Life without ExaGrid and CommVault

24. June 2009 by Myke.

There I was living the life of luxury with my backups running via CommVault software over to my ExaGrid disk storage and then to tape.  Backups were fast and the deduplication was AMAZING!  I basically set it then forgot about it each day.  I would get my daily reports telling me “hey, your backups worked of course and they are still kicking butt and taking names”.  Then came D-Day for my career at that job.  I walked away proud of my environment and what I left behind.  I was proud of where I took my job to, technology wise.  Servers went from white box to HP, server software went from 2000/2003 to 2003/2008.  i created virtual server after virtual server.  I put in an HP Blade Enclosure and all power was controlled via APC.  It was a true Enterprise setup for an Enterprise company.

I took the next 4-5 weeks pulling myself to the conclusion that I will never work on that equipment again.  I started with a very small group with my new career that has potential to become the largest Gold mining/production/exploration/reserve companies in the World.  Backups are controlled by an unnamed software vendor and it is not all that great.  The backups are about 30% fail to 70% complete each day and they are slow.  They eat tapes like there is no tomorrow and it is only going to get worse each day as we grow.  So what do I do to make my new job run as streamlined as my previous job?  How do I make backups a non-issue?

Simple, I work a budget that allows me to move forward with each piece one step at a time.  My first goal of 2010 will be to get ExaGrid in house to help create a disk based backup solution with some serious deduplication abilities.  The deduplication process will basically take my backups and compress them into smaller chunks of data (sorry for the non-IT explanation).  Take for instance, you have about 20TB of backup data and you run it through the ExaGrid…you will get about 15:1 (based upon my very own first hand knowledge) on space usage.  What does that mean to the non-IT person who is in charge of reducing backup costs???  That means I will get about 15TB worth of raw data and have it backed up on an ExaGrid using 1TB of actual disk space.  That’s right folks…15:1 on an average and that is being generous on the small side.  I have seen deduplication results close to 60:1 and 70:1.

Some folks have asked if I sell ExaGrid or CommVault or if I get paid by them or receive free hardware…no.  Like we have said before, we share the truth with no biased answers or results.  We want what works best for the IT World and truthfully, ExaGrid is the King of disk based backup solutions.

Links to previous ExaGrid posts.

http://homerun-networks.com/2008/12/17/exagrid-announces-customer-focused-enhancements/

http://homerun-networks.com/2008/07/22/exagrid-deduplication-update/

http://homerun-networks.com/2008/07/22/exagrid-announces-enhancements-with-latest-version/

http://homerun-networks.com/2008/07/21/exagrid-and-commvault-a-perfect-backup-solution-update/

http://homerun-networks.com/2008/07/21/exagrid-and-commvault-a-perfect-backup-solution/

p.s.  Dear ExaGrid - It would be very nice if I could borrow a couple 1TB units for about 1.5 years or so.  I promise to love and care for the units at all times.  :-)

Posted in General Hardware, Servers, Backups, Storage | No Comments »

How to start a geek/nerd argument

15. June 2009 by Myke.

So you may be sitting in your office and had the IT/IS person come in fix your “printing issue” by turning on the printer…that is why we have the jobs we have…but have you ever wondered how to get a geek or nerd really going?!?  Now this does not work on every geek or nerd but you can give it a try and find out.  Simple say in passing or ask as a serious question.

  1. Is there really even a difference between Mac and Windows?  I mean really??? - This has to be one of the most common questions
  2. Isn’t Windows Firewall the same as those Cisco things just a lot cheaper? - Typical non-technical IT/IS manager question
  3. Star Wars, Star Trek…they are the same thing…laser beams and outer space and some really weird people right? - Yes, Star Wars and Star Trek are based off the exact same thing and exact same story.  ;-)
  4. Man, Pirates of the Caribbean is so realistic.  I wish I lived back then to live like that.
  5. I swear, all these people bitching about Open Source…who cares.  Just buy a legal copy of the software and deal with it.  I mean it is not like the software companies make much profit anyways. - Nope, Bill Gates got to where he is today because of winning Powerball so much.
  6. So the Matrix movies were basically about drug induced dreams right?  - Yes, the Matrix series was just a remake of the Woodstock era.
  7. If it was not for the Ewoks, Return of the Jedi would have flopped so bad.  The same thing can be said for Episode 1…if it was not for that hilarious floppy eared dude Jar Jar Binks…I mean come on, how can a story go on for so long and the same people just keep living and getting older. - Thank God for the Ewoks and Jar Jar!  What would we have done without them?!?
  8. When will computer technology finally get good?  I am so tired of rebooting my home PC.  It needs to know when it needs to reboot and do it on its own.  Man I wish these computers were as smart as humans. - um, I was not sure how to react to this statement so I just tripped him and yelled out “Rebooting Chris” please stand back.
  9. Why do you always ask if I have rebooted my PC?  It does not even matter! - Nope, rebooting is just a joke we “Geeks” just keep going with.
  10. What is the big deal with high speed Internet anyways?  Like anyone can download that much stuff at one time.  Psssshhhh! - This is the user I told to stick with his dial-up service as high speed Internet was a scam anyways.  The only difference between the two was the noise it makes when connecting.

