Date :29 January 2011 (Saturday)
Time conversion:- http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc
Session 1: Planning & Best Practice on Microsoft Virtualization
Time: 5.00 – 6.15 pm (GMT +8 : Malaysia time zone)
Speaker: Lai Yoong Seng (MVP: Virtual Machine)
As for Part 3, the content will cover design and planning aspect for deployment. The aspects would include zooming into CPU, RAM, disk storage, and NICs and networks. Best practices and recommendation would be included for Active Directory, SQL Server, SharePoint and Exchange Server.
Session 2: Is there such a thing as application virtualization?
Time: 6.30 pm – 7.15 pm (GMT +8 : Malaysia time zone)
Speaker: Edmund Lim (MVP: SCCM)
This session provides an overview and introduction session of App-V with its relevance to application deployment and provisioning.
Live Meeting Information
Attendee URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=69WPCN&role=attend&pw=XX2_n%26s%26K
Meeting ID: 69WPCN
Attendee Entry Code: XX2_n&s&K
Location: Webcast
First Time Users:
To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
Click here to check:- http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90703
Come and join us, to register a seat either attend or view the recording, pls go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191582670852074&index=1
Everyone is welcome !
Well, I'm not sure if you’ve encounter the same problem as mine but here is my problem that i always face when running Domain Controller in Virtual Machine.
Scenario:
a) DC Time always not sync and sometimes -out of sync-
b) Then, all the VM and Hyper V host follow the DC time due to the server is joined to domain.
Even, best practice we always recommend to uncheck time synchronization for Integration Component on DC VM to prevent time issue. However time is still out of sync (that’s what i called it”), especially to Hyper V.
I always manually change the time but finally i give up. Here is the step which i just took
Solution: Connect to External NTP server to get the updated time.
1. Download the Fix from Microsoft site:- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042 and apply on DC VM.
2. On this NTP Server, change the value as highlighted below
After:- ( i key in according to my time zone). You can refer to
Asia NTP Server :- http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/asia
Other Country:- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262680
3. Open command prompt and execute the following command:-
| net stop w32time net start w32time |
Voila !..I guess this step is applicable to Domain controller running in Physical server as well.
Well, no harm to try…
Hi Guy and Girl,
Been quite a while since my last post. Well, let me share some info of what I have been up to for the past few days.
I have created a protection group to protect my Windows 7 (client operating system). The step is the same as other protection group but for client operating system, make sure you have install DPM agent and selected “Client” during creating protection group. The final result will display as below:
you can specify to “Include” or “Exclude” for any folder. For this protection, user has control and can specify with additional folder that they want to protect. Cool right! Less administrator interaction.
To recover, click on Recovery Tab (if require Administrator to restore, but own user can restore the data itself. To know more, continue reading…
On my laptop, a small icon is on the taskbar. If your laptop is connected to the network, it will sync to the DPM server according to the synchronization period.
If you click on the icon, it will display the result and as you can see on below picture, I have not sync to DPM for up to 3 days. This is because I’m “Out of Office” at this moment. The question is “Will backup continue?”
The answer is Yes. Temporary backup is stored in your laptop and will sync back to DPM once connected to office network either LAN or VPN connection.
When you click Open DPM client, you will see 3 tab.
Summary tab:- Display the last sync result and Company protection policy
On Protected Items tab- user can select own protected folder.
On Recovery tab, you can recover your own data. You will see the recovery point result if connected to DPM server.
Now, how about when you’re offline and not connected to DPM server.
Well, navigate to your particular protected folder, Right click >Properties > Previous version tab. You can recover from here.
Gosh, now I feel more secure and do no need to worry about data loss.
DPM will do the job for me. 
This post is divided into 3 section
Part 1 – Scenario 1 and 2
Part 2 – Scenario 3
Part 3 – Scenario 4 (This section)
Continue from Part 2, let talk about scenario 4
Scenario 4
User account still intact but Mailbox deleted again or new Mailbox has created . But i have recover several times into RDB1 using DPM especially same alias but both different Mailbox GUID. Well, you may think that this scenario will not happen but trust me, it will happen in real environment.
1. Set RDB1 to overwrite flag.
2. Create the same alias of the mailbox
3. Restore mailbox using DPM twice. If possible same alias but different Mailbox GUID.
4. To view the result including Mailbox GUID, key in this command
| Get-mailboxStatistics –database RDB1 | ft DisplayName, MailboxGuid |
This is 1st Mailbox restore:- (refer to Test1 account)
This is 2nd Mailbox restore:- refer to Test1 account
From here, you will see two same Mailbox Alias but different GUID
5. If you use EMS to restore,
| Restore-Mailbox –Identity Test1 –RecoveryDatabase RDB1 –RecoveryMailbox Test1 –Targetfolder “recovery” |
Error message “Test1 isn’t unique on database RDB1”.
Rather than using Mailbox alias, now you should use Mailbox GUID
6. Use EMS and enter
| Restore-Mailbox –Identity “ –RecoveryDatabase RDB1 –RecoveryMailbox GUID –Targetfolder “recovery” |
That should do the trick.
