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 WinDirStat’, or ‘Use TreeSize’. Techies seem to be a fan of one or the other, and stick with the tool that’s served them best.
What If There’s No Room To Install Either Of these?
Good point, then you can use PowerShell, I’ll cover that below also. Well I said everyone has a favourite solution, here’s mine,
WinDirStat
My weapon of choice, install it and give it the drive you want to analyse;
When it’s finished, you will see something like this;
So you get a graphical representation of the drive, and you can see TWO things straight away, firstly you can spot large files, click on them and it will tell you what they are. Secondly it groups ‘Types’ of files together, if you just look at folder sizes it can be misleading e.g. The ‘red’ files above are my MP3 Collection, I know that folder is massive and I expect it to have a lot of stuff in it. But in some cases this is great! e.g. If your IIS server is churning out logs and theres a folder with millions of them in it, you will spot it straight away.
Why Do I Prefer This? I prefer the graphical front end, I can send a screen shot to client, and they understand what’s happening, and it’s always been free. (There is a free version of TreeSize in fairness). I just like this one.
TreeSize
Once you’ve installed simply select the drive in question,
You can then drill down folders which are sized based on usage. One thing I do like about TreeSize is, it knows the difference between file size and actual size, and you can swap views accordingly. But I’ve included it here so every-time I post this article link in a forum, you can see both and make your own mind up.
PowerShell
This is really a PowerShell version of using the same approach TreeSize uses. You need a PowerShell plugin called PSFolderSize, then simply navigate to the the drive in question and run Get-FolderSize.
[box]
Install-Module PSFoldersize
cd {Drive-Letter}:
Get-FolderSize
[/box]
You can then drill down {cd folder-name} one at a time repeating the same command.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
This was asked on EE today, and it was an interesting one so I wrote it up. How to locate all the Snapshots in your VMware virtual infrastructure, and see how much space they are taking.
Solution
Use the following PowerCLI;
[box]
Get-Snapshot * | Select-Object -Property VM, Name, SizeGB, Children | Sort-Object -Property sizeGB -Descending | ft -AutoSize
[/box]
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
One of my goals for this year is to become more proficient with PowerShell. During my studies I came across PowerShell Web access and thought it was so cool, I’d have a play with it.
What is PowerShell Web Access?
It’s a web service that runs on a Server 2012 IIS web server. It lets you remote connect to that host (via https) and then launch a PowerShell secure connection to any machine in your network. So by deploying a secure bastion host in your DMZ you can manage your infrastructure via PowerShell, you don’t even need to have PowerShell on your remote machine, (as demonstrated below) that machine does not even have to be Windows. It just needs a browser that can run JavaScript and can accept cookies.
You Expect Me to Open All My Servers To Remote Management?
In a word yes, in fact if you have server 2012 or newer they already are, and if you have not already enabled the Windows Remote Management Service, on your legacy machines, DO SO! If not all the modern domain management tools will gradually stop working. As far as Microsoft is concerned PowerShell is the tool that all the management tools will be built on.
In fact if you are a security conscious type, you probably already have domain services in your DMZ, think of this as a secure ‘reverse-proxy’, whose traffic is secured by SSL and Kerberos.
Solution
Setting Up PowerShell Remote Access
1. PowerShell web access is a ‘windows feature’ add it with the following command;
[box]
Add-WindowsFeature WindowsPowerShellWebAccess
[/box]
2. Now it’s available you can install it like so;
[box]
Install-PswaWebApplication
Note: My Target server is already running IIS and has a certificate binding for https, yours probably does not, if so generate a self signed certificate and assign it like so;
Install-PswaWebApplication –UseTestCertificate
Obviously in production replace this certificate with either a publicly signed one, or one form your own PKI environment.
[/box]
3. Now you need to allow access, the following allows all users to all machines to do everything (Note: I would not recommend this for a production environment, see next step).
[box]Add-PswaAuthorizationRule * * *[/box]
4. As I said above, lets be a little more secure, I’ve created a computer group, for my target computers, and a user group for my remote PowerShell admins. As above, I’ve not filtered what the users can do, you could give granular remote access to different levels of administrative groups using this, if that’s a requirement see this article.
5. So now if you connect to the server over https, (it creates a virtual directory called pswa) so we will need to go to https://{ip address or hostname}/pswa.
PowerShell Web Access – It Doesn’t Work!
If at this point there’s a problem, ensure the server and the client you are trying to connect to have comms, (can they ping each other by name and IP). Most importantly the machine you need to connect to needs to have WinRM running and its firewall configuring properly.