I know you can think of more so please feel free to add to the list.

Posted in Funny, Nerdism, Internet | No Comments »

IPv6 - how many addresses is that exactly?

15. June 2009 by Myke.

Ever wondered how many addresses are possible using IPv6?  I wanted to know and thought I would share with you.  IPv6 can have 2^128 IP addresses.  That is a lot and if you are wondering how many that is exactly…2^128 = 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456.  Now the question is, can you say that number out loud or even in your head?

Okay, take a deep breath and say after me - “340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion, 463 sextillion, 463 quintillion, 374 quadrillion, 607 trillion, 431 billion, 768 million, 211 thousand and 456″

Okay all you network junkies…try filling that address range up.

Posted in Internet, Networking | No Comments »

GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition - FREE

15. May 2009 by Myke.

GFI has released a fully functional free version of their backup software.  This software works great compared to NT backup and you can even backup to a remote location such as an FTP site.  The greatest thing about the backups is that it uses ZIP files for the backup files as opposed to a proprietary file.  This means you can restore your backup files anywhere from any machine.

GFI note:
To assist home PC users in these troubled economic times and to help them understand the importance of data backups, GFI Software is offering for free its newly-developed backup and recovery software GFI Backup 2009.

GFI Backup 2009 will allow all home PC users to keep regular and updated copies of their precious memories in the form of pictures, video, and other files and safeguard their data in case something goes wrong.

Loss of data for individuals can be heartbreaking as memories, personal documents and important files are lost due to hard disk failure or a virus attack. With this free software, we are assisting people to be better prepared, especially when they are trying to cut costs wherever possible. Because we care!

GFI Backup 2009 is an easy-to-use backup and recovery software solution that allows users to backup all their important files and, when-needed, recover the data within minutes using the product’s wizard-driven interface. GFI Backup 2009 does not use a proprietary format; all data is saved to common ZIP files. This makes it easy to restore data to a computer that may not have GFI Backup installed on it.

Data can be stored on virtually any storage device available such as internal or external hard disks, on local area network (LAN) locations, CD/DVD media, removable media devices (USB sticks, memory sticks, flash memory, floppy disks, ZIP disks, JAZ, etc.) and remote locations using FTP with upload auto-resume. Data can also be protected with military-strength 256-bit AES strong encryption.

Download your free copy of GFI Backup 2009 from here:
http://www.gfi.com/downloads/register.aspx?pid=bkuphm&lid=en

For more information about GFI Backup and its features visit:
http://www.gfi.com/backup-hm/

Posted in Desktops, Laptops, Servers, Backups | No Comments »

EMC 2007 - Access is denied (2147024891) Error

6. April 2009 by admin.

Something I noticed today while working on some issues one of our guys had with using the EMC for Exchang 2007. He kept getting an access denied error when trying to do anything in the EMC. The messages went something like this:

——————————————————–
Microsoft Exchange Error
——————————————————–
The following error(s) were reported while loading topology information:
Get-OWAVirtualDirectory
Failed
Error:
Unable to create Internet Information Services (IIS) directory entry. Error message is: Access is denied.
HResult = -2147024891.
Access is denied.
Directory Path: IIS://mailboxserver.genericcompany.com/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Exchange
Detail:
server name: mailboxserver.genericcompany.com
local machine name: XPWORKSTATION
local machine fqdn: XPWORKSTATION.genericcompany.com
Access is denied.Kind of an irritating message actually. There were some other ones as well referring to the CAS server, etc.. etc.. but you get the point.The solution? heh, easy as can be actually.* From “Start”->”Run” type in ‘ dcomcnfg ‘ and hit “Enter”
* From the Component Services Console, expand “Component Services” -> “Computers”
* Right click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”
* On the “Default Properties” tab, find the Default Impersonation Level and change it from “Identify” to “Impersonate”That should do it.

