Technology, Computer, Network and Games Cheat » Microsoft Windows Server

Robocopy GUI makes copying files across the network easy with the click of the mouse.

Andrew Lin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:47:04 +0000

Robocopy GUI

Sometime ago I had written an article about using robocopy to copy files across the network. It is a reliable way to copy files with all the attributes intact. Robocopy can withstand interruption to the network connectivity and will pick up from where it stopped copying. It can also be used to replicate files across the network, a poor man’s replication tool. Robocopy is available on the Windows 2003 Resource kit, which can be downloaded from Microsoft.

For people who do not like command line, you may not like Robocopy too much. But fear not, there is also a graphical interface available from Microsoft. This GUI version makes copying files across the network so easy. The version I downloaded is Robocopy GUI 3.1 from the technet site, technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx.

How to manually start the Microsoft Exchange Recipient Update Services.

Andrew Lin — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:37:40 +0000

As a systems or network administrator I’m sure there have been times when you have run into similar situation. You just created a new Exchange 2003 mailbox. But when you try to configure the Outlook client’s profile for the user your get the error that the mailbox cannot be found. You go back and check the Exchange properties of the mailbox in ACtive Directory Users and Computers, and everything looks good.

This is due to the delay in the Recipient Update Services. Depending on the size and complexity of your Microsoft Windows server network and the number of domain controllers, it may take a few minutes to many hours to initiate and complete the Recipient Update Services process. If you are not in a rush, then simply wait until the next day to configure the Outlook client.

If you do not have the patience to wait or you simply must get Outlool email working for a new user, then there is a solution. The Recipient Update Serives can manually be initiated to speed up the process.

Below is the instructions on how to manually force the Recipient Update Services to initiate.

Open Exchange System Manager

Click on Recipients – Recipient Update Services. In the right windows, right click Recipient Update Service and select Update Now.

How to add a new disk to the DPM storage pool.

Andrew Lin — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:43:14 +0000

Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM) can backup to both disk or tape. The advantage of backing up to disk is the high speed. What may take many hours to backup to tape will take a fraction of that time when backing up to disk, the same applies when performing a restore. If you are running low on backup disk space then you may want to add more disk to the DPM 2007 storage pool.

I have written step by step instructions on how to add new disk drives to the DPM storage pool. I like to call it instructions for dummies :).

Open the DPM 2007 Administrator Console

Step 1
Go to the Management tab and select Disks.

Step 2
Click on Add to begin adding the new disk. This should launch the Add Disks to Storage Pool window.

Step 3
Select the disk to add to the storage pool from the Available disks window. The selected disk should move the the Selected disks windows on the right. Click on OK to continue. If prompted with a pop up message “You have selected disks that are basic. DPM will convert the selected disks to dynamic and any existing volumes on these disks will be converted to simple volumes. Do you want to continue?” Select Yes.

Note: You must initialize the new disk first, then convert it from Basic to GBT before attempting to add it to the storage pool. If you do not do this then you will receive an error during step 3. For instructions on how to convert basic to GBT partition, then search for the word GBT in my blog. I have written up how to for dummies instructions sometime ago.

Backing up with Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM).

Andrew Lin — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:57:18 +0000

Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM) is the second release of the backup software by Microsoft. DPM is Microsoft’s attempt at grabbing a piece of the bakup software market share which is dominated by Symantec, IBM and others.

I have listed the step by step instructions on how to backup using DPM 2007. To backup any resource you need to create a protection group. Listed below are the steps to do this.

Step 1
Open DPM 2007 Administrator Console

Step 2
Click on Protection Tab

Step 3
Click on Create protection group. This should launch the Create New Protection Group Wizard. Click on next.

Step 4
In the Select Group Members window, click on the server you wish to backup. Select the folders or database you want to backup. Then click on next to continue.

Step 5
In the Select Data Protection Method, enter the Protection group name. I would recommend naming it something that makes sense, such as the name of the server being backed up.

