While looking through our new Exchange 2010 server event logs, I noticed this unusual error:

In order to get rid of this entry, you must re-register the lost performance counters.

To reload performance counters for ESE, perform the following steps

1. Close down any running versions of Performance Monitor and stop any other monitoring services that might be attempting to use those counters.
2. Open the Exchange Management Shell.
3. Type add-pssnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Setup and hit enter.
4. Type new-perfcounters –definitionfilename “C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin\perf\AMD64\MwiLoadBalancerPerformanceCounters.xml” and hit enter
   Note: Ensure that the path is changed to the correct location of MwiLoadBalancerPerformanceCounters.xml on your server.

Related TechNet Article - How to unload/reload performance counters on Exchange 2010

Got this attached to a magazine in 2008 the same month Dell acquired MessageOne. Sadly I was unable to order this classic Tech Humor item.

Symantec has a good technical article detailing how to troubleshoot VSS snapshots during VMware backups.

Here are some snippets I feel are very important:

When installing the Backup Exec Remote Agent on a guest machine for GRT enabled virtual machine backups, the VMware Snapshot provider is automatically uninstalled and the BE VSS Provider installed (this is why a reboot is required).  The Backup Exec VSS Provider cannot exist in a guest alongside the VMware Snapshot Provider as having both installed on a guest will cause quiesced snapshots to hang the guest and timeout.  Once the Backup Exec Remote Agent is installed, thus installing the BE VSS Provider, do NOT re-install the VMware Tools VSS Provider as this will re-create the conflict condition and cause quiesce and/or snapshot errors.

http://support.veritas.com/docs/352184 - How to perform an automated and/or manual uninstall of the VMware Snapshot Provider

If the BE VSS Provider is correctly installed on the guest machine, the BeVssProvider service will show in Windows services and BE VSS Provider will be listed under the "vssadmin list providers" command ONLY during a backup.

If either is seen and no backups are running of the guest machine, there is either an issue with:

-  The post-thaw script
-  The snapshot provider is hung
-  VMware Snapshot Provider was re-installed
-  The guest machine was never restarted after installing the Backup Exec Remote Agent

To resolve this, perform the following: 

1)  Run the "post-thaw-script.bat" from the VSS Provider directory in the Backup Exec install directory of the guest machine (Default path is C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\RAWS\VSS Provider)

2)  Reboot the guest machine

Part 1 - Create and Execute a batch file named, FIXVSS08.BAT:
Please note the following:

• You will need to run the batch file as Administrator.
• This is only for Windows 2008 not Windows 2003.
• If you have AV software installed, it’s a good idea to uninstall it before running this script.
• Find this registry key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\VssAccessControl - NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
  Make sure REG_DWORD = 1
• After running the bat file, you will need to reboot the server to bring all of the writers into a stable state.

Copy and paste the following into Notepad, then click Save As, to save it as FIXVSS08.BAT.

rem FILENAME: FIXVSS08.BAT
rem
net stop "System Event Notification Service"
net stop "Background Intelligent Transfer Service"
net stop "COM+ Event System"
net stop "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider"
net stop "Volume Shadow Copy"
cd /d %windir%\system32
net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 /s ATL.DLL
regsvr32 /s comsvcs.DLL
regsvr32 /s credui.DLL
regsvr32 /s CRYPTNET.DLL
regsvr32 /s CRYPTUI.DLL
regsvr32 /s dhcpqec.DLL
regsvr32 /s dssenh.DLL
regsvr32 /s eapqec.DLL
regsvr32 /s esscli.DLL
regsvr32 /s FastProx.DLL
regsvr32 /s FirewallAPI.DLL
regsvr32 /s kmsvc.DLL
regsvr32 /s lsmproxy.DLL
regsvr32 /s MSCTF.DLL
regsvr32 /s msi.DLL
regsvr32 /s msxml3.DLL
regsvr32 /s ncprov.DLL
regsvr32 /s ole32.DLL
regsvr32 /s OLEACC.DLL
regsvr32 /s OLEAUT32.DLL
regsvr32 /s PROPSYS.DLL
regsvr32 /s QAgent.DLL
regsvr32 /s qagentrt.DLL
regsvr32 /s QUtil.DLL
regsvr32 /s raschap.DLL
regsvr32 /s RASQEC.DLL
regsvr32 /s rastls.DLL
regsvr32 /s repdrvfs.DLL
regsvr32 /s RPCRT4.DLL
regsvr32 /s rsaenh.DLL
regsvr32 /s SHELL32.DLL
regsvr32 /s shsvcs.DLL
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.DLL
regsvr32 /s tschannel.DLL
regsvr32 /s USERENV.DLL
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.DLL
regsvr32 /s wbemcons.DLL
regsvr32 /s wbemcore.DLL
regsvr32 /s wbemess.DLL
regsvr32 /s wbemsvc.DLL
regsvr32 /s WINHTTP.DLL
regsvr32 /s WINTRUST.DLL
regsvr32 /s wmiprvsd.DLL
regsvr32 /s wmisvc.DLL
regsvr32 /s wmiutils.DLL
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.DLL
sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%\system32\catsrv.DLL
sfc /SCANFILE=%windir%\system32\catsrvut.DLL
fc /SCANFILE=%windir%\system32\CLBCatQ.DLL
net start "COM+ Event System"
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\* /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant “BUILTIN\Users:(RX)”
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\* /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(OI)(CI)(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "BUILTIN\Administrators:(OI)(CI)(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames\*.* /grant "BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)(RX)"

Part 2 - We need to test VSS by performing a System State Backup:

• Windows Server Backup Features must be installed before running these commands.
• Open a command prompt as administrator.
• The command to start a system state backup is:
  Wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backuptarget:F:

Additional Notes:

• F: is the drive where you wish to store the system state backup.
• This shouldn't be a drive that is hosting any of the files included with System State.