Mirrored on: http://travis.sarbin.net/2009/04/06/emc-2007-access-is-denied-2147024891-error

Posted in Exchange | 1 Comment »

Exchange 2003 ActiveSync w/ SSL and/or forms-based authentication.

30. March 2009 by Travis.

Probably one of the most common complaints when someone is deploying Exchange  and the organization has Windows Mobile Phones that they would like to sync up with the Exchange server is the puzzling “Why won’t this just work?” question that plagues system administrators. Usually this is following the flagging the option to use forms-based authentication. While the solution is out there, sometimes folks don’t know exactly why or where the problem is originating so they have a hard time finding it. Well, hopefully this little paragraph describing the problem will allow some search engine somewhere to allow someone, somewhere to locate this solution easier. That and it’s always good to just have this one handy in your local arsenal of tools that Myke and I are comprising. So. Adding to our list of ‘ oh yeah, that’s how I fixed that ‘ articles… here’s how to resolve why Microsoft ActiveSync will not work any Exchange installation where SSL and/or forms-based authentication has been enabled out of the box.  Keep in mind these changes should be made to the server with the mailboxes on them, not a front-end server. Also something worth noting is that if you have an SBS2003 installation, these options should already be set. If they are not or you are having problems with ActiveSync, run through these instructions to check and ensure that they are all present. If they are, perhaps your problem isn’t in authentication or contacting the server, but something a little easier to address. :)
**This method will involve creating a new virtual directory from a copy of the original to handle related requests. If you are not comfortable with registry changes or IIS settings, you may not want to try this.

Disable forms-based authentication on the Exchange server you are about to modify.

  1. Open Exchange Manager.
  2. Expand Administrative Groups, expand the first administrative group, and then expand Servers.
  3. Expand the server container for the Exchange Server 2003 server that you will be configuring, expand Protocols, and then expand HTTP.
  4. Under the HTTP container, right-click the Exchange Virtual Server container, and then click Properties.
  5. Click the Settings tab, clear the Enable Forms Based Authentication check box, and then click OK.
  6. Close Exchange Manager.
  7. Click Start, click Run, type IISRESET/NOFORCE, and then press ENTER to restart Internet Information Services (IIS).

Create a secondary virtual directory and configure ActiveSync to communicate with it.

  1. Start Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. Locate the Exchange virtual directory. The default location is as follows:

    Web Sites\Default Web Site\Exchange

  3. Right-click the Exchange virtual directory, click All Tasks, and then click Save Configuration to a File.
  4. In the File name box, type a name. For example, type ExchangeVDir. Click OK.
  5. Right-click the root of this Web site. Typically, this is Default Web Site. Click New, and then click Virtual Directory (from file).
  6. In the Import Configuration dialog box, click Browse, locate the file that you created in step 4, click Open, and then click Read File.
  7. Under Select a configuration to import , click Exchange, and then click OK.A dialog box will appear that states that the “virtual directory already exists.”
  8. Select the Create a new virtual directory option. In the Alias box, type a name for the new virtual directory that you want Exchange ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access to use. For example, type exchange-oma. Click OK.
  9. Right-click the new virtual directory. In this example, click exchange-oma. Click Properties.
  10. Click the Directory Security tab.
  11. Under Authentication and access control, click Edit.
  12. Make sure that only the following authentication methods are enabled, and then click OK:
    • Integrated Windows authentication
    • Basic authentication
  13. On the Directory Security tab, under IP address and domain name restrictions, click Edit.
  14. Click the option for Denied access, click Add, click Single computer and type the IP address of the server that you are configuring, and then click OK twice.
  15. Under Secure communications, click Edit. Make sure that Require secure channel (SSL) is not enabled, and then click OK.
  16. Click OK, and then close the IIS Manager.
  17. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
  18. Locate the following registry subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MasSync\Parameters

  19. Right-click Parameters, click to New, and then click String Value.
  20. Type ExchangeVDir, and then press ENTER. Right-click ExchangeVDir, and then click Modify.NoteExchangeVDir is case-sensitive. If you do not type ExchangeVDir exactly as it appears in this article, ActiveSync does not find the key when it locates the exchange-oma folder.
  21. In the Value data box, type the name of the new virtual directory that you created in step 8. For example, type /exchange-oma. Click OK.
  22. Quit Registry Editor.
  23. Restart the IIS Admin service. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
    2. In the list of services, right-click IIS Admin service, and then click Restart.

