Category: server

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blog exchange howto server windows

SBS: complete certificate request error

So you created a certificate request on the SBS wizard and now want to complete the request by running the wizard again and importing the CRT certificate file you received, but you get an error.

The imported certificate does not match your web site

If you look in the detailed logfile named TrustedCert.log located at “C:\program files\Windows Small Business Server\Logs” you may find an error reffering to ASN1bad tag.

An exception of type ‘Type: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’ has occurred.
Timestamp: 07/10/2019 11:04:25
Message: CertEnroll::CX509Enrollment::p_InstallResponse: ASN1 bad tag value met. 0x8009310b (ASN: 267)
Stack: at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.CERTENROLLLib.Interop.CX509EnrollmentClass.InstallResponse(InstallResponseRestrictionFlags Restrictions, String strResponse, EncodingType Encoding, String strPassword)
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.CoreNetworking.CertificateProvider.InstallCertResponse(Byte[] certificateBytes)

Luckily you can manually import the certificate and restore the necessary private key from the request using the instructions below.

  1. Open an Microsoft Management Concole (mmc) as admin.
  2. Add the snap-in “certificates” and select computer account.
  3. Now go to Personal – Certificates, right click & select all tasks – import.
  4. Import the CRT file you received from the provider.
  5. Refresh the certificates list. The certificate is now present but without private key.
  6. Double-click the certificate, go to the details tab and copy the serial number. Should be something like: 1e 71 cb 7a ….
  7. Open an CMD with administrator rights and run the following the command: certutil -repairstore my “<serialnumber>”
    Where <serialnumber> is the value from step 6, i.e. 1e 71 cb 7a ….
  8. Refresh the certificate list in the MMC snap-in, the certificate should now show the key icon because the private key is present.
  9. I suggest you make an export with private key and extended properties to store for safekeeping for later use.
  10. I tried the import certificate wizard in the SBS console again, selected the CRT file, it still failed, but now the certificate was configured and the OWA was working again with the new certificate.

References:
https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/help/2351321/not-able-to-install-trusted-certificate-on-sbs2008
https://knowledge.digicert.com/solution/SO22327.html

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blog howto server windows

Can’t find script engine “VBScript” for script …

I recently came across this error while trying to execute a VBscript.

Can’t find script engine “VBScript” for script …

After some troubleshooting this was related to the uninstall of McAfee antivirus software.
McAfee antivirus intercepts all VBscript execution by changing the executable that runs the scripts.
After uninstallation, this change was not rolled back and VBscript execution would faill unless explicitely called by wscript.exe or cscript.exe.

Solution is to revert he change in the Windows registry.
In the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B54F3741-5B07-11cf-A4B0-00AA004A55E8}\InprocServer32
Find the value named (Default) of type REG_SZ and change the data back to:
C:\Windows\system32\vbscript.dll
instead of:
c:\Program Files\Common Files\McAfee\SystemCore\ScriptSn.20110218083735.dll

You have the adjust the permissions on the key InprocServer32 to give write permission to Administrator (or your user).

If your problem is unrelated to McAfee and the registry value is correct you might have to re-register the DLL’s.
Open a CMD with elevated privileges (run as administrator) and execute the following commands:

cd "%systemroot%\system32"
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 vbscript.dll
cd "%systemroot%\SysWow64"
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 vbscript.dll

More information and information that i used to troubleshoot this issue:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/cant-find-script-engine-vbscript-for-script/960f24d1-bf92-4cec-b73e-520a04891073
https://community.mcafee.com/thread/50961?start=0&tstart=0

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blog exchange howto server windows

Exchange database dirty shutdown recovery JET_errLogFileSizeMismatch error -541

Warning: This is a technical article describing steps that you should only execute if you’re familiar and confident with the matter.

Error information:
Below is some error information that you might have seen and that’s why your search leads you here.

eseutil /ML “L:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2\E02.log”
Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server Version 15.00
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Initiating FILE DUMP mode…
Base name: E02
Log file: L:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2\E02.log
ERROR: Cannot read log file header. Error -541.
Operation terminated with error -541 (JET_errLogFileSizeMismatch, actual log file size does not match JET_paramLogFileSize) after 0.16 seconds.

eseutil /r “L:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2\E02.log”
Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server Version 15.00
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Initiating RECOVERY mode…
Logfile base name: E02
…
Performing soft recovery…
Operation terminated with error -541 (JET_errLogFileSizeMismatch, actual log file size does not match JET_paramLogFileSize) after 0.31 seconds.

