We have been working on migrating our WINS server onto a windows 2003 server. After migrating there have been problems.
One of the users claimed that he could not access the shares on some of servers and also could not see all the computers on the network. That meant that his machine is not pointing to the new wins server.
Now, to troubleshoot we had three options. One, that if the wins is locally set up on his laptop. Second, VPN is pushing out wrong wins or third that his laptop is connected to different domain which points to old wins server.
He was asked to run the command prompt and using ipconfig /all while logged in to vpn and find the wins ip adreess. As expected it was pointing to the wrong wins server.
It came out some changes be made on the vpn 3000 concentrator. I used webvpn to make the relevant changes. Under configuration>user management>groups>internal users group>genaral I changed the primary wins address to the new wins server and secondary to the old one.

To confirm it I connected to the vpn and did ipconfig to find the wins getting pointed out to the new ip address.

In view of auditing the ports on the patch panel in the server room I had to audit a list for all the ground ports across the building to ensure easy allocation of ports (network and phone ) in future.

I first noted down all the ports on the patch panel and then manually found the ground port each one is connected to on the patch panel itself. Secondly I would need to go to each ground port and find out if they are active, if not then mark them as inactive in the audit.

We are done with documenting the things to do for preparing for the new corporate signature. The software is now in test period. In the active directory a new group called Signature Test Group has been created and users been added to it for testing it.
The documentation has been kept as simple as possible to make it understandable for non IT departments as well. But still we were flocked with queries straight away by testers. Problems like Why can't I see my signature while composing email? That is because the signatures are added once the user sends the email and it goes to the exchange server where it gets the user credentials from the Global Address List in Active Directory.

To standardize the email signatures for all employees we had configured our exchange server 2003. According to new settings each external email we would a prefix of a company logo and disclaimer.
but before implementing it we would have liked to make everybody aware of it and provide them with sufficient details to edit their present signatures.
I had been working on this and created a document for the same.

Nigel is satisfied with the upgrades done to his desktop to fix the problem with outlook crashing. After discussions with people at Nouvveau ( our CRM team) it was decided to add some patches to the client software for CRM V3.0 provided by Microsoft.
He has now asked me to implement the same patch for his laptop as well. It is still on testing and if every thing goes fine then we would be looking at wider implementation for the department which uses CRM.
I had already received the media for Veritas backup Exec 11d last week but got the serial keys just today. I thought it to be straight forward as it used to be before to activate the product currently running on the trial key. Due to security changes made by Symantec we now had to login to a licensing portal at symantec website and then using unique customer number and order number track the softwares we bought. That was not enough, then I was supposed to create individual license catalogs for all the 6 different serial keys provided. At last the activation product keys are supplied at email address used to login to the portal.

The backup server which I configured has been using a trial version of Symantec veritas backup exec 10d so I had to get it licensed.
I called the reseller and for a quote according to our requirement i.e. 1 x main backup software; 5 x remote agents; 1 x tape library software (autoloader).
Nigel Garett's outlook still has not been behaving itself and keeps on crashing. I had alook at it and due to irregular pattern for failure its actually difficult to diagnose the real route cause of it.
Meanwhile, I had to build a new demo machine for Stuart Love. He wanted this new demo laptop for future installations since he reckoned Demo2 was absolutely cluttered and would not be able to cope anymore further installations. Apart from standard server on his laptop he requires a demo tool kit called Business Objects which has very high prerequisites. I demands a web server and a database server for its complete functionality and is not very straight forward to install.
I have finished building the server on the laptop with all latest updates and anti virus console as of yet. Even installed Sequel server 2000 standard edition with SP 3a.

I have been working on setting the tape library for carrying out the backups. I have eventually been able to resolve all the issues and getting it started.
After getting it replaced I had to decide which backup software to use on it for backups. Ended up installing the Veritas 10d and refering to the manuals to get my hold onto how to configure it.

Firstly I had to install the remote agents to the machine we wanted to back up. The remote could be pushed out using the add remove tool in the control panel. Select the Veritas software and click change. Now go through the wizard to do push out the remote agents to the required servers and desktops.

Second step is to create the device pools. It is a group of storage devices that can be targetted for backups. If you run the veritas software for backups and select the device tab you would find the tape library beeing used. If you load the tapes into the autoloader they would all be monitored in the device tab. Initially they don't have any name assigned to them so by right clicking onto each of them you have to first catalog(name) them appropriately.

Ater that, thirdly I had to create a media set. A media set is logical group of storage media for which you can specify how long data will be appended or over write protected. After creating media sets we can target backup jobs to it.

Backup jobs could then be created individually or by using policies. Policies contains the data selections we specify for backups and all the details like what when and how it will be backed up.
it can reflect the back strategy created and simply managing the large number of backup jobs. Backup jobs actually allow to associate a policy with a selection list.

Eventually after all I allows to monitor the running and scheduled back up jobs.

