A Nightmare of Insanity

PLINQO

2010-08-11T12:55:00.002+01:00

So, came across a post on Stackoverflow today while trying to find solutions to the problem of refreshing a Linq to Sql dbml file - one of the suggestions was PLINQO from CodeSmith.

I've briefly used CodeSmith before, but only briefly and not that indepth, so I downloaded it and tried out PLINQO. Its changed my life.

PLINQO solves so many of my Linq problems and saves me writing so much code that I would have had to do before, its unbelievable. The rules engine alone completely frees me from writing my own constraints!

Its not part of CodeSmith itself, but its a very nice addon and well worht checking out. While you are there, try out the rest of CodeSmith and you may end up hooked on that as well - http://plinqo.com/

Stackoverflow.com

2010-01-20T13:11:00.000Z

One of *the* sources of awesome on the web. Do not underestimate its power for solving your problem!

New Job!

2009-12-14T19:56:00.000Z

Hmmm, apparently I like getting paid on time, it solves all sorts of heartache, so today I started a new job as System Developer with Illusion Media Ltd. Look like a decent company, met with Brian and Jason last week and discussed the position, took it almost immediately and here I am!

Old School versus New School

2009-10-11T11:21:00.000+01:00

One of my last jobs at FSG was to develop a brand new application in PHP (my language of old, the one I started at FSG with) to handle several rather significant processes. I dutifully did this over a couple of weeks, but found myself constantly looking for functionality that I had come across in my C# tinkerings.

Well, I have been firmly in C# and VB.Net land for two months now, and FSG have stolen me back for a week to put my application live (it had been delayed from production due to third party issues - blame the DVLA!), and in the month and a half or so since I've been away from PHP my whole ethos has changed considerably!

Database access - Linq rules. Just about says it all really - authenticate against the database, create the object schema and ... use it! Nothing could be simpler. Going back to PHP and direct SQL queries is horrendous, as is converting objects into SQL for storage - the future is definitely with ORMs simply because it brings the database directly into code, no more distraction because of separation.

IDE - I never used an IDE with PHP, just stuck to plain old EditPlus, because that was what I liked. Since switching to C# and .Net, I have to admit that I was a bit daunted by Visual Studio at first, but after settling down with it I can honestly say that I never realised just how helpful a decent IDE can be in the development process.

Debugging - PHP just sucks at this, its 'echo' or nothing (well, 'print', but you get my point). An IDE with integrated debugging and code stepthrough saves so much.

Code 'prettiness' - with PHP its all in the php files, be them front end code or class files et al. Separation out to code behind just makes the process all that much cleaner.

Blog Update

2009-09-11T14:27:00.000+01:00

This blog has been a bit quiet for the past year or so, and I do apologise for that - my job role took me more and more away from the technical side and more toward creating status reports, budgets and the like. Not good and not where I wanted to go.

Luckily, all that is over and I start a new job with Bluehat Ltd this week - I am moving across the country and back into a technical role, although this time its one of System Developer rather than Infrastructure, and I am thoroughly looking forward to it.

Creating a Web Service Proxy Class in C#

2008-05-14T11:54:00.003+01:00

Its really easy, as Visual Studio does it for you!

Update the web service wsdl
Under the your project file root, build the new proxy file - wsdl.exe /l:CS /protocol:SOAP http://webserviceurl/webservicename?wsdl
Accept the changes to the webservicename.cs file, save and rebuild the project
You now have an up to date dll file with a proxy class for the web service

Setting Environment Variables for VS Compilers

2008-04-17T16:11:00.002+01:00

In order to be able to use the Visual Studio compilers from the command line, you need to set the environment variables correctly - luckily Microsoft provide a batch file for you to use.

In the Common7\Tools directory under your Visual Studio install, run the VSVARS32.bat batch file.

Deploying a Custom Web Part to MOSS 2007

2008-04-17T15:13:00.002+01:00

1. Add a reference to System.Web
2. Add 'using System.Security;' and [assembly: AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers()] to AssemblyInfo.cs
3. In the Project Properties->Signing, tick sign the assembly and add a signature file
5. Build the assembly
6. Use Lutz Roeders Reflector to discover the assemblies full public name (MyWebPart, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a0dec1e4354fbecd)
7. Add an entry to the web.config SafeControl section " Namespace="WebParts" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />
8. Add the dll file to the web apps bin folder (rather than adding it to the GAC)

Group Policy debugging

2008-01-18T12:47:00.000Z

In the event that you need to track down any issues with Group Policy, your first port of call should be the client machines event log - any issues the local system has when applying the policy will be logged here.

In some cases it may not be clear if a GPO is being applied by the local computer at all - in these cases gpresult.exe is a great help as it tells you which GPOs have been applied, which haven't and why.

Also check the Resultant Set Of Policy reports (add the snap in to an MMC session) for the local machine and user.

Changing Windows Logon Wallpaper

2008-01-07T10:06:00.000Z

Unfortunately the wallpaper you see at logon is not controlled by your settings - however, there is a simple way to change or remove the wall paper.

