NewBoy

We have recently had ADFS setup for us so that we no longer have to use a syncing tool when changing passwords within AD and o365, it works seamlessly with MS Outlook but not with web browsers i.e. trying to log into o365 portal it still prompts for email address and password. Should ADFS do this for me or am I expecting to much ?? I have tried adding trusted site within IE settings and also telling it to use the current logon credentials but to no avail, we have to sign off on this project at the end of the week and I would really love to know if ADFS should SSO me into an o365 browser or not.

Hi Guys, I have a question regarding Sever 2012R2 configuration, I have an academy site that is quite large and spread across the country the main site is in Hull and has an impressive setup. They have an academy up North at the other end of the country and I will be going down there soon to replace their current DC but have been told to do most of the prep work in Hull, so my question is whats the best way of doing this as normally I would do the complete setup on-site. We have full access to their DNS etc so can connect to their Domain from our central office I was thinking as follows, Install Server 2012R2 Rename and Team the Nics Connect to the domain Add Domain Services but do not promote to a Domain Controller at this point as it would bind to the IP Address Install central AV Windows Updates etc Promote to DC once on-site Am I correct on this as I have been told to put it on the domain and prep as much as possible, or is there another way without promoting this to a DC for the moment until its on-site ?? And finally at the moment the IP address has been obtained by DHCP to prep and a static will be assigned once in location, would adding Domain Services bind to this IP Address ???

Just looking at the available options as it's the only file server on the site so as far as I can see doesn't really need DFS, I was only considering this as an option as someone had previously installed it on the existing FS. I can't actually see any reason why I would need it on the new server just wondered it it would make the migration easier, I may look into the Server Migration Toolkit unless there is another valid reason for having DFS.

Morning, I have to replace a file server running 2008R2 with a 2012R2 server my question is regarding the data on the server and the best way to migrate it to the new server so am i best off, setting up DFS on the new server and transferring it that way (If so any advice on how to do this please) or Using XCOPY with the appropriate switches i.e. XCOPY D:\Data D:\Data /X/H/E/V/D/Y and then just re-applying the relevant shares as the command will take across all the existing permissions. I have never used DFS before so would like to know the process of migrating the data across and if it's more efficient than DOS. Cheers in advance.

Hi Guys, I have an issue with Server 2012R2, all the latest updates are installed and it is the only server in the domain running all the usual services. When trying to create a GPO in Group Policy Management I receive the following error, 'The Specified Network Name is No Longer Available' so then I typed in the following to list the server shares '\\Server2012' I can see all shares but on trying to connect to any including Sysvol and Netlogon I receive the following error; '\\Server2012\Sysvol is not accessible, you may not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have permissions' I am using the administrator account so wondered if it maybe a profile issue so created another administrators account but the errors remained the same ??? I have checked DNS and that is fine as well as the FSMO roles and the server has all of them. This server replaced an old 2008R2 server some 6 months or so back which was DCpromo properly and has been fine until recently so really confused at the moment. I can ping the server and run NSLookup etc and I have also done a malware scan which has come back clear. Does anybody have any suggestions that may help please.

There is a successful backup if required I was kind of hoping this way would be easier as I was presuming by disabling the service it would let me in safe mode then I could find the device that has been affected, sadly it is the only server at the school so holds all essential roles.

Is there anyway to stop services from running on boot up ??? I have a 2008R2 Server that has performed Windows Updates and unfortunately one of them appears to have been a driver I suspect so when the server boots up normally I get a blue screen which displays the following error, Hardware Malfunction Call your hardware vendor for support *** The system has halted *** I have tried starting in all forms of safe mode but to no avail, it get to reverting updates and sits there for ever, I have also booted off the 2008R2 disk and trying the repair console to disable the service using "sc config [servicename] start= disabled" its says it worked but on reboot the service still runs and try's reverting again. Does anybody have any suggestions please so I can stop the Windows Modules Installer service from running.

Thanks for that I am in the office on Friday so will set up a test environment and give it a go.

I don't suppose you have any links to guides or tutorials do you that may give me an idea on how to do this properly.