After you configure an ESXi host, you can backup the host configuration data. Always backup your host configuration after you change the configuration or upgrade the ESXi image.

1. Download and Install the VMware vSphere CLI.
2. In the vSphere CLI, run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the -s flag to save the host configuration to a specified backup filename.
   vicfg-cfgbackup <conn_options> -s C:\backup.txt

The vicfg-cfgbackup command is available only for ESXi hosts. The command is not available for ESX hosts and is not available through a vCenter Server system connection.

To find out what version of SQL is running on your server along with the service pack run the following SQL Query:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion') as 'Version', SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel') as 'Product Level', SERVERPROPERTY ('edition') as 'Edition'

Here's how to test if a mail server supports TLS using a windows pc:

1. nslookup
   > set q=mx
   > google.com
2. The results:
   google.com   MX preference = 100, mail exchanger = google.com.s9a1.psmtp.com
   google.com   MX preference = 300, mail exchanger = google.com.s9b1.psmtp.com
   google.com   MX preference = 200, mail exchanger = google.com.s9a2.psmtp.com
   google.com   MX preference = 400, mail exchanger = google.com.s9b2.psmtp.com
3. > exit
4. telnet google.com.s9a1.psmtp.com 25
5. After connected type:
   ehlo google.com
6. If you see this in the output, the mail server supports inbound TLS communication:
   250-STARTTLS

Pick and choose from 19 free Windows 7 E-learning videos on the areas that you want to explore. Topics include: deployment, migration, network connectivity, remote management with Windows PowerShell, and more.

Sometime Microsoft is horrible in documenting features you can control with Group Policy. One example that drove me crazy was how to “Deploy default Accelerators” with Group Policy.

The policy is located in two locations:
Machine\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Accelerators\
User\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\Accelerators\

The description field gives no detailed information about the formatting syntax for the entries in this policy.

1. First, determine which Accelerator you’d like, then install it on your computer. For this example I’ll be installing the Google Maps Accelerator.
   
2. Once you’ve added the Accelerator to your computer, start regedit.
   Next go to this registry location:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Activities
3. Located under this registry key are the Categories for the Accelerators – Blog, Define, Email, Maps, etc.
4. Since we installed the “Google Maps Accelerator”, we need to look under the Map Category.
5. You’ll notice a key named “google.com”, under this key look for the XMLUrl string value.
   In this example it’s:
   http://www.ieaddons.com/en/DownloadHandler.ashx?ResourceId=740
6. The final step is to copy this XMLUrl string and past it into the “Deploy default Accelerators”.

Ran into this issue while trying to run LiveUpdate on our Backup Exec 2010 server.

Solution:

1. Open the command prompt and browse to the following directory
   (assuming that this is the directory in which Backup Exec is installed):
   C:\PROGRAM FILES\SYMANTEC\BACKUP EXEC
   
2. Run BeUpdateOps.exe -AddBE –OptOut
   
3. Run Live Update

Original Support Article

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

Text Version

Forgot to post a little note about this little issue, which is a pretty big issue in my opinion. I experienced this issue right after installing the Backup Exec 2010!

Basically there’s a work around to stop the service so you can install the Hotfix.

Issue:
After install / upgrade or adding license keys to the Backup Exec 2010 installation, the Backup Exec Server service (beserver.exe) hangs in a starting state.

Solution:

1. Stop all of the Backup Exec services. To stop the Backup Exec Server Service, please follow instructions in step 2.

2. Open the Windows Task Manager on the Backup Exec server and stop any "BESERVER.EXE" and "MSIEXEC.EXE" processes running in the PROCESSES tab.

3.   Apply Hotfix 339930 (32bit/64bit). After applying the Hotfix, reboot, and all the Backup Exec services should startup properly afterward.

While configuring our new Backup Exec 2010 Server, I got stumped when trying to backup our VMs stored on our EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. The VMFS LUNs where visible in the iSCSI Initiator, but were not connected. My assumption was the Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure would automatically connect to the LUNs.

After receiving the following error while performing a backup of the VMs:

V-79-57344-38277 - Unable to open a disk of the virtual machine.
VixDiskLib_Open() reported the error: You do not have access rights to this file.

I started my research. Symantec support document 338375 was my first hint about the problem.

When backing up a virtual machine using only SAN transport mode the backup can fail with the above error message.  This error can be caused by any of the following.
1. The media server performing the backup does not have access to the SAN.
2. The media server performing the backup can not resolve the name of the ESX server.
3. The user account specified in the backup job does not have all necessary rights needed to perform the backup.

My next step was to monitor the backup opertation while by using the “Backup Exec Debug Monitor, or SGMon.”

After seeing this in the in the logs:

VM_VCBPROXY_FS::OpenObj() Could not open the disk '[VMFS-VOL03]

It hit me, my assumption was wrong and I needed to connect the Backup Exec Server to the LUNs! Remembering that Windows automatically mounting volumes can cause terrible trouble with VMFS volumes, I turned to the VMware “Virtual Machine Backup Guide”.

To disable assignment of drive letters

1. Open a command-line interface.
2. Run the Diskpart utility by typing:
   diskpart
   The Diskpart utility starts up and prints its own command prompt.
3. Disable automatic drive-letter assignment to newly seen volumes by typing at the
   Diskpart command prompt:
   automount disable
4. Exit the Diskpart utility by typing:
   exit
5. Restart Windows.
6. Using the iSCSI Initiator connect to your VMFS volumes.
7. I know you shouldn't need to do this but, Restart Windows again.... trust me!

Now the Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure can access my VMFS LUNs!