How to install Windows Server Essentials

You can download your own free trial of Windows Server Essentials from here.

Windows Server Essentials is designed to be used in Small Business and has a limitation of 25 users or 50 devices. Microsoft brought out Windows Server Essentials when it discontinued the Small Business Server.

Watch the video to learn how to install Windows Server Essentials.

Windows Server Essentials System Requirements

  • 1.4Ghz 64-bit single core processor or 1.3 Ghz 64-bit multi core processor
  • 2GB of RAM
  • 160GB HDD
  • Network Adapter

Windows Server Essentials Recommended Specs

  • 3.1 Ghz 64-bit multi core processor
  • 16GB RAM

 

 

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Installing SQL Server 2012 – Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed

This error happens when installing SQL Server 2012

The following error has occurred:

Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed. Check the SQL Server error log for potential causes.

For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=20476&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=11.0.3128.0&EvtType=0xD15B4EB2%25400x4BDAF9BA%25401306%254026

To fix this issue you need to completly uninstall SQL by:

  • Go to Programs and Features
  • Right click Microsoft SQL Server 2012
  • Select Uninstall
  • Follow the prompts to uninstall SQL Server

Once the uninstall of SQL Server has finished you will need to reboot your server.

Now start a fresh installation

Go though the SQL Server installation until you get to the Server Configuration Page

At this page change the SQL Server Database Engine to use the account “NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” which may also be called the Local System account.

sql server error

 

Finish the SQL Server installation and this time you should not get the error “Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed“.

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Cannot Mount Database in Exchange 2010 – Error: MapiExceptionJetErrorOutOfMemory: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1011)

I got the following error message when trying to mount an exchange database after recovering a server from a backup:

Microsoft Exchange Error
——————————————————–
Failed to mount database ‘Mailbox Database 1646558789’.

Mailbox Database 1646558789
Failed
Error:
Couldn’t mount the database that you specified. Specified database: Mailbox Database 1646558789; Error code: An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: A transient error occurred during discovery of the database availability group topology. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: MapiExceptionJetErrorOutOfMemory: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1011)
[Database: Mailbox Database 1646558789, Server: MAIL.home.local].

An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: A transient error occurred during discovery of the database availability group topology. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: MapiExceptionJetErrorOutOfMemory: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1011)
[Database: Mailbox Database 1646558789, Server: MAIL.home.local]

An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: MapiExceptionJetErrorOutOfMemory: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1011)
[Server: mail.home.local]

MapiExceptionJetErrorOutOfMemory: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005, ec=-1011)

 

After some diagnostics I found that the database was in a state of dirty shutdown which I have had this problem before so I referred to that article which told me that I needed to do a repair using the eseutil command that is in that post. Make sure that you retest using the eseutil command to make sure that the shutdown state is in a clean shut down not a dirty shutdown.

I ran the repair on the database and it still wouldn’t mount but I was only getting the following error

Failed to mount database ‘Mailbox Database’

Mailbox Database
Error:
Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified. Specified database:; Error code: MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005,ec=-2147467259).

How to fix Exchange Error  MapiExceptionCallFailed: Unable to mount database. (hr=0x80004005,ec=-2147467259).

This is caused by the logs not matching up to the EDB data file database file. To fix this you will be able to find the program logs wherever they are stored which is usually under “program files/Microsoft/exchange/mailbox/mailbox name” then all of the files under the that finish in .log.

if you delete all of the.log files that will now allow the exchange database mailbox database to be mounted back to the exchange server. Space you may need to restart the exchange services for this to take place.

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How to Transfer FSMO roles from old Server to new Domain Controller

When you migrate to a new Domain Controller you will need to transfer the FSMO(Flexible Single Master Operations) roles before you remove the original domain controller.