Solution:
If possible have a backup or a copy of the database before you manipulate it! Transaction log files are critical for the database, these are not just information files that you can delete!

If the DISK where the log files of your exchange database resides has run out of space you could find yourself with a corrupt log file. When you try to perform a soft recovery with eseutil /r and the path to your E0?.log (in my case E02.log) file you get an error about header information and size mismatch. The E0?.log file is the current transaction log file that Exchange was writing to when the disk ran out of space. This file is now corrupt and transactions in the file that were not applied to the database will be lost. All other older log files will have hexadecimal sequence to it such as E0?00E475A.log and so on. You can check which log files are required for the database to perform a soft recovery by reading the header information of the database in question as follows:

eseutil /mh “F:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2\DB-MBBX2.edb”
replace path and filenames with your database

In the wealth of information returned you will see a line stating the state of the database, which will be Dirty Shutdown. (If it is Clean Shutdown than you do not need to perform recovery). Below the state is the line Log Required which shows the files needed.

Log Required: 190299-190336 (0x2e75b-0x2e780)

In my case the databases needs the files E020002E75B.log and newer on to E020002E780.log (this is HEX sequence). Older log files can be moved to a different hard disk if you need to free some space. Be careful, don’t delete, sorting these files in Explorer is not easy, you can’t do it by name because of the hex sequence and by date/time is not foolproof. So double-check or just expand the disk and leave all log files as-is.

Now to perform the recovery we have to move the corrupt E02.log file to a folder or other disk. Now that the corrupt file is removed and you are 100% sure that all the other required log files (see section above) are present we can perform soft recovery with the /a option to skip missing log files and bring the database back to a clean state.

eseutil /r /a E02 /l “l:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2” /s “l:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2” /d “F:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2”
change the names and paths to your situation.

/r is soft recovery
/a is skip missing logfile
E02 is the base name of the logfiles, this is dependant of the database, could be E01, E02, E03 …
/l is for the log files location (where E02.log and other E02xxxx.log files reside)
/s is for the system files location (where E02.chk resides)
/d is for the database files location (where DB-MBX2.edb resides)

Output will be like this:

eseutil /R /a E02 /l “l:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox
\DB-MBX2” /s “l:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2” /d
“F:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2”

Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server Version 15.00
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Initiating RECOVERY mode…
Logfile base name: E02
Log files: l:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2
System files: l:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2
Database Directory: F:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\DB-MBX2
Performing soft recovery…
Restore Status (% complete)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|—-|
……………………………………………

Operation completed successfully in 3.635 seconds.

The database is now clean, you can check again with eseutil /mh as we did before and see the state listed as Clean Shutdown.

If you want to quickly clean-up logfiles no longer needed you should perform an Exchange aware backup. If you don’t have one and you understand the consequences you can enable circular logging on the database.

Good Luck!

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blog exchange howto server windows

Outlook 2013 sync problems and message that Administrator has made a change

This post describes a problem I recently experienced when migrating from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013. Outlook 2013 clients would pop-up a message about the administrator making changes that require a restart of Outlook continuously. Also the folder synchronization fails and you see new messages arrive in your Inbox only to dissapear again after 1 second and then come back again and so forth.

The Microsoft Exchange administrator has made a change that requires you quit and restart Outlook

outlook error synchronizing folder [0-0]

These problems started occurring right after the old public folder database was deleted on the Exchange 2007 server. I only noticed it after I had already uninstalled the Exchange 2007 server completely. Why only Outlook 2013 has this problem I don’t know, but here is what’s wrong.

