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Free Exchange 2010 ebook for download

by on November 3, 2009


The first Exchange 2010 ebook I have seen.! I had glimpse at the book and it has topics a general Exchange admin look for and a good stage to start the journey with Exchange 2010.

This was written by a member (Jaap Wesselius) in http://draft.blogger.com/www.sysadmin-network.com and published through redgate.

Here is the TOC if you want to take a look and download the complete book from reg-gate site

Chapter 1: Introduction to Exchange Server 2010
1.1 Getting Started
1.2 What’s been removed from Exchange Server 2010?
1.3 What’s new in Exchange Server 2010
1.4 Exchange Server 2010 and Active
1.5 Exchange Server coexistence
1.6 Exchange Server 2010 Server roles
1.7 Summary
Chapter 2: Installing Exchange Server 2010
Chapter 3: Exchange Server 2010 Coexistence
3.1 Coexistence with Exchange Server 2003
3.2 Installing Exchange Server 2010 in an Exchange Server 2003 environment
3.3 Coexistence with Exchange Server 2007
3.4 Installing Exchange Server 2010 into an Existing
Exchange Server 2007 Environment
3.5 Summary
Chapter 4: Managing Exchange Server 2010
4.1 The Exchange Management Shell
4.2 The Exchange Management Console
4.3 The Exchange Control Panel (ECP)
4.4 Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
4.5 Archiving and Compliancy
4.6 Summary
Chapter 5: High Availability in Exchange Server 2010
5.1 High Availability in Exchange Server 2010
5.2 Exchange Server Database technologies
5.3 High Availability in Exchange Server
5.4 High Availability on other Server Roles
5.5 Summary
Summarizing Exchange Server 2010 – A Practical Approach

Happy Learning…,
Sitaram Pamarthi

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PowerShell: Check if a file is read only or not

by on November 3, 2009
This small powershell script checks if a given file is read-only or not.
 $status = Get-ChildItem c:temptest.txt
 If ($status.isreadonly)
 {
 Write-host -b yellow -f red “The file, $status.fullname is a read-only file”
 }
Else
{
Write-host -b yellow -f red “The file, $status.fullname is a read-only file”
}
If you want to make a file as readonly, use the below code
$status = Get-ChildItem c:temptest.txt
$status.set_isreadonly($true)
If ($status.isreadonly)
{
Write-host -b yellow -f red “The file, $status.fullname is a read-only file”
}
Else
{
Write-host -b yellow -f red “The file, $status.fullname is a read-only file”
}
If you want to remove the read-only a ttribute just change the parameter of set_isreadonly method to $false.
Happy Learning,
Sitaram Pamarthi
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Get process details using window title:

by on November 3, 2009
I came across a incident where I have to kill one of the running MMC(active directory users and computers) as it is not responding properly. I went to task manager and tried killing the process but in vain. I am sure this happens for many of the system administrations and they had to go to the processes tab and find-out the process and kill it. I thought of doing that but I have few more other important MMCs running which I don’t want to disturb.  I looked around for a quick way to find out which MMC process belongs to my “Active Directory Users and Computers” MMC and resulted in this small and power{full | shell} script.
PS C:> Get-Process | where {$_.mainwindowtitle -match “active directory users and computers”}
And to stop/kill that process I used powershell only as it is straight forward from here.

PS C:> Get-Process | where {$_.mainwindowtitle -match “active directory users and computers”} | stop-process

I am done with my task 🙂
Happy Learning,
Sitaram Pamarthi
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Get Uptime of Microsoft Windows Operating System using PowerShell

by on November 3, 2009
There are variety of ways and tools available for generating uptime of a windows XP/2003 machine. This post describes the procedure for generating uptime with powershell code. You can use this code in your powershell scripts without depending on third-party tools/utilities.
$os = Get-WmiObject -cl win32_operatingsystem
write-host ((Get-date) – $os.converttodatetime($os.lastbootuptime))”(DD.HH:MM:SS)” | fl
Copy and paste this to your powershell window and format the output like you want.
Happy Learning,
Sitaram Pamarthi
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Fetch the SID of a user account using PowerShell

by on November 3, 2009


If you want to find-out the SID of a Domain(or local) user using powershell, here is the code.

Get the SID of domain User:

write-host (new-object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount “domainuser”).Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]) -b yellow -f red

Get the SID of local User:

write-host (new-object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount “administrator”).Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]) -b yellow -f red

If you are a programming geek and want to convert this into cmdlet(say get-sid), you can find some info here at http://www.clariusconsulting.net/blogs/pga/archive/2006/08/08/643.aspx
Happy Learning,

Sitaram Pamarthi

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Query hidden mailbox users from Active Directory

by on October 29, 2009

In this post I will take you through few LDAP queries which you might find useful in your day-to-day administration.

