Just in case you have ever wondered.
Active Directory Maximum Limits
Reply
Category Archives: WindowsServer
Scheduling a Backup in Windows Server 2008 using WBADMIN
The Windows Server Backup feature provides a basic backup and recovery solution for computers running the Windows Server 2008 operating system and offers significant improvements over its predecessor. Windows Server Backup introduces new backup and recovery technology and replaces the previous Windows Backup (Ntbackup.exe) feature that was available with earlier versions of the Windows operating system.
One or two people have asked recently how to schedule a backup using the Windows Server Backup feature in Windows Server 2008. This is certainly a legitimate question as the GUI tools provides little or no flexibility is choosing which volumes to backup and to where. As such we need to look to the command line for WBADMIN
In order to schedule the task you will either need a dedicated hard disk and it’s drive letter or a UNC path to a share.
The following command will backup drives H, I and Z to a share called weekly backup on server1.
wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\\server1\weeklybackup -include:H:,I:,Z:: -quiet
The command can be broken down in to 4 parts:
Wbadmin start backup
Runs a one-time backup. If used with no parameters, uses the settings from the daily backup schedule.
backupTarget
Specifies the destination to which the backups will be stored.
-include
This switch allows you to specify which volumes you would like to backup.
-quiet
Supresses any prompts to the user allowing you to run the command unattended as a the task.
Important:
If you save a backup to a remote shared folder, that backup will be overwritten if you use the same folder to back up the same computer again. In addition, if the backup operation fails, you may end up with no backup because the older backup will be overwritten, but the newer backup will not be usable. You can avoid this by creating subfolders in the remote shared folder to organize your backups. If you do this, the subfolders will need twice the space as the parent folder.
Internet Explorer 8 Released
The Basics of the Windows Server 2008 Distributed File System (DFS)
For anyone who is curious how our software servers and other DFS paths work there is an excellent blog by Jose Barreto at Microsoft explaining the principles and rationale behind the Distributed File System (DFS)
Which Operating Systems are we using at Newcastle?
I thought it would be interesting to see where things stand with Operating System usage in the Active Directory. These figures are based on 10984 active computer objects.
Windows Clients: 10398
Windows Vista: 472
Windows XP: 9894
Windows 2000: 32
Windows Server: 392
Windows Server 2008: 65
Windows Server 2003: 323
Windows Server 2000: 4
Other: 192
Windows 7 Ultimate: 9
No Operating System: 125
Mac OS X: 43
Samba: 17
Generate a list of Windows startup programs using the command line
One of the first ports of call (at least for me) when troubleshooting performance issues on standalone PC’s is to have a look at the start-up programs using ‘msconfig.exe.’ While msconfig.exe is fine for IT Pros it’s not the most friendly of things for the average end user.
I was recently helping out a friend over IM and explaining the concepts and working out which entries to remove was taking a long time. I did some research and found this handy command.
wmic startup get caption,command,description > outputfile
Simply get the person at the other end to run this command and then they can send you the full list for you to inspect.
Updated: Installing Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)
Introduction:
Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) are an excellent set of tools for managing Windows Servers and Active Directory environments from a desktop machine.
Prerequisites
Windows Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate Editions
Windows Vista SP1
Administrator Account on local machine.
1. Browse to \\campus\software\ISS\Public\ActiveDirectoryTools\WinVistaAdminTools you can also download the tool from Microsoft [x86 or x64]
2. Choose either the x86 or x64 version.
3. Run the MSU File within the folder.
4. When the install is complete you need to enable the RSAT Features. Go to Control Panel and select ‘Programs and Features’ > ‘Turn Windows Features on or off’
5. Select the features you want to install and click OK.
6. There are a number of fixes required for the RSAT tools in order to reveal missing tabs and speed up the operation of the tool. Choose \\campus\software\ISS\Public\ActiveDirectoryTools\WinVistaAdminTools\32bit\fixes or \\campus\software\ISS\Public\ActiveDirectoryTools\WinVistaAdminTools\64bit\fixes as appropriate and run each of the hotfixes as applicable to your chosen installation of RSAT (32-bit or 64-bit). Inside the folder named ‘FixMissingRemoteInstallTab’ you need to run fix_rsatXX (x64 or x86) – this registers dlls. Note that you will need to run the fixes as an administrator.
9. The tools can then be found under ‘Administrative Tools’ in the Control Panel. You will need to right click and ‘Run as administrator’ if you are not logged on with your s-id.
Money for nothing and your learning for free!
[Disclaimer: Though the title may suggest it, this post has no information about gaining money for nothing; only learning for free. If you have a fool-proof way of getting money for nothing, please add it as a comment.]
You may already know that Microsoft have compiled a huge collection of self-paced learning materials at the Microsoft Learning site. What you might not know, is that they regularly publish courses for everyone’s favourite price – FREE!
These free courses and clinics are usually introducing new features in new versions of products, or giving giving overviews rather than digging into deep technical detail, but a lot of the time that may be just what you want.
Some examples of free content that are currently available are:
Database Fundamentals in Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Introducing Windows Server 2008
ASP.NET for PHP Developers: Introduction to ASP.NET
They handily provide a catalogue of free products, which I suggest you have a look at. If you want to take up one of the free offers, you don’t have to complete the course right away; typically you just activate a subscription to the content, which may give you access to it for 3, 6 or 12 months.
Happy learning!
Summary of Server 2008 Performance and Security Improvements
Mark Minasi’s latest newsletter has a very compelling list of Windows 2008 improvements.
I was lucky enough to meet Mark at Tech-Ed Barcelona this year as well as attend a number of his seminars and I think it’s safe to say that he is one of the greatest Microsoft experts in the World today. It’s well worth checking out his site here.
Server 2008 Clustering Best Practices
I’m posting these notes largely for my benefit but it may be of some interest to anyone Clustering with Server 2008.
General Best Practices
- Use the Failover Cluster Configuration Program (FCCP) during setup.
- Use identical equipment where possible and run the Cluster validation tool after each configuration change.
- Microsoft will only support validated clusters.
- Take regular system state backups.
- Use preferred and possible owners and choose carefuly.
Quorum Best Practices
- Use a dedicated basic single volume disk
- RAID 1+0 recommended.
- No need to backup Quorum disk.
- Avoid DFS paths when using file share witness.