On the Mailbox database on your new Exchange server there is still a value pointing to the OLD public folder database that is now deleted.
You need to fix this using Adsiedit.msc:
Go to:

Configuration >CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange > CN=Your Organisation > CN=Administrative Groups > CN=Exchange Administrative Group > CN=Databases

For each mailbox database, right click and check the attributes for “MSEXCHHomePublicMDB”. You will see that the value for this attribute points to “CN=Public Folder Database*,CN=Deleted Objects,CN=Configuration,DC=YourDomain,DC=com” the old object for the public folder database that has been deleted. You must clear this value using the clear button, so it changes to “not set”, just emptying the value won’t work. Restart the Information store service or reboot the Exchange server and the problem should be solved.

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blog exchange server windows

Outlook Web Access OWA error 500 when logging in

When you fill in your credentials on the login screen of Outlook Web Access or OWA (2010) and click submit you receive an Internal Server Error 500 and the URL shows /owa/auth.owa

There are no events logged in Application or System log that explain this problem.

IISreset does not help.

The problem and solution could be very simple.
Check the the service “Microsoft Exchange Forms-Based Authentication service” is started. If not, start the service and try to login to OWA again. Problem should be solved.

If the service doesn’t start or fails frequently you’ll have to investigate that further.

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blog howto server windows

printer driver installation error 0x00000057

note: This is a technical article meant for system administrators or advanced users. Make backups of files or registry keys that you manipulate. Use caution and proceed at your own responsibility.

I ran into this problem after cleaning up printer drivers and manually cleaning up in the c:\windows\system32\spool directory.
When trying to connect to a printer on the printserver the error 0x00000057 would show. This error occurs when windows tries to install the printer driver.

If the driver is already present on the system, first try to remove the printer driver using the printserver properties (printui.exe /s /t2). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2771931 After remove try again to install. If that didn’t work, or like me this particular driver was not installed on the system, read on.

If you have another computer or server that does install the printer without problem, than you can try this.
1) On the working computer open the registry editor and navigate to: (note for 32bit systems its slightly different)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Drivers\Version-3\
2) Find the key with the driver you need. Export this driver key to a REG file. Copy the file to the problem computer.
3) On the problem computer open the registry editor and check for the presence of the key, delete if present.
4) Import the REG file made in step 2 on the problem computer.
5) In the key note the value of the Infpath item. It’s the location of the INF file. We need the whole containing folder and items in it.
Should be something like: c:\windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository\xxx.inf-yyyyyy-zzzzz\
6) We need to copy this folder and its content to the problem computer. Not an easy task because of the permissions.
But you can do it like this from the working computer:
– Open an elevated command prompt (run as administrator CMD.exe)
– execute the following command: xcopy C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\xxx.inf-yyyyyy-zzzzz\ \\problemcomputer\c$\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\xxx.inf-yyyyyy-zzzzz\ /E /C /F /H /R /K /O
7) Now we have the registry key and the files present on the problem computer.
8) Restart the print spooler on the problem computer and try to connect the printer again or try to install the driver again.

0x00000057 printer driver installation error
source: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/itmanagement/en-US/a225d71c-be8b-4530-bf50-63001559a978/windows-can-not-connect-to-the-printer-0x00000057?forum=itmanager

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blog network server windows

FreeRadius.net service doesn’t work

The FreeRadius.net package built for windows uses the XYZservice.exe wrapper tool to start a normal application as a service. However on Windows 2008 and higher the service starts but RADIUS is not listening on the configured ports. You can check if it is listening with netstat.
netstat -an | findstr 1812

The Debug mode of FreeRadius.net (using the provided batch file) however works fine. It seems the built radiusd.exe will not start with the default options on Windows 2008 and higher. You can check this by manually starting from a command prompt:
C:\FreeRADIUS.net\bin\radiusd.exe -f -d C:/FreeRADIUS.net/etc/raddb
So that is the reason why the service doesn’t start.

Solution: COnfigure the XYZservice to start the application with the debug parameters.
Edit C:\FreeRADIUS.net\bin\XYZservice.ini
change:
CommandLine = C:\FreeRADIUS.net\bin\radiusd.exe -d C:/FreeRADIUS.net/etc/raddb -AX

Now if you start the FreeRadius.net service and check with netstat you will see the RADIUSD.exe listening

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blog network server windows

RAS or NPS forward RADIUS request to same server different port

The address of the remote RADIUS server x.x.x.x in remote RADIUS server group yyyyy Resolves to local address x.x.x.x.
The address will be ignored.

