Chad Eldridge

VSS contains blank writers list

chadeldridge — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:22:50 +0000

Basically what happens is there are several things on 2008 server that cause a corrupted Reg entry and then a lot of other entries spawn off the bad one. Since the key created is technically correct but made of the wrone reg type it causes the issue and the software installer doesn’t catch it as being a problem. So If you start seeing VSS errors on a server do the following:

In CMD mode type “vssadmin list writers” if it returns data then this is not your issue, if it returns nothing, then you have the problem.

If nothing is returned do the following:

1. Remove any software that uses the VSS writer service, at this point all I can guess would be DPM agent or the BackupExec agent. SQL and other writers that use it do not seem to cause the issue

2. Open regedit and find this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\Subscriptions

3. DELETE the entire key and all its subs

4. Close regedit and then create a batch file of the following commands, then run it.

net stop “System Event Notification Service”

net stop “COM+ Event System”

net stop “Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider”

net stop “Volume Shadow Copy”

cd /d %windir%\system32

net stop vss

net stop swprv

regsvr32 /s ole32.dll

regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll

regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll

vssvc /register

regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll

regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll

regsvr32 /s es.dll

regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll

regsvr32 /s vssui.dll

regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll

net start “System Event Notification Service”

net start “COM+ Event System”

net start “Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider”

net start “Volume Shadow Copy”

5. Reboot the machine

6. Create another batch file with the following commands and run it

cd /d %windir%\system32

net stop vss

net stop swprv

regsvr32 ole32.dll

regsvr32 oleaut32.dll

regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll

regsvr32 vss_ps.dll

vssvc /register

regsvr32 /i swprv.dll

regsvr32 es.dll

regsvr32 stdprov.dll

regsvr32 vssui.dll

regsvr32 msxml.dll

regsvr32 msxml3.dll

regsvr32 msxml4.dll

7. Type “vssadmin list writers” and you should see all the VSS writers again.

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Remove Orphaned agents from DPM2010

chadeldridge — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:51:48 +0000

DId you remove/reinstall a Server which had a DPM Agent installed, without removing it from DPM before?

In DPM 2007 you could easily go on uninstall, the uninstall would fail, but it will ask you afterwards if you want

to remove the agent from the database. In DPM 2010 this behavior changed, the uninstall fails, and no option to remove the the orphaned agents.

This is what you may need to do if you get the following error.

o C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin\Remove-ProductionServer.ps1 : DPM was unable to remove the protected computer DPM02 from one of the following groups:

1. Distributed COM users
2. DPMRADmTrustedMachines
3. MSDPMTrustedMachines
At line:1 char:30
+ .\Remove-ProductionServer.ps1 <<<<
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Remove-ProductionServer.ps1

Now remove all SIDs from the above groups, since the server was no longer in there by name due to domain removal. When you reran the command with the FQDN, you may receive the following error:

There is failure while removing production server
C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin\Remove-ProductionServer.ps1 : DPM was unable to remove the protected computer DPM02.mydomain.com.
At line:1 char:30
+ .\Remove-ProductionServer.ps1 <<<<
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Remove-ProductionServer.ps1

However, after refreshing the console, the agent is now removed.

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My Review of Roku XD Player

chadeldridge — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:32:35 +0000

Originally submitted at Roku

The new XD steps it up with 1080p HD video quality and extended-range wireless.

Roku XD Player

Great little device, great price

By Chade from columbus ohio on 12/23/2010

Pros: Easy to use, Easy to set up, High quality picture, Great value, Compact, Built in Wi-Fi

Cons: Want more video choices, Needs more cache

Best Uses: Secondary TV, Living room, Primary TV

Describe Yourself: Early adopter, Casual User, Power User, Netflix fan, Home entertainment enthusiast, Technophile

Add more than 64mb to this device and it would be perfect.

(legalese)

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ATI Catalyst and mom.implementation error

chadeldridge — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:57:04 +0000

This seems to keep coming up recently and its extremely annoying. If you have a machine experiencing this issue, here is what i did to fix the problem.

1. Uninstall all ATI software via Add/Remove Programs

2. Uninstall and manually reinstall both .net 1.1 and 2.0 using the redistributable packs

3. Download and run the ATI Cleanup Tool and remove all trace of the ATI apps

4. Download the most recent Catalyst driver for your card and install

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How to force remove McAfee 8.7 and management agent

chadeldridge — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:38:34 +0000

For some reason once McAfee is controlled by the EPO agent it becomes very difficult to totally uninstall. For those of you who have contacted me about this, here is your manual force removal guide. It is basically just 2 steps but if the software fails to uninstall gracefully from Add / Remove Programs, this will for sure work.

