SHimmer45

RAID 10 with a hot spare would give you 1.2TB RAID 5 with a hot spare 1.8TB (you might want to consider rebuild time discussed in depth in other threads) RAID 6 without the hot spare gives you the same storage space as R5 but with extra resilience what is the server doing as this can dictate what type of raid you use for it, imo RAID10 has become the go to for alot of deployments

i have used advanced installer in the past with success iirc the older versions UI is a bit better, and you can point it at installed programs and it will build an MSI from there so if you have lost some install media it can be used to recreate a package, to a certain extent insted is something i use for editing existing MSI's as Jin said it does require a fair bit of time to get your head around it. bear in mind with advanced installer is that its default install path if you dont change it will be program files\organisation name\application (well it was when i last used it)

looking at MS advice it runs off netfx.msi (if you have extracted the .exe) so that MSI id imagine calls the rest of them as it requires them.

iirc .net comes packaged as an EXE so you should be able to extract it to get the MSI package (run the EXE with /x: ) the priority order of the GPO should handle which package is installed 1st i found this useful when getting my head around deploying .net http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2010/06/04/10020299.aspx or you could use psexec and a text file of all the computer names to run the .net exe on the machines before rolling out sketchup

not HP specific but have installed R2 on several older intel servers without too much bother (some older driver support is lacking - for example the prepackaged RAID controller drivers for the servers was much better than the intel one)

HP 250G's are very well built have a matt finished screen and chassis. recommended a them to a couple of friends and they have been very pleased as they feel solid and look sensible

i thought they did an "online" version of 2012? not the most recent version but i doubt many staff be able to tell the difference.

there are various linux boot cd's which will do this for you, in the past i have used a couple. one thing i have found is dont set a blank password when changing it as i have run into problems when doing this.

bear in mind if you point it at a "root" OU it it automatically tree down through all of them enabling mailboxes

Hesk is decent we have been using it for a while, just a ticketing/knowledge base system and nothing else. options to run on IIS/apache IIRC

169.xxx.xxx.xxx are the clients self assigning IP if they are not getting a response from your DHCP server or there are no longer any addresses available in the scope. try giving a machine in the area a static address and then attempt to ping your DNS/DHCP/AD servers if you get a response i would be looking at the DHCP scope. check links between blocks back to your "sever room" check for any loopbacks in the building with the problem.

if it were me i would dedicate a server to sims and that is all it does (either physical or virtual depending on what hardware you have)

managed to resolve the issue. added in a correctly formatted EX500 record into the users aliases and now users can respond to the imported mail importing the exported PST took a while moans about messages over 25MB and doesnt import them by the looks of it

if there is a printer installed which uses the driver it will prevent it being removed i dont think stopping services is going to help. as the driver is still marked as being required. you can use the "rundll32 printui.dll PrintUIEntry" in a batch file with the required switches for removing drivers. however depending on how many servers/drivers you might find it easier to just connect to each server and remove the drivers from the printmanagement.msc snap in. (does require a printer to be shared from that server/ enable client connections to the printer spooler GPO to be enabled)

had a small ubuntu box running a few 300GB disks on a Via C7 which did the job well for file storage, retired it in favour or a buffalo link station i got a good deal on. its ok but i would say brilliant very much a "consumer" rather than poweuser or SOHO product

DCDIAG would be worth running as any references to old DC's would show up in there.

didn't really want them to co-exist if I could help it.. assuming I could just export the PST from the old server to the new domain and server.

currently fighting with exchange 2013 in a test lab on a new domain to prep for taking down the existing exchange and AD forest for a new one. we have exchange 2003 from which i have exported out the PST files which i was hoping to import into 2013 (which i have done a couple as a test) issue is when i try and reply to any of the imported mail i get an NDR, doing some reading i need to add a X500 address with the legacyDN to the users mailbox i have done this but doesnt fix the issue. Doing some reading around exchange 2003 --> 2010 is the supported path for an upgrade, thing is is was hoping to do a migration without adding anything additional to our current AD (so if there is a problem the system is still usable why bugs are worked out of the test one).

combofix malwarebytes sophos savcli32 (free from there site) spybotv1.62 are my usual start points for "crap" removal. where possible scans in safemode are more beneficial with the account that has the issue and the computer administrator.

i find smoothwall's interface more user friendly if you not familiar with PFsense

this would interest me as well, be nice to be more comfortable with things like migration and disaster recovery etc

if you dont vant to use a Vlan you could use a smoothwall Express Box and put the lab hardware behind that thus giving you internet and the ability to talk to the lab via RDC. SMOOTHWALL | | LAB SWITCH | | LAB CLIENTS ive got something similar which lives under my desk at work.

the KMS needs to have a static ip as there is an entry in DNS (srv _vlmcs record) if this IP isnt the same as your host clients wont be able to "find" the activation server. check the DNS record matches your host. btw if you install windows/office with a KMS key that machine will attempt to publish itself to DNS as a KMS server. make sure you havent got duplicates in your DNS

/skms [Activation ID]

Last time i did updates to office you can download the .exe file and then use the /extract and a location after the /extract and this will give you the .MSP. with the MSP you could apply the patch using DSIM or add the MSP to your updates folder in the office install folder and it is processed as part of the install process when it is called by your task sequence or script this might be useful for you as it explains extracting the MSP's and adding then in the updates folder Using the Updates folder to deploy software updates during an Office 2010 installation - Office IT Pro Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs