CRM Online Queues with Office 365

I know my posts have been far and few between - but I got a good one here that took me a little homework to figure out!

Everyone is moving to Office 365 these days - small business to enterprise!  When they also use the hosted version of Dynamics CRM Online, it can be confusing to setup an email queue for use on CRM.  Even other partners will try to get you to sign up for another mailbox so they can capture the extra revenue!!!  DONT DO IT!

The answer is to go into the admin panel of your Office 365 account and configure a "shared mailbox".  This does NOT count against your license or cost any extra money as long as you stay under the storage amount set for your tier level!  After you configure this, you can go into your CRM Online business management and configure your CRM Queue - its THAT easy!

Hope this cuts down on the learning curve for some of you all out there!

DIY: How to make a 4-bay UHF antenna pick up VHF channels!

One of the hot items becoming more popular today is to cut the cord - get rid of the BIG PROVIDER TV Service.  Personally, I have Charter in my area and subscribed to their very expensive total package.  Last month, I finally decided to knock it down to internet and leverage the 4-bay antenna I have in my attic!

Unfortunately, my home setup consisted of a HD HomeRun Prime network tuner (which accepts only cable cards and QAM signals) and a few Windows Media Center PC's hooked up to TV's in my home.  My ONLY set-top box was in my living room, hooked to my home theater.  This is unfortunate because when I cut the cord - I had to come up with another solution to distribute my TV signal on my network.  Enter MythBuntu!

I have been going back and forth on MythTV for years.  Finally, I was at the point where I HAD to make the move.  I had a few ATSC tuners from my HTPC trial days, so I tossed them in my old backup server - a dual core AMD with an 80gb boot drive and 4 2TB hard drives, raid 5.  Turns out, one of the cards as defected while it was in storage on my shelf (in an anti-static bag) - but the other one worked!  And each card has 2 tuners (AverMedia A180)!  I downloaded MythBuntu and installed it on the 80gb hard drive, reformatted the Raid 5 and mounted it /mnt/storage - and symlinked all the mythtv directories over there.  Problem solved - or so I thought!

The first issue I ran into was the card not showing up.  The AverMedia is an old card, originally designed as a piggy back for a the MCE 150.  Apparently, this A180 IS on the supported hardware list.  It uses the saa7134 driver.  However, it needs the NXT firmware available.  This firmware was NOT available, nor was the script that MythTV says to use to download it!  I hunted around for a couple hours until I found a forum thread that had it attached - as soon as I was able to get the firmware in place BINGO!  The card was assigned as a frontend0 device I could now configure in MythTV Backend!  This is also when I discovered the other card had died on me.  That was a quick removal - it did not impair the ability to forge ahead!

While I was working on this, I wanted to be able to get some TV - mostly the Sunday Night Animation Domination on FOX.  I hooked my antenna to my OLD RG6 distribution and hooked up my TV's.  Wow- I cannot remember the last time I had RF to my TV directly!!!  I ran the auto channel scan and picked up all the majors - I was a happy camper.  However.. After a week or so, channel 11 (WXIA, VHF 10), disappeared!  Nothing had changed!!!  I was perplexed!!  So I called the family member who knows the most about this - and he QUICKLY found my problem - THE ANTENNA!

So the long story short - Radio signals are sin waves.  The higher the frequency the shorter the wave.  The lower the frequency the longer the wave.  VHF is higher frequency than UHF.  A 4-bay antenna has very small elements on it.  Elements are the metal "fingers" that grab the signal out of thin air.  Since I only had the short elements, I needed some LONG elements to catch the LONGER wave!  I didnt want to spend the money, take the time and use the space for a store-bought antenna - I already had one - I want to make work what I have in place already!  I grabbed a few metal coat hangers, some pliers, a hammer, a few nails and some string and headed up into the attic!  I stretched out the coat hangers to a minimum of around 18 inches and scraped off any plastic/color coating so I could make a solid connection to my already-existing antenna.  I loosened the wing nuts where my F connector tied in and simply wrapped the coat hanger around the bolt.  I tightened up the wing nuts and made sure the new elements would stay horizontal with the floor.  They held well, so I did not need to support them with the string and nails ;)  Quickly - VERY EXCITED about this new endeavor - I hopped down the attic stairs and ran to the bedroom.  I brought up the TV's manual channel management menu and checked my signal - BOOM!  There we have it!!!  to maximize my cheap upgrade, I checked www.tvfool.com and google maps to make sure it was pointed the proper direction.  I swung it slightly right and increased my signal another 15% or so!  Ran the channel scan and picked up EVERY FRIGGIN CHANNEL!  I went from around 32 channels found to well over 50!  MythTV was also able to pick up every single channel that was listed on TVFool.com as well!  WAHOO!

So now my next issue - all my media center PC's have Windows 7 installed.  MythTV is linux based.  To install a MythTV front end, I needed to reformat and reinstall.  UGH!  more work!  Thankfully, I ran across Kodi.  This is XBMC renamed.  Turns out, Kodi has an extension that will tie into the MythTV API!  You can manage recordings and everything!  SUWEET!  I ran with it!  However, after a week or two (bringing this up to last night) - Kodi quit showing the "TV" menu item.  In my initial research, it seems there is a bug that has yet to be tracked down.  AT this point, I am considering taking the bullet and just installing linux.  I should be okay with the hardware platforms I have - and the remotes I have work with the most common IR driver on linux.  Should be a win-win...  I have yet to make a full decision, but as you can probably tell, I am leaning heavy towards putting the work in moving to linux!  Kodi has an Ubuntu minimal install, but I am weary of running into the same issue..  MythBuntu was quick and easy - so I may just go that route again.  The hardwork of the backend and TV Signal is complete - the frontends are just clean up!

On path I have been considering is going with the HD HomeRun Extended - pretty much the same as my network tuner, except it comes with 2 tuners instead of 3 - and receives and ATSC signal.  This could be used independently by what I already have on the network OR through MythTV.  Face it, I dont have much to record on OTA broadcasting!  However, the feature is GREAT to have what I DO record shared across all the TV's in the house!

I have attached a few pictures of the install.  It is rinky-dink - but it took me 15 minutes - cost a couple coat hangers - AND ITS IN MY ATTIC - so aesthetics matter not - ONLY FUNCTIONALITY!

Key Managment Service on Windows 2008 R2

Some may not know that Key Managment Service is already installed with Windows 2008 and 2008 R2. All you have to do is activate your server with your key. This can be confusing because if you download the package from Microsoft meant for 2003 server versions, you will receive the error "There is not enough storage space to complete the command". Horrible error as it points you in all the wrong directions!

Just drop to the cmd and hit 'slmgr' and the options will display for you on screen... That simple!

Office Communication Server - Stress you can handle!

I finally got Office Communications Server 2007 R2 up and running after fiddling around with it for 3 days! I am super excited- the public IM connectivity is functioning just as it was before the upgrade / domain move-

I really dig the new management abilities Microsoft built into OCS 2007 R2. You have an easier to use, more granular ability to control users and the behavior of the pool.. Please take note, however, you DO need to install the management tools on a domain computer in order to provision users. The management tools are a seperate install all together from the core / base roles of operation.

I would have completed this in a day if it was not for a tiny oversight I made on the core installation. MAKE SURE you add the local computer name to the Subject Alternate Name on the certificate for the Pool Cert. My Edge and Front End were not connecting until I regenerated the certificate with the computer name in the SAN.. If it was not for that, the 2 days off and on of troubleshooting would have been non-existent..

Exchange 2010, Administrator Accounts and ActiveSync

Apparently there is an issue with Exchange 2010 and Administrative accounts. When you are an admin in AD it will remove the inheritable permissions from your account. When you do not have inherited permissions, Exchange is unable to write meta-data to your account. This created a mind boggling issue for me when I updated to Exchange 2010 and tried to attach my phone for over the air activesync. I kept recieving error 0x85010014, regardless of what I tried to fix the issue - including a phone wipe!

Once I removed my account from the domain admins and allowed my user object to inherit parent permissions, my phone joined up and sync'd immediatly!

Site to Site VPN with Cisco PIX and Pfsense

A quick note that when creating a pfsense to cisco pix site to site vpn tunnel, main mode should be used opposed to aggressive. After this small change, ping a host on the other side of the tunnel and it should come right up!

SharePoint Authentication Problem & Fix

I was running into authentication problems with SharePoint on a fresh installation on a new farm.

I was receiving Status code: 0xC000006D in the security logs for my user account.

The fix is to check KB 896861 for more information. Method B resolved my issues.

When SBS Goes Bad - Exchange 2007 Recovery

Like many other small businesses, I use Microsoft Small Business Server. More specifically, SBS 2008 Standard Edition. Being an IT professional, I ALWAYS have a secondary AD server just in case something happens to the SBS server. This past week, my SBS 2008 server crashed! It was pretty nasty. The LDAP authentication was skewed, the kerberos key was skewed. Basically, the only thing that would have saved my tail would have been a system state backup from a month ago. I only kept 15 days.

Fortunate for me, I had the 2nd ad server. So I used some resource tools to remove the metadata for the SBS server, and set the burflags on my ntfrs service to make the sysvol share authoritative for the domain and restarted the ntfrs service. I brought up another 2008 x64 server and installed Exchange 2007 on it. I created a restore group and restored my SBS exchange database. I moved over the configuration data in AD to point to the new exchange server. Unfortunatly, the database I restored would not mount. I was receiving the error: MapiExceptionCall Failed 0x080004005 ec=-511 (I also received 502, 510 on previous tries). I was able to repair the database using eseutil.exe with the /p and /d options. After the passes completed successfully, I was able to mount the database and initiate the merge between the recovery group and the live database for what is referred to as a "dial tone" restore.

All is well now! I ousted the SBS server and went with another virtual AD server and standalone exchange. SBS is no more for me (FOR NOW).

Connecting to Cisco IPSEC VPN from x64 Windows Vista

A constant issue I have been hearing about lately is the ability or lack there of to connect a Windows Vista (usually x64) to Cisco IPSEC VPN devices. As you may already know, Cisco is moving away from IPSEC VPN on their newer devices and as of this writing have not released any plans to implement IPSEC on x64 or Vista platforms. They are moving toward SSL VPN connections, which in most cases, requires additional license purchase along with your multi thousand dollar initial investment in their ASA line of products.

In the search to fix this problem I have run across an open source implementation that has worked so far so good with Cisco VPN devices. This open source product uses the OpenVPN tapi interface as its backend and a user friendly front end that will import your Cisco VPN client .pcf with ease. IMPORTANT NOTE: When you are finished installing this package, you MUST reboot your computer!! Enough chatter go download already! http://sourceforge.net/projects/vpncfe/

Hope this helps!!

Microsoft CRM 4.0 IFD (Internet Facing Deployment) Tool

In order to access your Microsoft CRM 4.0 deployment from the internet correctly, you must run the CRM IFD TOOL to make the proper modifications to your system.

You can find the tool at the following location:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=69089514-6e5a-47e1-928b-4e4d4a8541c0

Live Communications Server 2005 to Office Communications Server 2007 Migration

In the mood of migrations, I decided to step up into the world of now-- all the way around! After the move to SBS 2008, it seemed natural to upgrade my communications platform. I decided to step up to the plate with OCS 2007 Standard Edition.

Currently, I was running Live Communications Server 2005 Standard Edition with a single Standard Server deployed and a single Access Proxy for federation and remote access. This setup has worked very well for the past ~3 years, so I was hesitant to forge ahead, but hey, why not?!?

I started by bringing up 2 new virtual servers running 2003 Standard Edition x86 (32 bit). Of course I used the Vmware 3.5 platform I just moved over to. The server handling the role of Standard Edition had a single network interface on the corporate network. The new Edge/Access Server is multihomed, one interface on the public internet, the other residing on the corporate network.

I brought Office Communications Server 2007 up along side the Live Communications Server 2005 deployment. After all was installed, I logged into the old 2005 Standard Server and fired up dsa.msc to move the users to the new pool. This worked very well after I granted the correct permissions to the administrator user.

The only gotcha I hit was when I tried to bring my phone online. The new 2007 deployment was set to disallow/block the version of Communicator Phone Edition (CPE) I had downloaded from microsoft. After a quick modification of the client version filter on the Edge and Standard Server, I was able to log in and get to my Real Time Communications!

I already like the performance of OCS 2007 opposed to LCS 2005. The first feature I noticed is the ability to assign your contacts to security levels. This can manipulate what information of yours they can view, and when they can contact you based on your status. Also, the communication seems MUCH faster and more reliable already. Some of my contacts often reported I would miss IM's they sent me with the 2005 system... Hopefully that will go away now!

Now I am on to get the web conferencing server, web access server and A/V server roles going...

SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration

With the addition of a windows mobile 6 device, windows 2008 with exchange 2007 makes a powerful combination. The main feature I like is the ability to issue a command on the server to wipe all company data off the device in the event it is lost or stolen.

On that note I decided to upgrade to Small Business Server 2008.

The process was very straight forward. I followed the small business migration guide available here on technet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc546034.aspx.

I had no issues except for permissions migrating my data over to the new server, which was a quick fix resetting and owning what tossed the access denied error.

My problem came when I tried to move over my email router for our CRM 4 deployment. For some reason the crm user for the forwarder mailbox is unable to authenticate against https:///exchange from the local machine. However from XP/2003, the user authenticates sucessfully. After many different methods of access from the new 2008 SBS server itself and my x64 Standard 2003 CRM Server, I chose to go with a suggested OS for the email router component. The OCS 2007 deployment was rolled out on 32 bit operating systems (cause it is all that is supported), so I installed the email router on the main server in the OCS topology.

I went to http://microsoft.com/downloads and grabed v1.2.1 of the Exchange MAPI collaboration objects and installed it on the server. Next, I installed the email router component, set my inbound and outbound rules, deployment info and bada bing, worked like a charm first try! Long story short- stick with the suggested, SUPPORTED configurations on this software.. ;)

Xen Enterprise 5 to VMWare ESXi 3.5 Migration

So I decided to get off my multi year xen kick with a migration finale over to the free version of vmware 3.5i ESX. There were a few political reasons for this move, but the most important part of it was cost and upgrade path to maintain a commercial product as my primary virtualization platform.

A large supporting factor was the fact that Xen is not compatible with the Supermicro Blade set I purchased a few months back. This was a huge investment I made to consolidate space, have an inexpensive and quick upgrade path to scale/grow with. The blades can be easily found on VMware's HCL ;) Citrix was not very interested in moving into a position of support, so I got the thumbs down on compatibility from their team..

I started out by flashing the LSI MPT bios. Vmware went right on these babies with no fuss. Next I started testing vmware with a few low traffic virtual machines. VmWare held up well. I wasnt flattered, but just satisfied with it's performance. So to kick off the migration to vmware, I started with my windows domU's. The vmware conversion tool made this a breeze! I installed the package on every machine due to the fact I am too frugle to buy an enterprise license.. After the tool installed, I was able to click through the wizard and suck the machines right into my ESX Server! That was pretty swift, I must admit...

After the machines were fired up on the ESX server, I had to install the vmware tools, adjust some IP addresses and rename the adapters for easy admin. After the reboot, all the alerts from the monitoring system cleared and we were back in business. About 8 virtual servers were migrated this way, disks ranging in size from 39gb to 100gb. Actual time for the longest conversion was only 35 minutes or so over a gigabit copper switch.

Next I am faced with 4 CentOS 5.x linux servers left on this dom0. I tried a few different methods to seemlessly migrate this host to vmware, all of which failed. Tried methods include ghosting (ghost would not load network drivers on vmware host + lvm was lost during the process), completed backup via tar then relocation to the new machine, and rsync to rsync with both systems in rescue mode.

NOTE: To boot from CD on xen server enterprise 5 use the following command from the CLI: xe vm-param-set HVM-boot-policy="BIOS order" uuid=After you issue the command, you will be able to set the boot order in the management gui software.

When you want to boot back from the virtual hard drive device, issue the command, but set the boot-policy directive to "". You will still have to define the uuid of the DomU.

I finally gave up on a clone type movement and decided to install the new vm and just migrate the critical data over. This worked very well, and I did not experience any down time for this web server becuase I left the old data up long enough for DNS to propagate, then removed the old web server from the farm.