Microsoft Print to PDF

How can I designate name & location of the PDF?

Changed type Bill_Stewart Tuesday, September 29, 2015 3:53 PM
Moved by Bill_Stewart Tuesday, September 29, 2015 3:53 PM Off-topic/poor quality question/shows no research effort

Reply:

This is a scripting question how?

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Reply:

Please read the following:

-- Bill Stewart [Bill_Stewart]

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Virtual Essentials? pros and cons?

I've been reading that some people put Server Essentials in a VM instead of running it directly on hardware. In some cases, I've read about what appears to be a physical machine running Server2012 and nothing on that server except for the VM management tools, and then a single VM on that machine running Essentials (with the domain, etc.)

What I haven't been able to find is WHY someone would do that. Why bother having a VM server that only exists for running a single virtual machine? Wouldn't it be better to have Essentials running directly on the hardware?

The only benefit I can see in doing this would be the ability to easily transplant the VM to a different host machine without any hardware issues. However, it seems to me that there would also be a significant penalty: cost of the additional license, performance loss of running in a VM instead of on physical h/w, additional h/w costs for the hosting machine, etc.

Am I missing something?

Thanks

Gary

Reply:

Gary,

I disagree with your phrase "a significant penalty".

1. Microsoft has changed the licensing terms for Essentials 2012 R2 so you can now run it in a VM with a single Essentials license purchase (http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2013/09/03/understanding-licensing-for-windows-server-2012-r2-essentials-and-the-windows-server-essentials-experience-role.aspx)

2. The performance penalty for the VMs will vary depending on your host hardware, but my testing and reading shows it's less than 3-4%.

3. With a properly designed host (especially in a single, physical server environment which I think Essentials targets) your increase in hardware costs are small.

To expand on the benefit you mentioned:

1. Resilience. You can more easily mount that VM on other hardware in the event of a server failure. Backup your VM with something like Altaro (free), restore it to another machine in the event of a failure. You could even mount it on low spec hardware (desktop) in a pinch.

2. Expandability. Purchase some hardware and licensing upgrades, spin up an additional VM on the existing server, very little downtime. Or export/import the Essentials VM to new hardware in the future.

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Reply:

Out of curiosity, I installed the hyper-v role on my 2012R2 machine (that has an essentials role), and installed Win8.1 in the VM. I configured it for 2 virtual processors and 8GB of RAM.

While doing this seemed to have ZERO impact on anything running on the "host" machine, the virtual machine ran extremely slow. (I think this is what Win8 would feel like on an original IBM PC..)

So, that leads me to wonder how, exactly, people are configuring the virtual machine under hyper-v for running 2012R2 Essentials. Perhaps there's something I missed (or perhaps the fact that the host machine was also a DC contributed to the horrid VM performance?)

I ended up restoring a backup (from before installing the hyper-v role.)

Perhaps I'll re-install the hyper-V role and install a second copy of 2012R2 in the VM, and migrate my Essentials domain from the host machine to the VM (is that possible?) and then transition the host machine to a plain 2012R2 server with only hyper-v running on it. (I'm not sure HOW I'd do all that, but it'd be fun trying.)

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Reply:

So, I've decided to give this a try afterall.

I don't have a "spare" machine to migrate my domain to, so I've reinstalled the hyper-v role on the same machine as the AD and Essentials role, and I'm in the process of installing 2012R2 in a VM there. (I'm sure the AD/Hyper-V experts are all choking on the idea of having both roles on the same machine, but it's only temporary.) I'm currently doing 122 windows updates (for the second time thanks to MS not bothering to fix an issue with an update on Gen2 VM's with secure boot enabled.)

Once updates are done, I'll more or less follow the following guide to migrate: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Dn408633.aspx

I somehow doubt that those instructions ever envisions migrating from a physical machine to a VM running in hyper-v on the same machine. On the other hand, I don't see why it WON'T work. If it does, I should be able to remove the essentials and AD roles from the physical machine, just leaving hyper-v on it.

If that all goes well, then I'll copy that VM off to a network device, and reformat the machine and install just 2012R2 with _only_ the hyper-v role, and then copy the VM (and VHDX) back.