Use case scenario: You want to forward RADIUS requests incoming on the server to some software, possibly for setting up OTP authentication.

My scenario: Extra security for PPTP vpn tunnel to Windows server with RAS (Routing and Remote Access) by using VASCO Identikey OTP (One-Time-Passkey) software (the same applies for other software such as RSAid). Normally the recommended setup is using two servers, one for the RAS connection and one with the VASCO Identikey middleware software on it. When you deploy like this you will not face the problem I’m about to describe. However if you have only 1 Windows server at your disposal and you install the VASCO Identikey software on the same server as the RAS and NPS (Network Policy Server) role you will run in to this problem.

Problem description: You have configured RAS correctly for PPTP MSCHAP v2 connections. In NPS you have configured a connection policy to forward the RADIUS requests (authentication and accounting) to a remote RADIUS server group. The authentication fails, VASCO audit viewer does not show any attempt to authenticate to the VASCO Identikey Radius server. In the eventviewer application log there is an event ID 25 with the following error:
The address of the remote RADIUS server x.x.x.x in remote RADIUS server group yyyyy Resolves to local address x.x.x.x.

The problem is that NPS cannot forward RADIUS requests to the same IP address as itself. Even if the software is listening on another port, or you configure 2 IP addresses on the same network card. NPS insists that the IP address of the remote RADIUS server is the same as it’s own IP address and ignores your configuration to forward the RADIUS requests.

The solution is to use the loopback IP address range. For example 127.0.0.2. Unfortunately VASCO Identikey is licensed on IP address and as such you can’t change it to listen to the loopback IP address without also requesting a new license. I have not tried this, so even with the new license I’m not sure VASCO Identikey will listen on loopback IP address. Maybe other OTP software can do this, check with your vendor or manual.

What can you do? Use a RADIUS proxy to sit between the NPS and VASCO Identikey. If you have a linux server around you can use opensource FreeRadius software on that linux box to proxy the RADIUS requests between RAS/NPS and VASCO Identikey.
If like me you had nothing but this 1 windows server, you can use the FreeRadius.net software, this is a prebuilt binary of the opensource FreeRadius software made for windows versions. The software is quite old and not updated but it still seems to work for our simple setup.

I have installed the FreeRadius.net software in C:\FreeRadius.net
I have configured it to accept RADIUS requests on interface 127.0.0.2 port 11812 and forward them to a RADIUS server on IP x.x.x.x on port 18120 (I changed the default RADIUS ports for VASCO and FreeRadius to avoid conflicts with NPS/RAS).

configuration file c:\FreeRadius.net\etc\raddb\clients.conf
I have put all the default things in comment (#) and add
client 127.0.0.2 {
secret = testing123
shortname = localhost2
}

configuration file c:\FreeRadius.net\etc\raddb\radiusd.conf
I have put the default listen directive in comment (#) but you must leave the bind = * line and add
listen {
ipaddr = 127.0.0.2
port = 11812
type = auth
}
listen {
ipaddr = 127.0.0.2
port = 11813
type = acct
}

configuration file c:\FreeRadius.net\etc\raddb\proxy.conf
In this file I configured both the NULL realm for plain usernames and the DEFAULT realm for all others to forward to VASCO Identikey wich I have listening on the port 18120 & 18130 (auth & acct).
# This realm is for requests which don't have an explicit realm
# prefix or suffix. User names like "bob" will match this one.
#
realm NULL {
type = radius
authhost = 10.x.y.z:18120
accthost = 10.x.y.z:18130
secret = testing123
}

#
# This realm is for ALL OTHER requests.
#
realm DEFAULT {
type = radius
authhost = 10.x.y.z:18120
accthost = 10.x.y.z:18130
secret = testing123
}

You can now start the FreeRadius.net in debug mode, using the supplied batch file you can test your configuration.

Below I will attach screenshots of my configuration for NPS, RAS and VASCO.
RAS settings (EAP can be enabled if you like)
NPS RADIUS client
NPS configure remote RADIUS server group
NPS connection policy screenshot
NPS Network Policy
VASCO port settings

With thanks to:
http://bent-blog.de/vasco-identikey-server-auf-microsoft-forefront-tmg-2010/

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exchange network server windows

Uninstall Exchange 2010 on crippled 2008 R2 DC (SBS2011)

FASTTRACK ARTICLE

Exchange 2010 was installed on a domain controller, it actually was a Small Business Server 2011. Something happened to the AD database, backup not good. Server would only boot in AD restore mode.

