lync 2010 stp by stp installation guide

Step by Step: Lync Server 2010 Deployment.

This article aims at providing step by step approach to install a Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition.

Let's first ensure that the environment is ready to welcome the Lync Server.

Operating System support for Lync Server 2010.

All server roles of Lync Server 2010 require one of the following operating systems:

• The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter).
• The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 SP2 (Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter).

Components required on Lync Server machine

Commands to install all pre-requisites... (On Windows Server 2008 R2)

PS C:\> Import-Module ServerManager

PS C:\> Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Http-Redirect,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-Client-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Scripting-Tools –Restart

Above command will install all the features required and reboot the machine.

Now go to the setup folder of Lync Server 2010, and double click setup.exe.

It'll check the availability of Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 redistributable on the system. If its not installed, it'll give you option to install the application. Click "Yes" to install it.
Next step would be to choose the installation location.

By default, it'll select above location. After selecting the right installation location, click on "Install".

Accept the license agreement and click "ok".

Topology Builder (TB): It is must to install Topology Builder (TB) before you can deploy a Lync Server. Topology Builder helps you to define sites and servers in the setup. 
Define a topology (xml file gets created).
Topology Builder validates the topology.
Publish the topology after successful validation.
Publishing it puts it into the Communications Server central management store (which is created if it does not already exist). 
Click "Install Topology Builder" to install the TB. After installation of TB, it'll look like following in the deployment wizard.

Preparing Active Directory

To prepare Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) for your Microsoft Lync Server 2010 deployment, you must perform three steps in a specific sequence:

• Prep Schema
• Forest Prep
• Domain Prep

Permission required for these three operations.

Action	Permission
Schema Prep	Member of Schema Admins group for the forest root domain and Administrator rights on the schema master
Forest Prep	Member of EnterpriseAdmins or DomainAdmins group for the forest root domain
Domain  Prep	Member of EnterpriseAdmins or DomainAdmins group for the specified domain

On deploy wizard main screen, click "Prepare Active Directory" and "Run" the schema prep.

On the Schema Prep wizard, click "Next" and "Finish". This will extend the Active Directory schema for the use of Microsoft Lync Server 2010. You need to be an enterprise admin to perform this operation.

In this case location of schema prep log was

Location: C:\Users\administrator.LYNCDOM\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Install-CSAdServerSchema-[2010_10_06][13_15_13].html

Figure out the location of schema prep log in your setup.. :)

If you already have an OCS setup then verify the process has completed successfully by checking the rangeUpper (1100) and rangeLower (14) values of the ms-RTC-SIP-SchemaVersion Schema object with adsiedit.msc.

It's time for forest prep after you are done with schema prep.

From Active Directory Preparation wizard, "Run" the prepare forest operation (Above picture). Click "Finish" when the forest prep is done (below picture).

Log Location: C:\Users\administrator.LYNCDOM\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Enable-CSAdForest-d96954e1-1d86-40c1-942f-54f5ec5052ab.xml

To check the status of forest prep, run the following command in powershell.

PS C:\> Get-CsAdForest
LC_FORESTSETTINGS_STATE_READY

After forest prep is successful, run domain prep for all the concerned domains in Active Directory.

Log Location for domain prep action: C:\Users\administrator.LYNCDOM\AppData\Local\Temp\2\Enable-CSAdDomain-[2010_10_06][14_41_28].html

To check the status of Domain Prep, run the following command.

PS C:\> Get-CsAdDomain
LC_DOMAINSETTINGS_STATE_READY

Prepare the Microsoft Lync Server

Process to prepare the Lync Server does three things primarily.

1)      Checks following components for availability. If anyone them missing, it also installs that component.

2)      Creates firewall exception for SQL instance.

3)      Creates firewall exception for SQL browser.

 

After this wizard completes, you should see following components installed on the server.

Before moving further the domain Administrator account used throughout this process should be added as a member to the domain security groups CsAdministrator and RTCUniversalServerAdmins.

This user account should then logoff and back on to the Windows Server where Lync is being installed to update the associated security token.

Create a share for Lync Server:

It will be used during Lync Server 2010 installation. Everyone should have “Read & Execute” permission. Administrators should have “Full Control”.

Share name for this purpose in this article is “LyncFolder”.