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Reply:

Hi:

The hyper v role is meant to be the only role on the host. You cannot daisy chain them. that means only one hyper v host on each bare metal machine. If you have Server 2012 or R2 you can have two VMs. If you have Data Center it is unlimited iirc.

Do a p2v of any physical systems, then flatten the box and install Server with the hyper v role. Create the VMs and restore the pre existing server(s) to the VMs.

Larry Struckmeyer[MVP] If your question is answered please mark the response as the answer so that others can benefit.

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Reply:

Larry, I don't understand what you mean by saying I can't daisy chain them.

I'm not trying to run more than one hyper-V host. What I am doing (that, I think, is actually within my 2012R2 Std license) is running a hyper-v host role on the same physical bare metal machine as primary domain controller and essentials role. (Call this machine TheHost)

Then, inside the hyper-v host, I have a single VM which is ALSO running as a domain controller and has the essentials role. (call this machine TheGuest) This is the only machine (physical or otherwise) that's running hyper-v host.

The purpose here is to migrate the AD Role and "Essentials Role" functionality from TheHost to TheGuest. (Doing a P2V never occurred to me, but I'd probably have rejected it even if it had... I've never had good long-term results when dramatically changing h/w on a machine... and converting from physical devices to virtual devices is quite a change.)

Does that clarify what I'm doing?

Now, once I've managed to finish the migration, I'll remove the AD and Essentials roles from TheHost. That will leave a bare metal Server2012R2 Std running only a hyper-v role (more or lesss) and TheGuest will assume primary everything.

Finally, just because I'm a neat and tidy person and all that "uninstalling" on TheHost is bound to leave garbage around, I'll copy TheGuest VM (and virtual drives) to a NAS, and then completely recreate TheHost as _only_ running the Hyper-V role and put TheGuest VM back on it.

I sure hope this will all work (even if the process I'm using is unconventional, unsupported, and completely insane) as it's been pretty educational for me.

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Reply:

A quick follow up - So far, this is all working. I now have:

TheHost: running Hyper-V and File/Storage roles ONLY.

TheGuest: (running as a VM inside TheHost): running ADDS+Essentials (and all the related stuff.)

The only thing I still want to do is export TheGuest VM someplace safe, and completely re-install 2012R2Std on TheHost (for a completely clean install with only the Hyper-V role ever installed.) Once done, I'll reimport the TheGuest VM and everything will look and smell great. ;)

However, I'm going to delay doing this last step for 2 things: First, I want to make sure that everything is running smoothly the way I have it. Second, I might want to make some hardware changes on TheHost (and I don't want to have to re-install 2012R2 yet another time. Installing hundreds of windows updates is just.. painful.)

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Reply:

From your post before this, you mention the HOST as th Hyper-V manager role, AND as a DC. Apparently you don't want to that. I see that you didn't...the HOST HyperV manager should be nothing but the manager. And I guess a BACKUP app. But I assume nothing more.

after doing all this, were you able to eliminate the Essentials COnfig Wizard nag via REGEDIT? and the TIME SYNCRO, and the bug in Essentials that will shut the VM down due to the license bug? REGEDIT hack also for that.

There is a hack (powershell) to get a 1st top level domain other than .local also in essentials. do you can use a third level, second level and .com etc top level domain. i.e. AD.MYDOMAIN.com

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Reply:

after doing all this, were you able to eliminate the Essentials COnfig Wizard nag via REGEDIT? and the TIME SYNCRO, and the bug in Essentials that will shut the VM down due to the license bug? REGEDIT hack also for that.

I really didn't have some of the essentials specific issues as I'm using the essentials ROLE on a standard server. So, in my case, the HOST is just a plain 2012 R2 standard server with the hyper-vt role and windows backup. The virtual "client" is running 2012 R2 Standard with the Essentials Role.

I really don't seem to have any time issues, but I did follow various guides online (found via a non-microsoft search engine) for setting up a 2012 R2 domain server under hyper-v and the adjustments those guides suggest for fixing any time issues.

Take care

Gary

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RDP to Server 2008 works only after logged to console.

