Author Archives: Jeff Turner

About Jeff Turner

Technical director of Nano Tera Network Solutions.

WBAdmin – deleting old backups from the catalogue

Cleaning up the windows server backup catalogue database (server 2012r2). To get a list of backups wbadmin get versions pipe that text to a file and then to get all the backups findstr “identifier” Put all of that into a … Continue reading

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Exchange server 2007, log file sector size mismatch.

Moving between virtual VHD type disks (old hyperv server ver 6.1.7601) to VHDX formt (hyperv 2012r2 server version 6.3.9600). Disaster recovery practice session. After moving an old hyperv server to a new host and restoring Exchange 2007 backup into the … Continue reading

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Server 2008 restore from backup

After doing a full system state restore from backup you “may” find that the server will boot and then blue screen. Pressing F8 and setting to not reboot after the blue screen will let you see if it is error … Continue reading

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Customising office interface with XML

By adding an XML file (and related entries) to a word document you can add or remove menu items. This includes the backstage as well as the ribbon interface. The objects in the interface need to be addressed using the … Continue reading

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Python language and Fibonacci

Spending a bit of time familiarising myself with the Python language. The mathematics libraries are quite amazing. Bit of a change after PHP and Powershell etc. The first use of it was to use beautiful soup to read in some … Continue reading

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CENTOS / Redhat and the SysVinit change over to SystemD

The changes to Redhat and CENTOS versions to replace the old SysVinit commands with the new systemd ones has been fairly controversial. This useful resource gives examples of the old and new ways to do various tasks. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SysVinit_to_Systemd_Cheatsheet cat /etc/rc.d/init.d/README … Continue reading

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Scheduling printing to keep a plotter functioning.

Anyone who has a large format inkjet plotter (HP A0 etc…) knows that if they sit idle for a long time the ink will dry up and clog the print heads. This can be an expensive repair so it is … Continue reading

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Shadow Copy Providers, if backups fail.

https://support.software.dell.com/appassure/kb/129774 Find each of the VSS writers in a failed state by issuing this command in an elevated command prompt – vssadmin list writers. Make a list of all the failed VSS writers or take a screenshot. Find the VSS … Continue reading

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Move all operations master roles in script.

If you need to move all the ops master roles to one server you can do it with this script. ntdsutil roles connections “connect to server servername” quit “transfer pdc” “transfer rid master” “transfer infrastructure master” “transfer naming master” “transfer … Continue reading

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Creating 2048 bit and SHA-2 Certificate request in SBS 2008 and Server 2008

Now that google chrome is “warning” about SHA-1 hashed certificates and most certification authorities seem to be issuing only 2048 bit encryption ones it is a good idea to update any certificates with the lower level hashing and encryption. The … Continue reading

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