Export SPCollect Logs from VNX Unisphere GUI

When working with EMC support, it may become necessary to export and upload SPCollect logs from your array and send to the EMC support team. Below is an easy way to obtain the requested SPCollect information.

• Login to the GUI as an Administrator > Navigate to System
• On the Panel (left or right hand side) click > “Generate Diagnostic Files – SPA” and “Generate Diagnostic Files – SPB”

• You will immediately see a pop-up message with “Success”

• Wait about 5 minutes
• Click “Get Diagnostic Files – SPA”
• You will see a file named:
• [SystemSerialNumber]_SPA_[Date]_[randombits]_data.zip
• The file should be around 15-20MB
• If you file is smaller, you haven’t waited long enough for the correct file to be generated
• Highlight the file and click “Transfer” to a destination you choose in the Transfer Manager window

• Repeat the steps for SP B

Due to file size, most email systems will not allow the .zip files to be sent. Login to the EMC support site and attach the files to your specific case.

Creating a Recurring Email in Windows Server 2008 Using Exchange 2010

On occasion, an organization may have a need to send a recurring email. In the case of one of our customers, there was a need to send a weekly notice to users that patches would be applied to the terminal servers overnight with a friendly reminder to save any work. To set this up is really quite simple. Here is how:

First, open the Task Schedule and choose Create Task. This will open the Task Properties window.

On the General tab of the Task Properties window, fill in a Description. Choose the user account from which you would like to send the email. Finally, choose “Run whether user is logged on or not” and “Run with highest privileges.

On the Triggers tab, click New. Make selections as appropriate for the frequency and be sure to check Enabled.

On the Actions tab, choose “Send an e-mail” from the Action drop-down menu. Fill out the From, Subject, and Text of the message. Add any appropriate attachment and fill in the SMTP server address. If the Scheduled Task is being configured on your Exchange server, you can simply enter 127.0.0.1 for the SMTP server. Click OK to return to the Task Properties window.

On the Conditions tab, specify the conditions under which the task should run.

On the Settings tab, you should choose  “Allow task to be run on demand”.

After clicking OK to close all the Windows, right-click the task, and click Run to test. Ensure that the test email is received by the intended recipient(s).

In some instances, you may need to configure a Receive Connector on your Exchange server which allows anonymous relay. You can find a instructions for doing that on Microsoft’s website here.

How to uninstall newer versions of Internet Explorer

Some web applications are picky about the browser you need to use.  Websites and web-based applications will usually tell you what they are designed for and what you should access them with.  Niche applications tend to be especially picky as smaller development teams can’t optimize complex web-based apps for the gamut of browsers available.

One of the most common issues seems to be Internet Explorer being upgraded through Windows Update causing compatibility problems.  Luckily it’s fairly simple to “downgrade” to a version that works best with what you need to access.  The installation is a little bit tougher to find than most installed programs, but not by much.

First off, go to the Control Panel on your system.  This can be found by clicking the “Start” button, then selecting Control Panel from the Start menu.  From the Control Panel, select “Uninstall a program” if the view is set to Category (default for Windows 7), or select “Programs and Features” from either the Small Icons or Large Icons view.

Now select “View installed updates”

Sort the list by Name by left-clicking on the “Name” tab.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list.  The Internet Explorer update will always be at the bottom of the list when sorted by Name.

Select Windows Internet Explorer 10 (or Windows Internet Explorer 9 if going from 9 to 8) and then click on Uninstall.  Your system will need to be restarted, but this will revert you to the previous version if you need to do so for compatibility with websites or web-based applications.

If your print job is “stuck” and you can’t cancel or delete it, try this: manually clearing the print spooler. (Windows)

A little background: when you send the command to print a file, Windows “spools” those files – it creates a temporary copy for the printer’s use.  This allows the printer to access the file at its own rate, and continues the job even if you (hypothetically) close the program or file you have open.  Sometimes, for various reasons that aren’t particularly relevant to this article, printers will fail to successfully complete a job.  Usually, you can just cancel the job or delete it from the printer’s queue – the easiest way to access this is to double-click the icon that looks like a printer in the rightmost area of the Windows taskbar.

The following window will appear showing your print job(s) and their status.  You can right click on these and pause, restart, cancel, and basically manage the individual entries.

When a failed print job cannot be removed this way, or if the job just seems stuck, we can force Windows to remove it and restart the “service” that Windows uses to send data to printers.

To do this, click on the “Start” button, and just begin typing the letters CMD.  Windows will find and present a program called “cmd.exe.”  Right click on this item (the icon is a black window with white letters saying “C:\”) and select “Run as Administrator.”