Hi,

I have problem with one Windows Server 2008. RDP connections stops working. When connecting via RDP it gives error The remote computer "xx.xx.xx.xx." returned an rdp protocol error (Return code: 2308).

Server is vmware virtual server. This problem occurs randomly every week, random days. RDP starts working again when I logon via console connection from vmware. Then RDP connections works fine. Sometimes this error occurs many times a day.

Has anyone else had similar problem?

bash command to delete files older than 5 days

Hello,

I want to delete files on windows system which are 45 days old.

I tried the below command

forfiles -p "C:\what\ever" -s -m *.* -d 45 -c "cmd /c del @path"

Error: No file found with the specified search criteria.

I tried other values like 5 instead of 45 but it always give the same result

Moved by Rob Caplan [MSFT]Microsoft employee Wednesday, September 2, 2015 1:56 PM

Reply:

If 45 days OLD, that should be -45 not 45.

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Reply:

Its resolved my issue. thanks

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Suggestions for Beginners

Hi All,

I'm a beginner to SCCM and Script. I'm eagerly interested to learn SCCM and Script. I've already started to learn SCCM via online courses and from Colleagues. Meanwhile I'd like to know the best way to learn these things. Please suggest to your junior to become an expertise like you all in this Profession.

Changed type Bill_Stewart Wednesday, September 2, 2015 1:59 PM

Reply:

Hi,

There are good resources for getting started with PowerShell here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx

If you're going to learn scripting, make sure you focus on PowerShell first and don't waste your time with VBScript or batch.

Here is a link to my favorite command reference, which usually contains good examples:

http://ss64.com/ps/

You can also find more information here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh847741(v=wps.630).aspx

Make sure that you're running and learning the latest version of PowerShell (currently v4, v5 will be released shortly and is already live on Win10 [I think]). Sometimes it's handy to know about older v1/v2 methods of doing things, but you can save that for later learning opportunities. When you search the internet for blog posts on how to do something, make sure you look at the post date. Try to use newer material when you're learning to make sure you don't pick up on older and outdated methods that are actually bad things to do now.

There are plenty of scripts in the repository as well, which you can look over as examples and use as starting points for building your own scripts:

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter

I recommend lurking here and in the PowerShell forum. Simply reading threads over the course of a few months will get you familiarized with many different ideas and concepts. Once you're comfortable with the basics, you can then start trying to answer beginner level questions that are asked. You'll find that the PowerShell forum I've linked to above generally has simpler questions and is a better forum for beginners. The questions that are asked here are often more complex and will involve other scripting languages that you shouldn't waste your time on.

Lastly, make sure that you're open to suggestion and criticism along the way. Sometimes people forget that text on the intarwebs does not have any tone and take offense at things that are never intended to be offensive.

Welcome to the scripting world, and good luck with your journey.

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Reply:

I struggled with PowerShell initially. The training that FINALLY got me understanding it is here:

https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/en-us/training-courses/getting-started-with-powershell-3-0-jump-start-8276

It's a very nice pace - and the presenters really know how to teach. Repeat the commands as they do them (preferably on a VM!), and if you don't get it, go through that video again.

I also managed to solidify those fundamentals with a book called PowerShell in a Month of Lunches. An even slower pace than the videos (and hey, that's not a bad thing when you're picking up something brand new) and some excellent examples in there too.

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Difference in Database size and total tables and indexes size

Hi Guys,

I have inherited a database on SQL 2012 standard edition. It's size has been increasing and we are trying to find out the reason. The total mdf file size is 126 GB, and the free space is almost eaten up so it might increase again. I've tried identifying index fragmentation and rebuilding the fragmented indexes but that only frees up space around 2 GB, and then it starts utilizing that free space very quickly as well.