There are two options for the protection method. “I want short-term protection using: Disk or tape” and “I want long-term protection using tape”. In this example select the first option and click on next.

Step 6
In the Specify Short-Term Goals screen, change the retention range to the amount of days you want. you can also specify the synchronication frequency or accept the default of 24 hours. Click on next.

Step 7
DPM 2007 will automatically calculate the optimal disk allocation size, but you can also modify it. Click on next.

Step 8
In the Choose Replica Creation Method window, leave the fault at Automatically – DPM replicates the data across the network. Click on next to continue.

Step 9
You are now presented with the summary, review it and then click on Create Group. Upon successful creation of the group click on close.

You should now see the new Protection Group you just created. The Protection Status will day Replica creation in progress.

Adding static route to your Windows Server 2003, XP or Vista.

Andrew Lin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:33:41 +0000

Here is the command to list the network routes on your Windows 2003 server, XP, or Vista computer.

c:\route print

To add a static route to your server or computer use the route add command.

c:\route add -P 172.182.200.0 mask 255.255.255.0 172.182.200.1

In the above example a route to subnet 172.182.200.0 via gateway 172.182.200.1 is added. The -P option makes the route permanent, so it will stick even after rebooting the server or PC.

Robocopy a great replacement for copy and xcopy.

Andrew Lin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:01:31 +0000

Robocopy a saviour tool for the Server Administrators. This is a great replacement for the old DOS copy and xcopy command which have many limitations. That’s not to say that these commands should be retired, I still used them regularly. But when I need to copy a large directory with all the attributes intact, I use robocopy which can tolerate interruption to the network services.

For those who are command line challanged, there is a GUI (graphical) version of Robocopy. Please see my article for the GUI version of Robocopy here, http://www.gamescheat.ca/2009/09/robocopy-gui-makes-copying-files-across-the-network-easy-with-the-click-of-the-mouse/

C:\>robocopy help

——————————————————————————-
ROBOCOPY :: Robust File Copy for Windows :: Version XP010
——————————————————————————-

Started : Thu Apr 30 16:00:09 2009

Source : C:\help\
Dest -

Files : *.*

Options : *.* /COPY:DAT /R:1000000 /W:30

——————————————————————————

ERROR : No Destination Directory Specified.

Simple Usage :: ROBOCOPY source destination /MIR

source :: Source Directory (drive:\path or \\server\share\path).
destination :: Destination Dir (drive:\path or \\server\share\path).
/MIR :: Mirror a complete directory tree.

For more usage information run ROBOCOPY /? or read Robocopy.Doc.

NOTE: Read “True Replication” in Robocopy.Doc prior to first use of /MIR !
**** /MIR can DELETE files as well as copy them !

C:\>help robocopy
This command is not supported by the help utility. Try “x /?”.

C:\>robocopy /?

Started : Thu Apr 30 16:00:22 2009

Usage :: ROBOCOPY source destination [file [file]…] [options]

source :: Source Directory (drive:\path or \\server\share\path).
destination :: Destination Dir (drive:\path or \\server\share\path).
file :: File(s) to copy (names/wildcards: default is “*.*”).

::
:: Copy options :
::
/S :: copy Subdirectories, but not empty ones.
/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.
/LEV:n :: only copy the top n LEVels of the source directory tree.

/Z :: copy files in restartable mode.
/B :: copy files in Backup mode.
/ZB :: use restartable mode; if access denied use Backup mode.

/COPY:copyflag[s] :: what to COPY (default is /COPY:DAT).
(copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
(S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).

/SEC :: copy files with SECurity (equivalent to /COPY:DATS).
/COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info (equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU).
/NOCOPY :: COPY NO file info (useful with /PURGE).

/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.
/MIR :: MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).

/MOV :: MOVe files (delete from source after copying).
/MOVE :: MOVE files AND dirs (delete from source after copying).