Defining topology with the help of Topology Builder

Open the TB from start menu.

Provide a name to the topology. For example, “NewYork.tbxml".

Back at the main Topology Builder window select Edit Properties on the Lync Server 2010 (RC) root-level object.  Highlight the Simple URLs section and enter the desired Administrative Access URL. (Note the additional for Phone Access URLs and Meeting URLs are already configured.)

Also highlight the Central Management Server section and select the new Front-End server from the drop-down menu if it is not already selected.

By now local SQL instance will have two databases Lis and XDS. Also, the shared folder is configured properly.

DNS Records:

Create following three hostnames

Dialin.Lyncdom.com     

Meet.Lyncdom.com

Admin.Lyncdom.com

All three hostnames should point to the IP Address of the standard edition server (enterprise edition pool IP if its enterprise edition deployment).

Installation of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 binaries

 Run “setup or remove Lync Server components”.


After rebooting the server, run “setup or remove Lync Server components” again. This will install the rest of the compnents on the machine.
Certificate For Lync Server
You can either user certificates from the internal Certification Authority (CA), or you can get the certificates from the public CA. Since this certificate will be used only for the internal purpose, it makes sense to get the certificate from internal CA.








Provide “Organization Information” detail and click “Next”.

Provide “Geographical Information” and click “Next”.

You may get this error during certificate request/assign.

Error: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800B0109)

Install the Root CA cert chain on the server and run the wizard again to resolve the problem.

After you have successfully configured certificates on the Lync Server, now it’s time to start the services.

Click next on “Start Services” wizard.

Reboot the server. And, that’s all as far as installation of Lync Server 2010 is concerned.

And yes, last but not the least... don't forget to create the corresponding SRV record to enable auto configuration at the clients end.

550 5.7.1 resolver.rst.authrequired authentication required ##rfc822

in Exchange server console under  mail flow settings disable the required authentication for all senders. 

failover cluster win2008

Introduction

A failover cluster is a group of independent computers that work together to increase the availability of applications and services. The clustered servers (called nodes) are connected by physical cables and by software. If one of the cluster nodes fails, another node begins to provide service (a process known as failover). Users experience a minimum of disruptions in service.

Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) is a feature that can help ensure that an organization’s critical applications and services, such as e-mail, databases, or line-of-business applications, are available whenever they are needed. Clustering can help build redundancy into an infrastructure and eliminate single points of failure. This, in turn, helps reduce downtime, guards against data loss, and increases the return on investment.

Failover clusters provide support for mission-critical applications—such as databases, messaging systems, file and print services, and virtualized workloads—that require high availability, scalability, and reliability.

What is a Cluster?

Cluster is a group of machines acting as a single entity to provide resources and services to the network. In time of failure, a failover will occur to a system in that group that will maintain availability of those resources to the network.

How Failover Clusters Work?

A failover cluster is a group of independent computers, or nodes, that are physically connected by a local-area network (LAN) or a wide-area network (WAN) and that are programmatically connected by cluster software. The group of nodes is managed as a single system and shares a common namespace. The group usually includes multiple network connections and data storage connected to the nodes via storage area networks (SANs). The failover cluster operates by moving resources between nodes to provide service if system components fail.

Normally, if a server that is running a particular application crashes, the application will be unavailable until the server is fixed. Failover clustering addresses this situation by detecting hardware or software faults and immediately restarting the application on another node without requiring administrative intervention—a process known as failover. Users can continue to access the service and may be completely unaware that it is now being provided from a different server

Figure . Failover clustering

Failover Clustering Terminology

1. Failover and Failback Clustering Failover is the act of another server in the cluster group taking over where the failed server left off. An example of a failover system can be seen in below Figure. If you have a two-node cluster for file access and one fails, the service will failover to another server in the cluster. Failback is the capability of the failed server to come back online and take the load back from the node the original server failed over to.

2. Active/Passive cluster model:

Active/Passive is defined as a cluster group where one server is handling the entire load and, in case of failure and disaster, a Passive node is standing by waiting for failover.

· One node in the failover cluster typically sits idle until a failover occurs. After a failover, this passive node becomes active and provides services to clients. Because it was passive, it presumably has enough capacity to serve the failed-over application without performance degradation.