Configure Windows Remote Management for a Single Host
From an elevated command prompt execute the following command and follow the on-screen prompts;
[box]WinRM QuickConfig [/box]
Configure Windows Remote Management via Group Policy
A better approach would be to configure you hosts via GPO. You can find the correct GPO at;
[box]
Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Remote Management (WinRM) > WinRM Service > Allow remote server management through WinRMOn Server 2008 R2 and older the policy will be called'Allow automatic configuration of listeners'
[/box]
Enable the policy and select which networks you want to allow remote connections from, above I’ve simply used asterisks to denote ‘all addresses’.
Providing all is well, you should have PowerShell access.
PowerShell from an Apple IOS Device (iPad shown)
PowerShell from an Android Device (Samsung Note shown)
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
Part Two – Prerequisites for Windows Server 2008 R2
KB ID 0000717
Problem
Originally I was just going to write a ‘Prerequisite for Exchange 2013’ article, but the needs of Windows Server 2008 R2 are so much greater than those of Windows Server 2012, I split them up. With that in mind, Id suggest you use Window s server 2012 rather than 2008 R2. (It will be supported for longer).
But if you are determined read on.
Solution
Planning ‘Time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted’
If you are going to deploy Exchange 2013 within your organisation, then you either already have Exchange (or another mail server product), or it’s a ‘Greenfield Site’.
You already have Exchange
Coexistence with Exchange 2003 is not supported, before you consider bringing in Exchange 2013, you will need to migrate to Exchange 2010, (a migration to Exchange 2007 would also work, but Exchange 2010 would be more sensible). Exchange 2013 Server can coexist in the same Exchange environment with both Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.
Make Sure you have the DVD or ISO file for Exchange 2013, you don’t want to download a 3.5GB File at a clients site through a slow ADSL Link! Also the prerequisite software is pretty big, get all that burned to disk, or on a USB Drive before you start.
Software Requirements
Well we are installing on Server 2008 R2 (Standard/Enterprise or Datacenter, though if you plan to deploy this server as part of a DAG Group, it needs to be Enterprise/Datacenter), so what else would you need to worry about? How about backup software? Does your current backup solution support Exchange 2013? Also check with your anti-virus/antispam vendor that 2013 wont be a problem. Do you have any mail archiving software, custom email signature software etc? Take a good look at the software packages in your existing mail system to make sure.
Outlook Client Access: Be aware your clients need to be using the following versions of Outlook BEFORE you migrate them.
1. CPU: As you’re planning on deploying with Windows Server 2008 R2 you will already have a server with an x64 bit CPU to deploy Exchange 2013 on, though IA64 is NOT supported.
2. RAM: This is dependent on what roles the server will have, for a Client Access Server the recommendation is 4GB, for a Mailbox Server it’s 8GB. And if the server will hold both roles the figure remains at 8GB. Though if I were deploying an Exchange 2013 Server in anger I would start at 12GB for a small (less than 80 mailbox’s) deployment and work upwards.
3. Disk Space: The drive which will hold the Exchange program files needs 30GB free space (that seems like a lot!) then there are some smaller figures you need to add up,
500MB per Universal Massaging Pack Language you are going to deploy.
200MB free on the servers system (OS) drive.
500MB free on the drive that will house the message queue database.
If the server will be a Mailbox server then it will need sufficient room to store the mailbox/public folder databases.
4. DVDROM Drive: Actually this is not really a requirement, but I’m mentioning it because a few modern servers ship without DVDROM drives now. You don’t want to go to site with a disk and look like a clown! Exchange 2013 will deploy quite happily from an ISO image. (If in doubt use 7ZIP to extract the ISO to a folder, and take that with you).
Pre Deployment – Environment
1. The Windows 2008 R2 server should be at least SP1. (If in doubt, Windows Key+R > winver {enter}).
2. Your forest functional level should be at least Windows Server 2003. To see your forest functional level, Windows Key > Active Directory Domains and Trusts > Action > Raise Forest Functional Level.
3. The domain controller that is holding the Schema Master FSMO role in your domain, needs to be at least Windows Server 2003 SP2. To see which server is the schema master server, run the following command;
Note: In this example, I’m on a standalone server, that’s also a domain controller (not recommended for production environments!). In a live environment you may need to plan in some downtime to update the schema master.
4. The server you are deploying on, must already be a member of your domain.
5. Run Windows Update, and make sure the server is fully up to date.
6. You will need to install both .Net 4.5 and Windows Management Framework 3.0 (That’s new WMI and Powershell 3 in case you were wondering), and Windows Management Framework 3.0. (Note: you need the Windows6.1-KB2506143-x64 version).