/A+:[RASHNT] :: add the given Attributes to copied files.
/A-:[RASHNT] :: remove the given Attributes from copied files.

/CREATE :: CREATE directory tree and zero-length files only.
/FAT :: create destination files using 8.3 FAT file names only.
/FFT :: assume FAT File Times (2-second granularity).
/256 :: turn off very long path (> 256 characters) support.

/MON:n :: MONitor source; run again when more than n changes seen.
/MOT:m :: MOnitor source; run again in m minutes Time, if changed.

/RH:hhmm-hhmm :: Run Hours – times when new copies may be started.
/PF :: check run hours on a Per File (not per pass) basis.

/IPG:n :: Inter-Packet Gap (ms), to free bandwidth on slow lines.

::
:: File Selection Options :
::
/A :: copy only files with the Archive attribute set.
/M :: copy only files with the Archive attribute and reset it.
/IA:[RASHCNETO] :: Include only files with any of the given Attributes set.
/XA:[RASHCNETO] :: eXclude files with any of the given Attributes set.

/XF file [file]… :: eXclude Files matching given names/paths/wildcards.
/XD dirs [dirs]… :: eXclude Directories matching given names/paths.

/XC :: eXclude Changed files.
/XN :: eXclude Newer files.
/XO :: eXclude Older files.
/XX :: eXclude eXtra files and directories.
/XL :: eXclude Lonely files and directories.
/IS :: Include Same files.
/IT :: Include Tweaked files.

/MAX:n :: MAXimum file size – exclude files bigger than n bytes.
/MIN:n :: MINimum file size – exclude files smaller than n bytes.

/MAXAGE:n :: MAXimum file AGE – exclude files older than n days/date.
/MINAGE:n :: MINimum file AGE – exclude files newer than n days/date.
/MAXLAD:n :: MAXimum Last Access Date – exclude files unused since n.
/MINLAD:n :: MINimum Last Access Date – exclude files used since n.
(If n < 1900 then n = n days, else n = YYYYMMDD date).

/XJ :: eXclude Junction points. (normally included by default).

::
:: Retry Options :
::
/R:n :: number of Retries on failed copies: default 1 million.
/W:n :: Wait time between retries: default is 30 seconds.

/REG :: Save /R:n and /W:n in the Registry as default settings.

/TBD :: wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67).

::
:: Logging Options :
::
/L :: List only - don't copy, timestamp or delete any files.
/X :: report all eXtra files, not just those selected.
/V :: produce Verbose output, showing skipped files.
/TS :: include source file Time Stamps in the output.
/FP :: include Full Pathname of files in the output.

/NS :: No Size - don't log file sizes.
/NC :: No Class - don't log file classes.
/NFL :: No File List - don't log file names.
/NDL :: No Directory List - don't log directory names.

/NP :: No Progress - don't display % copied.
/ETA :: show Estimated Time of Arrival of copied files.

/LOG:file :: output status to LOG file (overwrite existing log).
/LOG+:file :: output status to LOG file (append to existing log).

/TEE :: output to console window, as well as the log file.

/NJH :: No Job Header.
/NJS :: No Job Summary.

::
:: Job Options :
::
/JOB:jobname :: take parameters from the named JOB file.
/SAVE:jobname :: SAVE parameters to the named job file
/QUIT :: QUIT after processing command line (to view parameters).

/NOSD :: NO Source Directory is specified.
/NODD :: NO Destination Directory is specified.
/IF :: Include the following Files.

