfire-Victim-88826. How cruel! I cannot believe they wouldn't provide any lenience with their bill. Before I start receiving tons of comments supporting AT&T's position, let's evaluate their position. Let's examine the facts. According to CNN, at least 1,635 homes have been destroyed. Let's assume that every one of these homes have a $300 receiver. That means that AT&T is out $490,500. According to AT&T's 3rd Quarter report, their free cash flow after dividends totaled $2.4 billion and total revenue equaled $30.1 billion. So, the $490k is less than 1% of their free cash flow and total revenues. The other arguement that could be made is that AT&T is worried that others who were not affected by the fires could be using this to their advantage. My arguement to AT&T would be to work with the major insurance companies and request a claim number from their customers. Hopefully DSLReports.com receives a positive response from AT&T.

Gmail IMAP Needs Improvement

Jason.N.Gaylord — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:11:00 GMT

I'm not impressed with the IMAP capabilities with Google Gmail. So far I've noticed that my IMAP connection has dropped numerous times. I've highlighted 60 spam messages in [Gmail]\Spam and hit delete while noticing timeouts. I've tried purging deleted items and noticed that the items delete only 5 at a time. And, I've used more than just Outlook 2007 to connect.

Microsoft Adds a Free 411 Number

Jason.N.Gaylord — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:29:00 GMT

Microsoft announced that they now offer a Free 411 number for callers to find a business. It is powered by Live Search. The phone number is 1-800-225-5411.

Photoshop Express - Free web-based tool

Jason.N.Gaylord — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:05:00 GMT

This is definately interesting - http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2007/09/photoshop_expre.html

Resolved: "Please rerun your monitor calibration software." in Photoshop

Jason.N.Gaylord — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:27:00 GMT

A few days ago I reformatted my Dell D820 and installed Windows Vista Ultimate. I also added Photoshop CS3 Extended to my laptop. Usually my laptop is docked and my current monitors are Dell 1907. When I opened Photoshop for the first time on the new configuration, I received an error message stating:

'The monitor profile "LCD color management and conversion" appears to be defective. Please rerun your monitor calibration software.'

I chose 'Use Anyway'. I then proceeded to create a new file leaving the background as White. I was quite surprised when I saw that my background had a yellowish tint. Ignoring the background, I went to add a grey tone. I noticed that the greys all seemed to have a pink tint to them. My image simply did not look right. However, if I saved the image as a web file, the preview screen displayed the image correct. I searched high and low on Google and Live search looking for a solution. Finally, a coworker who was having the same issue, discovered a YouTube podcast (Chad & Todd Podcast) explaining how to fix this issue using Adobe Gamma. Here are the steps:

Go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Control Panels
Copy the "Adobe Gamma.cpl" file to C:\Windows\System32
Open up your Control Panel (in Classic View) and double click Adobe Gamma
Choose Step-By-Step (Wizard) on the first screen
Enter a custom name in the description field on the next screen
Click next until you get to the screen with a red, green and blue box
Blur your eyes and adjust each color until the box in the center blends in with the lines on the outside
Set the Gamma to custom and enter 2.00 (in between Windows and Macintosh) and then choose Next
Choose Next until you get to the screen with the Before and After radio buttons
Choose between the two to see your changed settings
Click Finish and save your ICC Profile somewhere on your PC

That should do it. Open up Photoshop and everything should be ok. Hope this helps!

Importing your blog into Facebook

philipnet — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:18:35 GMT

Something I’ve been looking for is the ability to link my WindowsAdvice.com blog with my FaceBook profile.

Now, with thanks to this post by Josh Ledgard, I can do just that!

VMWare performance

philipnet — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:08:51 GMT

I was looking for a few documents on VMWare performance.

I’ve recently had the notion of building myself a meaty server running Linux (Ubuntu) on which I can run test servers/desktops as much as I want. It saves running them on multiple 500MHz PIIIs which I can get cheap on eBay .

I wanted to confirm something I read on how to setup VMWare on Linux (Ubuntu) which was to configure the Guest OS with a SCSI hard drive rather than an IDE one.

So I went search for VMWare Performance docs; and found a few useful URLs:

Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3 http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_performance_tuning.pdf
Which details various things to ensure to get the best performance out of your VMWare server and the Guest OSes.
Storage Subsystem Performance in VMware ESX Server: BusLogic Versus LSI Logic http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ESX2_Storage_Performance.pdf
Which details the speed comparison of two SCSI drivers(!)

