Posts Categorized: Technician’s Corner

Case Study: SBS2003 5CAL Reset Issue

Microsoft KB 888818 reports that it is a KNOWN BUG that SBS2003 sometimes resets to the default of 5 Client Access Licenses (CALs). This can be caused by a number of different circumstances. They propose a handful of different solutions:

Solution 1: Restore CALs using the Backup and Restore CALs wizard in the licensing manager.

Solution 2: Restore the Windows folder from a Backup.

Solution 3: Re-add the CALs to the licensing manager from the original paperwork.

Case Study: Outlook 2013 Incompatible With Exchange 2003

MS Exchange 2003 is no longer supported and Outlook 2013 in not compatible with it. Client will need to downgrade their Outlook version if possible or purchase Outlook 2010. (Volume License agreements offer downgrade rights) Alternatively, you can set up their Exchange account as IMAP. Also, if clients use Comcast Business Class service they can install Outlook 2007 for free typically up to 10 licenses.

Ultimately the client should seriously consider upgrading their server as 2003 is now at it’s end of life cycle.

CaseStudy:Mac OS X Panther unable to boot from USB

In an attempt to wipe the drives and test the RAM I was unable to boot UBCD from a CD and USB drive. The CD isn’t recognized by the system when booting up while holding down the C key, which forces a boot from the CD drive but when it does boot up the cd icon appears on the desktop.

Case Study: WinPE-3.0 Custom Image Build

I was/am attempting to build a custom, bootable WinPE-3.0 image with Areca RAID and Dell drivers also to include executable files for gimage, disk2vhd, and EaseUS Partition Master.

I started this project with 7 batch files and a link to a walkthrough on building a custom WinPE image.

Case Study: Reset Mac OS Server Open Directory “DirAdmin” Password

There was a request to add a new user account, however none of the users in the Open Directory had directory administration privileges, meaning they could not create new user accounts. The only account with those privileges was “DirAdmin”, the default directory administrator account. However, the password for this account was not known, and there was no way to change it within the Open Directory Manager tools without Directory Administrative rights. We did, however, have local Admin rights on the server.

Case Study: Backup Device LVM issue

Background:

A Client recently moved to Idera backup for their mail server (Exchange) when the previous Symantec backup stopped working after a P2V conversion. These backups were successful, but when the backup device was moved to a new location and powered on, it was unreachable.

Problem Being Addressed:

It was presumed that the Backup Device (which was not given a static IP) simply needed to have the networking reconfigured. However, upon arrival, the device did not show up in the DHCP lease page on the DHCP server. This prompted further investigation of the system. When a keyboard and monitor was connected, it revealed that the device was unable to boot, with an error about being unable to mount key filesystems, and a prompt to enter maintenance mode.