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Features
Robocopy is notable for capabilities above and beyond the built-in Windows copy and xcopy commands, including the following:

Ability to tolerate network outages and resume copying where it previously left off (incomplete files are noted with a date stamp corresponding to 1980-01-01 and contain a recovery record so Robocopy knows from where to continue).
Ability to correctly copy attributes, owner information, alternate data streams, auditing information, and timestamps by default, without the need for numerous often forgotten command line switches.
Ability to correctly copy NTFS ACLs, (when /COPYALL provided), and to assert the Windows NT "backup right" (/B) so an administrator may copy an entire directory, including files denied readability to the administrator.
Persistence by default, with a programmable number of automatic retries if a file cannot be opened.
A "mirror" mode, which keeps trees in sync by optionally deleting files out of the destination that are no longer present in the source.
Ability to copy large numbers of files that would otherwise crash the built-in XCOPY utility.
A progress indicator on the command line that updates continuously.
Notably, Robocopy cannot copy open files that are in use by other users or applications. The so-called Backup mode is an administrative privilege that allows Robocopy to override permissions settings (specifically, NTFS ACLs) for the purpose of making backups. The Windows Volume Shadow Copy service is the only Windows subsystem that can copy open files while they are in use. Robocopy does not implement accessing the Volume Shadow Copy service in any way, inhibiting its usefulness as a backup utility for volumes that may be in use. However, one can use separate utilities such as VSHADOW or DISKSHADOW (included with Windows Server 2008) to create a shadow copy of a given volume with which to backup using Robocopy.

On the other hand, by design, the original Robocopy version is not able to replicate security attributes of files which have had their security permissions changed after an initial mirroring. [1] This behavior was fixed on Robocopy versions included in Windows 2008 and Windows Vista. The downside of this approach is that it means Robocopy does not behave consistently between different platforms. [2]

[edit] GUI front-end
Although Robocopy itself is a command-line tool, Microsoft Technet has also provided a GUI front-end, the GUI requires the .NET Framework 2.0. It has been developed by Derk Benisch, a systems engineer with the MSN Search group at Microsoft.[3] Robocopy GUI also includes version XP026 of Robocopy (Vista version). When downloaded from the TechNet link below, the version reported is “Microsoft Robocopy GUI 3.1.2.” When this version of RoboCopy is run, it then reports on its header:

How to create a virtual disk with the Dell OpenManage Server Admnistrator.

Andrew Lin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:20:03 +0000

Open the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator

Click on System – Storage – PERC 5/E Adapter (PCI Slot 1) – Connector 0 (RAID) – Enclosure – Physical Disks.

This will display all the Disk Drives in the right window.

Under the column Available RAID DISK Space, you should be able to determine if there is any unused disk. Make a note of the name of the disks that are avaiable, this would be under the column Name. Such as “Physical Disk 0.0.0″ and “Physical DISK 0.0.1″. You will need to this information when creating the RAID volume.

Go to Click on System – Storage – PERC 5/E Adapter (PCI Slot 1) – Connector 0 (RAID) – Virtual Disks. On the right screen you should see any existing virtual disks.

Click on Go To Create Virtual Disk Wizard, then click on Go To Advanced Wizard. You will be presented with the option to create Raid 0, Raid 1, Raid 5, Raid 10 and Raid 50. The options may differ depending on the firmware and type of PERC controller.

In this case I want to create a RAID 5 volume, which is striping with distributed parity. You need a minumum of 3 hard disks for Raid 5. The storage size equal to one disk is used for parity. So if you have 3 disks then the usable space is equal to the total of 2 disks.

Slect Raid 5 and click on Continue. This will display only the physical disks that are avaiable. Check all the Physical Disks that you wish to add to your virtual Disk, then click on Continue.

You can now give the virtual disk an optional name. Leave the defaults and click on Continue.

When creating virtual disk that is larger than 2 TB in size, you will be prompted with a warning message. “Please verify that your operating system, including any updates or modifications, supports a virtual disk of this size. Do you want to proceed?”. Click on OK to continue.

You will now be presented with the configuration summary. Click on Finish.

The new virtual disk should now appear in the list. Note the Device Name of the new virtual disk you just created, e.g. Windows Disk 2. You will need this information when configuring the new virtual disk in Windows Disk Management MMC. Under the progress column you will see the status of the new disk volume, this may take many hours to complete if the volume is many terra bytes large.