3. Active/Active failover cluster model

All nodes in the failover cluster are functioning and serving clients. If a node fails, the resource will move to another node and continue to function normally, assuming that the new server has enough capacity to handle the additional workload.

4. Resource. A hardware or software component in a failover cluster (such as a disk, an IP address, or a network name).

5. Resource group.

A combination of resources that are managed as a unit of failover. Resource groups are logical collections of cluster resources. Typically a resource group is made up of logically related resources such as applications and their associated peripherals and data. However, resource groups can contain cluster entities that are related only by administrative needs, such as an administrative collection of virtual server names and IP addresses. A resource group can be owned by only one node at a time and individual resources within a group must exist on the node that currently owns the group. At any given instance, different servers in the cluster cannot own different resources in the same resource group.

6. Dependency. An alliance between two or more resources in the cluster architecture.

7. Heartbeat.
The cluster’s health-monitoring mechanism between cluster nodes. This health checking allows nodes to detect failures of other servers in the failover cluster by sending packets to each other’s network interfaces. The heartbeat exchange enables each node to check the availability of other nodes and their applications. If a server fails to respond to a heartbeat exchange, the surviving servers initiate failover processes including ownership arbitration for resources and applications owned by the failed server.
The heartbeat is simply packets sent from the Passive node to the Active node. When the Passive node doesn’t see the Active node anymore, it comes up online

8. Membership. The orderly addition and removal of nodes to and from the cluster.

9. Global update. The propagation of cluster configuration changes to all cluster members.

10. Cluster registry. The cluster database, stored on each node and on the quorum resource, maintains configuration information (including resources and parameters) for each member of the cluster.

11. Virtual server.

A combination of configuration information and cluster resources, such as an IP address, a network name, and application resources.

Applications and services running on a server cluster can be exposed to users and workstations as virtual servers. To users and clients, connecting to an application or service running as a clustered virtual server appears to be the same process as connecting to a single, physical server. In fact, the connection to a virtual server can be hosted by any node in the cluster. The user or client application will not know which node is actually hosting the virtual server.

12. Shared storage.

All nodes in the failover cluster must be able to access data on shared storage. The highly available workloads write their data to this shared storage. Therefore, if a node fails, when the resource is restarted on another node, the new node can read the same data from the shared storage that the previous node was accessing. Shared storage can be created with iSCSI, Serial Attached SCSI, or Fibre Channel, provided that it supports persistent reservations.

13. LUN

LUN stands for Logical Unit Number. A LUN is used to identify a disk or a disk volume that is presented to a host server or multiple hosts by a shared storage array or a SAN. LUNs provided by shared storage arrays and SANs must meet many requirements before they can be used with failover clusters but when they do, all active nodes in the cluster must have exclusive access to these LUNs.

Storage volumes or logical unit numbers (LUNs) exposed to the nodes in a cluster must not be exposed to other servers, including servers in another cluster. The following diagram illustrates this.

14. Services and Applications group

Cluster resources are contained within a cluster in a logical set called a Services and Applications group or historically referred to as a cluster group. Services and Applications groups are the units of failover within the cluster. When a cluster resource fails and cannot be restarted automatically, the Services and Applications group this resource is a part of will be taken offline, moved to another node in the cluster, and the group will be brought back online.

15.  Quorum

The cluster quorum maintains the definitive cluster configuration data and the current state of each node, each Services and Applications group, and each resource and network in the cluster. Furthermore, when each node reads the quorum data, depending on the information retrieved, the node determines if it should remain available, shut down the cluster, or activate any particular Services and Applications groups on the local node. To extend this even further, failover clusters can be configured to use one of four different cluster quorum models and essentially the quorum type chosen for a cluster defines the cluster. For example, a cluster that utilizes the Node and Disk Majority Quorum can be called a Node and Disk Majority cluster.

A quorum is simply a configuration database for Microsoft Cluster Service, and is stored in the quorum log file. A standard quorum uses a quorum log file that is located on a disk hosted on a shared storage interconnect that is accessible by all members of the cluster

 Why quorum is necessary

When network problems occur, they can interfere with communication between cluster nodes. A small set of nodes might be able to communicate together across a functioning part of a network, but might not be able to communicate with a different set of nodes in another part of the network. This can cause serious issues. In this “split” situation, at least one of the sets of nodes must stop running as a cluster.