Edit the 'Wallpaper' registry key at HKEY USERS\ .DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop and remove the path to the image file. This should remove the wallpaper at next login.

Scheduling Powershell Scripts

2008-01-03T15:56:00.000Z

In order to allow Powershell scripts to run as Scheduled Tasks, you first need to allow third party scripts to run as by default, Powershell will only accept typed commands.

set-executionpolicy RemoteSigned

Then use the following command in a .bat file to run the powershell script itself.

powershell -command "& 'MyScript.ps1' "

Exchange Administration Delegation

2008-01-02T11:24:00.000Z

In many cases, the people that will be administering your users will not be domain level administrators - they will have reduced rights to specifically admin certain areas such as account creation et al rather than the entire domain.

In this case, I added certain users to the Account Operators built in group, which grants them the rights to admin accounts but not carry out certain other tasks. However, they will not be able to carry out Exchange mailbox administration tasks by default, so you need to delegate these rights.

In Exchange System Manager -

Right Click the node at the top of the tree, which should read SOMETHING (Exchange)
Choose 'Delegate Control'
Click Next
Click Add
Choose the AD Group you wish to delegate control to, and choose the 'Exchange View Only Admin' role
Click Next until you finish

This will delegate enough privileges to the selected group to allow mailbox administration, but limit the user in what they can do within your AD structure and also within the Exchange server as well.

UPDATE: Microsoft have identified a problem with permissions when adding email addresses to users through the AD Users and Computers snap in - the users have to either be a member of the Local Admins group on the Exchange server, or if this is not possible then you have to grant the Account Operators built in group read and write permissions to the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant Service. See this Microsoft KB article - http://support.microsoft.com/?id=905809

"Some files can harm your computer..."

2007-12-06T12:11:00.000Z

Having just setup SharePoint, you may see the following warning dialog when creating or opening documents from within a document library:

Some files can harm your computer. If the file information looks suspicious or you do not fully trust the source, then do not open the file.

This is of course incredibly inconvenient when dealing with SharePoint document libraries, especially if you store *all* of your documents in such a facility.

A temporary solution is to turn the warning off for certain file types:

Go to Windows Explorer (not IE)
Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types
Choose the file type you want (.doc or .docx usually)
Choose 'Advanced'
Uncheck 'Confirm open after download'
Click OK

This is not without its own issues, as that warning dialog is rightfully there to act as a buffer between your local computer and any nasty files you may accidentally or otherwise download from the internet.

As of this moment there is no way to toggle this setting per site, which would be incredibly useful!

COM Server Application Local Activation permissions

2007-11-28T14:36:00.001Z

In some cases you will see the following error in the system event log:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} to the user \mossService SID (S-1-5-21-). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

To fix this you must grant location activation permissions to the service account user by doing the following:

1. Copy the CLSID in the error message
2. Open regedit, and search for the CLSID
3. Make a note of the service name, typically it will be the IIS WAMREG admin service
4. Open the Component Services MMC (under administrative tools)
5. Expand Component Services -> Computers -> My Computer -> DCOM Config
6. Find the application you noted earlier, right click on it and select properties
7. Under the Security tab, select 'customized' for Launch and Activation Permissions, and then select 'edit'
8. Add the service account and give it local activation and launch permissions, also give it remote permissions if needed.
9. Click OK.
10. Restart IIS

That should solve that error message.

IIS, ASP.Net 2 and Metabase access

2007-09-26T16:48:00.000+01:00

A common error when dealing with IIS and ASP.Net 2 is that of "Failed to access IIS Metabase", but luckily theres an easy solution - reinstall ASP.Net 2!

>> %windir%/Microsoft.Net/Framework/v2.*****/aspnet_regiis.exe -iru

Administrating Local Groups Remotely

2007-09-22T21:30:00.000+01:00

After a lively discussion regarding centralised management of system local accounts (my view is you should be able to admin these in the AD, abd have AD push them out to the affected computer for it to be applied locally), the feature of Restricted Groups came up, which seems to do exactly what I was after, just in a round about manner.

WindowSecurity.com: Using Restricted Groups

Active Directory Domain and Forest Functional Levels

2007-09-15T17:45:00.000+01:00

So there I was, merrily learning something new and all of a sudden the error 'Domain not at required functional level to complete action' appears - and immediately I wonder wtf a Domain Functional Level was?!

Well, its quite simple - Microsoft has used domains since NT4, and as they have released new versions of their server software (NT4, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003), the capabilities of the domain has changed.

To cope with the potential situation where domain controllers live in a mixed environment, each newer version supports the functionality of the one below it - and thats a functional level.

By default, Windows 2003 domains are created as 'Windows 2003 Interim' which sometimes shows up as 'Windows 2000 Mixed', and need to be raised to the 'Windows 2003' functional level to allow the use of some of the new capabilities. The following articles describe how to do this.

Microsoft TechNet Article "What are Active Directory Functional Levels"

Microsoft Support Article "How to raise domain and forst functional levels in Windows Server 2003"

Microsoft Technet Article "Function Levels Background Information"

Administrating the AD from afar

2007-09-12T10:53:00.000+01:00

Its so much better when you don't have to remote desktop to a Domain Controller in order to carry out simple tasks such as managing users (and it can also be more secure when you delegate responsibility).