So I’m no where near where I wanted to be. So let’s try the VMWare site; and I find the GSX manual http://www.vmware.com/pdf/gsx32vm_manual.pdf which tells me:

“The wizard recommends whether to use SCSI or IDE, based on the guest operating system installed in the virtual machine”

Some help that is! I want the answer now!

So back to Google it is and on the VMWare site I find the text:

“The maximum size is 128GB for an IDE virtual disk or 256GB for a SCSI”

So I’m getting closer. And then I find this post (and I’m about to give up!):

IDE vs SCSI under Virtual Server http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/02/06/525487.aspx

“The final thing to consider is performance - and this is a bit tricky. Contrary to common sense, the performance of our emulated SCSI controller is slower than that of our emulated IDE controller. The reason for this is that the SCSI controller is a lot more complicated to emulate than the IDE controller. Now - this changes once you have Virtual Machine Additions installed. As part of Virtual Machine Additions we install an accelerated SCSI driver. Once this driver is installed the performance of our emulated SCSI controller is significantly faster than our emulated IDE controller.”

Okay, so it’s the wrong software, but right camp. So one final Google later I find this forum posting:

Choosing SCSI vs. IDE for boot drive
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=83153

“After I failed to find DOS drivers that would let my Ghost boot disk see the SCSI boot drive, I recreated the VM with an IDE drive and all my problems went away.”
…
“Do you plan to migrate the VM to ESX at any time? If so, then you should use SCSI since ESX does not support IDE disks.”
…
“If your guest OS includes "more intelligent" SCSI drivers, then you may get better performance from a SCSI virtual disk than from an IDE virtual disk.”

So; concrete answer may be none, but the answer is there. Go IDE if you want a quite life, or go SCSI and install the VMWare Tools CD.

New job; New reality

philipnet — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:08:25 GMT

I’ve changed jobs and am now working for a large insurance firm in Surrey, UK.

I am firmly in second line support with delusions of 3^rd line (although those delusions are slowly turning into reality).

It’s a great environment, a great team to be in and a great computing department to be part of, work in, and work with the people there.

Local Company Fined For Illegal Software

Jason.N.Gaylord — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:40:00 GMT

It's not too often we have local companies that are fined for illegal software, but when we do, it makes the paper. Pride Mobility out of Exeter, PA was fined for having unlicensed software on their PCs. To read the full story, visit http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18537075&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6.

Google Purchases Postini

Jason.N.Gaylord — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Google purchased Postini on July 9, 2007: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2156182,00.asp?kc=EWKNLEDP071007A

Windows Mobile Voice Command 1.6 Commands

Jason.N.Gaylord — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:57:00 GMT

Here is a partial Windows Mobile Voice Command list: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/voicecommand/tutorials.mspx

Removing a Domain Controller from a Windows 2003 Domain

Jason.N.Gaylord — Tue, 29 May 2007 18:54:00 GMT

I needed to remove a domain controller earlier today after the hardware failed. I couldn't find an easy way to remove it from the domain. So, I contacted some friends of mine over at Synergistic Networks. They had suggested that I look at the following procedure: http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm. That worked perfectly! Thanks guys!

Internet in Automobiles?

Jason.N.Gaylord — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:55:00 GMT

Yes its true. Many companies such as Ford are coming out with web enabled products. In fact, Ford's product will run Windows Auto. However, this product takes the cake: http://www.autonetmobile.com/wp/service. AutoNet Mobile allows multiple devices to be connected. Therefore, I can have my XBox in my SUV as well as my laptop and cell phone. All three will be online. How cool is that?

DNS Exploit Announced

Jason.N.Gaylord — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:50:00 GMT

There is a Microsoft DNS exploit that is allowing a new worm (virus) called W32/Delbot-AI to attack machines, turning them into a zombie PC. For more information about the worm, visit http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/w32delbotai.html?_log_from=rss.

TECHbash 2007 Announced

Jason.N.Gaylord — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:08:00 GMT

TECHbash 2007 has been officially announced. To check out a full agenda and to regsiter for some really cool swag including Vista and Office 2007 licenses, visit techbash.com. At TECHbash 2007, you will have the chance to learn the latest technologies in the industry including:

Microsoft Exchange 2007
Microsoft Windows Code-Named "Longhorn"
IP Telephony
AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript)
SharePoint

Some of the additional SWAG being offered....