How to check for open ports on your server using Netstat.

Andrew Lin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:31:34 +0000

Netstat is a really handy tool that comes packaged with Microsoft Windows, Linux and Unix. There is a version for each type of operating system, the command syntax may differ but the result is the same.

There are many a times when I need to find out what ports are open and listening on my server. It could be after I had installed a new software that listens on a TCP port, for example SMTP is tcp port 25. I then need to confirm if the software is actually listening on that port by executing the Netstat command from the command line.

Here is an example of the Linux version of Netstat command with the output redirected to a file. You can then read the file at your leisure.

$ netstat -ta > results.file

The options -t, -u -w and -x shows active TCP, UDP, RAW, or UNIX socket connections respectively. The -a flag displays the listening socket or ports that are waiting for a connection. The output is then stored in a file called results.file.

You can view the contents of results.file by issuing the cat command.

$ cat results.file

Active Internet Proto Recv-Q tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 0 tcp 0 12920 tcp 0 tcp 0 connections (servers and established)
Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State
*:32769 *:* LISTEN
*:mysql *:* LISTEN
*:netbios-ssn *:* LISTEN
*:sunrpc *:* LISTEN
10.0.0.10:http 194.246.124.67:47616 SYN_RECV
*:ftp *:* LISTEN
*:smtp *:* LISTEN
*:microsoft-ds *:* LISTEN
10.0.0.10:smtp segment-124-30.sify.n:62876 ESTABLISHED
10.0.0.10:smtp 187-26-172-177.3g.clar:3258 ESTABLISHED
*:imaps *:* LISTEN
*:pop3s *:* LISTEN
*:pop3 *:* LISTEN
*:imap *:* LISTEN
*:http *:* LISTEN
*:ssh *:* LISTEN
*:https *:* LISTEN
::ffff:10.0.0.10:http crawl-66-249-73-83.go:50152 ESTABLISHED
::ffff:10.0.0.10:http p3251-ipad313sasajima.:1887 ESTABLISHED
::ffff:10.0.0.10:http p3251-ipad313sasajima.:1888 ESTABLISHED
::ffff:10.0.0.10:http ::ffff:213.163.65.177:44628 ESTABLISHED
0 ::ffff:10.0.0.10:http DS28589.clientshostna:39831 TIME_WAIT
0 ::ffff:10.0.0.10:http llf520046.crawl.yahoo:60010 TIME_WAIT

Below is the help file for the Windows version of Netstat.

C:\>netstat ?

Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP network connections.

NETSTAT [-a] [-b] [-e] [-n] [-o] [-p proto] [-r] [-s] [-v] [interval]

-a Displays all connections and listening ports.
-b Displays the executable involved in creating each connection or
listening port. In some cases well-known executables host
multiple independent components, and in these cases the
sequence of components involved in creating the connection
or listening port is displayed. In this case the executable
name is in [] at the bottom, on top is the component it called,
and so forth until TCP/IP was reached. Note that this option
can be time-consuming and will fail unless you have sufficient
permissions.
-e Displays Ethernet statistics. This may be combined with the -s
option.
-n Displays addresses and port numbers in numerical form.
-o Displays the owning process ID associated with each connection.
-p proto Shows connections for the protocol specified by proto; proto
may be any of: TCP, UDP, TCPv6, or UDPv6. If used with the -s
option to display per-protocol statistics, proto may be any of:
IP, IPv6, ICMP, ICMPv6, TCP, TCPv6, UDP, or UDPv6.
-r Displays the routing table.
-s Displays per-protocol statistics. By default, statistics are
shown for IP, IPv6, ICMP, ICMPv6, TCP, TCPv6, UDP, and UDPv6;
the -p option may be used to specify a subset of the default.
-v When used in conjunction with -b, will display sequence of
components involved in creating the connection or listening
port for all executables.
interval Redisplays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds
between each display. Press CTRL+C to stop redisplaying
statistics. If omitted, netstat will print the current
configuration information once.

