Windows Server – Disable ‘Defender’
Oct28

Windows Server – Disable ‘Defender’

KB ID 0001710 Problem I got a call last night to help out a colleague, this involved using a ‘dubious’ piece of software that is very old, (I wont elaborate further). But to run it on a modern Windows Server is nearly impossible. The host detects the software as being infected (It may well be, but I’ve never suffered). So I need to keep the software in a password protected Zip file. And only extract it on a Virtual...

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Cannot Open Exchange Management Shell
Oct08

Cannot Open Exchange Management Shell

KB ID 0001707 Problem When attempting to open the Exchange Management shell you see the following; Welcome to the Exchange Management Shell! Full list of cmdlets: Get-Command Only Exchange cmdlets: Get-ExCommand Cmdlets that match a specific string: Help ** Get general help: Help Get help for a cmdlet: Help or -? Exchange team blog: Get-ExBlog Show full output for a command: | Format-List Show quick reference guide: QuickRef VERBOSE:...

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Can I ‘Shrink’ My Exchange Database?
Oct06

Can I ‘Shrink’ My Exchange Database?

KB ID 0001706 Problem Saw this asked in a forum today, and my response was; It never gets smaller, if you delete things out of it, it just creates more ‘whitespace’ within the database, unless you; a) Take it offline, and defragment it using eseutil. b) Move the mailboxes out of it, to another database and delete it. Which is true, but even Microsoft say you should not need to defragment a database! Before you do anything...

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Exchange 2019: How Many CALs/SALs Do You Need?
Sep28

Exchange 2019: How Many CALs/SALs Do You Need?

KB ID 0001703 Problem At his point I’m going to assume you know that there are Standard Exchange CALs/SALs, and Enterprise Exchange CALs/SALs. And you know the difference! If you’re unsure see my comments here.  With older versions of Exchange 2010/2007 etc. You could get this information from the GUI. Now you need to use some PowerShell. Solution The two commands you want to use are; Find Out How Many Exchange Standard...

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Windows Server 2019 (&2016): Enable Flash
Sep24

Windows Server 2019 (&2016): Enable Flash

KB ID 0001484 Problem Back in server 2012 this was an easy fix; Windows Server 2012 – Enable Flash However try and do that on Server 2019 or 2016 and this happens; Windows PowerShell Copyright (C) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. PS C:\Users\administrator.PNL> Install-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience Install-WindowsFeature : ArgumentNotValid: The role, role service, or feature name is not valid:...

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Hard Drive Full?
Sep10

Hard Drive Full?

KB ID 0000012 Problem The fact that I’m going back to re-write article 0000012, should tell you this is an omnipresent problem! Either very suddenly, or slowly over time you have a drive or a volume that’s full to bursting point. These days with laptops which have smaller SSD drives it’s a common problem. I’ve seen literally hundreds of post in forums, most of them are answered with ‘Use...

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Exchange – Move ‘ALL’ Mailboxes From One Database to Another
Sep01

Exchange – Move ‘ALL’ Mailboxes From One Database to Another

KB ID 0000864  Problem While replacing an Exchange Server on my test network last week, I needed to get all the mailboxes moved across to the new one. Exchange gets upset if you try and delete a mailbox database that has data in it. Solution 1. Launch the Exchange Management Shell > Firstly lets get the names of my Databases, then I can simply copy and paste them into the move mailbox command. Get-MailboxDatabase Get-Mailbox...

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Azure: Point to Site VPN From mac OS?
Aug12

Azure: Point to Site VPN From mac OS?

KB ID 0001693 Problem We mac users always get overlooked. If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard ‘Yeah we don’t support macs?” I would be a rich man. But thankfully this makes us work things out for ourselves usually! So recently I did a article Azure: Point To Site VPN (Remote Access User VPN) but what if you want to use the same solution for a remote mac user? Solution Firstly you will want to download...

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Azure VPN: Point To Site VPN (Remote Access)
Aug05

Azure VPN: Point To Site VPN (Remote Access)

KB ID 0001692 Problem Given my background I’m usually more comfortable connecting to Azure with a Route Based VPN from a hardware device, like a Cisco ASA. I got an email this afternoon, a client had a server in a private cloud and a server in Azure, they needed to transfer files from the Azure server to the server in the private cloud. Now on further investigation this client had a Cisco vASA so a VPN was the best option for...

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Veeam: Backup to Public Cloud?
Aug04

Veeam: Backup to Public Cloud?

KB ID 0001691 Problem I’ve always been a fan of Veeam, I’ve championed it for years, as a consultant and engineer I want solutions that are easy to deploy, administer, and upgrade, that cause no problems. Like all things that are easy to use, and gain a lot of popularity, Veeam is starting to get DESTROYED BY DEVELOPMENT. What do I mean? Well, things that were simple and easy to find now require you to look at knowledge...

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