I have tried the following script to know the total object size, but total size according to this script is just 88 GB. Can anyone please help in finding out what might be causing the database to grow?

select sum(TotalSpaceGB) from (
SELECT
s.Name AS SchemaName,
t.NAME AS TableName,
p.rows AS RowCounts,
(SUM(a.total_pages) * 8)/1024/1024 AS TotalSpaceGB,
(SUM(a.used_pages) * 8)/1024/1024 AS UsedSpaceGB,
((SUM(a.total_pages) - SUM(a.used_pages)) * 8)/1024/1024 AS UnusedSpaceGB
FROM
sys.tables t
INNER JOIN
sys.schemas s ON s.schema_id = t.schema_id
INNER JOIN
sys.indexes i ON t.OBJECT_ID = i.object_id
INNER JOIN
sys.partitions p ON i.object_id = p.OBJECT_ID AND i.index_id = p.index_id
INNER JOIN
sys.allocation_units a ON p.partition_id = a.container_id
/* WHERE
t.NAME NOT LIKE 'dt%' -- filter out system tables for diagramming
AND t.is_ms_shipped = 0
AND i.OBJECT_ID > 255 */
GROUP BY
t.Name, s.Name, p.Rows) a

Reply:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/tibor_karaszi/archive/2008/06/19/did-we-have-recent-autogrow.aspx

SELECT te.name, t.DatabaseName, t.FileName, t.StartTime, t.ApplicatioNname
FROM fn_trace_gettable('C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\MSSQL\LOG\log_331.trc', NULL) AS t
INNER JOIN sys.trace_events AS te ON t.EventClass = te.trace_event_id
WHERE te.name LIKE '%Auto Grow'
ORDER BY StartTime ASC

--DECLARE @path VARCHAR(255),
--@cmd VARCHAR(300);
--SET @path = 'F:\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\';
--SET @cmd = 'F:\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\log*.trc'
--SET @cmd='dir /b ' + '"' + @cmd + '"'

DECLARE @path VARCHAR(255),
@cmd VARCHAR(300);
SET @path = 'O:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG\';
SET @cmd = 'O:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG\log*.trc'
SET @cmd='dir /b ' + '"' + @cmd + '"'

DECLARE @files TABLE(fn VARCHAR(64));

INSERT @files EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @cmd;
SELECT * FROM @files
DELETE @files
WHERE fn IS NULL;SELECT e.DatabaseName, e.[FileName],
e.SPID, e.Duration, e.StartTime, e.EndTime,
FileType = CASE e.EventClass
WHEN 92 THEN 'Data' WHEN 93 THEN 'Log' END,
[TraceFile] = f.fn FROM @files f CROSS APPLY
fn_trace_gettable(@path + f.fn, DEFAULT) e
WHERE e.EventClass IN (92,93)

Best Regards,Uri Dimant SQL Server MVP, http://sqlblog.com/blogs/uri_dimant/

MS SQL optimization: MS SQL Development and Optimization
MS SQL Consulting: Large scale of database and data cleansing
Remote DBA Services: Improves MS SQL Database Performance
SQL Server Integration Services: Business Intelligence

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Return MemberOf for ADGoups

Get-ADUser Property MemberOf is very good for returning user membership of ADGroups however I am trying to do the same for ADGroups - In Active Directory I want to return the Details for the Member Of Tab for an ADGroup

Thanks TerryV

Reply:

Google: "get ad group members"

If it wasn't so simple we would have to invent Google just so we would know the answer:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#newwindow=1&q=get+ad+group+members

Once you learn a little about computers and the Internet you will be able to learn how to do your own searches. Searches are very easy but new users can't always understand how to search for things.

Good luck. Look into how to use a search engine. It wild save you a lot of time.

;)

\_(ツ)_/

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Reply:

Thanks for the tip

Yes I am aware of the Get-ADGroupMemebers cmdlet in PowerShell.

However I have the scenario where we apply User Access via an ADGroup. This ADGroup is then a Member Of another ADGroup where we have implemented Folder Access.

I am wanting to return the details in the Member Of Tab in ADUC MMC for the ADGroup where we have applied user access and not the list of users.

I have found the answer - Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership

Thanks TerryV

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Reply:

As I noted above; you have to learn to ask the right question.

You want the groups a user is a member of and not the members of a group. If you carefully read your original question I believe you will see that you reversed the target of you requirement in the explanation.

You want what you originally reversed you way out oof. You want what is on the "memberOf" tab of the user.