To re-enable forms-based communcation, you may do the following:

  1. Open Exchange Manager.
  2. Expand Administrative Groups, expand the first administrative group, and then expand Servers.
  3. Expand the server container for the Exchange Server 2003 server that you will be configuring, expand Protocols, and then expand HTTP.
  4. Under the HTTP container, right-click the Exchange Virtual Server container, and then click Properties.
  5. Click the Settings tab, click to select the Enable Forms Based Authentication check box, and then click OK.
  6. Close Exchange Manager.
  7. Click Start, click Run, type IISRESET/NOFORCE, and then press ENTER to restart Internet Information Services (IIS).

Hopefully this will help you out. If not, send your error along to one of us and we’ll see if we have a solution. If we do, we’ll post it up. :)
Mirrored on: http://travis.sarbin.net/2009/03/29/exchange-2003-activesync-w-ssl-andor-forms-based-authentication

Posted in Exchange | 1 Comment »

Conficker C worm - do you have it?

29. March 2009 by Myke.

There is a ton of buzz all over the media world about this worm and what it will do and how to tell if you have.  As complex as this worm is, it is also very simple to determine if you have it or not.

Step 1 - If you have Automatic Updates turned on, check to see if it is now turned off.  These reason is that this worm actually turns off updates to protect itself.

Step 2 - Manually run Microsoft Updates.  If you can run updates manually on your computer then you are okay.  This worm will actually prevent you from connecting to the update sites.

Now that we know how to check for it, how do you prevent it.  Very simple.  Keep your computer updated and make sure your anti-virus software is running and current.

What do you do if you have this worm?  You will want to contact your anti-virus software vendor and see if they can help you out.  If not and they want to charge you an arm and a leg, give it a go yourself.  There is a couple very easy to use and free tools you can use to remove it but it will take some patience.

Now that you have a couple of removal tools, start running them and cleaning.  A great tip is to update both pieces of this software and then run them from Safe Mode with your computer not on the network/Internet.

Good luck and happy hunting, so to speak.

Posted in Networking, Internet, Registry, Scripting, Security, Technical Questions, Laptops, Desktops, Microsoft, General Hardware, Servers | No Comments »

Installation of MSMQ 4.0

27. March 2009 by Myke.

To install Message Queuing 4.0 on Windows Server 2008

  1. In Server Manager, click Features.
  2. In the right-hand pane under Features Summary, click Add Features.
  3. In the resulting window, expand Message Queuing.
  4. Expand Message Queuing Services.
  5. Click Directory Services Integration (for computers joined to a Domain), then click HTTP Support.
  6. Click Next, then click Install.

To install Message Queuing 4.0 on Windows Vista

  1. Open Control Panel.
  2. Click Programs and then, under Programs and Features, click Turn Windows Features on and off.
  3. Expand Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) Server, expand Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) Server Core, and then select the check boxes for the following Message Queuing features to install:
    • MSMQ Active Directory Domain Services Integration (for computers joined to a Domain).
    • MSMQ HTTP Support.
  4. Click OK.
  5. If you are prompted to restart the computer, click OK to complete the installation.

To install Message Queuing 3.0

  1. Open Control Panel.
  2. Click Add Remove Programs and then click Add Windows Components.
  3. Select Message Queuing and click Details.

Note:  MSMQ 4.0 is not available in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.  If you are running Server 2003 and you install MSMQ 3.0, select Application Server to access Message Queuing.

Posted in Citrix, Microsoft | No Comments »

Multiple Exchange 2007 Servers + ISA 2006 + ActiveSync

25. March 2009 by Travis.

Anyone who has tried to set that up knows what I’m talking about. I actually got this all figured out a couple months ago but failed to make a post about how I did it, so today I found myself trying to remember what I did while trying to fix one of our other sites. So this time, I’m going to post it up.

The surprisingly common error you see when you setup ISA 2006 with Exchange 2007 and try to access ActiveSync manually is the following:

501 - Header values specify a method that is not implemented.

This is a good error actually, it means ActiveSync should be working fine, however, if your ISA server points to a EX2007 Client Access Server (CAS) which then proxies to other CAS servers in your environment, you may get a message like the following when trying to access a mailbox in another internal site:

405 - HTTP verb used to access this page is not allowed.