To prevent the issues that are caused by a split in the cluster, the cluster software requires that any set of nodes running as a cluster must use a voting algorithm to determine whether, at a given time, that set has quorum. Because a given cluster has a specific set of nodes and a specific quorum configuration, the cluster will know how many “votes” constitutes a majority (that is, a quorum). If the number drops below the majority, the cluster stops running. Nodes will still listen for the presence of other nodes, in case another node appears again on the network, but the nodes will not begin to function as a cluster until the quorum exists again.

For example, in a five node cluster that is using a node majority, consider what happens if nodes 1, 2, and 3 can communicate with each other but not with nodes 4 and 5. Nodes 1, 2, and 3 constitute a majority, and they continue running as a cluster. Nodes 4 and 5 are a minority and stop running as a cluster, which prevents the problems of a “split” situation. If node 3 loses communication with other nodes, all nodes stop running as a cluster. However, all functioning nodes will continue to listen for communication, so that when the network begins working again, the cluster can form and begin to run.

There are four quorum modes:

• Node Majority: Each node that is available and in communication can vote. The cluster functions only with a majority of the votes, that is, more than half.
• Node and Disk Majority: Each node plus a designated disk in the cluster storage (the “disk witness”) can vote, whenever they are available and in communication. The cluster functions only with a majority of the votes, that is, more than half.
• Node and File Share Majority: Each node plus a designated file share created by the administrator (the “file share witness”) can vote, whenever they are available and in communication. The cluster functions only with a majority of the votes, that is, more than half.
• No Majority: Disk Only. The cluster has quorum if one node is available and in communication with a specific disk in the cluster storage. Only the nodes that are also in communication with that disk can join the cluster. This is equivalent to the quorum disk in Windows Server 2003. The disk is a single point of failure, so only select scenarios should implement this quorum mode.

16. Witness Disk – The witness disk is a disk in the cluster storage that is designated to hold a copy of the cluster configuration database. (A witness disk is part of some, not all, quorum configurations.)

Configuration of two node Failover Cluster and Quorum Configuration:

Multi-site cluster is a disaster recovery solution and a high availability solution all rolled into one. A multi-site cluster gives you the highest recovery point objective (RTO) and recovery time objective (RTO) available for your critical applications. With the introduction of Windows Server 2008 failover clustering a multi-site cluster has become much more feasible with the introduction of cross subnet failover and support for high latency network communications.

Which editions include failover clustering?

The failover cluster feature is available in Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter. The feature is not available in Windows Web Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

Network Considerations

All Microsoft failover clusters must have redundant network communication paths. This ensures that a failure of any one communication path will not result in a false failover and ensures that your cluster remains highly available. A multi-site cluster has this requirement as well, so you will want to plan your network with that in mind. There are generally two things that will have to travel between nodes: replication traffic and cluster heartbeats. In addition to that, you will also need to consider client connectivity and cluster management activity

Quorum model:
For a 2-node multi-site cluster configuration, the Microsoft recommended configuration is a Node and File Share Majority quorum
Step –1 Configure the Cluster
Add the Failover Clustering feature to both nodes of your cluster. Follow the below steps:

1. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager. (If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.)

2. In Server Manager, under Features Summary, click Add Features. Select Failover Clustering, and then click Install

3. Follow the instructions in the wizard to complete the installation of the feature. When the wizard finishes, close it.
4. Repeat the process for each server that you want to include in the cluster.
5. Next you will want to have a look at your network connections. It is best if you rename the connections on each of your servers to reflect the network that they represent. This will make things easier to remember later.
Go to properties of Cluster (or private) network and check out register the connection’s addresses in DNS.

6. Next, go to Advanced Settings of your Network Connections (hit Alt to see Advanced Settings menu) of each server and make sure the Public network (LAN) is first in the list:

7. Your private network should only contain an IP address and Subnet mask. No Default Gateway or DNS servers should be defined. Your nodes need to be able to communicate across this network, so make sure the servers can communicate across this network; add static routes if necessary.

Step 2 – Validate the Cluster Configuration:
1. Open up the Failover Cluster Manager and click on Validate a Configuration.

2. The Validation Wizard launches and presents you the first screen as shown below. Add the two servers in your cluster and click Next to continue.

