Monthly Archives: September 2012

Lync 2010 - Cannot Synchronize Address Book

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If you receive this error:

The Lync 2010 client or the Office Communicator client does not download the corporate address book and displays a notification: "Cannot Synchronize Address Book"

Give the following a shot:

  1. Shutdown the Lync client
  2. Force the Lync client to download the address book immediately the next time it starts:
    • Open the registry to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator
    • Modify (or Create) the DWORD  the registry key “GalDownloadInitialDelay” and set it to 0  (that is a zero)
    • This can also be done from the command line:
      • reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator /v GalDownloadInitialDelay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
  3. Delete the Existing Local Address Book Files:
    • On Windows 7 or Vista machines, open Windows Explorer to the directory:
      • %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_user@example_domain
    • Delete the files GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx
  4. Restart the Lync client.
    •    The address book should be available in less than an hour.

I found the solution here: http://blog.insidelync.com/2012/02/lync-address-book-client-synchronization-errors-and-common-problems/  Give it a read, it's very thorough.

Lync 2010 - NTLM protocol failed with error SEC_E_UNSUPPORTED_FUNCTION

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If you receive this error inside of the Lync Server event log on your Front End server:

User authentication with NTLM protocol failed with error SEC_E_UNSUPPORTED_FUNCTION. This indicates a potential mismatch between security policy settings on the client and server computers.

Cause: This error can occur if the settings in "Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) clients" policy on the client computer are not the same as the settings in the "Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) servers" policy on this server. By default, the "Require 128-bit encryption" setting is disabled for computers running Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows XP. For computers running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, this setting enabled by default.
Resolution:
Ensure that the "Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) clients" policy settings on the computers from which users log on are the same as "Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) servers" policy settings on this server.

Here is the fix:
1. Open up Group Policy Editor (Start->Run->gpedit.msc) (Or if you are on a domain, open up group policy editor on the domain controller)
2. Expand Local Policies under Computer Configuration
3. Select Security Options
4. Scroll Down and find the following policies:

  • Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) clients
  • Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) servers

5. Change both policies to have "Require 128-bit encryption" checked

Reboot the machine(s)

How to extend a hard drive in Windows Server 2003, 2008, Windows 2000 and XP

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Copied right from Microsoft's KB, here is how to extend a partition/disk.

  • At a command prompt, type diskpart.exe.
  • Type list volume to display the existing volumes on the computer.
  • Type Select volume volume number where volume number is number of the volume that you want to extend.
  • Type extend [size=n] [disk=n] [noerr]. The following describes the parameters:
    • size=n
      • The space, in megabytes (MB), to add to the current partition. If you do not specify a size, the disk is extended to use all the next contiguous unallocated space.
    • disk=n
      • The dynamic disk on which to extend the volume. Space equal to size=n is allocated on the disk. If no disk is specified, the volume is extended on the current disk.
    • noerr
      • For scripting only. When an error is thrown, this parameter specifies that Diskpart continue to process commands as if the error did not occur. Without the noerr parameter, an error causes Diskpart to exit with an error code.
  • Type exit to exit Diskpart.exe.

When the extend command is complete, you should receive a message that states that Diskpart successfully extended the volume. The new space should be added to the existing drive while maintaining the data on the volume.

The original KB article can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590

Steps to recover a deleted/corrupted Exchange 2010 Server

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Did you nuke your Exchange server or "accidentally" delete it?  Fortunately, Microsoft has a way to revive it!  Here are the steps as mentioned in the following KB article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880.aspx
  1. Reset the computer account for the lost server. For detailed steps, see Reset a Computer Account.
  2. Install the proper operating system and name the new server with the same name as the lost server. Recovery won't succeed if the server on which recovery is being performed doesn't have the same name as the lost server.
  3. Join the server to the same domain as the lost server.
  4. Install the necessary prerequisites and operating system components. For details, see Exchange 2010 System Requirements and Exchange 2010 Prerequisites.
  5. Log on to the server being recovered and open a command prompt.
  6. Navigate to the Exchange 2010 installation files, and run the following command:
    Setup /m:RecoverServer
  7. After Setup has completed, but before the recovered server is put into production, reconfigure any custom settings that were previously present on the server.

How To Install VMWare Tools v4 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server

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Today I was faced the challenge of installing VMware Tools on a Ubuntu server via command line.  I stumbled accross a step-by-step tutorial on the exact steps to accomplish this task.  I am reposting for archival purposes, but all credit goes to @justinschier from http://ghosttx.com/2012/03/how-to-install-vmware-tools-v4-on-ubuntu-11-10-server/

Written: March 13, 2012
Last Updated: April 27, 2012
Tested With: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server, Ubuntu 11.10 Server

All the guides I found on the Internet, including VMWare’s website were outdated in some way, so I decided to write a guide of my own. I just went through these steps from start to finish on a fresh server and had no problems.

  1. Use Install VMWare Tools option in VMWare Client/Console to attach media
  2. Update the server
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get upgrade
  3. Create the mount point
    sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom
  4. Mount the ISO
    sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

    You should see the message: mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

  5. Change Directory
    cd /media/cdrom
  6. Copy the tar file to your /tmp directory
    sudo cp VM*.tar.gz /tmp
  7. Install Build tools if necessary
    sudo apt-get install linux-headers-server build-essential
  8. Change Directory
    cd /tmp
  9. Unmount the ISO
    sudo umount /media/cdrom
  10. Expand the tar
    sudo tar xzvf VM*.tar.gz
  11. Change Directory
    cd vmware-tools-distrib
  12. To prevent a potential error in the install script on Ubuntu 11.10, create a special directory
    Unable to create symlink “/usr/lib64/libvmcf.so” pointing to file ”/usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libvmcf.so/libvmcf.so”.

    sudo mkdir /usr/lib64
  13. Run the Install Script. The -d flag automatically answers the default to all questions. To customize it, just omit the -d.
    sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d
  14. Reboot
    sudo reboot

Let me know if this worked for you!

Also, please follow me on Twitter: @justinschier

Show hard drive size in Linux via command line

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If you have ever wanted to view how big your hard drive/partition sizes are in Linux, but only have access to the command line interface, here is the command to do it:
df
df -H (This will show the partition sizes in MB, GB, TB, etc.)
fdisk -l | grep Disk (This will show the physical disks and their corresponding sizes)