At that point you start to question your sanity and your skills on Google as you can’t seem to figure out for the life of you why after all that work of making sure the configurations matched up on all your servers did it now not work? You can access the local CAS server directly and pick up the 501 but whenever you try to hit ActiveSync through the CAS Proxy it seems to just bomb on you.

Assuming the above is true and you can indeed connect to it directly, try looking at a few settings. In IIS Manager, look at the properties for ‘ Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync ‘ under your Default Web Site (or non-Default) and check on your settings for Handler Mappings and Authentication. You should have the following:

  • Handler Mappings - Make sure the OptionsVerbHandler is configure for ‘All verbs’ not just ‘OPTIONS’
  • Authentication - Make sure all Authentication options are disabled except for ‘ Basic Authentication ‘ and ‘ Windows Authentication’

If you’ve configured those settings, make sure your Proxy CAS and Target CAS are both running the same Exchange rollup version and reboot them. It should be working now.

Hopefully this will help some poor soul out there.

Mirrored on http://travis.sarbin.net/2009/03/25/multiple-exchange-2007-servers-isa-2006-activesync

Posted in Exchange | No Comments »

Export all email addresses from a domain

10. March 2009 by Myke.

Request from Tech Talk reader:  What is the easiest way to export all email addresses out of Active Directory?

Easy, Google the question and there you go.  :-)  Just kidding.  Here is a very basic VBS script you can use.  But first a little background…AD Users & Computers UI lets you list the mail column for each object, which displays the default SMTP email address for objects. You can export the list from ADUC as csv/txt. However, any additional email addresses in the proxyAddresses attribute are not exported.

‘==================================================================================================
‘
‘ VBScript Source File
‘
‘ NAME: LISTEMAILADDRESSES.VBS
‘ VERSION: 1.0
‘ AUTHOR: Myke Reinhold
‘ CREATE DATE  : 7/18/2003
‘ LAST MODIFIED : 10/31/2005
‘==================================================================================================
‘ COMMENT:
‘
‘==================================================================================================

‘Set up constant for deleting values from multivalued attribute memberOf

Const ADS_PROPERTY_NOT_FOUND  = &h8000500D
Const ADS_UF_ACCOUNTDISABLE = 2                       ‘For UserAccountControl
Const strX400Search = “X400″
‘______________________________________________________

‘Set RootDSE
Set objRootDSE = GetObject(”LDAP://rootDSE”)
strDomain = objRootDSE.Get(”defaultNamingContext”)
strADPath = “LDAP://” & strDomain
‘wscript.Echo strADPath
Set objDomain = GetObject(strADPath)
‘wscript.echo “objDomain: ” & objDomain.distinguishedName

‘Setup ADODB connection
Set objConnection = CreateObject(”ADODB.Connection”)
objConnection.Open “Provider=ADsDSOObject;”
Set objCommand = CreateObject(”ADODB.Command”)
objCommand.ActiveConnection = objConnection

‘Execute search command to look for Contacts & Groups
objCommand.CommandText = _
“<” & strADPath & “>” & “;(&(|(objectClass=contact)(objectClass=group))(mail=*))” & “;distinguishedName,displayName,mail,proxyAddresses;subtree”

‘Execute search to get Recordset
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute

‘Start procedure

strResult = strResult & VbCrLf & “Domain: ” & strDomain

strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “#Total Records Found (other accounts): ” & objRecordSet.RecordCount & VbCrlf
AddressCount = 0

While Not objRecordSet.EOF ‘Iterate through the search results

strUserDN = objRecordSet.Fields(”distinguishedName”)     ‘Get User’s distinguished name from Recordset into a string
set objUser= GetObject(”LDAP://”& strUserDN & “”)         ‘Use string to bind to user object

strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “cn: ” & objUser.cn
strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “mail: ” & objUser.mail
arrProxyAddresses = objRecordSet.Fields(”proxyAddresses”)
If IsArray(objRecordSet.Fields(”proxyAddresses”)) Then
strResult = strResult & VbCrLf & “Proxy Addresses”

For Each ProxyAddress in arrProxyAddresses

‘Sub: Check X400
If InStr(ProxyAddress, strX400Search) <> 0 Then
‘Wscript.Echo “#This was an x400″
Else
strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  proxyAddress
End If   ‘Ends loop for X400 address
Next

Else
strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “#Object does not have proxy addresses”
End If
strResult = strResult &  VbCrLf

objRecordSet.MoveNext
Wend

‘*************************************
‘Begin second query for users
varDisabledCounter = 0