Note: These two pieces of software are needed on the server that will prepare the Active Directory, so they are not strictly prerequisites for Exchange 2013.
7. The Exchange 2013 Server needs the ADDS (RSAT) administration tools installing. To do that simply run the following command;
[box]Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS[/box]
Note: If you skipped step 6 then you will see the following error;
The term ‘Add-WindowsFeature’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet function, script file, or operable program.
Pre Deployment – Roles Required
Like previous versions of Exchange, you need to add certain roles to the server before you can install the product. Which roles you need, depend on whether you are deploying a server with the client access server role, or the mailbox server role (Note: if the server will hold BOTH roles, then the roles for mailbox server will cover both.)
Mailbox Server (Or Mailbox Server with Client Access Sever) – Roles Required
Note: At time of writing there is no Office 2013 Filter pack. I suspect that when it is released, it will need installing instead of the Office 2010 version, (that’s what happened with Exchange 2010 anyway).
7. Then install the Knowledge Base article KB2619234 (Enable the Association Cookie/GUID that is used by RPC over HTTP to also be used at the RPC layer in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008). Note: This update requires a reboot.
8. Then install the Knowledge Base article KB2533623 (Insecure library loading could allow remote code execution). If you are fully up to date you may find that this update will not be applicable to your system, and you will see the following popup.
Client Access Server Only – Roles Required
The only difference for a server running the Client Access Role is that .Net 4.5 and the WindowsManagement Framework are not requirements. However if you have been following all the steps you will already have them installed. And having them installed will cause you no problems. So, follow all the same steps, and install all the roles and software that is required for the ‘Mailbox/Combined Mailbox and Client Access Server’.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
Originally I was just going to write a ‘Prerequisite for Exchange 2013’ article, but the needs of Windows Server 2008R2 are so much greater, I split them up.
Solution
Planning ‘Time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted’
If you are going to deploy Exchange 2013 within your organisation, then you either already have Exchange (or another mail server product), or it’s a ‘Greenfield Site’.
You already have Exchange
Coexistence with Exchange 2003 is not supported, before you consider bringing in Exchange 2013, you will need to migrate to Exchange 2010, (a migration to Exchange 2007 would also work, but Exchange 2010 would be more sensible). Exchange 2013 Server can coexist in the same Exchange environment with both Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.
Warning: Even at Exchange 2010 – You cannot upgrade to Exchange 2013 without Service Pack 3.
Make Sure you have the DVD or ISO file for Exchange 2013, you don’t want to download a 3.5GB File at a clients site through a slow ADSL Link! Also the prerequisite software is pretty big, get all that burned to disk, or on a USB Drive before you start.
Software Requirements
Well we are installing on Server 2012 (Standard or Datacenter) so what else would you need to worry about? How about backup software? Does your current backup solution support Exchange 2013? Also check with your anti-virus/antispam vendor that 2013 wont be a problem. Do you have any mail archiving software, custom email signature software etc? Take a good look at the software packages in your existing mail system to make sure.
Outlook Client Access: Be aware your clients need to be using the following versions of Outlook BEFORE you migrate them.
1. CPU: As you’re planning on deploying with Windows Server 2012 you will already have a server with an x64 bit CPU to deploy Exchange 2013 on, though IA64 is NOT supported.
2. RAM: This is dependent on what roles the server will have, for a Client Access Server the recommendation is 4GB, for a Mailbox Server it’s 8GB. And if the server will hold both roles the figure remains at 8GB. Though if I were deploying an Exchange 2013 Server in anger I would start at 12GB for a small (less than 80 mailbox’s) deployment and work upwards.
3. Disk Space: The drive which will hold the Exchange program files needs 30GB free space (that seems like a lot!) then there are some smaller figures you need to add up,
500MB per Universal Massaging Pack Language you are going to deploy.
200MB free on the servers system (OS) drive.
500MB free on the drive that will house the message queue database.
If the server will be a Mailbox server then it will need sufficient room to store the mailbox/public folder databases.
4. DVDROM Drive: Actually this is not really a requirement, but I’m mentioning it because a few modern servers ship without DVDROM drives now. You don’t want to go to site with a disk and look like a clown! Exchange 2013 will deploy quite happily from an ISO image. (If in doubt use 7ZIP to extract the ISO to a folder, and take that with you).
Pre Deployment – Environment
1. The Windows 2012 server should be at least RTM, and should NOT be pre-release (If in doubt, Windows Key+R > winver {enter}). The build number should be at least 9200.