\_(ツ)_/

Edited by jrv Thursday, September 3, 2015 1:33 AM

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Reply:

hi jrv

No I wanted the "Member Of" of for a Group - Not the membership of the group - but the group detail "member of" and not members

we have groups named G-ROL-Server-Share-Folder and are used to add users - The G-ROL-Server-Share-Folder is then a "Member Of" D-DAT-Server-Share-Folder which applies the NTFS Security Permissions on the Folder - I have a list of G-ROL Groups and I needed their corresponding D-DAT Group to ensure how our Access Standards are implemented correctly.

Thanks TerryV

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Reply:

Are you saying you want the groups a group is a member of?

\_(ツ)_/

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Reply:

Yes - That is exactly what I need - Thanks

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Reply:

You can do the same thing you do with Get-ADUser:


Get-ADGroup 'Test Group 1' -Properties MemberOf

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Reply:

Thanks All for your input but I was able to retrieve the required information using the Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership

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Windows 10 Enterprise - No Office Patches

Hey folks,

I have Win10 enterprise on my domain right now and most things are working well. The one thing I noticed is that the updates are not getting MS Office 2013 patches when I run the updater (whatever the new windows update is called). I know this because I uninstalled and reinstalled office 2013 SP1 today. There are TONS of patches for it and when I ran the update it said nothing was available even though I chose "Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows". Has anyone found a way around this?

One thing - PLEASE do not post the typical "Run sfc /checknow" etc.. The system is running well I think there is just a problem with the updater function because I dont get patches on my home machine either.

Changed type smgorham Thursday, September 3, 2015 2:17 AM

Reply:

What's the version number that's shown on the File - Account page? And what's the name of the installer that you're running?

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Reply:

This turned out to be a proxy issue. Thanks for the assist

Edited by smgorham Thursday, September 3, 2015 2:17 AM

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Taskbar search doesn't find all applications

My taskbar search is not able to find all of my installed programs. For example notepad++ is found but filezilla not (even when I type the whole application name). Both programs have a shortcut in a subfolder of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.

I checked that the folder with the shortcuts is enabled for indexing, rebuilt the search index (2 or 3 times) and did a restarted but nothing happens.

I'm on Build 10240 (Cortana and Web search are disabled by GPO)

Any ideas?

Moved by Pravalika Reddy Tuesday, August 4, 2015 10:05 AM Moving threads
Changed type Michael_LS Wednesday, August 5, 2015 8:28 AM

Reply:

Same issue here. What I've noticed is that if the app shows up on the "All apps" in the start menu, it can be found but otherwise it isn't found.

I just installed VS2015 and I have no icons anywhere for it. It's not on "All apps" and I can't search for it. If I go to the location of program on disk, I have an option to pin it to the start menu, but that does nothing; again because it's not in "All apps". I can however pin it to the taskbar.

There seems to be some issue with the start menu being built.

This is on build 10240, so it worries me for final release if this was supposed to be RTM and I can't find a third of what's installed on my PC without browsing the hard drive because the menu isn't working.

Edited by Michael RZ Monday, July 27, 2015 1:33 PM

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Reply:

>My taskbar search is not able to find all of my installed programs.

It doesn't find shortcuts to product documentation files either.

We've still got Win7's start menu to look up to in some areas :(

Dave

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Reply:

Is there any workaround or fix to get the same search behavior as in Windows 7?

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Reply:

>Is there any workaround or fix to get the same search behavior as in Windows 7?

I'm not aware of any.

Dave

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Reply:

Hi,

I noticed that Windows 10 doesn't search shortcut without showing in all applications.

Please feedback this issue on WindowsFeedback. I will also record the issue in our platform.

Thanks for noticing this issue.

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

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Reply:

Update: Still having the issue. I just installed some new desktop software and none of that shows up either. I also don't have any way to launch Paint, Calculator, ... or much of anything else that comes with the OS. They aren't on the "All apps" menu and since they aren't there, the search on Cortana won't find them.

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Reply:

From my side I couldn't find any parallels between working and non-working shortcuts. For example:

C:\ProgramData\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\Tools\PUTTY.lnk > "C:\Program Files\Tools\PuTTY\PUTTY.EXE" - working
C:\ProgramData\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\Tools\Test.lnk > "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" - not working
C:\ProgramData\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\Wireshark.lnk > "C:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe" - working
C:\ProgramData\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\Wireshark-Test.lnk > "C:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe" - not working

It's also a pity that I need to type the whole name of the application. Seaching for "PUTT" brings no result. But with "PUTTY" it finds the shortcut..

