Set a user's password to never expire in Office 365

VMware Horizon View Guest Error - SvmException occured The volume is not mounted

Windows 7 - Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occured with your paging file configuration when you started your computer.

Symptom: Every time you boot your Windows 7 machine or access system settings, you receive the following error:

Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer beause of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than the size you specified.

Solution: In this case, the page file had grown too large and corrupted itself. I was able to resolve the issue by deleting the pagefile.sys file and having Windows recreate it from scratch. Here are the steps on how to complete this task.

Click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties
In the left pane, select Advanced system settings
On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Performance
On the Advanced tab, click the Change button under Virtual memory
Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box and check No paging file
Click Set button next to No paging file
Click OK on all open windows and restart your machine
Open up Windows Explorer
Navigate to the root of your system drive (C:\)
Enable the showing of System Files
1. On the View menu, click Options
2. On the View tab, click Show All Files, and then click OK
Delete the pagefile.sys file
Click Start, right-click Computer, and select Properties
In the left pane, select Advanced system settings
On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Performance
On the Advanced tab, click the Change button under Virtual memory
Check the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox and click OK
Restart your machine

Cisco VPN Client on Windows 8 - Secure VPN Connection terminated locally by the Client. Reason 442: Failed to enable Virtual Adapter

3 Replies

Symptom: When trying to use the Cisco VPN client under Windows 8 (and 8.1), you receive the following error.

Secure VPN Connection terminated locally by the Client.
Reason 442: Failed to enable Virtual Adapter.

Solution: This is caused by an incompatible Windows 8 registry key. You can fix this issue by running the powershell command below as an administrator or manually opening up the registry editor and changing the following value.

For 64 bit versions of Windows, use the registry value of Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows
For 32 bit versions of Windows, use the registry value of Cisco Systems VPN Adapter

Option 1: Execute the following powershell command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CVirtA -Name DisplayName -Value 'Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows'

Option 2: Navigate to the following key using the registry editor:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CVirtA

Set the DisplayName value to Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows

Upgrading Network Policy Server from Server 2008 R2 to Server 2012 R2

2 Replies

Synopsis: This tutorial will cover a basic "upgrade" path to go from Server 2008 R2 to Server 2012 R2. This tutorial assumes you have a single Network Policy Server and you are wishing to reuse the same machine name, IP, and settings. In environments needing high availability, you will need to complete each of the steps below, adding/removing each server being upgraded from your network load balancer.

In a standalone instance, you will experience some downtime as you will have to retire the old machine and setup a new one.

Tutorial

Login to your Server 2008 R2 NPS server
Open up a command prompt with Administrative Privileges
Execute the following command
1. netsh nps export filename="c:\users\YOURUSERNAME\Desktop\NPS.xml" exportPSK=YES
Copy the NPS.xml file to your local machine
Disjoin the NPS server from the domain
Retire the machine
Recreate a new Server 2012 R2 machine with the same name and IP address
Join the Server 2012 R2 machine to the domain
Open up Server Manager and select Add Roles and Features
Click Next > on the Before You Begin screen
Click Next > on the Installation Type screen
Click Next > on the Server Selection screen
Check Network Policy and Access Services (click Add Features when the screen pops up)
Click Next > on the Features screen
Click Next > on the Network Policy and Access Services screen
Check Network Policy Server and click Next >
Click Install
Click Close once the installation has successfully completed
Copy over your XML file from the old NPS server to your new Server 2012 R2 NPS server.
Open up an administrative powershell prompt
Execute the following command
1. Import-NpsConfiguration -Path c:\users\YOURUSERNAME\Desktop\NPS.xml
Head over to Server Manager and select Tools -> Network Policy Server
Verify the rules imported (I selected RADIUS Clients and Servers -> RADIUS Clients to see if it imported my WLAN controller)
Connect your machine to your wireless network! 🙂

Office 365 - The phone number you entered has already been registered by someone else.

[Tutorial] Upgrading from ADFS 2.0 (Server 2008 R2) to ADFS 3 (Server 2012 R2)

24 Replies

Scenario: You want to upgrade your ADFS 2.0 or 2.1 farm using WID (Windows Internal Database) from Server 2008 R2 to Server 2012 R2. In this scenario, I have 2 ADFS servers (one as the primary and a second for failover purposes), and 2 ADFS Proxy servers (for load balancing/failover purposes).

