Exchange 2010 Information Store is not getting started and generating event 7024

Description;-

After installation the service is not getting started and when trying to start the service it gives event 7024 in ‘System’. The content of the event is “The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service terminated with service-specific error %%-2147221213.”

Solution

Got to command prompt from the Database server where you get this issue and run ‘gpupdate /force’.

Error while disabling a user from Lync

 

Issue;-

While removing/disabling a user from Lync we got an error ‘Active Directory operation failed on “dc”. You cannot retry this operation:”insufficient access rights to perform the operation. Please refer below screenshot.

Solution:-

Solution was so simple even though I took lot of time to find the solution. “Protect object from accidental deletion” was set for the account from AD that is the reason it was not allowing to delete.

From Active Directory users and computer find the user and go to ‘Object’ from properties you can find this settings.

Move Lync 2010 CMS to 2013

Moving CMS to 2013 is very straight one and below are the steps to follow. In the article I also follow how to create replication only for the migrated DBs once the migration is done.

Preparing Lync Server 2013 Front End Servers before moving the Central Management Server

Use the procedures in this section to prepare the Lync Server 2013 Front End Servers before you move the Lync Server 2010 Central Management Server.

To prepare an Enterprise Edition Front End pool

1. On the Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Edition Front End pool where you want to relocate the Central Management Server: Log on to the computer where the Lync Server Management Shell is installed as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group. You must also have SQL Server database sysadmin user rights and permissions on the database where you want to install the Central Management store.

2. Open the Lync Server Management Shell.

3. To create the new Central Management store in the Lync Server 2013 SQL Server database, in the Lync Server Management Shell, type:

Install-CsDatabase -CentralManagementDatabase -SQLServerFQDN <FQDN of your SQL Server> -SQLInstanceName <name of instance>

Please note that if you are using the default instance then you dont have to mention that. In this example i am using default instance.

You may see the installation is going-on. Wait for the run to finish

4. Confirm that the status of the Lync Server Front-End service is started.

 

Move the Lync Server 2010 Central Management Server to Lync Server 2013

 

1.On the Lync Server 2013 server that will be the Central Management Server: Log on to the computer where the Lync Server Management Shell is installed as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group. You must also have the SQL Server database administrator user rights and permissions.

2.Open Lync Server Management Shell.

3.In the Lync Server Management Shell, type:

Enable-CsTopology

 
And press enter

Warning:

If Enable-CsTopology is not successful, resolve the problem preventing the command from completing before continuing. If Enable-CsTopology is not successful, the move will fail and it may leave your topology in a state where there is no Central Management store.

4.On the Lync Server 2013 Front End Server or Front End pool, in the Lync Server Management Shell, type:

Move-CsManagementServer

5.Lync Server Management Shell displays the servers, file stores, database stores, and the service connection points of the Current State and the Proposed State. Read the information carefully and confirm that this is the intended source and destination. Type Y to continue.

6.Review any warnings or errors generated by the Move-CsManagementServer command and resolve them.

7.On the Lync Server 2013 server, open the Lync Server Deployment Wizard.

8.In Lync Server Deployment Wizard, click Install or Update Lync Server System, click Step 2: Setup or Remove Lync Server Components, click Next, review the summary, and then click Finish.

9.On the Lync Server FE servers, open the Lync Server Deployment Wizard.

10.In Lync Server Deployment Wizard, click Install or Update Lync Server System, click Step 2: Setup or Remove Lync Server Components, click Next, review the summary, and then click Finish.

11.To confirm that replication with the new Central Management store is occurring, in the Lync Server Management Shell, run ‘Get-CsManagementStoreReplicationStatus’ command and review the result.

Please note that, if you have a implemented mirroring for Lync 2013 databases then the migrated DBs will not be in getting a mirroring. To add the migrated DBs to mirroring you have to run the below command from Lync Management Shell. Please note that in this example ‘\\uclycdb003.ucserver.in\LyncSQLMirror$’ is my SQL share which is created for mirroring and ‘uclycdb001.ucserver.in’ is my primary database server where principle DBs are.

Install-CsMirrorDatabase -ConfiguredDatabases -FileShare "\\uclycdb003.ucserver.in\LyncSQLMirror$" -SqlServerFqdn "uclycdb001.ucserver.in" -ExcludeDatabaseList "cpsdyn","rgsdyn","rgsconfig","qoemetrics","lcscdr","rtcshared","rtcxds","rtcab"

Hope this will help, please let me know if you have any confusion so that i can try to help!

How to create a Dynamic Distribution Group with all Lync Users in it.

I am just finishing the migration of Lync 2010 to Lync 2013 for one of my client. While designing Lync 2013 infrastructure I had a question from my client on how to create a Exchange Dynamic DL with all Lync users in it. I was not able to answer this question at that time as customer is having a pure Exchange 2010 environment so I kept the question as parked and finally I could find a answer for  that. Please note that there is no straight way to do it from Exchange tools.

Here is the steps which I followed. Hope this will help someone who is looking for similar answer.

1. Logon to Exchange server and go to run and type ‘Adsiedit.msc’ and press enter Key
   
2. Right click on ADSIEdit console root and select ‘Connect to..’
   
3. Keep as default and click on next
   
4. Browse through and locate an OU where you want create the DL. Right click on the OU and select New>Object…
   
5. Select ‘msExchDynamicDistributionList’ and click on next.
   
6. Give a name. In this example its #LyncAllUsers and click on Next
   
7. Select ‘More Attributes’
   
8. Select ‘displayName’ and enter the name ‘#LyncAllUsers’ and click on set. Please change the name according to your requirement.
   
9. Select ‘Mail’ and enter the mail address ‘ ‘#LyncAllUsers@domain.com’ and click on set. Please change according to your requirement.
   
10. Select ‘MailNickname’ and enter ‘#LyncAllUsers’ and click on set. Please change according to your requirement.
    
11. Select ‘msExchangeDynamicDLFilter’ and enter ‘((objectClass=user) (| (msRTCSIP-UserEnabled=*) ) )’ and click on set. please note that this the most important step :)
    
12. Slect ‘ProxyAddresses’ and enter ‘#lyncAllUsers@domain.com’ and click on Add. Please change according to your requirement.
    
13. Finish.
    
14. Open Exchange Management Console and select Distribution group. Create a filter to show only ‘Dynamic Distribution Group’ and make sure that the newly create to DL is visible now.
    
15. Right click on the DL and go to properties.
    
16. You may get below warning, click on OK
    
17. Go to ‘Filter’ tab and use ‘Browse..’ option and select to root of the domain so that the filter will be applied for entire items in the domain and click on ‘Apply’. Click on ‘Preview’ to see the all members.
    
    Note;If you get an error stating that there is no primary smtp address then go to e-mail tab and set a primary address.
18. Open outlook in online mode or open OWA and make sure that the desired DL is visible in GAL.

Wow! 4 very interesting features in Lync July Updates

There 4 pretty interesting features announced by  Microsoft with July updates. Bellow are the features,

• Embedded Images - Add images in-line with text during one-to-one conversations. 
• Meetings View - View the day’s meetings from Meetings View in the Lync client main window.
• IM Mute - Presenters may disable use of the conversation window during a scheduled meeting.
• Q&A Manager - Presenters can review and respond to meeting questions in a structured way.

You can read more about the same from MS blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2013/07/16/july-2013-updates-for-the-lync-2013-desktop-client.aspx

How to implement reporting for a Lync account

I had a strange requirement from one of my client. He wanted to see Lync conferencing policy change on an account!

If the policy is changed then he would like to have mail send to him with the information and the check should happen every one hour. Checking every one hour and reporting it when ever policy change was a nightmare for my Operations team and i thought of automating it by using a powershell script :)

First you have to create a file with current information which can be used for comparing the status of policy.

#import the moudule
Import-Module 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\Modules\Lync\Lync.psd1'
#Below line will create a file which can be used for comparing. You have to change the sip address with the username which you are going run it. 
Get-CsUser sip:user@domain.com |select-object Identity, ConferencingPolicy |Export-csv D:\Scripts\AccountMonitoring\Default.csv -NoTypeInformation

Now create a news .ps1 file and schedule the same using schedule task. Here is the code, you have to change the user information with your account and domain.

