albertwt

Hi All, I'm about to publish a certain servers available through port 443 (SSL) only therefore I need to use Windows Server 2008 Std. x64 TSG service, but now in this case what is the best practice for deploying this infrastructure ? Do i need to join the TSG into the domain ? Should I need to open LDAP port 389 from DMZ into my local network --> security hole ? Any help and suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello All, How does one do the backup of their VMWare virtual infrastructure ? I'm wondering if there is a backup best practice and deployment document that can describe which architecture to select (eg. NBD or SAN or D2D or D2T, etc..). Thanks,

Thanks for the reply guys and that does make sense, 1. Make separate IP/subnet 2. in the VMWare ESXi server, create a separate vSwitch labeled "Test Domain" to segregate the traffic. 3. In the 1st DNS Server/DC configure RRAS ? as per this link http://www.contentonline.com/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=12&Itemid=3..cmiiw... How about if for example my TEST.COM domain would like to connect to the internet, shall i just forward the Test DNS server into my real primary DNS server ?

Hi All, I'd like to know if there is any implication or caveats that i should consider in creating a test Active directory domain inside a group of VM ? at the moment I have working active directory running as DOMAIN.COM with two DC/GC + DNS server, and if for example I'm creating a VM to create a separate testing domain named TEST.COM including it's own DC, DNS and Mail server would that be possible to run side by side without any effect to the current Active directory domain ? Can i still use the current IP address subnet range as DOMAIN.COM ? Any kind of suggestion and idea would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Yes, I agree with using the existing Windows features (2003/2008) ratherthan getting additional VPN connection with 3rd party. So in this case I shall try to deploy Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Standard Security server as they are equipped with FireFront Threat management and also this edition of Windows Server does not need to be member of Active Directory.

Yes, you can use VCB (VMWare Consolidated Backup) with Backup Exec 12.5 assuming you get the VMWare vSphere 4 Essentials license which comes with the following: 1. vCenter Mgmt Server 4 2. 3x ESX(i) licenses

aaaahhhhhh... >_< that is soo scary... anyway using OpenVPN or anything with two factor authentication such as RSA SecurID is the secure way to do it but yes we will have to invest anyway ;-|

Hi There Edutech, I thought that by changing the default port 3389 into something else would be fine ? You can move the terminal services port from 3389 to another port by changing the registry key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber You will then need to specify the port when you connect to your system. Connect with something like "my.computerathome.com:1234" instead of "my.computerathome.com" It's just too much efforts for the user to download the VPN Client, then set the profile and such...

Hi All, Thanks for your responses, I've found guide from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/895433 but somehow in both my XP Client and Windows Server 2003 Remote Desktop application (mstsc) version 6, i could not see the security tab ? therefore from the above link, i am stuck in "Step 2: Configure authentication on the client computer" Has anyone succeeded yet ? Yes we do have a VPN using CISCO, but this Windows Server 2003 Web Edition box will be sitting in the DMZ and it will be accessed by our new contractors from different country to perform remote management access and we only want to isolate what he can access only within that box. I wonder if this is possible ?

Hi There, yes, I was thinking to setup some sort of digital Certificate authentication process (sort of token) to authenticate who is logged in to the windows server from the internet. but i'm not quite sure how to do it.

Hi All, I have configured Windows Server 2003 Web Edition in my DMZ, i can access it from my local LAN in the office through remote desktop. Now, I'm wondering if I'd like to access the server through remote desktop from the internet how can i do it securely ? is there anything that I should use eg. install a certificate or SSL secured, etc to make it safe ? thanks, Albert.

Hi All, I've finally found the solution for my specific problem, it is by: 1. upgrading the firmware of my Linksys WRT54-G with v24 Micro Generic SP2 firmware http://www.dd-wrt.com/routerdb/de/download.php?file=1188 2. boost the power to become 100 mW from 71 mW 3. use channel #3 ever since then, my Old Linksys now performing even better and the WLAN connection is still going till today without outage. hope this helps.

Hi There, Yes, my Wireless is Intel Wifi link 5100 AGN unfortunately i don't have the AP which can broadcast 802.11a

Hi there, So in this case shall I get a better hi gain antenna ? or get the better hardware like Cisco Aironet 1250 ?

is there any caveats that i should know in running wireless AP eg. +/- 5 from the most crowded channel avoid running mixed mode --> One AP for Serving Wireless B only, One AP for G only and so on ?

:-o I've moved this AP to anywhere / different spot in my office but still doesn't work properly. it runs perfectly at my home though :-(

Thanks for the response mate, at the moment I am trying to find the root cause of intermittent network failure before getting the Cisco Aironet 1250 Series which is very expensive for a Medium Office 45 users. performance is not a problem though.

Hi All, I'm now having problem with my wireless access point in my office, I've tried the following in order one by one and never run more than two of these: Linksys WRT54G - running mixed mode B & G WPA-PSK personal - Channel 3 Linksys WRT 310N - running mixed mode B & G & N WPA-PSK personal - Channel 9 D-Link DSL-G604T Gen. II - Running default mode WPA-PSK personal - Channel 3 i couldn't get steady ping reply when i ping the AP, and from the Netstumbler, I've found out that the other offices around are running CISCO Aironet AP with channel 1, 6 and 11 wireless G is there any thing that i should pay attention to ? Because this is quite annoying to suffer with non stable AP. Thanks.