NOTE: Prior to writing this article I had only found limited documentation provided by Microsoft on a proper upgrade path for this. Since then, it apperas that tools had been included with the Server 2012 installation media which will greatly cutdown on the number of steps needed as well as provide as little downtime as possible. I would highly recommend giving this article a read before proceeding with my article: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2014/03/31/how-to-build-your-adfs-lab-part4-upgrading-to-server-2012-r2.aspx

My article should still work, but it is definitely not the most efficient way to do an upgrade as pointed out in the technet article above. My guide essentially goes over cutting over to a completely new ADFS deployment "an upgrade", side-by-side to your production environment. As pointed out below, you cannot add a Server 2012 R2 machine to a Server 2008 R2 ADFS farm as documented in their earlier help articles.

Tutorial

Login to one of your slave ADFS nodes (secondary server) running Server 2008 R2
Remove the node from your load balancer
Stop the AD FS 2.0 Windows Service
Click Start -> Administrative Tools -> Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Select your server and double click on Server Certificates
Right click on your certificate and select Export...
Export the certificate to your desktop, type in a password to protect the exported certificate/private key, and select OK
Copy the pfx (exported certificate/private key) to your local machine; we will import this on our new server later.
Disjoin the ADFS machine from the domain
Turn the ADFS machine off and retire it
Create a new Server 2012 R2 machine with the same name and IP as your Server 2008 R2 ADFS machine
While the new ADFS machine is being created, login to one of your ADFS proxy servers
Remove the proxy from your load balancer
Stop the AD FS 2.0 Windows Service
Turn the machine off and retire it
Create a new Server 2012 R2 machine with the same name and IP as your Server 2008 R2 ADFS Proxy machine
While the new ADFS proxy machine is being created, login to your new ADFS Server 2012 R2 machine.
Open up Server Manage and select Manage -> Add Roles and Features
On the Before You Begin screen, click Next >
Select Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next >
Select your server and click Next >
Check Active Directory Federation Services and click Next >
Click Next > on Features
Click Next > on AD FS
Click Install
Click on the Configure the federation service on this server. link once the installation has completed successfully.
Check Create the first federation server in a federation server farm on the Welcome screen for the Active Directory Federation Services Configuration Wizard and then click Next >
1. Please see my notes below on why we did not check Create the first federation server in a federation server farm.
Click Next > on the Connect to AD DS step
Copy the .pfx file we exported from the ADFS server earlier to the new ADFS server
On the Specify Service Properties screen, click on the Import... button
Select your certificate and click Open
Type in the password to the exported certificate and click OK
Type in a Federation Service Display Name that will be shown to your users when they login to the ADFS service (this can be anything), and click Next >
On the Specify Service Account screen, click the Select... button
Type in the name of your service account you wish to use for ADFS, click the Check Names button to verify you don't have any typos, and click OK
Type in the password for the ADFS service account and click Next >
Click Next > on the Specify Configuration Database
1. Note: I choose to continue to use WID, you can switch to SQL if you would like now, however that is outside of the scope of this document.
Click Next > on the Review Options screen
Click the Configure button once all the prerequsite checks have passed successfully
Click Close once the server has successfully been configured
Open up Internet Explorer on the new ADFS machine and navigate to https://localhost/adfs/ls/IdpInitiatedSignon.aspx to ensure the service is properly running
1. Note: you should receive an invalid ssl certificate error; that is OK, we will switch the DNS records over once we are ready to transition from our old farm to the new one.
Next, login to your Server 2008 R2 primary ADFS server and recreate the federation trusts on the new Server 2012 R2 primary ADFS server
1. Start -> Administrative Tools -> AD FS 2.0 Management; select Trust Relationships -> Relying Party Trusts
2. Recreate all the rules/trusts from your original ADFS server on your new Server 2012 R2 ADFS machine
  1. Note: If you are recreating rules for Office 365, you will need to wait until you switch over our new Server 2012 R2 environment to production. The reason is when you setup the new ADFS instance, some of the certificates will change causing a certificate mismatch/preventing your users from logging in. You will need to make sure you follow the following steps when resetting up the Office 365 trust to ensure your users don't receive "Error 80041317": http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2647020/en-us
Login to your new ADFS Proxy server
Import your SSL cerficate from your old ADFS server (from step 8) onto the server's Local Machine certificate store
1. Right click on Start and select Run
2. Type MMC and click OK
3. Click File -> Add/Remove Snap-in...
4. Select Certificates and click Add >
5. Select Computer account and click Next >
6. Select Finish
7. Click OK on the Add or Remove Snap-ins screen
8. Expand Certificates (Local Computer), select Personal, and right click, select All Tasks -> Import...
9. Click Next on the Certificate Import Wizard
10. Click the Browse... button
11. Select your certificate and click Open
  1. Note: You may need to click on the dropdown box in the bottom right and select All Files for your pfx file to show up.
12. Click Next on the File to Import screen
13. Type in the password to the pfx file, check Mark this key as exportable, and click Next
14. Ensure Place all certificates in the following store shows Personal and click Next
15. Click Finish
16. Click OK on the Certificate Import Wizard successful dialog box
Edit the hosts file to point your DNS record to your new ADFS server
1. Open Notepad as an Administrator
2. Open the following file: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
3. Add in your DNS entry and point to your new ADFS server
4. Save the file
  1. Note: We will come back to this later and update it to point to our load balancer once we switch over everything. For now, this lets us test our new deployment while switching things over.
Open up Server Manager
Click Manage -> Add Roles and Features
Click Next > on the Before you begin screen
Select Role-based or feature based installation and click Next >
Select your server and click Next >
Check Remote Access on the Server Roles screen
Click Next > on the Features screen
Click Next > on the Remote Access screen
Check Web Application Proxy
ClickAdd Features on the Add Roles and Features Wizard dialog box
Click Next > on the Roles Services screen
Click Install on the Confirmation screen
Click on the Open the Web Application Proxy Wizard link once the installation succeeds
Click Next > on the Welcome screen
Type in the FQDN to your ADFS server, the credentials of an account with local admin privileges, and then click Next >
Select your certificate on the AD FS Proxy Certificate screen and click Next >
Click Configure on the Confirmation screen
Click Close once the Web Application Proxy has been successfully configured.
After you click close a new window should open. On the Remote Access Management Console, select Publish
1. Note: This step only needs to be done once. It will replicate to all other proxy servers when you set those up at a later time.
Click Next > on the Welcome screen
Select Pass-through and click Next >
Enter in a name, external URL, and internal URL for your federated server (mine were both the same since I use split-dns). Click Next >
Click Close
Add the new Server 2012 R2 ADFS machine to your load balancer and remove your Server 2008 R2 machine.
Add the new Server 2012 R2 ADFS Proxy machine to your load balancer and remove your Server 2008 R2 proxy machine.
Update the hosts file on your Server 2012 R2 proxy machine to point to your load balanced Server 2012 R2 ADFS environment
Retire your Server 2008 R2 ADFS environment
1. Disjoin the ADFS proxy server from the domain and recycle the machine
2. Open up PowerShell as an Administrator
3. Execute the following commands:
  1. Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.Adfs.Powershell
    Get-AdfsProperties
4. Stop the service on your Server 2008 R2 ADFS machine running the old ADFS farm
5. Execute the following command to remove the ADFS Farm info from AD (substituting in the information from the Get-AdfsProperties command):
  1. $delme = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://CN=484e24a8-5726-4186-8e24-825b77920798,CN=ADFS,CN=Microsoft,CN=Program Data,DC=mydomain,DC=local")
    $delme.DeleteTree()
6. Disjoin the ADFS machine from the domain and recycle the machine
Add a new Server 2012 R2 machine and WAP machine to your new ADFS environment for redudnancy (same steps as above, except in Step 27, you will select Add a federation server to federation server farm