In AD restore mode, we could login using domain credentials because the other DC (backup) was providing logon and authentication. We could even start a whole bunch of services and also the Exchange services. We seized the Roles on our other DC so that users would be able to logon without issues.In the next days we prepared to move the mailboxes away, in our case to Office365 in the cloud.
After that happened we followed the steps to remove the last Exchange server including disconnecting all mailboxes from AD users, removing public folders and such. On the final step, to uninstall Exchange it would not continue stating that the server was pending a reboot.
“A reboot from a previous installation is pending. Please restart the system and then rerun Setup.”
Restarting did not help of course, because we could only boot in to directory services restore mode.
So I had to find a way to fix the AD.

1) Checking the AD database (ntds.dit) from restore mode:
Open a CMD command prompt (As Administrator);
execute command ntdsutil
at the prompt type: activate instance ntds
at the prompt type: files

A] If you get an error about corruption ->
Move all the .log files in C:\windows\ntds\ to another directory (desktop perhaps);
Open a new CMD command prompt (As Administrator);
execute command: ESENTUTL.EXE /p C:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit
execute command: ESENTUTL.EXE /g C:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit
Try the files command again in the open ntdsutil command prompt.

B] If you get an error about being in the recovered state ->
Open a new CMD command prompt (As Administrator);
execute command: ESENTUTL.EXE /g C:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit
The integrity check will show all is normal, otherwise see step A.
Reboot the computer and set the date in the BIOS a couple of months or from before the backup-date if you tried a AD restore. Or set it a year back or so if you are unsure. Try to boot in normal mode. Normally it should boot up, but could take a while, change the date/time back to the correct values when it’s booted up.

2) Replication and authentication to other domain controllers
If you have other domain controllers to replicate to, then you might probably need to change BURFLAGGS for non-authorative restore (to fix NTFRS corruption on SYSVOL) and first reset the machine account password for the secure channel to the other domain controllers. See this post: http://ares.gobien.be:8080/2013/07/sync-issues-krb_ap_err_modified-0x80090322-target-principal-name-incorrect/

3) Now you can either try to fix everything further or go ahead and uninstall Exchange. Try the uninstall the normal way.
If you get errors about the sate of the Active Directory, try it like this:
Open a new CMD command prompt (As Administrator);
execute command: cd %programfiles%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v14\bin
execute command: setup.com /m=uninstall /dc:otherdc.domain.local

Make sure the server is still in the “Exchange Servers” security group.
Make sure there are no entries in the hosts file for your DC’s. Because it can also trigger the following error:
Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: ‘server.domain.local’ isn’t a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Please provide a valid FQDN. For example: ‘SERVER’.

Happy uninstalling!

Log excerpt:

[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Active Directory session settings for 'Get-ExchangeServer' are: View Entire Forest: 'True', Configuration Domain Controller: 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com', Preferred Global Catalog: 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com', Preferred Domain Controllers: '{ SRV-APP1.contoso.com }'
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Beginning processing Get-ExchangeServer -Identity:'SBS2011'
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Searching objects "SBS2011" of type "Server" under the root "$null".
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Preparing to output objects. The maximum size of the result set is "unlimited".
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0273] [1] Ending processing Get-ExchangeServer
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0491] [1] [REQUIRED] There is a pending reboot from a previous installation of a Windows Server 2008 role or feature. Please restart the system and rerun Setup.
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0523] [1] Ending processing test-setuphealth
[12/31/2014 08:27:56.0538] [0] **************

[12/31/2014 08:28:01.0312] [1] Ending processing Get-ExchangeServer
[12/31/2014 08:28:01.0702] [1] [REQUIRED] There is a pending reboot from a previous installation of a Windows Server 2008 role or feature. Please restart the system and rerun Setup.
[12/31/2014 08:28:01.0702] [1] Ending processing test-setuphealth
[12/31/2014 08:34:16.0514] [0] End of Setup

[12/31/2014 10:17:29.0782] [1] Ending processing Get-ExchangeServer
[12/31/2014 10:17:30.0047] [1] [REQUIRED] Unable to read data from the Metabase. Ensure that Microsoft Internet Information Services is installed.
[12/31/2014 10:17:30.0047] [1] [REQUIRED] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: Active Directory operation failed on SBS2011.contoso.com. The supplied credential for 'CONTOSO\Administrator' is invalid.