To query list of hidden mailboxes:

(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(msExchHideFromAddressLists=TRUE))

To query list of GAL visible mailboxes:

(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(msExchHideFromAddressLists=TRUE)))

To query list of hidden mailboxes whose user account is enabled:

(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))(msExchHideFromAddressLists=TRUE))

To query list of hidden mailboxes whose user account is disabled:

(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)(msExchHideFromAddressLists=TRUE))

Grab the query you want and paste it in “Saved queries” option in Active Directory users and computers MMC(dsa.msc) to view the results.

You can write in comments here if you are looking for a custom LDAP query for your requirements. I will help you when I find time.

Happy Learning…,
Sitaram Pamarthi.

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Make windows 7 bootable USB/DVD

by on October 28, 2009
Microsoft has released a handy tool for helping it’s customers who downloads windows 7 media from their stores. The ISO download format has to be written to a DVD using one of the image burning softwares. The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD.

Usage…
  • Download Windows 7 from Microsoft store
  • Download Windows 7 USB/DVD tool
  • Run the tool and follow the intrusions to prepare a bootable USB or DVD
  • Insert the USB/DVD into system, boot from it and enjoy the Windows 7 Experience 
Refer to this page for more details about the tool.

Happy Learnings..,

Sitaram Pamarthi

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Did u observe?

by on October 27, 2009
Microsoft Windows 2008 Active Directory Domain Services has many enhanced features in its GUI. The Active Directory Users and Computers, Sites and Services, and Domains and Trusts MMC snap-ins have always been adequate for managing Active Directory. In Windows Server 2008, the basic admin tools have been cleaned up and introduce a couple of nice new features. If you enable Advanced Features, the Properties dialog for each object displays an additional tab titled Attribute Editor. This is the same attribute editor tab used by ADSIEdit, which lets you inspect and edit all of the attributes of the object. The tab itself now offers better decoding of encoded attributes, such as the userAccountControl attribute. Attached image shows how seamlessly the attribute editor is integrated.
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Easy power management for windows 7 laptops

by on October 27, 2009

Windows 7 has very exiting features like Aero view and more rich GUIs. I will definitely enjoy these features if the laptop is connected to direct power but when I am in travel or away in a place where I don’t have power options, then I will give preference to battery backup. 

Aerofoil is a tool developed to automatically off aero view and other UI power consuming settings when you are running on battery. It also enables you to choose/switch between power plans and configure your side bar too. It has quick hibernate button which takes your laptop to sleep.

Get a copy of this freeware and enjoy long hours of battery performance.
[Source : silentdevelopment blog]  — thanks for such a nice tool.

Happy Learning…,
Sitaram Pamarthi
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A close look at Active Directory objects deletion and restoration(part -I)

by on October 27, 2009

Object deletion will be successful only when the following conditions are satisfied.

  • Has appropriates rights for deleting objects in active directory
  • The “DisAllow Delete” bit is not set in systemflags attribute of object
  • The “IsCriticalSystemObject” attribute is not set to TRUE

After meeting above conditions, active directory starts the deletion operation by doing the following..

  • Sets the “IsDelete” attribute of the object to TRUE
  • Wipes out all attributes of object except below attributes. Refer to msdn for more details about attributes retained.
attributeID
attributeSyntax
distinguishedName
dNReferenceUpdate
flatName
governsID
groupType
instanceType
lDAPDisplayName
legacyExchangeDN
mS-DS-CreatorSID
mSMQOwnerID
name
nCName
objectClass
objectGUID
objectSid
oMSyntax
proxiedObjectName
replPropertyMetaData
sAMAccountName
securityIdentifier
subClassOf
systemFlags
trustAttributes
trustDirection
trustPartner
trustType
userAccountControl
uSNChanged
uSNCreated
whenCreated
  • Moves the object to “Deleted Objects” container by renaming it.

Renaming is necessary here as the “deleted objects” container is flat. Object will be renamed to a format similar to “[OldRDN]ADEL:[GUID]” where GUID is the Global Unique Identifier of object being deleted.

This completes the deletion process.

Note that deleted objects will still remain in active directory for some days. This time is called tombstone life time. This time is 60 days for forest that are built initially with windows 2000 or 2003 OS and for forests that are built with windows 2003 SP1 or above the tombstone lifetime is 180 days. If you want you can increase them to the value you want by modifying tombstoneLifetime  attribute of CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT, CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=yourdomain, DC=COM object from adsiedit.msc.

After the tombstone period the object will be marked for permanent deletion. There is a process called “garbage collection” which runs every 12 hours in domain controllers and the job of this process is to collect objects which has exceeded tombstone lifetime and deleting them. So a deleted object in active directory will still stay in database for days mentioned in tombstone life time plus the no. of hours left for the garbage process to trigger after tombstone expiry.

Objects CAN NOT be retrieved using any mechanism after the deletion by garbage collection process.


In my next post I will take you through the different options available in active directory restoration.

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