3. we need this cluster to be supported so we must run all the needed tests

4. Select run all tests.

5. Click next till it gives the report like below

When you click on view report, it will display the report similar as below:

Step 2 – Create a Cluster:
In the Failover Cluster Manager, click on Create a Cluster.

The next step is that you must create a name for this cluster and IP for administering this cluster. This will be the name that you will use to administer the cluster, not the name of the SQL cluster resource which you will create later. Enter a unique name and IP address and click Next.
Note: This is also the computer name that will need permission to the File Share Witness as described later in this document.

Confirm your choices and click Next.

Click Next till finish, it will create the cluster by name MYCLUSTER.
Step 3 – Implementing a Node and File Share Majority quorum
First, we need to identify the server that will hold our File Share witness. This File Share witness should be located in a 3^rd location, accessible by both nodes of the cluster. Once you have identified the server, share a folder as you normally would share a folder. In my case, I create a share called MYCLUSTER on a server named NYDC01
.

The key thing to remember about this share is that you must give the cluster computer name read/write permissions to the share at both the Share level and NTFS level permissions.  You will need to make sure you give the cluster computer account read/write permissions in both shared and NTFS for MYCLUSTER share.

Now with the shared folder in place and the appropriate permissions assigned, you are ready to change your quorum type. From Failover Cluster Manager, right-click on your cluster, choose More Actions and Configure Cluster Quorum Settings.

On the next screen choose Node and File Share Majority and click Next.

In this screen, enter the path to the file share you previously created and click Next.

Confirm that the information is correct and click Next till summary page and click Finish.

Now when you view your cluster, the Quorum Configuration should say “Node and File Share Majority” as shown below.

The steps I have outlined up until this point apply to any multi-site cluster, whether it is a SQL, Exchange, File Server or other type of failover cluster. The next step in creating a multi-site cluster involves integrating your storage and replication solution into the failover cluster

activate evaluation windows 2008 r2

Different License types

There are 3 different types of licenses with corresponding dvds for Windows Server 2008 R2: Volume License, OEM and Timebased Evaluation. All these licenses have different time limits before you have to activate in order to continue using the Operating System. There is a possibility to reset the evaluation period for a few times which is called “rearming”. This method is also explained in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. The different licenses with corresponding DVD-image, hashes and evaluation times are as follows:
Windows Server 2008 R2 Evaluation English (TIMEBASED_EVAL) – Usable: (10 days + 5 * 10 days using rearm) + 180 days after activating = 240 days
Filename: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_server_eval_en-us-GRMSXEVAL_EN_DVD.iso (download)
SHA1: 799BF8DA077A3E842AA97C990E468B3AA7BDA4EB
MD5: 134F607CF4C633EF11D2576D1C635D08
Windows Server 2008 R2 OEM English (RETAIL) – Usable without activation: 30 days + 3 * 30 days using rearm = 120 days
Filename: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_server_en-us_OEM-GRMSXFREO_EN_DVD.iso (only available for OEM manufacturers)
SHA1: 515A9E7F4C7DF41AACA6872CB806DABD15BF7D64
MD5: 4FFB420543F5A9265BE5EEDB6C4E55A2
Windows Server 2008 R2 VL English (VOLUME_KMSCLIENT) – Usable without activation: 30 days + 3 * 30 days using rearm = 120 days
Filename: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_server_en-us_VL-GRMSXVOL_EN_DVD.iso (only available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers)
SHA1: AD855EA913AAEC3F1D0E1833C1AEF7A0DE326B0A
MD5: 0207EF392C60EFDDA92071B0559CA0F9
As you can see you can use the evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 R2 for free for 6 months and even for more than 7 months if you use the rearm method described below!

Rearming

1. Check your remaining time by clicking Run in the Start menu and entering slmgr.vbs -dli. After clicking OK a window will show up which shows you the remaining time before expiration.

2. If you have less than one day left rearm your license so you have 10 days left again. To do this click Run in the Start menu, enter slmgr.vbs -rearm and click OK. After a few moments a window will popup that shows you the rearm has been completed and you have to restart your system.

3. After restaring your system verify that the rearm has worked by running slmgr.vbs -dli again. The remaining time should now be reset to 10 days!