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Reply:

Just installed the new KB3081424 but no change - even after index rebuild.

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Reply:

Hi Woidla27,

Thanks for your sharing.

We have submitted the feedback regarding the issue here.

And if any further helpful information I found, I will share it here.

Regards

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Just found this article and the Powershell commands fixed all my issues.

http://bit.ly/1DGEO9z

UPDATE:

False alarm. It worked for one cycle then went back to missing when I rebooted.

Edited by Michael RZ Tuesday, August 11, 2015 6:01 PM

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Reply:

Just installed Office 365 2016 Beta and no luck there either. It's nowhere to be found on the start menu.

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Reply:

After a lot of updates still the same problem..

FYI: I updated another client from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and with my existing (converted) account the search is working without problems.

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up to windows 10

up to windows 10,

Reply:

Windows 10 and Windows 7 are not the same operating system.

This is a Windows 7 forum.

For Windows 10 issues you need to go to the Windows 10 IT Pro category forums

Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. "

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Add User From a domain to another Domain

Hi!

I have two domains (dom1 and dom2). How to add an user from the dom1 to a group in the dom2 using ADSI.

And How can I verified if the user is already in the group?

I use powershell v2

Thank You

Changed type Bill_Stewart Tuesday, September 29, 2015 3:52 PM
Moved by Bill_Stewart Tuesday, September 29, 2015 3:52 PM This is not "scripts on demand"

Reply:

Please read the following:

-- Bill Stewart [Bill_Stewart]

------------------------------------

Connection Lost Downloading Windows 8.1 Upgrade, Restarts at 0%

I was downloading the upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro from Windows 8 Pro.

When I was at 40% download, my internet connection lost. So I waited, but it automatically restarted from 0%. What the hell? I downloaded that 40% by giving 10 hours of time. Now I have to start again from 0%. Assume I'll start downloading again and if this time it will fail at 90%. So What should i do for complete the download

Edited by Brandon Records Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:28 PM Shortened and clarified title.

Reply:

10 hours for 40%? Is it you have a slow connection or are you doing it over wireless? If you are using wireless, I recommend not trying to update with that, and use a wired connection if possible.

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DNS Management in IPAM

In Windows Server 2016, management of DNS properties have been significantly enhanced in IPAM. In 2012 R2, IPAM used to discover DNS zone information and monitored availability of DNS zones. In the new version, administrators can now manage DNS zones, conditional forwarders and resource records across multiple DNS servers using IPAM.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/teamdhcp/archive/2015/09/02/dns-management-in-ipam.aspx

DNS policies support for Active Directory Environment

In Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3, the DNS policies support has been extended to Active Directory backed zones. Active Directory integration inherently provides multi-master high availability capabilities to the DNS server. In earlier blogs, we had seen how to configure DNS server policies for different scenarios on file backed DNS zones. But as many of our customers use Active Directory environment, it was needed that the traffic management capabilities of DNS policies were extended to the Active Directory integrated zones.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/teamdhcp/archive/2015/09/01/split-brain-dns-in-active-directory-environment-using-dns-policies.aspx

SQL Server Virtualization - Vmotion

Hello,

We are looking into a solution of HA for our sql servers. Solutions that we got are AlwaysOn FCI with SQL Server Standard with shared storage and AlwaysOn Availability Groups. We just received another proposal yesterday regarding SQL server virtualization with Vmotion. Vmotion supports live migration of virtual machines without any downtime.

We understand from their proposal that there will be only one virtual machine running SQL server. In case the physical host goes down, that VM will move another host. My question is: Is that virtualized solution comparable to an AlwaysOn FCI and AlwaysOn AG? Our ultimate solution is not to lose any transactions. In case of AlwaysOn FCI and ALwaysON AG, it is understood that the passive server will pickup without the loss of transaction. Will that be the case here? In the scenario of Vmotion, when the host is down and it is moved to the new host, is there a chance the logs and data files become corrupt?

thanks to advise.