.NET Valley is pleased to announce that every attendee at TECHbash 2007 will receive a goodie bag filled with a TECHbash t-shirt, .NET Valley pen, and free magazines from MSDN Magazine, asp.net Pro, and CoDe Magazine.

In addition, .NET Valley will have a "Pick-a-Prize Free Auction". For each session that you attend, you will receive a ticket. You may then place your ticket in any basket of your choice for corresponding prizes which include one of 15 second install licenses for Windows Vista, Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 with 5 CALS, Microsoft Office 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and more!

Finally, if that wasn't enough, .NET Valley will be raffling off 5 Windows Vista Ultimate licenses, 5 Office 2007 Professional licenses with Groove, and books galore!

Generic Host Process on Windows XP Boot

Jason.N.Gaylord — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:20:00 GMT

I kept receiving an error message when trying to boot up my PC. I continually received the error message: The instruction at "0x745f2780" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read". and was tied to a Svchost.exe error. I'd also receive a Generic Host Process error message. If I browsed the details, it would not provide any information. After reviewing plenty of forum posts online, I finally came to the conclusion that my Windows Update (or Microsoft Update) has crashed. KB 931852 details a quick and painless way to fix this issue. However, I could not get the service to stop before receiving the message. So, I created a quick batch file and placed it in the Start menu. We run WSUS on site so that probably helped cause this issue. Also, we have automatic updates selected and disabled the ability to change this option in a global policy (nice, huh?). So, the batch file was my only chance. Here is the contents:

net stop wuauserv
rd c:\wutemp /S /Q
rd c:\windows\system32\catroot2 /S /Q
ren "c:\windows\softwaredistribution" "c:\windows\softwaredistributionold"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuweb.dll" "wuweb.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuapi.dll" "wuapi.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuauclt.exe" "wuauclt.exe.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuaucpl.cpl" "wuaucpl.cpl.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuaueng1.dll" "wuaueng1.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuaueng.dll" "wuaueng.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wuauserv.dll" "wuserv.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wucltui.dll" "wucltui.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wups2.dll" "wups2.dll.old"
ren "c:\windows\system32\wups.dll" "wups.dll.old"
pause

So far so good. I rebooted my PC after that batch file ran and now am attempting to run Microsoft Update again. If it fails I'll let everyone know. :)

Vista for the Enterprise? Maybe not.

Jason.N.Gaylord — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:15:00 GMT

Network Computing performed a survey to determine whether or not IT pros would install Vista in the Enterprise. Here it is: http://www.networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?&articleID=198000502

WSUS bugbears

philipnet — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:59:58 GMT

One of my bugbears about WSUS 2 is that it isn’t easy to find and destroy superseded updates.

The only way I’ve found to do this is to view all updates with any approval and synchronised at any time.

Then – manually – go down the huge(!) list of updates and where any update has an icon to the left (whether it’s a supersedes icon or a WSUS icon) select it, and check to see if the update is actually superseded.

GetRight - download manager

philipnet — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:56:28 GMT

I ought to put a plug in for the little utility GetRight.

I found it many many years ago and has saved me thousands of minutes (if not hours) in re-downloading files, resuming files, busting through tight bandwidth restrictions and connection ratios.

I used it today to download the latest JRE from Sun, something that IE failed to download due to a “connection timeout” .

What’s even better is that the license I bought back in 1999 (!) is still valid for the latest version 6; although I did need to request an updated code for it to validate.

FLEXnet AdminStudio SMS Edition

philipnet — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:49:09 GMT

It’s been a while since I played with (or even used ) Admin Studio SMS Edition.

It seems that MS/Macrovision have updated it beyond the free SMS version 6 they were offering, to version 8.

It can be downloaded from: http://www.macrovision.com/products/adminstudio/adminstudio/editions/smsdownload.shtml . I’ve got no idea what’s been added in the intervening years, but I’m about to find out .

ITMU update for SMS 2003

philipnet — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:28:06 GMT

I’ve downloaded the recent ITMU update for SMS 2003 that’s been mentioned at various places.

One first annoyance is that I had to uninstall my current ITMU through Add/Remove Programs. Otherwise the installation would fail with ‘an error’ – but I couldn’t find anything that told me what error!

So my immediate problem is (re-)creating the packages and collections that were deleted, or just reconfiguring them; like letting the Microsoft Updates Tool Sync run “whether or not a user is logged in” .

The next puzzlement is the Windows Update Agent. I’m going to have to read the documentation on that one!

And lastly I have to ensure that I am getting all vulnerabilities detected.