Setting up a KMS Host (Windows Server 2008 R2)

May 9, 2012 / posted in Windows Server / No Comments

This is very simple to do and all this requires is to change the product key to KMS

Create DNS record

  1. Setting up the KMS should also create an entry in DNS. If not this will need to be created Manually
  2. Open up DNS mmc and expand the domain
  3. Right click the _tcp folder and select  Other New Records
  4. As new record type, pick Service Location (SRV)
  5. Fill in the following information

Service: _VLMCS
Protocol: _tcp
Port: 1688
Priority: #
Host offering the service: FQDN of the server.

Activating existing clients

Clients will only be activated when the following criteria has been met

Licenses for existing Windows 7 PC’s can be converted from MAK to KMS and vice versa using the Windows Volume Activation Tool which is installed on Peel-AP2. Alternatively you can use the following key to convert the clients to KMS

Using the Windows Volume Activation Tool

  1. Open up the tool and right click computers, then Add Computers
  2. Set to get computers from Active Directory
  3. Once added you will need to refresh the status. Select all and click refresh – can take a while
  4. Right click the computers you want to activate (Windows 7 only) and select configure for KMS activation
  5. This will come up with a activation failure until 25 clients have been activated

To Manually Change key type from MAK to KMS

Server 2008 R2 Stan       YC6KT-GKW9T-YTKYR-T4X34-R7VHC

Server 2008 R2 Ent         489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y

Windows 7                    FJ82H-XT6CR-J8D7P-XQJJ2-GPDD4

Configuring KMS Host to Activate Microsoft Office 2010

  1. Download and run Microsoft Office KMS Host Software – http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=25095
  2. It will then ask you for you Microsoft Office 2010 KMS key – obtain from the Microsoft licensing site

Creating an Active Directory Forest Trust

May 9, 2012 / posted in Active Directory / No Comments

The instructions below detail how to set up a 2-way active directory forest trust

Create a DNS Stub Zone at both sites

  1. Go to DNS server and open up DNS
  2. Right Click Forward Lookup Zones and click New Zone
  3. Select Stub zone and click next
  4. Add the zone name – (destination domainsl)
  5. Add IP address of  destination DNS server –
  6. As this is a Stub zone it will automatically get all DNS servers from the destination zone

Create Trust between the 2 domains

  1. Open up Active Directory Domains and Trusts
  2. Right click the domain  and select Properties
  3. Click the Trusts tab then click New Trust
  4. Click next and enter the name of the destination domain
  5. Select Forest Trust and click next
  6. Specify Direction of Trust – Select Two-way
  7.  Select Both this domain and the specified domain
  8. If you don’t have an account on the destination domain select This Domain only. Now add a password that needs to be entered at both sites. – AD Trust password in the passwords list
  9. Select Forest-wide authentication
  10. Do not confirm trust at this time if it has not been setup at the other domain. Once set up go into Active Directory Domains and Trust and click validate for incoming and outgoing trust. This will need to be performed on both domains

Linux – Reset Root Password

March 2, 2012 / posted in Linux / No Comments

First boot into Recovery mode – Hold Shift when starting up to load GRUB

Now choose – “Drop to root shell prompt” from the menu

Make sure the root partition is mounted rw

mount -o remount,rw /

to reset root password just type 

passwd

Nagios Manual Setup on Ubuntu

March 1, 2012 / posted in Linux, Nagios / No Comments

Use the following guide
http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/nagioscore/3/en/quickstart-ubuntu.html

Tested using Ubuntu 11.10 and Nagios 3.1.15

To Nagios to run i had to do the following-
Create the following directories

mkdir /usr/local/nagios/var/spool/
mkdir /usr/local/nagios/var/spool/checkresults

make directory writable

chmod 777 /usr/local/nagios/var/spool/checkresults
When opening the Nagios web page i also encountered the following
error

Whoops!
Error: Could not read object configuration data!
Here are some things you should check in order to resolve this error:
Verify configuration options using the -v command-line option to check for errors.
Check the Nagios log file for messages relating to startup or status data errors.
Make sure you read the documentation on installing, configuring and running Nagios thoroughly before continuing. If all else fails, try sending a message to one of the mailing lists. More information

This is also a permissions issue and is resolved by

chmod 777 /usr/local/nagios/var/

Run commands on all network PC’s

January 3, 2012 / posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

This can be achieved with pseexec  -

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553

Eg

pseexec \\* ipconfig /flushdns

 

Enable JavaScript in Internet Explorer

November 16, 2011 / posted in Internet Explorer, Windows / No Comments

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Security tab.
Click the Internet zone.

If you do not have to customize your Internet security settings, click Default Level.

If you have to customize your Internet security settings, follow these steps:

  1. Click Custom Level.
  2. In the Security Settings – Internet Zone dialog box, click Enable for Active Scripting in the Scripting section
  3. Click the Back button to return to the previous page, and then click the Refresh button to run scripts

Cpanel – Redirecting a Parked Domain

October 6, 2011 / posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

Set up the parked domain in cpanel.

Create a .htaccess file in the root of the website and add the following

#Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
<code>RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^parkeddomain.com$ [OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.parkeddomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.rediecteddomain$1 [R=301,L]

cPanel – Disable local mail delivery

September 5, 2011 / posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

When trying to send mail from the server to an email address with same domain name but hosted on a different server it may be necessary to disable local mail delivery. To do this from within cpanel -

  • Click on MX Entry under the Mail section
  • Select the domain you wish to change
  • Select Remote Mail Exchager

This will configure server to not accept mail locally and send mail to the lowest MX record

Add Appearance Menu for Editor Role – WordPress

September 3, 2011 / posted in Wordpress / No Comments

Add the following to the theme’s functions.php

// get the the role object
$role_object = get_role('editor');

// add $cap capability to this role object
$role_object->add_cap( 'edit_theme_options' );

Map Network Drives using Group Policy Preferences

August 16, 2011 / posted in Group Policy Preferences / No Comments

Group Policy Preferences is included with Windows Server 2008 and works with Windows Vista and later. In order for this to work with Windows XP and Server 2003 a client side patch needs to be installed. This GPP Client Side Extension is available as an update for Windows (KB 943729) and can be deployed using WSUS.

Mapping a Network Drive

  • Create and link a GPO on the required OU.
  • Click edit on GPO and go to User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Drive Maps
  • Right Click on Drive Maps and select Create.
  • Add the location and drive letter

To map drive depending on security group or other variables

  • Click the Common Tab
  • Tick Item Level Targeting
  • From the New Item B menu select Security Group.
  • Browse for the required Security Group
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