1. Remove the agent forcefully:

"c:\program files\mcafee\common framework\frminst.exe" /forceuninstall /silent

2. Remove the actual McAfee product via its GUID:

msiexec /x {147BCE03-C0F1-4C9F-8157-6A89B6D2D973} /qn

Please let me know if that does not clear up your issue.

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An interesting stumble upon

chadeldridge — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:33:02 +0000

Today while sifting through the rif-raf of the interwebs I happened across something I rarely find online. Someone of my age group who owns and operates a successful business. Now I am sure there are plenty of people out there in the under 30 range that own and operate businesses, however I have yet to meet many who actually seem to know and understand what they are doing. Listening to Erin for an hour and being able to carry on a sensible conversation about what we all face in the business world (especially at this age) was a real eye opener. Since I have been in business I have, like everyone else gone through the ups and downs of what doing business in the tech world can be. Dealing with clients and vendors and juggling the day to day can be a daunting task. I want to give her props for doing what she is doing, and seeming to really love it.

She does a weekly show here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bsetc-headquarters—erin-blaskie on ustream and also a simulcast on Justin.tv. I would advise any young entrepreneur to just stop by and chat a bit.

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Outlook 2010 beta

chadeldridge — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:58:51 +0000

Started to use the Outlook 2010 beta today. I plan to update this post in the next few days with a detailed descriptions and review of how things are and how they work. First impressions are good, however I do not see much of a change from the 2007 environment. The ribbon has for sure changed to an extent and the coloring of the main theme. One thing I am seeing right now is that the OCS communicator contact list has been brought into the main client screen.

As for issues within the first hour of use I do have some issues with the way threaded email works. Threads of non-related email are for some reason being filtered into a single thread instead of threads following a correct hierarchy. Emails that have no pertinence to each other are now grouped together. Preferentially I would like to see email threads being sorted by the subject, which is probably a setting I am yet to find.

In the meantime feel free to go download and install it yourself.

http://www.microsoft.com/Office/2010/en/outlook/default.aspx

Edit 1:

Meeting requests have been greatly simplified over the way Outlook 2007 handled them. Now when you receive a meeting request it will show you your calendar for that period of time directly in the request, thus eliminating your need to switch over to calendar view to verify that time slot. Here is a screen shot of what that looks like:

Edit 2:

The OCS Client screen embedded into Outlook:

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WP 2.2 for iPhone

chadeldridge — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:41:57 +0000

Just to let all those who use WordPress 2.2 for the iPhone has a small bug to be aware of. If you use the iPhone to post pictures to your WordPress site the ability to resize pictures in the post is broken. Your pictures will be posted at full size. This is a bug they are aware of and supposedly fixing in the next release.

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Microsoft DPM – Move location of System State Backup

chadeldridge — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:35:41 +0000

Move DPM_SYSTEM_STATE to other location
Filed Under (Data Protection Manager) by Just An Admin on 01-12-2008

When using Data Protection Manager to back-up the system state of your servers you will find that a folder with the name DPM_SYSTEM_STATE is created on your C:\ drive on the protected server. When disk space is insufficient to support this additional data, you can alter the location where this data is stored:

On the Protected Server:

* Edit the %system drive%\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Datasources\PSDataSourceConfig.xml file
* You will find the default the path is %system drive%\.
* Change it to the appropriate location and save the file.

On the DPM Server:

* Modify the Protection Group
* Run Consistency Check on the System State datasource

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Microsoft fails … again … Office Communication Server broken by KB974571

chadeldridge — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:24:48 +0000

Microsoft released a “we screwed up” email to its partners on the 15th saying in no certain terms that update KB874571 was the cause for the mysterious errors being experienced by a large majority of their customers. It seems that a bug in the update also changed something in MSOCS server which made it believe it was on evaluation and expired. The problem can be noted by the failure of the Front End and Edge services from starting. The event log will show the services failing to start due to the evaluation period being over.

Currently the only resolution to the issue is to manually back out this update via add/remove programs. You will receive an error message about other updates depending on the one you are removing. Ignore those and remove it anyway. Reboot. This has fixed the issue in all environments here and should work for you as well. On the 15th they released a statement saying they were working on the issue and should have it resolved by the next day. We are now almost a week out and still no posting on the resolution to the issue.

Event Log entries:

Event Type:        Error
Event Source:    Live Communications Server
Event Category:                (1000)
Event ID:              12290
Date:                     10/13/2009
Time:                     8:28:57 PM
User:                     N/A
Computer:
Description:
The evaluation period for Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005 has expired. Obtain the released version of this product and upgrade to the non-evaluation version by running setup.exe

You can visit the MS OCS Team blog here: http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/10/14/632.aspx

Hopefully there will be more information soon on a positive fix for the issue.

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