Hey Guys, has anyone out there actually got there Mac clients successfully connected to a windows DC and AD ?? in a way that it provides a logon box that interrogates AD for the correct credentials then after logon maps the appropriate drives etc ?? I ask this as a few of our schools are very much Mac within a windows environment and at the moment seem to store everything locally rather than connect to any network, on top of this if they are not around at the time of looking at their Mac 9 times out of 10 they dont leave a password so the the job goes uncompleted. I find it hard to believe in this day and age its not possible but when I have tried to connect to a windows domain it just seem to really slow the machine down and I'm not sure why. Any help would be great thanks.

If its only working on a PC not connected to the domain have you tried creating a new OU in AD and blocking inheritence then move one of your other PC's into the new OU and GPUpdate then see what happens. If it works OK you probably have a policy that is blocking something from running.

I am after a little advice please guys, I currently look after 2 schools on the same site (both average size primarys), we have only just taken over and they are in the process of having the internet upgraded to a fibre BT line. Now both schools will share the line and stay as 2 separate schools for the time being. They are both getting new Zyxel gig switches and will be connected via a fibre link, so my question is whats the best way to connect them together so they can access the internet but keep their networks separate. 1. Both want to keep their data separate from each other (as to be expected) 2. Both are running DHCP and DNS and AD as they are separate sites My first thought was to VLAN each switch and tag port 28 which is the Gbic for the fibre, is this the best route and what other configuration would need doing ?? Cheers in Advance.

Hi Guys, I am after a bit of advice please one of my schools needs a new 24 GB Switch, it does not have to be POE at all so thats not a concern but the cab is in a classroom so it needs to be as quiet as possible. Does anybody have any recommendations please I was looking at a ZyXEL GS1910-24 but the reviews say there are quite loud so dont want one of those.

Hi Everyone, I just wondered if anybody else had issues with nessy.com through firewall and filtering, We can get to the site, select language and login fine then we select a childs name and all is ok so far, but when we try clicking on the first option (Nessy Reading Spelling) it just says loading and nothing else happens. I have spoken to Nessy who asked me to unblock the following, *.nessy.com media.nessy.com cdn.nessy.com play.nessy.com learn.nessy.com code.jquery.com I have done this but it still doesn't work yet if I whitelist the clients macbook, ipad or windows laptop it works fine, I have monitored the activity whilst trying to access the site and cant see its going anywhere else so bit puzzled to be honest and thought I would ask if anyone else has any idea on this. Cheers in advance.

Shows a NONE

Nope not a thing.

No not showing at all, even tried restoring defaults and still nothing.

Has anyone had any problems with the Dell Latitude 3150 ?? one of our schools have 10 of them all a couple of months out of there 1 year warranty and 5 are reporting no bootable device ?? The BIOS is on the latest version but not picking up the hard drive, there is nothing wrong with the hard drives as in another system they work fine, I have changed the small SATA cable but still nothing. Could it be that all have motherboard faults and if so surely Dell should honour this even though out of warranty if it turns out to be a faulty batch.

Yeh I realise the server is Gigabit but the switches etc are 100MB would performance be better by slowing the server NIC down to 100MB Full Duplex ??

As the network is 10\100 would it benefit to change the network card to 100MB Full Duplex.

Yes everything was installed from scratch and there are no VM's to carry across as the servers were for small schools, I am just looking into the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Application and have noticed that apparently if I disable 'write-cache buffer flushing' then system performance should improve.

Cheers guys it's given me a few things to look at anyway.

The drives are standard SATA 7200 rpm, I dont have the old servers at hand as they are on site awaiting decommissioning.

Hi Everyone, Just after anyones experience or suggestions really, Our company recently purchased about 10 of these servers from Dell with the following spec, 16GB RAM 2*1TB Drives (for the OS H\W Mirrored) 2*2TB Drives (for the Data H\W Mirrored) Intel Xeon CPU E3-1225 v3 3.20Ghz Running Server 2012 R2 They have replaced servers that were nearly 9 years old on different sites, yet since they have been in some staff are saying that the sysytem is now slower after the new server has gone in compared to the older one. Are these servers not very good or is there any adjustments I can make to improve things ?? the networks are only 100MB but they were before as well.

Yep I checked what I could I only visit the site once every 2 weeks so not back there till a week on Monday, I'm kinda hoping I can log on with the old profile still and recover them as when i go to C:\Users\'the users profile' there doesn't seem to be a documents folder listed. I do however still have the old server so will check that on Monday to see if anything is on that or if they had some type of folder redirection before.