How to install a new volume/disk with GTP partition in Windows 2003 Server.

Andrew Lin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:23:49 +0000

By default a new disk or volume added to Windows 2003 server is created with MBR partition. MBR has a maximum size limitation of 2 terra bytes, but it is bootable, meaning use MBR if you are setting up a bootable partition. GTP exceeds the 2 TB maximum size limitation, I’m not sure what the maximum limitation is but it’s large.

A basic disk is a physical disk that contains primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives.

Master Boot Record (MBR) disk partitions can be accessed from any versions of Windows or MS-DOS.

GUID Partition Table (GPT) disk partitions can only be accessed from Windows Server 2003 with service pack 1 or later. It can also be accessed from any 64 bit verssion of Windows.

I am going to show you how to configure and create a GTP partition using as many visual aid as possible. I find that visual goes a lot further and is easier to understand.

After you have installed the new disk drives in the server, you should be able to see it in Computer Management MMC. To launch this MMC click on Start – Administrative Tools – Computer Management. Click on cancel to by pass the wizard.

CLICK IMAGE for LARGE VIEW. Windows Server 2003 Disk Management MMC - Figure 2.

In the example shown in figure 2, the new disk is Disk 1, click on figure 1 to expand the graphic for clearer view.

Step (1, figure 2) Right click on Disk 1 and select Initialize Disk.

Select disk to initialize - Figure 3.

Step (2, figure 3) Select the disk that you want to initialize. Disk 1 is selected by default. Click on OK to continue.

Step (3)
The status of disk 1 should now change from Not Initialized to Online. The disk type is by default set to Basic.

Step (4)
Right click on the new disk where it says unallocated, and select new partition.

Step (5)
Specify the partition size you want to create and select next to continue.

Step (6)
Assign a drive letter, in this case E:\.

Step (7)
Format the partition with NTFS file system, and name the volume DATA. Then click on next to continue.

Step (8)
You can now see the status of the drive being formatted. When completed move on to the next step.

Step (9)
By default the disk type is set to Basic. To convert to GPT, right click on Disk 1 and select Convert to GTP Disk.

Typical Windows DHCP Server Scope Options

Andrew Lin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:31:48 +0000

Here is a list of typical DHCP server scope options that I usually configure on the Windows DHCP server.

003 Routers
006 DNS Servers
015 DNS Domain Name
249 Classless Static Routes

The DCHP server automatically assigns unique IP addresses to any computer that wishes to connect to the LAN. Before DHCP came along the network administrator has to configure static IP on each computer, server and printer. This was fine as long as the network was small, but can you imagine manually assigning IP addresses to hundreds of network resources. The other week I met up with a former colleague for lunch and I was shocked to learn that the health care unit that he worked for was still assigning IPs manually. Perhaps there is a good reason for this, but my firend was not able to tell me why.

When configuring the DHCP server you must add the scope option # 003 for Router. This is the gateway IP address for your LAN. The gateway is required for the computers on the LAN to communicate with external resources, typically the internet. It is possible to have multiple gateways, such as a redundant gateway route.

Option # 006 DNS Server, you got to have this as well. Domain Name System Server resolves host/domain names to an IP address. When you enter www.gamescheat.ca in your browser, your computer queries the DNS server which then responds with the IP address of the website, for example IP address 10.10.11.211. It would be very hard for you to remember the IP address of all the websites on the internet, hence the need for DNS server.

Option # 015 DNS Domain Name, if your company has a domain name such as gamescheat.ca, then this is where you would configure this.

Option # 249 Classless Static Routes, this is very helpful when you have multiple routes on the network that is handled by more than one different gateways. This is different from the default route of 0.0.0.0 with a mask of 0.0.0.0, you only need option 003 for default route. With Classless Static Routes you can define a subnet mask, unlike the default route. For example 10.11.21.0 mask 255.255.255.0 to 10.11.21.10.