Transferring the RID, PDC and Infrastructure Master roles

  • Open the Active Directory Users and Computers console
  • Right click on Active Directory Users and Computers, then click connect to domain controller
  • Right click on the domain controller that will be taking over the roles
  • Click Operation Masters
  • Click the appropriate tab for each role that you want to transfer
  • Select change in the Change Operations Master console box
  • Click OK and exit the console

Transfer the Domain Naming Master Role

  • Open Active Directory Domains and Trusts Console
  • Right click Active Directory Domains and Trusts icon, then click connect to domain controller
  • Select the domain controller that you will be transferring the role to and click OK
  • Right click Active Directory Domains and Trusts and select Operation Masters
  • In the dialog click change
  • Then select OK and exit the dialog

Transferring the Schema Master Role

  • Open a Run dialog and type in “mmc”
  • In the new MMC console click the menu and select the Add/Remove Snap-in option
  • Select Add
  • Click Active Directory Schema
  • Click Add
  • Close the Add Snap-in dialog
  • Right click on the Active Directory Schema Icon and select “Change Domain Controller” option
  • Select “Specify Domain Controller and type the name of the new domain controller that will be taking over the Schema Master Role
  • Click OK
  • Right click Active Directory Schema and then click on Operation Masters
  • In the Schema Master console box click change
  • Click OK

 

Finishing off

Now you have moved all of the FSMO roles you can continue on and remove the old Domain Controller from the domain by using DCPROMO

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Sending an email using PowerShell

PowerShell is proving to be a wonderful tool for Microsoft System Admins. The ability to send emails in a PowerShell script can be quite useful, you can use this simple little function to send an email from PowerShell.

You could potentially use this function to send you an email when an automatic PowerShell task runs and fails or if you want to notify yourself of something during the script.

The results of my test are below the PowerShell code.
Function SendMail{
#Set your outgoing SMTP Server, this will work as long as your server does not need authentication
$MailServer = "mail.bigpond.com" #Change this to our SMTP server
#Creating a Mail object
$MailObject = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
#Creating SMTP server object
$SMTP = new-object Net.Mail.SMTPClient($MailServer)
#Actual email text
$MailObject.From = "[email protected]"
$MailObject.ReplyTo = "[email protected]"
$MailObject.To.Add("[email protected]")
$MailObject.subject = "This is the test email"
$MailObject.body = "Hello," + "`r`n" + `
"Powershell is sending you an email"
#Send the email
$SMTP.Send($MailObject)
}

send email powershell script

Email received from my test
Email received from my test sending with PowerShell, it got filtered into spam but it worked!!
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Email NDR Code Meanings

What is an NDR?

NDR stands for non-delivery report. When an email is rejected from an email server you may receive an NDR email, this usually happens because you have sent the email to an email address that does not exist.

This list of NDR codes and what they mean may help you for diagnosing your email issues, or issues with your exchange or Linux based email servers.

 