Copy and paste or type the following commands in this order
(to paste in this command line window, right click on the title bar -> Edit -> Paste)

The commands – be sure to include everything within the quotations:

1. “net stop spooler”
2. “del /F /Q C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*”
3. “net start spooler”

You will see feedback after stopping and starting the spooler, but the second command simply removes all of the temporary “spooled” files in the Windows print system.  CMD.exe will not give you any indication that it performed a task after this line, but it will clear all spooled items.

Lastly, try printing your document again.  It will very likely print successfully.

Fixing a Corrupted Nickname Entry in Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook maintains a list of formerly used email addresses which is used for the automatic completion feature. If one of these “nicknames” becomes corrupted it can cause any emails to that address to bounce. If this happens, the proper way to fix itis is to delete the corrupted entry and retype the email address in the To… field.

How to remove a corrupted nickname cache entry

1. Open a new email message.
2. Type the first few characters of the nickname cache entry that you want to remove from the cache.
3. When the entry appears in the list of suggested names, use the Up and Down arrow keys on your keyboard to move the highlight to the entry you want to remove.
4. Hit the Delete key on your keyboard to remove it from the list.

McAfee Spam Report

The report lists the emails that have been filtered because of potential spam content. The Spam Report includes email that was quarantined for your primary email address and any associated alias email addresses you may have. If your service is configured for users to receive the Report, it is emailed to you based on a frequency set by your administrator. Simply double-click the email in your email application. The report will be displayed.

How to use the Spam Report

Review the messages listed in the report. For email you believe is NOT spam, click Release (1). If the email comes from a trusted source, click Allow (2) to always receive email from the sender.

Click Delete all messages (3), to permanently delete the messages from the quarantine.

View list of all quarantined messages (4) will take you to your quarantine list online. From there, you can manage your quarantine through the web interface and access older quarantined items.

If you would like to adjust the frequency of your Spam Report or adjust other settings, click on To change your preferences and spam report settings, click here (5).

Asigra Linux Restore with ‘sudo’

Conduct an Asigra restore to a UNIX or Linux server using sudo credentials

Verify that user is listed in /etc/sudoers file on restore target system

The sudo utility allows users root level access to some (or all) subsystems without requiring users to know the root password. Please look at documentation for the sudo utility for more information.

From Asigra restore dialog, choose files to be restored

Select Alternate location and click on ‘>>’

Enter server name or IP address for restore target and check both “Ask for credentials” and “‘sudo’ as alternate user’

Enter username and password for user configured in /etc/sudoers file

Enter “root” and same password as in previous step

Do NOT enter the ‘root’ password. The sudo utility uses the regular user’s password.

Select restore location and truncate path, if required

Accept defaults

Restore in progress…

Verify restore completed

Managed Services customers: Submitting a help desk ticket from the desktop

If you’re one of our Managed Services customers, there’s an easy way to submit a help desk ticket to us by using our management agent’s system tray menu. In your system tray (the lower right corner of the Windows task bar), there is an icon for our agent which looks like a little blue ball with white stripes.

If you click on this icon, a menu will pop up and one of the options will be Create Service Ticket.

Clicking on this option will open up your email client with our helpdesk email filled in. Just tell us what the issue is and hit send. We’ll take it from there.

Getting online when the only DNS server is not

Although best practice is to have redundant DNS servers, not every small business has the luxury of being able to afford a second server. There are however cases when the server is down but users need to get online and work (or look up ways to solve the server’s issues). Fortunately Google has provided a solution in the form of a pair of publicly accessible DNS servers. While these servers will NOT provide address resolution for local LAN devices such as file shares, printers or local e-mail systems, they do allow for name resolution for any public site on the Internet.

The process is as simple as opening the IP setting for a system’s LAN card and entering the IP address of one of the public DNS server, 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4.

For more details look at Google’s instruction page at https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using

Managed Services Customers: Capturing error messages for submitting tickets to the help desk

If you’re one of our Managed Services customers and you submit a helpdesk ticket because an error message popped up on your screen, it is generally very helpful for us to be able to see the full text of that error message. Rather than writing down the entire message which can sometimes be very lengthy, you can capture the information and send it to us using our management agent.

In your system tray (the lower right corner of the Windows task bar), there is an icon for our agent which looks like a little blue ball with white stripes.

If you click on this icon, a menu will pop up and one of the options will be Screen Capture.

Clicking on this option will send us a current capture of your screen, complete with whatever error message is on screen at the time.

Then when you submit the helpdesk ticket by calling us or emailing support@lewan.com, just mention that you sent us a screenshot. We’ll be able to find it in our management interface.