Checking rearm count left

You can rearm the Evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 R2 up to 5 times. To check how much rearms you have left click Run in the Start menu, enter slmgr.vbs -dlv and click OK

Activating

1. After you used all rearms it’s time to activate. To activate click Activate Windows online now Windows Activation assistant.

2. Wait until the online key verification and activation has finished.

3. If everything went right Windows will now be activated with a 180 days license and a watermark appears on your desktop.

Removing Desktop Watermark

1. Download watermark.zip (9KB) from win2008r2workstation.
2. After downloading the zip extract the zip, run install.cmd as an Administrator and follow the instructions on the screen. After a successful installation, reboot your pc to remove the watermark. If you want to do this manually, open %SystemRoot%\System32\en-US\user32.dll.mui with a resource editor and replace the strings in the following resources with a space (” “): 45.715, 45.716, 46.* and 47.739.

If you get a sharing violation error during the installation, try running it again in Safe Mode. I Couldn’t test it myself because for some reason I can’t get into Safe Mode. Please confirm this works!

 http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/win2008r2/240-days-evaluation

Ways to Disable or Turn Off User Account (Access) Control (UAC) in Windows Vista

User Account Control (UAC), or unknowingly mistaken as User Access Control is new security feature in Windows Vista. The main display of UAC is the occasional pop up dialog box asking for user’s permission needed by Windows or for user to enter administrator’s password to perform the operation or run a program especially setup executable, installer or system tools. UAC also affects command prompt (Cmd.exe) with errors such as “The requested operation requires elevation” or “Access Denied” when not running in elevated command prompt with full privileges.

The annoying symptom happens because User Account (Access) Control or UAC forces all processes to run in lower elevation mode with limited privileges. When a program or process requires access to system files, folders or registry hives that only administrator can access, UAC launch a consent prompt to allow user to give approval or enter administrator’s credential to higher elevation with full administrator’s rights.
For user who find the constant UAC elevation approval request annoying, and confident that you can maintain the security of computer from infection without the help of UAC, it’s possible to turn off and disable UAC. Turning User Account Control off potentially fix compatibility issue where UAC prevents some programs, applications, components, processes or games from running properly even if authorization is given to elevate its privileges, as delay in execution as may break certain real-time functions.
There are a few ways that you can use to turn off the UAC, but most home and personal users should find method to disable UAC via Control Panel easiest to do. User Account Access Control, when turned off and disabled., will affect all users on the computer.
Method 1 – Turn Off UAC via Users Accounts Control Panel

1. Click Start and then open Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, click User Accounts and Family Safety.
3. Click User Accounts.
4. Click Turn User Account Control on or off.
   When prompted that Windows needs your permission to continue, press Continue button or enter the administrator’s password.
5. Clear the tick or check mark on the check box beside the option to Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer.
6. Click OK.
7. When prompted that computer must be restarted to apply the changes, reboot the computer.
8. To enable the UAC, simply tick or select the checkbox again.

Method 2 – Disable UAC Using Registry Editor

1. Run Registry Editor by typing RegEdit in Start Search or command prompt.
2. Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
   where HKLM is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
3. Right click on EnableLUA registry subkey and choose Modify or double click on EnableLUA registry value name in the right pane to modify the setting.
4. On “Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value” dialog box, set the new value data as 0.
5. Exit from Registry Editor.
6. Restart the computer.
7. To enable the UAC again, simply change back the value data of EnableLUA to 1.

Method 3 – Turn Off UAC Using MSConfig System Configuration Utility

• Type MSConfig in Start Search box or Run command (open by pressing Win+R) and hit Enter key.When prompted that Windows needs your permission to continue, press Continue button or enter the administrator’s password.
• In System Configuration window, click on the Tools tab.
• Scroll down and locate to select Disable UAP or Disable UAC option in the item list.
• Click the Launch button.
• A command prompt window will open and automatically execute and run scripted process to disable UAC.
• On completion, The operation completed successfully message will be shown. Close Cmd.exe window when done, and then exit form MSConfig.
• Restart computer for changes to apply and become effective.
• To return UAC to on status, simply select Enable UAP or Enable UAC, and then click on Launch button.

Method 4 – Disable UAC Using Group Policy (Active Directory GPO or Local Group Policy)
Note: Windows Vista Home Premium and Home Basic editions do not have Local Group Policy Editor.