Frankly speaking, i did encounter this issue during one of my project deployment. Hope anyone encounter this scenario is benefit from this post.
This post is divided into 3 sections
Part 1 – Scenario 1 and 2
Part 2 – Scenario 3 (This section)
Part 3 – Scenario 4
Continue from Part 1, let move to scenario 3
Scenario 3
User account is intact but Mailbox has deleted.
By default, you can still recover from Exchange Management Console (EMC).
1. To delete a mailbox, go to Recipient Configuration > Mailbox > Right Click the user account > Select Disable.
Note: DO NOT select Remove. This option will remove user account and mailbox.
2. Go to Disconnected Mailbox, select the mailbox , right click and connect back to user account.
By default, mailbox deleted will keep inside disconnected mailbox for 30 days. Now how about after 30 days? Automatically the system will remove the mailbox. So in scenario 3, i want to recover a mailbox which has deleted after 30 days. Here is what you should do.
1. Go to Recipient Mailbox and create a new mailbox with the same name. Link back to same user account. By doing this, user will get back the same mailbox account but the content is empty. Therefore the next thing that you should do is restore from DPM.
Note:-Even same name, but previous and new mailbox will have different GUID. Recovery will put old content into a new folder inside the mailbox.
2. Use DPM Console to restore. (you can refer to Part 1 for the steps). Make sure that you have mark the RDB1 to overwrite flag.
3. Use EMS and key in the following command
| Restore-Mailbox –Identity Test1 –RecoveryDatabase RDB1 –RecoveryMailbox Test1 –Targetfolder “recovery” |
4. Use OWA and check that all the content has recover to Test1 account – Recover folder. Note: Don’t use outlook unless you’re creating from a new profile.
Click here to Part 3.
To fully understand the error code and next action to take, please go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb795681.aspx
The answer is Yes. A lot of people said that transaction log is only clear when perform full backup.
Well , when using DPM you can perform incremental backup on recovery point to clear the transaction log. Here is what you should do
SQL Server database
1. Change the database recovery model to Full. Use SQL Management Studio, select each database and go to Options. Change Recovery to Full.
On DPM Server
1. If previously you have protected, please stop the protection and reconfigure the protection of the database server.
2. Once you have complete that, every recovery point will truncate the transaction log.
3. Try create a recovery point , and you will see Full and incremental options
To know more, please click here
I just found this website during browsing. Quite a useful support tool to troubleshoot Citrix implementation.
URL:- http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/07/16/Complete+List+of+Citrix+Support+Tools
Check it out for more tools!
You can get the description of each Integration Pack from the below link:
Configuration Manager
http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/archive/2010/08/31/introducing-the-new-configuration-manager-integration-pack-activities.aspx
Virtual Machine Manager
http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/archive/2010/08/31/introducing-the-new-virtual-machine-manager-integration-pack-activities.aspx
Data Protection Manager
Service Manager
http://blogs.technet.com/b/opalis/archive/2010/08/31/introducing-the-new-service-manager-integration-pack-activities.aspx
How do you transfer a large replica , example 100GB from one DPM to another DPM server. This is what we called “ DPM 2 DPM 4 DR”. You only have 1GB bandwidth. You would not want to use Internet bandwidth to transfer huge replica via Internet. Even you did, how long would this process take. Let look into this example:
To solve this problem, you need to manually transfer the replica from 1 DPM (site 1) to another DPM (site 2).
On DPM (site 2)
1. Choose manual replica on protected server on DPM (site1)
On DPM (site 1)
1. Select the SQL Server protected server. Click the database and you will see replica path on the bottom. Click “Click to view detail and copy the path to notepad.
2. Next, is open a command prompt and type
| mountvol |
3. Locate the GUID as similar as the notepad.
4.Copy the \\?\volume…. and type. Paste the path
| mountvol k:\ \\?\Volume{9a49 ….GUID}\ |
This will mount the GUID to K:\
5. Change the folder option to unhide protected system. Go to My computer, select Tool > Folder Options > View Tab.
6. Open My Computer and Go to K Drive. Copy all the data into removable media.
Back to DPM (Site 2)
1. On the protected group that you have created earlier, repeat the same process as DPM1 to get replica path and mountvol to a drive letter. (Step 1 – 6 on DPM (site 1 above but using the replica path)
2. Once you have complete, transfer all data from DPM (site 1) to the new mountvol on DPM (site 2). Just overwrite the data.
3. Now, you have successful transfer 100GB data manually.
4. Delete the mountvol on both DPM
| mountvol k:\ /d |
5. Select the protected server and perform consistency check. It will run consistency check to compare the data on DPM 1 (site 1) and DPM 2 (Site 2).
