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Archive for January, 2008
IIS Config Errors and EventID 4275 Exchange 2003 Cluster
Jan 25th
For weeks my lab Exchange 2003 cluster was down. The cluster was configured in a active passive configuration and only one server has been up for months; the second virtual guest node was shutdown. At some point I was not able to reach the Exchange 2003 mailboxes and I start to review the Eventviewer and Services on the active online node. System log contained around 100 4275 event id errors in the IIS Config catalog category. I manually tried to start IIS Admin service and even reboot the server but still without success to get the service up and running. Metadatabase was not changed in anyway.
Error parsing XML file. Reason: An invalid character was found in the content. Incorrect XML.
I went to C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv and renanmed Metabase.xml file to Metabase.xml1. This is the file IIS uses for its configuration database.
I reviewed to eventlog to find out when this Eventid 4275 started. The first error was on 12 December.
The C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\History folder contains all previous XML Metadatabase history files.
I copied the one just before the error event and paste the file to C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv. Rename the file to MetaDatabase.xml
Go back to Services MMC console and start IIS Admin and WWW service. Both started successfully. Start Cluster Administrator and bring to Exchange group online.
After weeks the Exchange 2003 cluster started to function successfully. Second note was updated and virtual machines were backuped.
Why did this happened? The only reason I was able to find is during the first day of the errors, there were couple of power outages and the IIS Metadatabase.xml file did became corrupt.
How to shrink the SMS_SITENAME database SMS 2003?
Jan 24th
The SMS 2003 infrastructure I am managing has one singe SMS database which became 4 GB. 1GB data and 3GB log. Today I planned the database maintenance and managed to shrink the files with 3GB. Open the Enterprise Manager or Microsoft SQL Server Management tools and make sure the database option is set to Auto Shrink = Auto (enhancement for the future).
Run the following sql script:
USE [SMS_123]
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE (N‘SMS_123_log’, 0, TRUNCATEONLY)
GO
Another useful script can be found here which will create a stored procedure and show all table space sizes with rows and MB used.
exec sp_show_huge_tables
Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server Setup wizard (SCVMM)
Jan 23rd
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 is out for a while and I have been testing this product for two months now.
If you manually install SCVMM 2007 than Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server Setup wizard may stop just before the installation is finished. I have also seen errors within the available SCVMM 2007VHD appliance from Microsoft’s website. Jobs are failing and Manager complaining about network paths incorrect.
Main reason why the setup fails is that the computername contains ‘-’ . For example I named the server REF-SCVMM-01 and the setup failed with error id 2917.
- The network path was not found on the REF-SCVMM-01. Ensure that the share name provided maps to a valid local path, and then try the operation again. ID: 2917. Details: The network path was not found.
In the background PowerShell is not able to get the computername variable correct within the scripts it uses. In my case I renamed the computername to REF_SCVMM_01 and setup finished successfully.
VMWare tools tracking mouse issue
Jan 23rd
New tutorial has been published explaining the strange behavior of the VMWare tools mouse driver.
Example screenshot
http://www.networknet.nl/apps/wp/published/vmware-tools-mouse-tracking-after-upgrade
Hyper-V error when installing integration components id 61658
Jan 23rd
If you installed wrong version of Hyper-V RC1 you may get the error below. I have experienced this with the binaries which I have download from MSDN subscriber website.
After you insert the integration components additions of Hyper-V the installations stops with this error.
An error has occurred: One of the update processes returned error code 61658.
The error has to do with the certificates being used by the setup procedure. The certificates have expired November 2007 and you are still using the Hyper-V CTP version, Hyper-V RC1 has no more MSU installation after the server has been installed. For more info go to this link at MSDN blogs.
Go to this link and download the correct version named 6001.17119.071210-1916_amd64fre_Server_en-us-KR1SXFRE_EN_DVD.iso.
Microsoft MCSA 2003 certified
Jan 23rd
Yesterday I successfully passed the 70-292 Microsoft exam. Somewhere in 2004 I finished all requirements for MCSA 2000 and in 2005 I passed my last exam for MCSE. 
It was three years ago I did my last one for Microsoft and before 31 of March 2008 I will need to pass 70-292 & 70-296 to upgrade my current MCSA/MCSE 2000 certificates. After 31st of March both of the upgrade exams will retire. I managed to pass the first one, but Microsoft put a lot of effort to enhance their exams and they even changed to one provider Thomson Prometric Test Center (I had issues with the new tool and couple times delay of minutes before new question was on the screen). Be prepared!!!
The 70-292 was a tough one even for a system administrator with years of working experience; sus1.0 has been discontinued for a while but the questions were there.
I used one eBook (MCSE Core Required Exams in a Nutshell O’Reilly Media) and netfresco.com 70-292 study notes website to prepare myself for the exam.