1. Click Start and then type GPEdit.msc in the Start Search box and hit Enter key to open the Group Policy Editor.Note: If you’re using Active Directory Domain GPO which controls many computers, open Group Policy Management Console by click on Start, and then type GPMC.msc in the Start Search and hit Enter key from a Windows Vista computer that is a member of the AD domain. In the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) window, browse to the respective GPO which is linked and enabled to the OU (organization unit) or domain where the Vista computers are located, then edit it.
2. Navigate and browse to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options.
3. In the right details pane, there are a few User Account Control related policies. Right click each of the following policies and configure or change the value to the new value indicated below after the dash (-):
   • User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators – Elevate without prompting
   • User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation – Disabled
   • User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode – Disabled
   
4. Restart the computer to make the changes effective.
5. To re-turn on UAC, revert back to original values of the policies, which is Enabled and Prompt for Consent.

Method 5 – Disable User Access Control from Command Prompt

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Run the following command to disable and turn off UAC:C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
3. To re-enable and turn back on the User Account Control, run the following command:C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
4. Reboot the computer for the changes to take effect.

 http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/ways-to-disable-or-turn-off-user-account-access-control-uac-in-windows-vista/

Change a Basic Disk into a Dynamic Disk

pplies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2
When you change a basic disk to dynamic, you can create volumes that span multiple disks (spanned and striped volumes). Dynamic volumes can be used in most but not all situations.
Basic disks support only primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives. Basic disks have been supported in operating systems since MS-DOS, while dynamic disks have been supported in operating systems since Windows 2000.
Backup Operators or Administrator is the minimum membership required.

Caution
Do not convert disks to dynamic that contain multiple installations of Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. It is likely that you will no longer be able to start the second installation. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=64134.

Note
The decision to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk has implications that should be considered carefully. For more information about basic and dynamic disks and how to choose which type to use, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=64133.

Note
Before you convert disks, close any programs that are running on those disks.

Changing a basic disk into a dynamic disk

• Using the Windows interface
  
  
• Using a command line
  
  

To change a basic disk into a dynamic disk using the Windows interface

1. In Disk Management, right-click the basic disk you want to convert.
   
2. Click Convert to Dynamic Disk….
   
3. Follow the instructions on your screen.
   

   Note

   If you do not see this menu item, you might be right-clicking a volume instead of a disk, the disk might have been previously converted to a dynamic disk, or the computer is a portable computer. (Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers, removable disks, detachable disks that use Universal Serial Bus (USB) or IEEE 1394 (also called FireWire) interfaces, or on disks connected to shared SCSI buses.) In addition, you cannot convert cluster disks connected to shared SCSI or Fibre Channel buses to dynamic disks. The Cluster service supports basic disks only.)

   
   

   Caution

   If you are using a basic disk as a storage area for shadow copies and you intend to convert the disk into a dynamic disk, it is important to take the following precaution to avoid data loss. If the disk is a non-boot volume and is a different volume from where the original files reside, you must first dismount and take offline the volume containing the original files before you convert the disk containing shadow copies to a dynamic disk. You must bring the volume containing the original files back online within 20 minutes, otherwise, you will lose the data stored in the existing shadow copies. If the shadow copies are located on a boot volume, you can convert the disk to dynamic without losing shadow copies. You can use the mountvol command with the /p option to dismount the volume and take it offline. You can mount the volume and bring it online using the mountvol command or the Disk Management snap-in.

   
   

Additional considerations

• For additional information about converting basic disks to dynamic disks, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=64136.
  
• After you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, you cannot change the dynamic volumes back to partitions. Instead, you must delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then use the Convert To Basic Disk command. If you want to keep your data, you must first back it up or move it to another volume.
  
• Once converted, a dynamic disk will not contain basic volumes (primary partitions or logical drives).
  
• When you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, any existing partitions or logical drives on the basic disk become simple volumes on the dynamic disk.
  
• For the conversion to succeed, any master boot record (MBR) disks to be converted must contain at least 1 MB of space for the dynamic disk database.
  

