Update DPM agent password on non domain joined servers

I got an alert by mail from our DPM server saying

Description: Unable to contact DPM protection agent.
The protection agent operation failed because it could not access the protection agent on YOURPROTECTEDDPMSERVER. YOURPROTECTEDDPMSERVER may be running DPM, or the DPM protection agent may have been installed by another DPM server

In the Event Viewer on the protected server running the DPM agent I noticed a bunch of event id 85.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DPMRA
Event Category: None
Event ID: 85
Date:  2011-01-15
Time:  13:30:38
User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: YOURPROTECTEDDPMSERVER
Description:
A DPM agent failed to communicate with the DPM service on YOURDPMSERVER because of a communication error. Make sure that YOURDPMSERVER is remotely accessible from the computer running the DPM agent. If a firewall is enabled on YOURDPMSERVER, make sure that it is not blocking requests from the computer running the DPM agent (Error code: 0x800706ba, full name: YOURDPMSERVER).

In this case this was caused by the password had expired on the local DPM agent account on the protected server.

To update the password I used the two utilities SetDpmServer.exe and Update-NonDomainServerInfo.ps1

On the protected server running the DPM agent

SetDpmServer.exe -dpmServerName YOURDPMSERVER -isNonDomainServer -updatePassword

On the DPM server

Update-NonDomainServerInfo –PSName YOURPROTECTEDDPMSERVER –dpmServerName YOURDPMSERVER

AD Tools

To reset the secure connection between a workstation and a domain controller.

netdom reset MACHINE /domain:DOMAIN

To see what site your computer think it belongs to

nltest /dsgetsite

Nice tool for system information

A nice utility to get some basic information regarding your system is systeminfo.

Simply type systeminfo at the command prompt.

HP Event Notifier on Hyper-V Server

I installed my first Hyper-V Server 2008 on a HP ProLiant DL380 G5 server the other day. HP have a good document that describes what is involved to make it work.

Since Hyper-V Server is built on Windows Server Core it does not have much of a GUI so it might be a bit tricky to find the different tools. I really wanted to configure the HP Event Notifier. This tool will send you notifications by email when the system detects warnings or errors with the server hardware. I also like HP Management Agents where you can trigger an SNMP trap which you can use to test if the configuration of HP Event Notifier is working.

To get the paths to the tools I looked at a server running Windows Server 2008 with GUI :)

Event Notifier Config
C:WINDOWSsystem32CIMntfylwconfig.exe

HP Management Agents
C:WINDOWSsystem32cpqmgmt.cpl

Telnet SMTP

Below is a simple example on how to send mail manully telneting to the server

HELO myserver.com
MAIL FROM: <from@domain.com>
RCPT TO: <to@domain.com>
DATA
Subject: Some subject
Body Some body text
.
QUIT

Force Windows Update

To force Windows Update to check for new updates you can use the command:

wuauclt /detectnow

The log file is located at:

%WINDIR%\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log

Get make and model

You can use WMIC to get information regarding your computer. You can call WMIC in different ways. Here are a couple of examples on how to retrieve the make, model and serial number.

Method one is to first enter the WMIC console. Do so by typing wmic at the command prompt. Once in WMIC you can typ the following commands.

To get Make
CSProduct Get Vendor

To get Model
CSProduct Get Name

To get Serial Number
CSProduct Get IdentifyingNumber

Another way of calling WMIC is dircetly from the command prompt. Replace HOSTNAME with the host you want to query. If you want to query the local machine you are on, just enter a . (dot).

To get Make
wmic /node:”HOSTNAME” CSProduct Get Vendor

To get Model
wmic /node:”HOSTNAME” CSProduct Get Name

To get Serial Number
wmic /node:”HOSTNAME” CSProduct Get IdentifyingNumber

Allow relay trough Exchange Server 2007

Get-ReceiveConnector “Anonymous Internal Relay” | Add-ADPermission -User “NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON” -ExtendedRights “ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient”

Manually compress a .wim

imagex /compress none /capture c: c:\data.wim “data”

Start Windows Deployment Services Image Capture Wizard by hand

If the guide Windows Deployment Services Image Capture Wizard don’t start automatically when booting from a capture CD you can use the following command.

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\wdscapture.exe