Ryan and Jay had concerns with having to work again on the same corrupted hard drive though it has been fixed now. To convince them I had to run some diagnostic tools which writes and reads of the disk.
The dell diagnostics CD when used to boot the system uses a Windows 98 PXE and downloads all the drivers and enters a diagnostic utility. The custom tab can be used to test the hard drive comprehensively.

We have a mission critical laptop called DEMO which is used to host all our application software's to the prospective clients. Due to fact that they all use different versions and configurations sometimes they clash and give blue screens of error. With the amount of services running on it it is next to impossible to analyse or diagnose the cause of the problem.
So just to be on the safe side because we can not afford to loose this machine it was advised to the consultant who the machine belongs to get it backed up.
The problem is that the machine has Windows Server 2003 on it and backing up windows has never been easy especially with this much amount of data on it.
I used Acronis Server Image 2003 to back it up across the network. But that was not the end of it. I was told that people in the past have managed to backup but in the last four years no body has been ever able to restore it. That means I now had to test restore it.
Now there are few restrictions when you restore a machine. I had to analyse that before going ahead but eventually I was able to restore it back onto another machine.

From yesterday as far as Dell Server 2003 is concerned using Winternals ERD Commander I could get all the data off the corrupted hard drive by putting that hard drive as secondary onto another system and just copied onto the hard drive of that system. But what happened eventually was that now I could not boot off that hard drive and hence not retrieve the server data files. I had to repair the Windows XP which already existed on the hard drive and then boot off that and access server files. It all worked well but to restore the Dell Server back we needed to get the 120GB corrupted hard drive right. So to achieve that we tried wipping off the hard drive using tool called DiskWipe.
After that I used the reinstallation CD for Dell server 2003 which comes along with the system to format the drive and do a fresh install of Windows Server 2003. the hard drive seemed to be working fine now. Next job would be to migrate the files recovered using ERD back to this reinstalled hard drive for doing that I had to dual boot the system using both the hard drives and then successfully migrated the stuff off it.

Dell engineer has replaced the Autoloader but as far as making backup's is concerned that is still got to be tested. But at the moment we have made sure that the Autoloader works fine in terms of loading and unloading tapes to the tape drive.
Next step would have been to set up the Veritas software to do backup's but one of the mission critical servers broke down and we had to look at that as priority1.
This is Dell Server 2003 which is very crucial box as used to support one of the major clients. It failed to reboot. Martin identified the problem trying to connect to it remotely. When he couldn't he asked us to have a look at it. The system did not boot up and kept coming with the message Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot and the problem continued.
We first tried booting of the utility partition and ran the diagnostics. It came with errors which seemed like those for the hard drive. Then after running the custom test for hard drive it was evident that it is the hard drive failure.
First attempt was to fix it. I first used Bart's PXE to fix the hard drive partition but not to much help. Then went on to using Knoppix which is recovery tool with Linux on a CD. The system boots of the CD and is said to be capable of fixing most of the problems though not in this case. Thought of why not swap the hard drive with another machine just to make sure that it is the hard drive and nothing else than that. Put the hard drive onto another PC and same problem existed.
Last option was to try and get as much data as possible off it onto another location.

After several attempts and looking at all possible issues we have been struggling to get Autoloader Tape Drive up and working. We have a Dell Gold Support for it and hence logged a call with Dell yesterday.
Discussed the whole issue with dell support. The problem seemed to be much more serious than intended. He asked me to open up the top lid of the autoloader. On opening I found that one the tapes was stuck in the tape drive and failed to eject. Thre was nothing that he could do and ordered a replacement of tape drive. Now we are expecting a Dell installation engineer to come and replace the faulty tape drive.

I have installed and configured the Varitas tape drive backup software.
We had a priority 1 call to set up Tom Preston's email account to redirect all emails to his google mail account since he had left the company and had requested for accessing his emails for couple of weeks.
In outlook 2003, select Rules and Alerts in Tools tab. Using this I could redirect all his emails to his googlemail account and also to Tony Knight, who's Tom's manager so that he is aware what all is being forwarded to him.
Matt Brown in Australia needed some software's urgently. We couldn't allow him to copy it across the network because that may slow down the pipe. I copied it onto the web server folder for for Australia and Matt could install it across the internet using FTP site address.
Craig's laptop desktop rotated at 90 degrees left by its own. He called us to resolve it. Generally it is under desktop properties to configure it but unfortunately it was not there. I had to find out the shortcut (keyboard) to resolve it................Ctrl+Del+Arrow keys allow you to change the angles of your desktop (only in case of Dell's).

Working on setting up the PowerVault 122T LTO2 Autoloader for backup's. I faced quite afew problems. First I had to install a SCSI card in the server. Upgraded the drivers for it and then from dell website downloaded the drivers for autoloader and tape drive within it. the machine has detected the hardware change but can't get the autoloader up and working. Autoloader requires a Backup software for managing backup's so installed Varitas backup solution for the same.
Now that needs configuring.