2. Your forest functional level should be at least Windows Server 2003. To see your forest functional level, Windows Key > Active Directory Domains and Trusts > Action > Raise Forest Functional Level.
3. The domain controller that is holding the Schema Master FSMO role in your domain, needs to be at least Windows Server 2003 SP2. To see which server is the schema master server, run the following command;
Note: In this example, I’m on a standalone server, that’s also a domain controller (not recommended for production environments!). In a live environment you may need to plan in some downtime to update the schema master.
4. The server you are deploying on, must already be a member of your domain.
5. Run Windows Update, and make sure the server is fully up to date. You will find Windows Update in Server Manager > Local Server.
6. Windows Server 2012 comes pre installed with .Net 4.5 and Windows Management Framework 3.0 (That’s new WMI and Powershell 3 in case you were wondering). So there’s nothing to do for this step, I only mention it for completeness.
7. The Exchange 2013 Server needs the ADDS (RSAT) administration tools installing. To do that simply run the following command;
[box] Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS [/box]
Note: As previously stated, the server used in the example above is a domain controller, so it already had the tools installed, hence the NoChangeNeeded exit code.
Pre Deployment – Roles Required
Note: From THIS POINT FORWARD, all roles can now installed with the RTM release of Exchange 2012 during setup. The following will only need to be carried out if you are installing the pre-release version of Exchange 2013.
Like previous versions of Exchange, you need to add certain roles to the server before you can install the product. Which roles you need, depend on whether you are deploying a server with the client access server role, or the mailbox server role (Note: if the server will hold BOTH roles, then the roles for mailbox server will cover both.)
Note: At time of writing there is no Office 2013 Filter pack. I suspect that when it is released, it will need installing instead of the Office 2010 version, (that’s what happened with Exchange 2010 anyway).
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
Seen when manually trying to update the Global Address List, with the following powershell command:
[box]Update-GlobalAddressList -identity ‘Default Global Address List'[/box]
Error: WARNING: The recipient “{your domain name}/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/{A Public Folder Name}” is invalid and couldn’t be updated.
or
Error: WARNING: The recipient “{your domain name}/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/OAB Version 2” is invalid and couldn’t be updated. WARNING: The recipient “{your domain name}/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/OAB Version 3a” is invalid and couldn’t be updated. WARNING: The recipient “{your domain name}/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/Offline Address Book – /o={your domain name}V/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=123” is invalid and couldn’t be updated.
This is commonly seen when an Exchange environment has been migrated from Exchange 2003. And it happens because the Alias names for the particular public folders have spaces in them (or a character that Exchange does not like).
Solution
1. On your Exchange 2007/2010 Server Launch the Exchange Management Console > Toolbox > Public Folder Management Console.
2. If you error is about OAB / Address books skip to step 5, If it’s to do with a public folder that your organisation has created, expand default public folders and locate one of them that’s causing the error (In the example above I’ve highlighted one called “1045 – Greengairs” > Select its parent > Then select it (in the central pane) and open its properties.
3. As soon as you select the “Exchange General” tab, you will get an error popup which indicates the problem, there is a problem with the Alias name, in this example there’s spaces in it remove them.
Error: The properties on this object have invalid data. If you click OK, default values will be used instead and will be saved if you do not change them before hitting Apply or OK on the property page. If you click cancel, the object will be displayed read-only and corrupted values will be retained.
4. Once removed apply the changes.
5. If your error references OAB or address books, expand system Public Folders > OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK > Check the properties of ALL its child objects > and on the Exchange General tab remove any spaces or unusual characters.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
If you have the same configuration that needs to be placed on multiple ports, then doing each one individually can be time consuming. To save time use the ‘interface range‘ command. Be aware this command is only available on devices running IOS versions newer than 12.0(7)XE, Release 12.1 E, and Release 12.1(5)T.
Solution
1. From configure terminal mode, I want to apply the same configuration to Gigabit Ethernet ports 3 and 4. Note: There is a space each side of the hyphen.
Petes-Switch#show run
Building configuration...
Current configuration : 1888 bytes
!
<------------config removed for the sake of brevity------------>
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/3
switchport access vlan 123
switchport mode access
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/4
switchport access vlan 123
switchport mode access
!
<------------config removed for the sake of brevity------------>
!
end
[/box]
How To Configure Multiple Cisco ‘Non Contiguous’ Switch Ports
1. The process is the same as above, but you separate ranges, (or individual ports) with a comma. Note: There is a space each side of the comma.