#Import the Lync module
Import-Module 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Lync Server 2013\Modules\Lync\Lync.psd1'
#Get current policy which is assigned to the user to a file
Get-CsUser sip:user@domain.com |select-object Identity, ConferencingPolicy |Export-csv D:\Scripts\AccountMonitoring\Latest.csv -NoTypeInformation
#give the time to create the file
Sleep 60
#Creating the message which should be send in case there is a change.
$action = "Plase note that Conferencing Policy on account 'account@domain.com' has been changed, so request you to verify the configuration."
#Compare the files
compare-object -referenceobject $(get-content D:\Scripts\AccountMonitoring\default.csv) -differenceobject $(get-content D:\Scripts\LMSAccountMonitoring\latest.csv) |Export-Csv -Path D:\Scripts\AccountMonitoring\Output.csv -NoTypeInformation
$output = Get-Content D:\Scripts\AccountMonitoring\Output.csv
if ($output -eq $null)
    {exit 0}
else
    {
    $smtpServer = "smtp.dmain.com"
    $smtpFrom = "SAccountReporting@domain.com"
    $smtpTo = "prajeesh@domain.com"
    $messageSubject = "Change On Account Policy"
    $message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $smtpfrom, $smtpto
    $message.Subject = $messageSubject
    $message.IsBodyHTML = $true

    $message.Body = $message.Body + $action

    $smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
    $smtp.Send($message)
    }

Lync 2013 mobile client for Windows phone available now

Long awaited Lync 2013 for Mobile device has been released today, but its now only for windows phone and looks like we have to wait for some more time to get it for iPhone, Android, etc.

Please read more about the client through below link,

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/lync-2013/d85d8a57-0f61-4ff3-a0f4-444e131d8491

Prepare AD Schema for Lync 2013

Lync basics should be installed on the server from you start preparing the AD schema. This article has 2 section section one talk about installing Lync 2013 basics and section 2 talk about preparing the AD schema. Before start following this article please make sure that you have done all Operating System related pre-requisites. To know about Windows 2008 R2 pre-requisites please Follow

Install Lync 2013 basics

1. Brows through installation media and double click on setup.exe start installation.
2. Click on yes

3. Click on Install

4. Accept licence agrement and click on OK

2 Prepare AD for Lync 2013

This section covers the steps required to update AD Schema for Lync 2013.

Polycom Lync phone some useful information

ClickHereQuick Start Guide ClickHere

Reset the POLYCOM Lync phone ClickHere

Configure static IP address on PolyCom Lync Phone

Lync 2013 pre-requisite on Windows 2008 R2

Its been always a confusion when we start installing Lync on a system. In order to simplify the confusion below are the notes for Windows 2008 R2

1. Install powershell 3 on the servers.

2. Install .net 4.5

3. Install OS perquisites

a. On server open PowerSheell

b. From powershell prompt type ‘Import-Module ServerManager’ and hit enter key

c. Next type below command and hit enter key
‘Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Net-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Scripting-Tools,Web-Client-Auth,Desktop-Experience, Web-Dyn-Compression’

d. Reboot the server

4. Install Windows Media Format Runtime
Run below command from command prompt refer below screenshot.
%systemroot%\system32\dism.exe /online /add-package /packagepath:%windir%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Media-Format-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514.mum /ignorecheck

Lync shows ‘The address book is preparing to synchronize. Search result might not be current.’

Error

When user try to search one Lync user from Lync client user gets a message that ‘The address book is preparing to synchronize. Search result might not be current.’

Solution

1. From the client system, logoff from Lync client and close it.
2. Open registry editor [Use regedit] .
3. From Registry Editor browse through and go to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator’
   
4. Create a DWORD value by name ‘GalDownloadInitialDelay’ with value ‘0’
5. Go to ‘%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Communicator’ and open the folder by user’s sip-address.
6. Delete ‘GalContacts.db.idx’ and ‘GalContacts.db’
   
7. Start Lync client and wait for some time the error message should be gone.

Update-CsAddressBook fails with below Error="Retrieving the COM ….

 

Description

Update-CsAddressBook fails with below error.