Hi All, I'm now at the stage of creating a backup strategy for my current vSphere 4 (2x ESXi + 1x vCenter Server + 1 iSCSI SAN), but at the moment the purple arrow (which is the NBD mode backup to the backup server is running very2 slow around 243 MB/minutes according to the Backup Exec result log. (To backup 800 GB LUN it takes 55 hours.) for the VM which has got RDM partition attach into it, i can just make it a virtual mode so that the VCB v1.5 can do the snapshot and quiesce the EXT3 Filesystem. The reason in using the NBD mode to transfer the VM backup is that to make the backup process to run faster without encryption but it turns out to be slower that what i thought, if anyone got a better solution in using SAN mode or even HotAdd mode please share your comments and suggestion here. Note: The network between iSCSI SAN andthe 2x ESXi servers are different subnet (see the color coding) Blue cylinder indicates NTFS partition while the Black cylinder indicates the VMFS any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

Hi All, Thanks for all of your suggestion, here's what I've done to make the VM backup possible: 1. Uninstalling the existing VMWare tools (previously i performed COMPLETE install) 2. Restart the VM 3. Install VMWare tools without the VSS support. 4. restart the VM 5. make sure the Microsoft VSS manager and VSS writer services both enabled - automatic. by then i execute the following command line to perform the backup from the backup proxy server cmd prompt and surprisingly it was success ! vcbmounter -h ESXServer01 -u root -p password -a ipaddr: -r \\DLINKDNS323-SAN01\Volume_1\Test -L 6 -m nbd i also tried to backup through Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 with the same parameter and it was success as well. but there is still one question remains, that is if i do have SQL Server 2005 or any VSS-aware application, would this VM is still be safe to backup without installing the VSS support ? I wonder how do people do people do in backing up their VSS-aware application VM on Windows Server 2003 VM. any idea and suggestion please ?

Yes it is NBD and i select the vCenter Server 4.0

Hi All, How does one perform the multiple ESXi 4.0 VM backup using the VCB framework v1.5 + VCenter Server 4.0 and Symantec BE 12.5 in one server ? I'm having problem in backing up Windows Server 2003 x64 VM without any iSCSI SAN mapped on it, Backup Server Spec (All in one server): 1. Windows Server 2003 Std R2 SP2 2. SQL Server 2005 Std. SP3 3. VCenter Server 4.0 4. VCB Framework 1.5 5. Backup Exec 12.5 (patched to the latest). 6. Converter Stand Alone 4.0.1 Completed status: Failed Final error: 0xe000954c - An error occurred while running the VMware 'vcbMounter' command to back up a virtual machine. See the job log for details. Final error category: Resource Errors For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-38220 Backup- VMVCB::\\vCenter\VCGuestVm\(DC)domain.com(DC)\vm\ORS\ASTON V-79-57344-38220 - Backup of the virtual machine 'ASTON' failed. VMware VCB framework reported the following error Backup- VMVCB::\\vCenter\VCGuestVm\(DC)domain.com(DC)\vm\ORS\Win2003x64_RSA01 V-79-57344-38220 - Backup of the virtual machine 'Win2003x64_RSA01' failed. VMware VCB framework reported the following error Error: Other error encountered: Snapshot creation failed: Could not quiesce file system. Backup- VMVCB::\\vCenter\VCGuestVm\(DC)domain.com(DC)\vm\ORS\Win2003x64_RSD01 V-79-57344-38220 - Backup of the virtual machine 'Win2003x64_RSD01' failed. VMware VCB framework reported the following error Error: Other error encountered: Snapshot creation failed: Could not quiesce file system. Backup- VMVCB::\\vCenter\VCGuestVm\(DC)domain.com(DC)\vm\ORS\Win2003x64_RST01 V-79-57344-38220 - Backup of the virtual machine 'Win2003x64_RST01' failed. VMware VCB framework reported the following error Error: Other error encountered: Snapshot creation failed: Could not quiesce file system. and then I come up with the following URL to diagnose the problem: I've found article in : VMWare ESX backup fails with the error "Snapshot creation failed: Could not quiesce file system", they said "do not install the Filesystem Sync Driver and Volume Shadow Copy Services Support. and Backups now also should be executed without the option to use Advanced Open File Option (AOFO)." VMware Consolidated Backup Release Notes --> even in the release notes the workaround is to not use VSS under the section "VCB Fails to Create Snapshot" VMware Self-Service- Unable to take a quiesced VMware snapshot of a virtual machine If I remove the VSS support how can we backup the Windows Server 2003 x64 VM with SQL Server 2005 and Java Application server ? VMware Self-Service- Using Storage VMotion to migrate a virtual machine with many disks may timeout i even add the maximum timeout log parameter: fsr.maxSwitchoverSeconds = "200" error log: Create virtual machine snapshot Win2003x64_Win2003x64_RSA01 Operation timed out. Any idea in backing up these VM please ? Thanks.

Hi Synack, Thanks for the suggestion yes BESRO 8.5.3 is really hard to understand When i create the backup using BESRO cold backup (boot CD) each partition is stored in a single v2i and then when i tried to restore, i have to go back and forth through the wizard to select the partitions, moreover if i select Dell utility partition firstly, the restore FAILED miserably ! first of all I'm going to perform full backup of my current Exchange Server 2007 + DC and then try your suggestion.

Hi All, I've just migrate my Exchange Server 2007 and Domain Controller+GC (All In One role) from 4x 500 GB RAID-5 into new server with 5x 500 GB RAID-5 using Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (BESRO) 8.5.3, by doing the restoration to a bigger LUN size I am expecting to get a bigger free space but instead I'm having problem with the 3x EISA partition (I don't know what is that ? possibly Dell Utility Partition ?) and one unknown partition which cannot be use at all. any idea please in re arranging the partition without breaking the current Exchange Server + Domain Controller configuration ? thanks.

Which makes him (K-Rudd) very good and generous PM :-)