To change a basic disk into a dynamic disk using a command line

1. Open a command prompt and type diskpart.
   
2. At the DISKPART prompt, type list disk. Make note of the disk number you want to convert to dynamic.
   
3. At the DISKPART prompt, type select disk .
   
4. At the DISKPART prompt, type convert dynamic.
   

 

Value	Description
list disk	Displays a list of disks and information about them, such as their size, amount of available free space, whether the disk is a basic or dynamic disk, and whether the disk uses the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style. The disk marked with an asterisk (*) has focus.
select disk	Selects the specified disk, where disknumber is the disk number, and gives it focus.
convert dynamic	Converts a basic disk into a dynamic disk. Any existing partitions on the disk become simple volumes.

Caution

If you are using a basic disk as a storage area for shadow copies and you intend to convert the disk into a dynamic disk, it is important to take the following precaution to avoid data loss. If the disk is a non-boot volume and is a different volume from where the original files reside, you must first dismount and take offline the volume containing the original files before you convert the disk containing shadow copies to a dynamic disk. You must bring the volume containing the original files back online within 20 minutes, otherwise, you will lose the data stored in the existing shadow copies. If the shadow copies are located on a boot volume, you can convert the disk to dynamic without losing shadow copies. You can use the mountvol command with the /p option to dismount the volume and take it offline. You can mount the volume and bring it online using the mountvol command or the Disk Management snap-in.

Additional considerations

• For additional information about converting basic disks to dynamic disks, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=64136.
  
• After you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, you cannot change the dynamic volumes back to partitions. Instead, you must delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then use the Convert To Basic Disk command. If you want to keep your data, you must first back it up or move it to another volume.
  
• Once converted, a dynamic disk will not contain basic volumes (primary partitions or logical drives).
  
• When you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, any existing partitions or logical drives on the basic disk become simple volumes on the dynamic disk.
  
• For the conversion to succeed, any master boot record (MBR) disks to be converted must contain at least 1 MB of space for the dynamic disk database.

 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731274.aspx

To use the Exchange Management Console to grant a user the Send As permission for another user's mailbox

1. Start the Exchange Management Console.
   
2. In the console tree, click Recipient Configuration.
   
3. In the result pane, select the mailbox for which you want to grant the Send As permission.
   
4. In the action pane, under the mailbox name, click Manage Send As Permission. The Manage Send As Permission wizard opens.
   
5. On the Manage Send As Permission page, click Add.
   
6. In Select User or Group, select the user to which you want to grant the Send As permission, and then click OK.
   
7. Click Manage.
   
8. On the Completion page, the Summary states whether the Send As permission was successfully granted. The summary also displays the Exchange Management Shell command that was used to grant the Send As permission.
   
9. Click Finish.
   
   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998291%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx
   
   

the remote computer disconnected the session because of an error in the licensing protocol windows 7

 http://thisishelpful.com/fix-remote-session-disconnected-because-remote-desktop-client-access-licenses.html

Here is a fix to the following error message with Remote Desktop Connection when you try to connect to a machine: “Remote session was disconnected because there are no Remote Desktop client access licenses available for this computer. Please contact the server administrator“

The solution is delete the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSLicensing

Try connecting in again. If it doesn’t work and you get the following error message: “The remote computer disconnected the session because of an error in the licensing protocol“;

Then all you need to do is Right-Click on the Remote Desktop Connection icon and select “Run as Administrator“.

The NPF driver isn’t running wireshark

 First time run wireshark, the message popped up: “The NPF driver isn’t running…
go to command prompt;
cmd;run as administrator
type>net start npf
exit wireshark and re open. you should now able to see all the interfaces

Exchange 2007 to enable Outlook Anywhere

  To use the Exchange Management Console to enable Outlook Anywhere

1. In the console tree, expand Server Configuration, and then click Client Access.
   
2. In the action pane, click Enable Outlook Anywhere.
   
3. In the Enable Outlook Anywhere Wizard, type the external host name for your organization in the box under External host name.
   
4. Select an available external authentication method. You can select Basic authentication or NTLM authentication.
   
5. If you are using an SSL accelerator and if you want to do SSL offloading, select the check box next to Allow secure channel (SSL) offloading.
   

   Note:
   Do not use this option unless you are sure that you have an SSL accelerator that can handle SSL offloading. If you do not have an SSL accelerator that can handle SSL offloading, and you select this option, Outlook Anywhere will not function correctly.

6. Click Enable to apply these settings and enable Outlook Anywhere.
   
7. Click Finish to close the Enable Outlook Anywhere Wizard.