Dave

Moved by Naomi N Wednesday, September 2, 2015 12:14 PM Better answer can be here

Reply:

Hi,

I think they would arrange Windows server running as VM, to have Sql server inside, to you. Within that VM Windows server, everything is like the same that you run Sql server inside one Windows server using Physical hardware.

Many Thanks & Best Regards, Hua Min

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hello,

How about the HA offered by Vmware then?

I am still a bit confused. Is that kind of solution supported by Microsoft?

Ashley

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi Dave,

VM ware is the VM technology to the Windows server.

Many Thanks & Best Regards, Hua Min

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Reply:

Dave (And Ashley):

This is a bit late and I assume that you've already gotten your answer but if not or for those that follow and have the same question...

Always On availability groups are NOT the same thing as vMotion or HA capability on an ESX cluster. vMotion will allow you to move the VM around between hosts while it's live with minimal impact (high transaction large memory servers may need special attention and you'll need the infrastructure to make all work well). vMotion is great as planned downtime on an ESX host does not need to take the VM down. It does not help with unplanned downtime.

For unplanned downtime (where the availability groups take hold) there are a couple of options, neither of which replace a SQL cluster

Fault Tolerance which has improved its requirements in ESX 6. This operates a VM in lockstep with another VM on another host and if there's a failure the system switches over to it seamlessly. But if the OS bugchecks or you have corruption on the primary system, that to happens on the secondary. (vCPU count limit has been a major drawback with prior to 6.0)

High Availability - If a host unexpectedly goes down, all VMs (resources allowing) fire up on another host. Downtime is minimized but not eliminated.

Site Recovery Manager - For VMs and catastrophic losses - can fire up the VM at a DR site within minutes (depending on a number of factors) with a RPO of >5 minutes. (Just tossing that out there)

If this is a mission critical 5 nines system, you should probably operate it as SQL cluster. If you can realistically have some downtime then having a single server and relying on VMware is certainly an option. It's uncommon to have a BSOD out of the blue in a VM on ESX. So long as your storage stays up it's also uncommon to have data corruption (and even with unplanned/unexpected storage outages, VMware is fairly forgiving now, unlike in the 3.5/4.x days). That type of outage is usually upstream of the hosts, so it doesn't matter if it's physical or virtual, you'd have an outage anyways.

FWIW, we run physical and virtual SQL implementations and are starting to look at SQL with Always On groups ontop of VMware.

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Reply:

This question would be better answered in the High Availability forum.

However, there is no such thing as zero transactions lost. In the case of unplanned outage of the primary server, any current connections will be terminated, and any in transit transactions will be rolled back at the SQL Server level. It is up to the application to determine if the transaction is resubmitted or not.

In any case, with the advances of hardware and software unplanned outages are extremely rare. Although you should plan on them, they almost never happen.

The problem with vMotion is "where is your data"? Your data files are stored on the VM or on a SAN? vMotion moves the running server, in memory from host to host, not the data. So you need to understand what you are getting. You need to have a plan for the shared storage to become corrupt or down also.

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Reply:

I think Ayad could give you a better answer here than I can, but here are a few thoughts:

a) An unplanned downtime always means that in-flight transactions are lost. There is no way around that.

b) In an unplanned crash of the ESXI host the recovery time will be significantly higher than with SQL FCI or AG, as not only does SQL need to recover, but you also need to boot the OS first

c) In a planned downtime of the ESXI you have zero downtime, which is something that you can't achieve with FCI or AG.

d) The problem though is if you need a downtime of the Windows instance in the VM. (e.g. for applying a service pack to SQL Server) In an AG scenario, and mostly also in FCI scenarios you will do that on the passive node while your DB is still online, then failover and do it again on the other side. In your VM scenario your whole database is down for the entire time the installation needs.

e) Also don't forget: In a VM (as well as an FCI) you run on single storage... If the disk subsystem fails you are done, the DBs are lost. (=must restore from backup) In an AG you really have two separate copies of the DB, so even a total failure of one diskset would not mean anything more than a failover...

Point C is the one that speaks all for the VM solution. But if you really want HA for SQL then VMWare HA is not enough in the end.

