Tag: work

Powershell preventing Server 2003 to 2008 upgrade

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I came to upgrade one of our servers from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 today. Unfortunately, the upgrade failed in the first stages because the compatibility checker declared Windows Powershell 1.0 incompatible with Server 2008, and told me to uninstall it before upgrading. Easier said than done, because there’s no uninstaller. Well, of course there is an uninstaller, but it’s not in Add/Remove Programs where you’d expect it. Even if you show updates. Of course, many uninstallers are kept on …

April Fools’ Day 2011

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I have a bit of a reputation at work when it comes to April Fools’ Day. Each year I inform the staff of some controversial policy change or a new way to make life hell for them, and each year I get complaints and some congratulations. It’s always a bit of fun. Of course, this causes a problem because with the reputation comes both expectation, and cautiousness. Staff know I’m going to pull something, and will be on the lookout …

Fixing Windows Update error 8000ffff

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One of our Windows 2008 servers threw a wobbly (technical term) after a power cut a few weeks ago, and although I got it working again, it wouldn’t install updates, giving error code 8000ffff each time. The usual searches of the internets suggested a common fault with Vista on Dell machines, but none of the proposed fixes seemed to work. They included uninstalling an update I didn’t have installed, running a Microsoft “Fix It” tool, which didn’t work, and installing …

Network dropping out on VMWare guest

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One of our virtual servers, which runs Apache and serves up a booking database, had been having intermittent network issues. It would be working fine for a few hours, or days, and then would “drop off” the network. Rebooting the host server fixed it for a while, but then it happened again. It’s odd, as another VM running on the same VMWare (2.0.2) server was seemingly fine. Anyway, it turns out the issue is due to VMWare not liking the …

How not to apply for a job working for me

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I’ve been sifting through job applications for new IT technician this week. If you’re thinking of applying for a job in an IT technician role (or any role, in fact), please don’t follow some of my applicants by example by following these handy hints: Learn how to spell “Microsoft”. Don’t say you’re “an avid gamer” in your list of personal qualities, especially if it takes up half of your list. When you print out your application form, don’t include all …

Wonderful Microsoft Technical Support Fun

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Fairly recently, Microsoft added a “feature” to Live Mail (formerly Hotmail, remember that?). It’s a feed of all your “social” activity, called “Messenger Social”. I’m sure it’s lovely and all, but in a school where we block everything to do with Facebook and MySpace (remember that too?) and all other fun stuff like it, but still allow web-based email, it causes us a problem. How do we block just this bit of Live Mail? You’d expect that just filtering the …

Adding XP printer drivers to a 2008 print server

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We’re currently in the process of migrating servers from Server 2003 to Server 2008, which is proving a right old pain for various reasons. This morning’s headache was reinstalling a load of network printers on the new 2008 install that worked perfectly well on the 2003 install. 64-bit 2008, by default, only installs printers with the 64-bit 2008 and (for some printers, it seems, but not others) the 32 and 64-bit Vista/Windows 7 “User Mode” drivers. The old-style 2000/XP/2003 drivers …

WebMarshal “3003” errors

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If, like us, you have WebMarshal, and it’s tied to an SQL Server Express database, you may find it sometimes just… breaks. You’ll get eventlog messages like “3003:  Failed to write session to database” and “PRIMARY filegroup is full” and “Could not allocate space for object ‘dbo.DomainFileLog’”. Chances are, your database is full. The Express version of SQL Server 2005 is nice because it’s free, but it does limit database sizes to just 4GB. This may sound huge, but for …

Streaming EyeTV video to the network

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Apparently, there’s some sort of football tournament on at the moment. Quite a big one too. I wouldn’t know. However, the fact that it’s on, and some of the games are on during the working day, causes a few problems in that staff at work want to watch them. And they don’t have teevees. Me to the rescue then, with this motley crew of software and devices: An Elgato EyeTV 410 A PowerMac G5 VLC The VLC Plugin for EyeTV …

April Fools Day 2010

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After last year’s Epic April Fool of Win, expectations were high for today. I had a feeling people were not going to be as gulli– er, trusting, as before. After all, they don’t want to fall for it again, do they?  Or you’d think that, anyway. My email this morning: To: All Staff Subject: Reminder about changes to staff passwords Hi all, Just a (second!) reminder about the changes to your password when we come back over Easter. The new …

Virtualising Exchange 2003

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Later this year, we’ll be migrating Microsoft Exchange 2003 over to 2007. Apparently, this isn’t technically a migration but is instead a transition. Something to do with moving and upgrading the same product, rather than changing from another product (like Lotus Notes or something, presumably). Semantics, eh? Tch. This task is one fraught with peril at every turn, so requires a bit of planning and testing. The first issue is that Exchange 2007 only runs on a 64-bit version of …

How to buy a Lenovo server

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Perhaps the title for this post should contain a question mark, because, as you’ll see, I have no idea. We needed a new server at work. We always buy Dell, but The Powers That Be request that all purchases over £3000 require at least three quotes. So off I went to Dell’s website, where I spec’d up a server and they gave me a price on the screen there and then. I then emailed a Dell reseller the same spec, …