4.2.2 The recipient has exceeded their mailbox limit. It could also be that the delivery directory on the Virtual server has exceeded its limit. (Default 22 MB)
4.3.1 Not enough disk space on the delivery server. Microsoft say this NDR maybe reported as out-of-memory error.
4.3.2 Classic temporary problem, the Administrator has frozen the queue.
4.4.1 Intermittent network connection. The server has not yet responded. Classic temporary problem. If it persists, you will also a 5.4.x status code error.
4.4.2 The server started to deliver the message but then the connection was broken.
4.4.6 Too many hops. Most likely, the message is looping.
4.4.7 Problem with a timeout. Check receiving server connectors.
4.4.9 A DNS problem. Check your smart host setting on the SMTP connector. For example, check correct SMTP format. Also, use square brackets in the IP address [197.89.1.4] You can get this same NDR error if you have been deleting routing groups.
4.6.5 Multi-language situation. Your server does not have the correct language code page installed.
5.0.0 SMTP 500 reply code means an unrecognised command. You get this NDR when you make a typing mistake when you manually try to send email via telnet.
More likely, a routing group error, no routing connector, or no suitable address space in the connector. (Try adding * in the address space)
This status code is a general error message in Exchange 2000. In fact Microsoft introduced a service pack to make sure now get a more specific code.
5.1.x Problem with email address.
5.1.0 Often seen with contacts. Check the recipient address.
5.1.1 Another problem with the recipient address. Possibly the user was moved to another server in Active Directory. Maybe an Outlook client replied to a message while offline.
5.1.3 Another problem with contacts. Address field maybe empty. Check the address information.
5.1.4 Two objects have the same address, which confuses the categorizer.
5.1.5 Destination mailbox address invalid.
5.1.6 Problem with homeMDB or msExchHomeServerName – check how many users are affected. Sometimes running RUS (Recipient Update Service) cures this problem. Mailbox may have moved.
5.1.7 Problem with senders mail attribute, check properties sheet in ADUC.
5.2.x NDR caused by a problem with the large size of the email.
5.2.1 The message is too large. Else it could be a permissions problem. Check the recipient’s mailbox.
5.2.2 Sadly, the recipient has exceeded their mailbox limit.
5.2.3 Recipient cannot receive messages this big. Server or connector limit exceeded.
5.2.4 Most likely, a distribution list or group is trying to send an email. Check where the expansion server is situated.
5.3.0 Problem with MTA, maybe someone has been editing the registry to disable the MTA / Store driver.
5.3.1 Mail system full. Possibly a Standard edition of Exchange reached the 16 GB limit.
5.3.2 System not accepting network messages. Look outside Exchange for a connectivity problem.
5.3.3 Remote server has insufficient disk space to hold email. Check SMTP log.
5.3.4 Message too big. Check limits, System Policy, connector, virtual server.
5.3.5 Multiple Virtual Servers are using the same IP address and port. See Microsoft TechNet article: 321721 Sharing SMTP. Email probably looping.
5.4.0 DNS Problem. Check the Smart host, or check your DNS. It means that there is no DNS server that can resolve this email address. Could be Virtual Server SMTP address.
5.4.1 No answer from host. Not Exchange’s fault check connections.
5.4.2 Bad connection.
5.4.3 Routing server failure. No available route.
5.4.4 Cannot find the next hop, check the Routing Group Connector. Perhaps you have Exchange servers in different Routing Groups, but no connector.
5.4.6 Tricky looping problem, a contact has the same email address as an Active Directory user. One user is probably using an Alternate Recipient with the same email address as a contact.
5.4.7 Delivery time-out. Message is taking too long to be delivered.
5.4.8 Microsoft advise, check your recipient policy. SMTP address should be cp.com.
NOT server.cp.com.
5.5.0 Underlying SMTP 500 error. Our server tried ehlo, the recipient’s server did not understand and returned a 550 or 500 error. Set up SMTP logging.
5.5.2 Possibly the disk holding the operating system is full. Or could be a syntax error if you are executing SMTP from a telnet shell.
5.5.3 More than 5,000 recipients. Check the Global Settings, Message Delivery properties.
5.5.5 Wrong protocol version
5.6.3 More than 250 attachments.
5.7.1 Permissions problem. For some reason the sender is not allowed to email this account. Perhaps an anonymous user is trying to send mail to a distribution list.
Check SMTP Virtual Server Access Tab. Try checking this box: Allow computers which successfully authenticate to relay
User may have a manually created email address that does not match a System Policy.
5.7.2 Distribution list cannot expand and so is unable to deliver its messages.
5.7.3 Check external IP address of ISA server. Make sure it matches the SMTP publishing rule.
5.7.4 Extra security features not supported. Check delivery server settings
5.7.5 Cryptographic failure. Try a plain message with encryption.
5.7.6 Certificate problem, encryption level maybe to high.
5.7.7 Message integrity problem.

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Error Code 800F0922 when updating Windows Server 2012

You may receive error code 800F0922 when trying to update Windows Server 2012 or Server 2012 R2 when you are trying to install Security Update KB2920189.

This error is caused by a conflict with Secure Boot. To make the update work you need to disable secure boot.

  • Reboot the machine into the BIOS, (usually by pressing F2 or DEL repeatedly as the server starts)
  • Once you are in BIOS, locate boot options and select DISABLE SECURE BOOT.
  • Save and exit the configuration changes and boot into the OS normally.
  • Run the update. It should be successful.
  • Reboot the system back into the BIOS screen.
  • In the BOOT options, re-enable SECURE BOOT, save configurations changes and restart machine booting into the OS as normal

This can also happen in Hyper-V VMs. To disable Secure Boot in Hyper-V go into the VM settings, click the firmware setting and untick”Enable Secure Boot”.

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MDT – Activate BIOS embedded product key

With Windows 8 and 8.1 computers some of them have been coming out with BIOS embedded product keys. This has done away with the stickers that had the product key on them stuck to the bottom of laptops and stuck on the side of desktops.

Activating these when you install from traditional windows installation media(cd, USB, etc) is quite easy just install windows, connect to the Internet and its activated automatically. No more needing to type out that pesky mix of numbers and letters that make up your Windows product key.