Notes: Here is the upgrade compatibility matrix for upgrading ADFS from a specific version to Server 2012: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj647765.aspx

Why did I not check Add a federation server to a federation server farm on the Welcome screen for the Active Directory Federation Services Configuration Wizard?

The reason behind not checking this is I believe Microsoft has a bug in their discovery tool in adding another machine to a farm running ADFS 3.0. When adding a Server 2012 R2 machine to a farm with only Server 2008 R2 machines running ADFS 2.0, you will receive the following error:

The primary federation server was contacted successfully, but the configuration data was not valid. Ensure that the primary federation server is running Windows Server 2012 R2 or later. Unable to retrieve configuration from the primary server. The primary federation server was contacted successfully, but the configuration data was not valid. Ensure that the primary federation server is running Windows Server 2012 R2 or later. Prerequisites Check Completed One or more prerequisites failed. Please fix these issues and click "Rerun prerequisites check"

Symptom: You receive the following error while setting up the WAP (proxy) server:

An error occurred when attempting to establish a trust relationship with the federation service. Error: Not Found

Resolution: Make sure you update the DNS records of your ADFS deployment to point to your new ADFS server. Both the ADFS proxy and ADFS server must be running the same OS version (in this case, Server 2012 R2).

[Tutorial] Rooting and Installing Cyanogenmod 11 (Android 4.4 KitKat) w/ Google Apps on the Droid RAZR Maxx

61 Replies

Here are my notes on rooting and installing Cyanogenmod 11 (Android 4.4 KitKat) on my Motorola RAZR Maxx. This guide follows almost the exact same steps as my previous guide found here: http://jackstromberg.com/2013/09/tutorial-rooting-and-installing-cyanogenmod-10-2-w-google-apps-on-the-droid-razr-maxx/

If you followed my previous tutorial and are trying to upgrade to Cyanogenmod 11, follow this guide starting at step 18. If you receive Error Status 6 when installing new Cyanogenmod version, please see the notes at the bottom of this guide.

By reading this, you are agreeing that I take no responsibility for what you do with your phone, nor will send me angry emails saying I janked your phone.

Enable USB debugging
1. Settings->Developer Options->Enable Developer options at the top-> (Hit ok on the notification asking for Allow development settings)->Check USB debugging (Click OK on the Allow USB debugging? dialog).
Download a copy of latest build of Cyanogenmod
1. http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Spyder_Info
2. I am going to live on the edge and install a nightly to get to 11. If you don't want bugs, use a stable version (As of right now (12/21/2013), Cyanogenmod has not officially released a stable version of Cyanogenmod 11 for the Droid RAZR Maxx).
3. Notes: I found a pretty sweet page that lists the nightly changes to the rom. If you are curious, you can view the nightly changes here: http://www.cmxlog.com/11/spyder/
Download a copy of Google Apps
1. http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Gapps
2. By default, Cyanogenmod cannot ship with Google Apps due to legality reasons, so these will need to be installed manually. Without these, you will not have Google Play, Music, Maps, etc. In this case, grab a copy of gApps for 11. If you don't have a program to download torrent files, you will need to download the gApps package from the AFH link provided on the cyanogenmod page.
Download a copy of RazrBlade, which we will use to exploit the phone and gain root access:
1. For Windows: http://cmw.cmfs.me/razrblade/razr_blade_win.zip
2. For Mac: http://cmw.cmfs.me/razrblade/razr_blade_mac.zip
3. For Linux: http://cmw.cmfs.me/razrblade/razr_blade_linux.zip
Extract the files of the razr_blade_XXX.zip archive.
If you are running windows, download a copy of the Motorola drivers to connect your phone.
1. Motorola x86 drivers: http://goo.im/devs/Hashcode/moto_root/Motorola_End_User_Driver_Installation_5.9.0_32bit.msi
  Motorola x64 drivers: http://www.adbtoolkit.com/drivers/applications/motorola/Motorola_End_User_Driver_Installation_5.9.0_64bit.msi
Run through the Motorola driver installation if you are running windows.
Plug your phone in to your machine