That’s how easy to transfer huge replica from DPM 1 to another DPM 2 or another word ‘DPM 2 DPM 4 DR”…
Still insist on wanting to use recovery farm to recover a sites? Here is what you should do
On Recovery Farm VM
1. Setup a VM for Recovery Farm ( I called it “RFarm”) with the same or higher operating system and patches.
2. Install a stand alone SharePoint server with SQL Server. (Included in the CD)
Note: Make sure that you install the same SQL Server hotfixes, patches and service pack. The SQL version must be same or higher than the original site. By default, SharePoint 2010 will install SQL Server 2008.
Never expect just a small hotfixes that i install on original site will cause the recovery process to fail. Below is the error message that i always received when recover using recovery farm.
So visitor, remember what’s the patches/ hotfixes that you install on original SharePoint SQL Server. Just patch the same hotfixes on Recovery Farm.
3. Execute SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard. Wait until it complete. The wizard will not ask for any setting as everything is residing on the same VM.
4.Install DPM Agent on Recovery Farm VM
5. Execute
| ConfigureSharepoint.exe –EnableSharepointProtection |
Note: Command available in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin\
5. Open SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. Click on Application Management and select Manage Web Application .
6. Click on New to create a new website called “DPMRecoveryWebApplication”. Final result should look like this:-
Note: Ignore the port number as this is depend on your system when create a new web application.
More detail about other requirements for recovery farm, please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd180789.aspx
On Original SharePoint Server
1. Create an empty site collection which previously you have deleted.
On DPM VM
1. Click on Recovery Tab and select the sites that you want to recover.
2. Select Recover using recovery farm.
3. On Specify Temporary Server, specify the recovery farm VM, SQL instance and a temporary folder.
4. On Specify Staging Location, select the Front End SharePoint Server and point to a folder.
5. Wait until the recovery complete and voila…Your sites has successful recover with the original content.
Yes. It’s true and by now you may have heard that SharePoint 2010 can recover without a recovery farm.
We’ve look into how to recover an item level. Moving forward is how to recover a sites without a recovery farm with DPM 2010 .
This is the step that you should take:
1. Backup SharePoint farm by creating a protection group.
2. Make sure recovery point included with all the sites.
3. Catalogue SharePoint . Refer to http://www.ms4u.info/2011/01/catalogue-sharepoint-for-dpm.html
3. Use SharePoint 2010 Administration Console to delete a collection. Example:
Here got 2 way to recover a sites without using recovery farm.
Entire farm & sites
a) Use DPM Console to recover XX\SharePoint_Config
b) Select Recover without recovery farm, point to SharePoint Database Server, a folder in SharePoint Server and a folder in Front End SharePoint server.
This will restore the entire site collection. Now, how about a single site?
Single Site
a) Use SharePoint 2010 Administration Console to create an empty site collection with the same name and path. For example:
The target site must use the same template as the original site. If not, you will receive the following error message:
b) Use DPM Console to recover a “Hr site”. (My example)
c) Select Recover to Original Site
d) Select Use Recover without Recovery Farm.
e) Select SharePoint Database server and a temporary folder.
f) Select Front End SharePoint Server and a temporary folder.
g) Once the recovery has complete, check and make sure that the hr site and previous content has recover.
In my previous blog, i have talk about configure protection group for SharePoint (Click here). Then, you have created several site collection and perform recovery point. The problem now is why you can’t see your new site collection and drill down to item level recovery.
DPM will only create catalogue for SharePoint every 24 hours but you need to immediately recovery without waiting next 24 hour. So here is the command that you can execute to catalogue the SharePoint.
1. On DPM Server, use DPM Management Shell to execute the following command:
| $pg=get-protectiongroup (dpm server name) |
2.Enter command below to view the protection group in your system
| $pg |
From here, you will see SharePoint is located in the last. For the index, calculate from 0,1,2. In this scenario, SharePoint protection group is located in index 2.
| $ds=get-datasource $pg(index number) |
Start the catalogue process.
| start-createcatalog $ds |
That should do the trick and you will be able to perform item level recovery.
Just some hints when you want to recover an item in SharePoint 2010.
Q. Do i need a recovery farm to recover an item?
A: The answer is “No”. As long, you do not make any changes on the SharePoint 2010 schema, then you do not need a recovery farm.
Q. When recover an item, should i put into share folder or folder in C:\ for temporary storage?
A: Just a folder in SharePoint Database and Front End SharePoint server will do. This is just a temporary folder and content will be deleted once recovery completed.
Q. Can i use existing SharePoint database to perform recovery?
A. Yes. You can.
As usual, here is normal checklist when using dpm
a) Install DPM agent on Front End Sharepoint
b) Install DPM agent on Database server
c) Configure Protection Group on Front End Sharepoint
But why no Sharepoint farm appear?
To protect sharepoint, you need to execute 2 additional command on the front end sharepoint server.
1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin\
| ConfigureSharepoint.exe –EnableSharepointProtection ConfigureSharepoint.exe –EnableSPSearchProtection |
2. Create protection group
Note: Configure protection group on front end sharepoint server is sufficient. You do not need to create another protection group on Sharepoint Database server.
