my migration to Google Apps: the good, the bad and the ugly...

Bored ? Migrate to Google Apps to shake your brain!

As input, i had:

• One Gmail account(2Gb of mails ; agenda ; reader ; contacts)
• One pop account
  
• my domain (lotp.fr) with my main email forwarded to the pop account
  

As output… Everything in Google Apps using my domain

Activation of Google Apps for your own domain is really simple and fast (< 15mn)…Up to now, rock & roll !
Of course, it would be great if it could just import the Gmail account into Google Apps… But if it was the case, i wouldn't be blogging about it !

The good…

• Works immediately
• No Credit card asked
  
• We can change the url to a more friendly one, likewebmail.mydomain.com
• Google Labs is still there, with all same addons as Gmail
  
• Having Google mail servers as frontend for incoming mail reduce a lot spam (compared to the forwarding solution i had before)

The bad…

• Google doesn't give any way to migrate Gmail content to Google Apps. It's a shame! Even GoogleEmailUploader given by Google exclude Gmail account as source…Yes, it's not a bug, it's a feature! I used the way explained here : synchro of the 2 accounts through imap protocol with an open source tool named imapsync. The thing is that you need the best Internet connection you can and a Linux in hand. Using my hosted server, it did 2Gb in 3 hours. Globally, it's all goods, maybe except one or two attached files that became corrupted!! Don't be afraid, the source mailbox isn't changed neither emptied, so you can just keep it at hand for some months in case..
• For your contacts and calendar, you will have to do a 2 way steps, synching the old account with a local mail client, and then the client with the new account.

The ugly…

• No Google Reader! That's really ugly when you have 300 rss sources... Don't cry, there is a workaround! You have to create a new google Reader, using your google apps account (same login/pass). Then export and import your rss feeds. You still don't have the link to Google Reader from Google Apps, and you still have to logon again on google Reader.
  
• Looks like people had more space on Google Apps than Gmail before. I have the same amount as my Gmail account...In fact, i even have 1Mb more on Gmail than my Google Apps account . Except if you switch to the Premier edition with 25Gb

Up to now, i am very satisfied with the service, especially for a free service! I would be ready to for more space in Google Documents (same space as a Gmail account) and Google Reader integrated.

UPDATE: I finally decided to use Google Email Uploader on my 64 bit desktop. It does not find any mailbox to upload (outlook, thunderbird, same problem). My luck is that a braveful guy spent the time to understand why and make a working version for 64 bit, working for me: http://blog.insanegenius.com/2009/01/google-email-uploader-on-vista-x64.html

how to reset domain admin password on a Windows Server 2008

I did not use my tests Virtual Machines for some times just after installing them....I forgot the domain admin password :'(
I found a hack for Vista, that i reused for my Windows Server 2008 Domain controller !
I just pushed it a litlle further by only using the official Windows Server 2008 DVD from Microsoft instead of backtrack :)

For people in hurry, here are the steps:

• Boot onto DVD of Windows Server 2008
• Choose “Repair your computer”
• Launch cmd
• Go to c:\windows\system32
• Rename Utilman.exe to Utilman.exe.bak
• Copy cmd.exe to Utilman.exe
• Reboot on Windows
• Do the keyboard shortcut Windows + U when on the logon screen
• net user administrator Newpass123 inside the cmd
• log on with the domain admin account and this new pass
• change the password to remember it if needed
• Reboot on the DVD to put back the original Utilman.exe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-VoO9ogHc

Management Pack Dell: Regional settings bug

[Update: Dell will only deliver a 4.0 with this bug corrected. No intermediate release. We signed an NDA to get a hand on the 4.0 beta, but i left the company before having it. The 4.0 should be released by the end of july.]

I have an open issue with the Dell Management Pack and our regional settings. I found out the bug, the resolution, but now Dell ask me to wait for the MP V4.0 because i am the only one to report this bug.

I guess that we are not the only one to have this bug, and it's about people not going through opening a case at Dell. I will expose the issue here, hoping others will realize they are affected too. My goal is to have Dell releasing a corrected version before 4.0 that will be out in months.

The Bug is for DellStorageDiscovery.vbs:

Source: Health Service Modules
Event number: 21405

The process started at 09:29:38 failed to create System.Discovery.Data, no errors detected in the output. The process exited with 0 Command executed: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\cscript.exe" /nologo "DellStorageDiscovery.vbs" {XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX} {XXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX} agent.mydomain.com Working Directory: C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Health Service State\Monitoring Host Temporary Files 1\1821\ One or more workflows were affected by this. Workflow name: Dell.Connections.DellStorage.Discovery Instance name: agent.mydomain.com Instance ID: {XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX} Management group: FIRSTMG

------
The badly function is (in red the problem):
Function CheckVBScriptEngine()
Dim bIsCompatV, var
Const VBSCRIPT_MIN_VERSION = 5.6
var = ScriptEngineMajorVersion & “.” & ScriptEngineMinorVersion
If (CInt(var)) < biscompatv =" False" biscompatv =" True"> 0 Then
CheckVBScriptEngine = Err.Number
Else
CheckVBScriptEngine = bIsCompatV
End If
End Function

The corrected function is:
Function CheckVBScriptEngine()
Dim bIsCompatV, var, sep, WshShell
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
sep = WshShell.RegRead(”HKCU\Control Panel\International\sDecimal”)
Const VBSCRIPT_MIN_VERSION = 5.6
var = ScriptEngineMajorVersion & sep & ScriptEngineMinorVersion
If (CInt(var)) < biscompatv =" False" biscompatv =" True"> 0 Then
CheckVBScriptEngine = Err.Number
Else
CheckVBScriptEngine = bIsCompatV
End If
End Function

PS: I also have a similar bug with the Microsoft ISA 2006 Management Pack. Microsoft acknowleged the bug and is going to deliver a new release.

SCOM/OPSMGR: Web Application: Untrusted CA

Context:

• You created a web application which use https (SSL)
• The checkbox “monitor SSL health” is checked
• When you log on the watcher node and call the same pages, you don't have any security alert through internet explorer
• You do have the following error:

Cause:
You are missing a certificate on the chaine. Your user account has the full chaine, but not the computer account. In my case, i had to add a Verisign (Class 3) certificate for the local computer account:
…And alerts are gone! We could just uncheck the health monitoring of certificate, but it's always better to get notified when it's expired

OpsMgr/Scom: error 2130771918 on all TCP & web applications

After installing a SCOM hotfix with errors, all TCP and web applications monitors stopped working with always the same error: 2130771918. For example, even a TCP test on the RMS itself failed:
After opening a call to MS, they give us the patch for KB 957511. We are not concerned by this KB but it contains a more recent version of DLL Momnetworkmodules.dll, which does TCP and web applications tests. Once this dll updatedn the problem was gone.

By the way it could have been necessary to register again this dll with:

regsvr32 “c:\program files\system center operations manager 2007\momnetworkmodules.dll”