Update-CsAddressBook : Error="Retrieving the COM class factory for remote component with CLSID {2766B7D8-C4FA-4617-9718 -31198883538A} from machine 10.33.243.20 failed due to the following error: 80070005.", Possible causes="Make sure that the Lync Server Front-End service is correctly installed and is running on the computer: "10.33.243.20"."
At line:1 char:21
+ Update-CsAddressBook <<<<
+ CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Update-CsAddressBook], DcomException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DCOM_TYPE_CREATION,Microsoft.Rtc.Management.AddressBook.Cmdlet.UpdateAddressBookCmdlet

Solution

1. Add the ‘RTCUniversalServerAdmins into local admin group from where the command fails.
2. Log off and login and run the command again. It should work

‘Unable to connect to the remote server’ error when try to open SQL reporting link

 

You may get an error while configuring the reporting service and opening the reporting service URL stating that ‘Unable to connect to the remote server’. This error normally visible when you change the default reporting DB name or reporting URL.

Solution

From the SQL server where you have reporting DBs configured,

1. Go to the ReportServer folder [By default its C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer]

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the SQL Server Reporting Services (Sql Instance name) service to connect.

 

Error

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the SQL Server Reporting Services (SQLDB04) service to connect.

Reason

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the SQL Server Reporting Services (MSSQLSERVER) service to connect.

Solution

To solve this issue you have add registry key with higher value than 30000 milliseconds.

Here are the steps to do so,

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

How to check SRV records by using ‘nslookup’

Even though the nslookup is very familiar to lot people its a so confusing tool to always Yesterday I had spent lot of time to see whether the srv record which i have created for Lync 2010 is correct or not.

Oops! I didn't mention why I wanted to verify from the client side, I did setup lync 2010 for my client but auto-login for the client was not working. When setup the client to use the server name manually it worked. You all know that, when client starts it always search for _sipinternaltls SRV records its configured to auto-login.

Lets come back to the point how we can check SRV records from nslookup, here is the steps.

1. Open cmd and type nslookup and press enter key
2. Inside nalookup type ‘set type=all’ and press enter.
   
3. Type ‘_sipinternal._tcp.domainname.com’ and press enter
   
4. You will be able to see the SRV record details of _sipinternaltls record. The same way can be followed for any other records like _ladp.

SQL Express Edition Backup by SQLCMD fails with error ‘Named Pipes Provider: Could not open’

Issue

Today I came across a situation that SQL backup by using script with SQLCMD fails.
Below is the error I got,

HResult 0x2, Level 16, State 1
Named Pipes Provider: Could not open a connection to SQL Server [2].
Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0 : A network-related or instance-specific error has occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. Server is not found or not accessible. Check if instance name is correct and if SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. For more information see SQL Server Books Online..
Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0 : Login timeout expired.

Set Permission on Enterprise Vault Accounts with EVPM

Here we are going to discuss how to set permission on some EV account to a user by using EVPM script. Below script will help you with the same.

1. Create a file with notepad and save the same in UNICODE format, with an .ini extension.
2. Copy below script to the .ini file created in 1st step and modify with your environmental value on DirectoryComputerName, SiteName, ArchiveName and  Yourdomain\User.

Install Exchange server 2013 Preview

Here is the step by step instructions to install Exchange server 2013 preview version on the LAB. In this scenario I am installing Exch 2013 on Windows server 2008 R2 system.
Preparation Tasks
1. Log the server where you are going install Exchange 2013. In this example server version is Windows 2008 R2 SP2
2. Open powershell and type ‘import-module servermanager.
Then enter ‘Add-windowsFeature rsat-adds’ please refer the below screenshot.

How to Use EVDuplicateCleaner.exe

Symantec has found that under some circumstances post-processing failed to convert items to shortcuts resulting in duplicates in the archive. They have released a tool called EVDUplicateCleaner and the same is available in ClickHere. Since the documentation for the tool is not that clear I thought of writing my experience with the tool here

1 Create report of duplicated items

The tool has 2 options to create reports one is ‘summary’ and other is ‘report ‘. Summary gives you a just summary and report gives you detailed report of duplicate items from a specified archive or entire archive from a specific EV Store.

How to set ‘Archive Usage Limit’ above 16GB for a user in Enterprise Vault

Issue
When you try to set ‘Archive Usage Limit’ for a user from VAC, if the value is above 16Gb, you will get error ‘Enter and integer between 0 and 16000’,

Solution
Its by design and you have to apply the solution via SQL