Navigate back to the files you extracted, right click Run.bat, run as Administrator
1. If you are on Linux, execute RootLinux.sh and if you are on Mac OS, execute RootMac.sh
Press any key to continue
Once your phone has completed phase one (which ends up with a reboot of the phone), complete the following tasks on your phone
1. Click Apps->SmartActions->Get Started->Next->Battery Saver->Save->Home button
Press any key to continue with "Phase two"
1. Your phone will reboot again
2. Phase four will start
3. Your phone will reboot again
After phase four completes, you should be notified the phone has been rooted.
1. Notes: I received some permission errors the first time I ran through this (as shown in the picture above). I ended up rebooting the phone, making sure I had the latest version of SmartActions and then reran the batch file. After that, I was able to successfully get the Superuser program (which we talk about next) to run.
Next, grab a copy of Superuser.apk (included inside the razr_blade zip file) and copy it over to the SD card.
At this time, copy over the cyanogenmod zipped file you downloaded earlier. Throw it on the root of your SD card.
Copy over the gApps zip file we downloaded earlier and throw that on the root of your SD card as well.
Disconnect the phone from the computer and install the SuperUser application. Apps->Files->SD Card->Superuser.apk, Install, Open. If it asks to update, go ahead and allow it to update the binaries.
Next, grab a copy of SafeStrap. We will use this as the bootstrap to flash your phone to Cyanogenmod as well as provide an easy way to switch between different ROMs.
1. https://goo.im/devs/Hashcode/spyder/safestrap/Safestrap-Spyder-3.73.apk
Copy the file over to your phone
Apps->Files->SD card->Safestrap-Spyder-3.73.apk->Package installer->Install->Open
Hit Ok when prompted for superuser privileges, and then select Agree.
Once inside the Safestrap application, click Install Recovery.
1. Once installed, you should see the Recovery State say Installed
Reboot your phone
When you see the Safestrap splash screen, hit the Menu button on your phone.
Once you have hit the Menu button, there will be a brief delay where you screen goes black and then redirects you to one with a couple of big buttons. Push the button labeled Boot Options.
Push the ROM-Slot-1 button.
Select the size of your data store and then hit Activate.
1. Note: This is the amount of space in the partition for Cyanogenmod operating system and associated apps. If you plan to only use the one slot, I would set the slot to 3GB. If you are going to be using multiple ROM slots and space was is an issue you might want to lower the allocation.
Once it is done doing its shindig, hit the back button twice to get to the screen that shows Boot Options, Install, Backup, Restore, Mount, Wipe, Advanced, and Reboot.
Push the Install button.
1. Note, if the Install button is Red, you are going to override your stock ROM. Make sure that you have activated ROM-Slot-1 before proceeding.
Scroll down and select the Cyanogenmod zip file you copied to the SD card earlier.
Swipe the "Swipe to Confirm Flash" area to begin flashing your phone with Cyanogenmod.
Once done, it should say Successful in blue text. Hit the Wipe cache/dalvik button.
1. Swipe the Swipe to Wipe area (lol)
Hit the Back button.
Hit the Reboot System button.
At this point, you should be greeted by the Cyanogenmod welcome screen upon boot. I opted out of the Cyangenmod account and decided to continue on.
Next, we need to install Google Apps on the phone. To do this, reboot the phone and press the Menu button when you see the SafeStrap splash screen.
1. Note: Google Apps are totally optional. If you want to roll with Stock Cyanogenmod and manually install apps via their APK files for ultra security, that is totally cool.
2. Note 2: If you receive an error saying "unable to mount '/osh' gapps", simply ignore the error and boot back into Cyanogenmod. I received this error, but all the Google Apps seemed to have installed just fine.
Hit the Install button.
Select the gApps zip file from your SD card
Swipe the Swipe to Confirm Flash area
Once the apps have been successfully installed, hit the Wipe cache/dalvik button.
Swipe the Swipe to Wipe area
Hit the Back button
Hit the Reboot System button
Once you are greeted by a "Allow Google's location service to collect anonymous location data." prompt, you will know you have successfully installed the Google apps! 😛