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Update Issue with Lumia 535

The OS version in my Lumia 535 is showing 8.10.14234.375 which is not the latest.

When I try to update my phone it shows that the Phone is up to date.

Please reply...

Edited by M Gupta Monday, June 29, 2015 11:26 AM
Moved by Just Karl Wednesday, October 14, 2015 3:12 PM Moving old questions.

Reply:

Hello,

The MSDN, TechNet and Expression Library Feedback forum is to "Help improve the Library Experience in MSDN, TechNet and Expression by providing feedback on features, bugs, look and feel or by just providing suggestions". This is not a support forum.

You should ask in the Windows Phone forums on the Microsoft Community forums.

As the Microsoft Community is on a different platform, we cannot move the question for you.

Once there, click on Participate near the top of the screen, and select 'Ask a Question' or 'Start a Discussion'

Karl

When you see answers and helpful posts, please click Vote As Helpful, Propose As Answer, and/or Mark As Answer.
My Blog: Unlock PowerShell
My Book: Windows PowerShell 2.0 Bible
My E-mail: -join('6D73646E5F6B61726C406F75746C6F6F6B2E636F6D'-split'(?<=\G.{2})'|%{if($_){[char][int]"0x$_"}})

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Lync event id 32134

Hi all,

I installed Lync 2010 EE on a windows 2008 r2 server. everything was fine, but when i migrate a user from ocs 2007 to lync and i tryed to connect the user, the lync client said that i could have limited functionalities, but nothing is working.

in the front end event viewer i have the event id 31134:

Log Name: Lync Server

Source: LS User Services

Date: 15/02/2011 14.37.28

Event ID: 32134

Task Category: (1006)

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: GRPI-LNC-PV00.cariprpc.it

Description:

Failed to connect to back-end database. Lync Server will continuously attempt to reconnect to the back-end. While this condition persists, incoming messages will receive error responses.

Back-end Server: grlync00\grsqllync Database: rtc Connection string of:

driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Trusted_Connection=yes;AutoTranslate=no;server=grlync00\grsqllync;database=rtc;

Cause: Possible issues with back-end database.

Resolution:

Ensure the back-end is functioning correctly.

Event Xml:

<Channel>Lync Server</Channel>

<Computer>GRPI-LNC-PV00.cariprpc.it</Computer>

</System>

<Data>grlync00\grsqllync</Data>

<Data>driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Trusted_Connection=yes;AutoTranslate=no;server=grlync00\grsqllync;database=rtc;</Data>

</EventData>

</Event>

can somebody help me??

Reply:

Hi, would you please disable firewall on backend SQL server, and then check if all SQL services are started up, at last reboot backend SQL server try again. In the same time, would you please check if there is more information on SQL server.

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Reply:

I found that the SQL Server (RTC) was stopped, we started the services and Lync services started smoothly

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'Hey Cortana' not working after unlocking PC

'Hey cortana' works fine, but once the PC locks and I unlock it, it stops. I have to either re-enable it in settings or hit the microphone. Anyone else having just the 'hey cortana' part stop working after a PC unlock?

Reply:

Yes, same issue

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Reply:

Same issue. Same work around - either go to settings and turn "hey Cortana" off and back on or click on the mic icon. PITA

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Reply:

MS will have to address this one. It seems odd but I am thinking this is the intended behavior.

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Reply:

Tried that. As soon as I hit the microphone, Cortana closes (without even saying goodbye).

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Office 2010 Standard

Hi,

I am using MS Excel 2010 standard. i am not able to insert row using mouse.

Tip for searching in 10

Still, suggest one of the quickest, easiest ways to search is hit the Win key & begin typing...

If you're not hip to it ^ yet, try it. And, means can have no Search anything on the Taskbar, no icon or box (Search Hidden); no need.

NB: It is a given that some Folks are already aware of this :) An FYI for others :)

Drew MS Partner / MS Beta Tester / Pres. Computer Issues Pres. Computer Issues www.drewsci.com

Edited by Drew1903 Wednesday, September 2, 2015 8:01 AM

Ms Support forum

Monday, January 31, 2022