This means no more of the product key stickers that can get damaged meaning that when you install your operating system you do not need the product key sticker to activate Windows. This would seem like an excellent idea, except that it was not designed for people that use MDT(Microsoft Deployment Toolkit) to deploy Windows images to their computers, THEY JUST DON’T ACTIVATE!!

If you use MDT to deploy your images I’m sure you have ran into this frustrating problem as well. Apparently Microsoft thinks that MDT is only used by organisations that have volume licensing agreements and do not use computers with BIOS embedded product keys.

How to activate Windows embedded BIOS key after MDT installation

The way to actually activate Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 BIOS embedded product key is to extract it out of the BIOS and then manually enter it into the operating system.

So the steps are:

  • Deploy your image as you would normally using MDT
  • Extract Product Key from BIOS
  • Go to “Activate My PC”
  • Enter the product key that you extracted earlier from your BIOS

How to extract product key from BIOS

The tool that you will need to extract the Windows product key from BIOS is RW-Everything.

First you will need to download RW-Everything(I like the portable version, just saves you having to install anything)

Once it is finished downloading extract the .Zip file and navigate to the Rw.exe file

RW-Everything extracted

 

Then you will need to run Rw.exe as administrator

Click the ACPI button at the top and then go MSDM tab

Under "DATA" will be the embedded product key
Under “DATA” will be the embedded product key

If you look under the DATA line will be the BIOS embedded product key.

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How to recover folder from Public Folder on Office 365/Exchange 2013

A lot of the documentation for recovering folders from exchange says that you can do it straight from outlook by selecting the recover deleted items icon Outlook.

In theory this is fine but in practice your exchange users do not have permission to do this and they will get an error saying:

Outlook was unable to recover some or all of the items in this folder. Make sure you have the required permissions to recover items in this folder and try again. If the problem persists contact your administrator.

Outlook was unable to recover some or all of the items in this folder. Make sure you have the required permissions to recover items in this folder and try again. If the problem persists contact your administrator.

Your public folder that has been deleted will still be held by exchange because exchange has a retention policy so when a folder is deleted it is still held in the exchange retention folder.

Recover Public Folders using Powershell

To restore the public folder you will need to open an exchange PowerShell if you are using Office 365 follow the steps in our post how to connect to office 365 using powers shell to connect to Office 365 using PowerShell.

Then you need to list all of the public folders and output to CSV by running the command(you will need to set the output of Export-Csv to the folderpath of the file you want to output):

Get-PublicFolder -Identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE" -Recurse | Select Identity | Export-Csv c:\outfolder\out.csv

Then open up the csv file and find the folders you would like to restore then go back to powershell and you will need to run the following command replacing the *VALUE* the the value from the CSV file.

Set-PublicFolder -Identity "*VALUE*" -Path "\" -Verbose
Eg:
Set-PublicFolder -Identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\DUMPSTER_ROOT\DUMPSTER_EXTEND\RESERVED_1\RESERVED_1\a33b5631-a4a8-432f- 9349-80aa14eadbf8\2015\General Correspondence" -Path "\" -Verbose

You might also like this article about how to recover a public folder database which will allow you to recover the public folders after the retention period on an on premis installation of Exchange Server.

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The  Event 13 error happens when backing up a Hyper-V virtual machine from Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2 and the guest VM is Server 2012 or 2012 R2.

A “scope snapshot” is a  volume snapshot that is new for Windows Server 2012, this means that it is not supported by the host OS (Server 2008 or 2008 R2).  Being that the “volume snapshot” is not supported by the host machine it needs to be disabled on the guest machine.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        vmicvss
Date:          11/29/2012 9:00:05 PM
Event ID:      13
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVER.mydomain.local
Description:
Windows cannot perform an online backup of this system because scoped snapshots are enabled. To resolve this, disable scoped snapshots by creating the following registry value on this computer:
PATH: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\
DWORD: ScopeSnapshots
Value: 0

How to fix VMICVSS Event 13

You can fix this error by creating the registry key described in the error under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\

You can do this by:

  • Opening the registry editer by typing regedit in the start menu
  • Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\ if the SystemRestore key does not exist right click on CurrentVersion and select new key and call it SystemRestore
  • Right click on the SystemRestore key and and select new DWord
  • Call the DWord value ScopeSnapshots and give it the value of 0
  • Exit the registry editor and reboot the server

 

 

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