That should do it! Enjoy Cyanogenmod 11! 🙂

Notes:

If you receive the following error when trying to install the Cyanogenmod 11 package:

Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Installing update...
E: Error in /sdcard-ext/cm-11-2013-12-21-NIGHTLY-spyder.zip (Status 6)
Error flashing zip '/sdcard-ext/cm-11-2013-12-21-NIGHTLY-spyder.zip'

Please make sure you have upgraded to the latest version of SafeStrap. SafeStrap v3.65 or higher must be installed for Cyanogenmod 11 to properly install. As a heads up, you will need to open the SafeStrap app and press the Install Recovery button to actually get SafeStrap to upgrade to the latest version. Simply upgrading the SafeStrap apk file will NOT complete the upgrade.

P.S. Here is the official Cyanogenmod info page for the Motorola Droid RAZR/RAZR MAXX (CDMA)
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Spyder_Info

[Error] You must have Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant version 7.0 or greater installed on this computer

1 Reply

Symptom: When trying to install the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant (Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell) to manage Office 365 or Windows Azure, you receive the following error:

In order to install Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell, you must have Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant version 7.0 or greater installed on this computer.

Solution: Try installing the latest version of the Microsoft Online SErvices Sign-In Assistant.

Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant (IDCRL7) – 32 bit version
Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant (IDCRL7) – 64 bit version

If you still receive the error after installing the Sign-In Assistant, make sure you are using the latest installer for the Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows Powershell.

Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell (32-bit version)
Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell (64-bit version)

If you still receive the error after trying both installers, try installing the Beta version of the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell.

Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant for IT Professionals BETA

Notes: The first time I saw this issue was running Windows 8.1 on my Surface Pro 2. I did not seem to see this issue on Windows 7.

[Error] Enable-CsUser : Specified SIP domain is not vaild. Specify a valid SIP domain and then try again.

2 Replies

Issue: When trying to enable a new user for Lync, you receive the following error; both within PowerShell and the Web GUI.

Enable-CsUser : Specified SIP domain is not vaild. Specify a valid SIP domain and then try again.

When executing: Enable-CsUser -Identity "DOMAIN\Jack.Stromberg.Admin" -RegistrarPool "lyncpool.mydomain.local" -SipAddressType "emailaddress" -SipDomain "mydomain.com"

Solution: Most of the time this turns out to be a typo in the -SipDomain parameter or the user's email address set inside of Active Directory. Once you verify that you do not have any typos in the user's email address/SipDomain parameter, the user should be able to be added successfully. If neither work, you can specify the SipAddressType to be the user's SamAccountName rather than email address.

Jack Stromberg

A site about stuff