Download the following admin pack in order to add all the normal MMC snap ins to Windows XP.

Microsoft Download "Windows 2003 SP1 Administration Pack"

In order to also be able to admin the Microsoft Exchange extensions to the schema, you will need to install the Exchange Management Tools from the Exchange installation media.

The New and Improved Group Policy Management Console

2007-09-12T10:46:00.000+01:00

All GPO management should be done via the updated and better scoped ‘Group Policy Management Console’ which is available as a separate downloadable MMC snap-in.

Microsoft Download “Group Policy Management Console”

Setting a Users Logon Script: Two Ways

2007-09-12T10:41:00.000+01:00

There are multiple ways of adding a logon script to a user’s profile, depending on whether the client supports Group Policies or not. The following website article details both approaches, although application through a GPO is preferential where the client system supports it.

Windows Server Hacks Article “Using Logon Scripts in Pure and Mixed Active Directory Environments”

Redirecting Users Folders Using Group Policy

2007-09-12T10:30:00.000+01:00

When using GPO to redirect certain folders, very specific permissions are required on the file server.

Microsoft Support Article “Folder Redirection Feature In Windows” Microsoft Support Article “How to dynamically create security-enhanced redirected folders by using folder redirection in Windows 2000 and in Windows Server 2003”

To remove the ‘Sync’ icon overlay that redirecting folders causes to be applied, change the value of the following registry key to nothing (remove the value):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/explorer/ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers/Offline Files

The default for this key is {4E77131D-3629-431c-9818-C5679DC83E81}

External Website Article http://www.pctipsbox.com/remove-sync-center-logo-from-offline-files/

IIS and Disaster Recovery

2007-09-12T10:28:00.000+01:00

To back up an entire IIS server configuration, use the following command:

>> Cscript.exe iisback.vbs /backup /b /v NEXT_VERSION

This should create a backup with name of whatever you gave for appended with the latest version integer of the backup.

The backup is created within the %SystemRoot%/System32/inetsrv/MetaBack/ directory.

To restore an entire configuration, use the following command, where is the same as that in the previous command:

>> Cscript.exe iisback.vbs /restore /b /v NEXT_VERSION

To list all available backups, use the following command:

>> Cscript.exe iisback.vbs /list

To replicate an entire configuration between two computers, use the following command:

>> Cscript.exe iiscnfg.vbs /copy /ts /tu /tp

This will copy the configuration of the local IIS server and apply it to the remote computers IIS server.

Microsoft TechNet Article “Managing IIS Configurations Using Scripts (IIS 6.0)”

Registering ASP.net Extensions

2007-09-12T10:23:00.000+01:00

In some cases IIS will not install with the ASP.net v2 extension available, and you will have to manually install it and register it with IIS:

>> %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\\aspnet_regiis.exe –i

>> regsvr32 %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\vxxxxxx\aspnet_isapi.dll

Check to see if the extension is allowed in the IIS manager.

Active Directory and Disaster Recovery

2007-09-12T10:01:00.000+01:00

To backup an Active Directory, you need to back up the system state of the domain controller, which will include all the Active Directory information.

>> Ntbackup.exe backup systemstate /j “Active Directory Backup” /f “C:\ADBackup1.bkf”

MS TechNet Article “How to use command line parameters with the Ntbackup command in Windows Server 2003”

Restoring the system state is a little more involved, and is covered in depth in the following Microsoft TechNet Article.

Microsoft TechNet Article “Active Directory Operations Guide: Active Directory Backup and Restore”

Confused setting up SharePoint Server?

2007-09-12T09:22:00.000+01:00

Some kind soul has put together a step by step guide to getting Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 running in a virtual PC, but its easy enough to extend it to any other scenario.

It handles such things as correctly setting up SSPs and site collections.

How to Create a MOSS 2007 VPC Image: The Whole 9 Yards

Reduced privilege administrators?

2007-09-11T20:11:00.001+01:00

So, what do you do when you have staff that need to do certain administrative tasks in the AD but you don't really want to trust them with every permission going?

Until recently, our support desk personnel had 'Domain Admin' rights in our AD so they could add and remove user accounts, and were trusted not to do any harm - obviously not the best situation, you should after all trust someone to do something, not trust them not to do something.

There are two solutions to this - you can either use the built in 'Account Operators' group which has certain rights delegated to it, including that of manipulating user and group objects in the AD, but in some cases this group has too many rights as it allows the user to shut the system down for some inexplicable reason.

The better way is to create your own account administration group and delegate a specific subset of rights to it. The following article discusses this in detail:

WindowSecurity.com: Built-in Groups vs Delegation
WindowSecurity.com: Implementing Active Directory Delegation of Administration

Why?

2007-09-11T18:56:00.000+01:00

This isn't really destined to be a public blog, so some of the entries may seem a little ... strange. I have just taken over the role of Windows 2003 infrastructure administrator at my company and in the course of coming up to speed with the technology I decided that I needed a place to store my thoughts and findings.

If you find anything useful during your stay here, be my guest!