Our network provider wanted to provide us with some new client softwares related to better network connectivity and administration tools. The files are big and even due to security reasons not advisable to sent through emails.
The solution to this is either they ship CD's or we provide them with an access to our FTP site where they can upload and we can download straight away and its secure as well.
How it all works? We have a web server (meaning it can be accessed from around the world) and every web server has an ftp( file transfer protocol) site. To manage the ftp we have ftp secure server software. using this software we can configure he site and authenticate different users to access our web server as much as we want to. Every user is given a home drive on web server which they can access for uploads and downloads. So every time some files are to be exchanged customers can log into the ftp site using their provided username and password.

James Thompson's machine was not fixed yet and I had a deadline to sort it before lunch. The problem was that the system used to freeze if you eject and load the DVD RW ROM. I tried everything out from replacing the dvd rom, IDE cable, BIOS settings, local settings of the machine, ran dell diagnostics but nothing helped. One thing was for sure that it was due to some driver or service running on his machine because when logged in safe mode (system only uses the drivers and services critical for running the machine) it seemed to get fixed.
After spending quite along time with it I realized to individually stop services one by one and check alternatively how does the rom react to it. I came across one service controlled by InCD.exe which created the problem. I disabled the service permanently and hence resolved the issue.
Hollywood wanted me to look into a P1 customer log which required a new ftp access setting up for the customer. I took the details down from him and logged into our web server. Using the FTP secure server I configured access for a new user and filled in the relevant details. There is a standard which is followed to configure a new user so that it becomes easier for anybody to troubleshoot in case ant thing goes wrong. Hence I had to go through the documentation meant for this purpose.
Kim needed a spare laptop for doing some work from home. We had a Compaq NX9010 machine which could be given away. Steve asked me if I could re-install the OS and configure it for her.
I formatted the hard drive and booted the system. It did not pick up the network drivers. Went to HP website and looked for the relevant driver but even after installing them I could manage to get it working.

Its been quite long that we have been looking at making a backup strategy for some of the critical machines in MK. Eventually its been decided to configure a Dell PowerVault 122T LTO Autoloader tape drive on mkhqfile server for this purpose.
Steve has asked me to look into the installation and configuration of it onto our network. Hence I have been keeping busy studying manuals preparing successful strategy for the same.

Steve has always been obsessed about not allowing people to copy huge data files over the network in cases where you tend to use those files pretty often since it traffics the network pipe. So we want to test with some alternatives for it. Ben has just had a new laptop and looking to migrate all the stuff from his old to new machine. We were eager to utilize cross over ethernet cable to transfer data files. Its a bit tchi stuff but cost effective.
You join the machines in parallel using an ethernet cable and create a sort of LAN between them with static IP addresses. It allows you to access the shared stuff on the other machines and because systems are connected together it doesn't bother the network at all.

How to expire an Active Directory user account? I was delegated a task to expire some of the active directory user accounts from specific dates. These accounts were meant for some contractors and guests which leave on that date.
I log into the active directory server and goto active directory users and computers tool. Then select the user right click goto properties. Select account tab in the list and select expire account from the date as required.

A call was logged to allow some of the employees to access support emails i.e support@workplacesystems.com. How to do it? It is configured using Active Directory. In Active Directory users and computers tool there are Incidental Mailboxes which contains support email. If you right click on that goto properties under Exchange Advanced you can find mailbox rights. Just enter the name of the person who you want to give access to and click check names. Provided the employee is the member of the Domain Users it would get authenticated and allow him to access the specified emails.
In Outlook 2003 the mailbox of the user can be configured by opening Email Accounts in control panel and then opt change email account hence more settings. Goto advanced tab and add mailbox you want to view i.e support in this case.

Then I needed to set up a new Incidental Mailbox called fogbugz@workplacesytems.com. The best way to do without any confusions is to copy one of the existing mailboxes and fill in the details. Then configure the properties as required.

Tessa had accidently denied the Sbase software (used for customer services) when prompted by mcafee firewall. She was working from home at the moment using Cisco VPN and could not log in to Sbase. We had to reconfigure her mcafee to allow sbase. She had VNC o her machine and hence I took control of her machine.
To reconfigure McAfee Right click on the icon and click options. Goto firewall settings which shows all the available network connection and logs the locations you have been through. Under VPN connection click internet browser. I could find logged setting to deny Sbase simply right clicked on it and allowed.
Kate had asked me create an ftp site for a new client so that we could upload all softwares and patches for them. Remote desktop to our web server. We use a ftp file server software for administration and configuring our ftp site. With the aid of a document and wizard created a new client login and password.Allotes space to them on th server and copied couple of documents. Now using web browser opened the ftp site logged in as client to verify if I can see the files I have copied for them.
Jo had been experiencing problems with wireless at MK. According to her she could connect to the wireless in the office but it kept on dropping. Actually she's been using a BT broadband router at home and hence installed a BT adapter(device driver). Unfortunately the adapter doesn't seem to be working fine with our internal wireless network. So I had to uninstall her BT software and install the Intel Pro Set mini adapter. Added the work wireless profile and her home BT one as well.