‘Execute search command to look for user
objCommand.CommandText = _
“<” & strADPath & “>” & “;(&(objectClass=user)(mail=*))” & “;distinguishedName,displayName,mail,proxyAddresses;subtree”

‘Execute search to get Recordset
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute

strResult = strResult & vbCrlf &  “#Users”
strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “#Total Records Found (users): ” & objRecordSet.RecordCount & VbCrlf

While Not objRecordSet.EOF ‘Iterate through the search results
strUserDN = objRecordSet.Fields(”distinguishedName”)     ‘Get User’s distinguished name from Recordset into a string
set objUser= GetObject(”LDAP://”& strUserDN & “”)         ‘Use string to bind to user object

If objUser.AccountDisabled = TRUE Then                    ‘If User account disabled, then skip proxy address enum
varDisabledCounter = varDisabledCounter + 1
strResult2 = strResult2 & VbCrLf & varDisabledCounter & ” ” & objUser.displayName & VbCrLf

strResult2 = strResult2 & “cn: ” & objUser.cn
strResult2 = strResult2 & VbCrlf &  “mail: ” & objUser.mail
arrProxyAddresses = objRecordSet.Fields(”proxyAddresses”)
If IsArray(objRecordSet.Fields(”proxyAddresses”)) Then
strResult2 = strResult2 & VbCrLf & “Proxy Addresses”

For Each ProxyAddress in arrProxyAddresses
‘Sub: Check X400
If InStr(ProxyAddress, strX400Search) <> 0 Then
‘Wscript.Echo “#This was an x400″
Else
strResult2 = strResult2 & VbCrlf &  proxyAddress
AddressCount = AddressCount + 1
End If   ‘Ends loop for X400 address
Next
Else
strResult2 = strResult2 & VbCrLf &  “#Object does not have proxy addresses”
End If
strResult2 = strResult2 &  VbCrLf

Else

strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “cn: ” & objUser.cn
strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  “mail: ” & objUser.mail
arrProxyAddresses = objRecordSet.Fields(”proxyAddresses”)
If IsArray(objRecordSet.Fields(”proxyAddresses”)) Then
strResult = strResult & VbCrLf & “Proxy Addresses”

For Each ProxyAddress in arrProxyAddresses
‘Sub: Check X400
If InStr(ProxyAddress, strX400Search) <> 0 Then
‘Wscript.Echo “#This was an x400″
Else
strResult = strResult & VbCrlf &  proxyAddress
AddressCount = AddressCount + 1
End If   ‘Ends loop for X400 address
Next
Else
strResult = strResult & VbCrLf &  “#Object does not have proxy addresses”
End If
strResult = strResult &  VbCrLf

End If   ‘End check for disabled user

objRecordSet.MoveNext
Wend  ‘End second query for users

strResult = “Users, Groups & Contacts” & VbCrLf & “————————-” & VbCrLf & strResult
strResult = strResult & VbCrLf & “Disabled Users” & VbCrLf & “————————-” & VbCrLf & strResult2
WScript.Echo strResult

‘Output to a text file
Set objFileSystem = CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objOutputFile = objFileSystem.CreateTextFile(”C:\proxyaddresses.txt”)
objOutputFile.Write strResult

This script basically does the following:

  1. Queries Active Directory for Contacts & Groups
  2. Lists their email addresses
  3. Queries Users
  4. Lists enabled users’ email addresses
  5. Lists disabled users’ email addresses separately
  6. Outputs to command line and also to a text file - c:\proxyaddresses.txt

Possible script error - Error list.vbs: (54, 13) (null): 0×80005000

When you look at line 54 it reads:
strUserDN = objRecordSet.Fields(”distinguishedName”)

You have to enter your “distinguishedName” for the script to work.  How how to get it?  It’s fairly simple, Let’s assume your domain is called “example.local”, and the container with employees is called “Employees”.  The distinguishedName in this case wil be “OU=Employees,DC=EXAMPLE,DC=LOCAL”.  If you want to get the name for a subfolder “Employees->Accounting” your name would change to “OU=Accounting,OU=Employees,DC=EXAMPLE,DC=LOCAL”.  Moreover, you can uncomment the following lines (by removing ‘) wscript.Echo strADPath wscript.echo “objDomain: ” & objDomain.distinguishedName to display variables you’re looking for.

Posted in Scripting, Active Directory, Microsoft | No Comments »

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