[REQUIRED] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: Active Directory operation failed on SBS2011.contoso.com. The supplied credential for 'CONTOSO\Administrator' is invalid.

[12/31/2014 10:53:05.0881] [1] Searching objects "SBS2011" of type "Server" under the root "$null".
[12/31/2014 10:53:05.0897] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 10:53:05.0897] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 10:53:05.0897] [1] Preparing to output objects. The maximum size of the result set is "unlimited".
[12/31/2014 10:53:05.0912] [1] Ending processing Get-ExchangeServer
[12/31/2014 10:53:06.0287] [1] [REQUIRED] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: 'SBS2011.contoso.com' isn't a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Please provide a valid FQDN. For example: 'SBS2011'.
[12/31/2014 10:53:06.0318] [1] Ending processing test-setuphealth

[12/31/2014 10:54:32.0491] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 10:54:32.0491] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 10:54:32.0491] [1] Preparing to output objects. The maximum size of the result set is "unlimited".
[12/31/2014 10:54:32.0491] [1] Ending processing Get-ExchangeServer
[12/31/2014 10:54:33.0043] [1] [REQUIRED] Active Directory does not exist or cannot be contacted.
[12/31/2014 10:54:33.0043] [1] [REQUIRED] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: 'SBS2011.contoso.com' isn't a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Please provide a valid FQDN. For example: 'SBS2011'.
[12/31/2014 10:54:33.0043] [1] Ending processing test-setuphealth

[12/31/2014 10:56:00.0320] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SRV-APP1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 10:56:00.0320] [1] Preparing to output objects. The maximum size of the result set is "unlimited".
[12/31/2014 10:56:00.0320] [1] Ending processing get-EdgeSubscription
[12/31/2014 10:56:00.0574] [1] [REQUIRED] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: 'SBS2011.contoso.com' isn't a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Please provide a valid FQDN. For example: 'SBS2011'.
[12/31/2014 10:56:00.0670] [1] Ending processing test-se

[12/31/2014 12:31:07.0542] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SVR-DC1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 12:31:07.0542] [1] Previous operation run on domain controller 'SVR-DC1.contoso.com'.
[12/31/2014 12:31:07.0542] [1] Preparing to output objects. The maximum size of the result set is "unlimited".
[12/31/2014 12:31:07.0542] [1] Ending processing Get-ExchangeServer
[12/31/2014 12:31:07.0791] [1] [REQUIRED] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: The user-specified domain controller SRV-APP1 does not exist.

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Virtual Private Server on SSD storage

 Update: After reviewing the offerings, I’m no longer running my VPS at digitalocean. Instead I’m using Linode at the moment.
www.linode.com

Easily deploy an SSD cloud server on @DigitalOcean in 55 seconds.

Recently I read about the virtual private servers you can create on www.DigitalOcean.com. They call them Droplets, and they get created in less then a minute if you don’t enable back-ups, or just a couple of minutes with back-up service enabled. You can choose between different geographically located data centers. You can choose between New York, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam and Singapore. You get one public ip address (or ipv6 if you prefer, but who does anyway).

You can choose out of some pre selected minimal OS installations such as Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora and CoreOS. Or you could even deploy your VPS complete with a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) or even with WordPress of Drupal setup. If I looked at the price (10$/month or 12$ with back-up) for a VPS, with 1 CPU, 1GB RAM, 30GB DISK and 2TB data transfer, and compared that to what I was currently paying for 2 shared hosting plans, the math was clear. For a bit less than what I was paying I get my very own Virtual Private Server where I can configure everything I want and have full rights on everything.

For me, as an enthusiastic system engineer, with experience on multiple Linux flavors, this was a very nice project. Starting from a minimal CentOS 7 installed Droplet, I quickly installed and configured Apache, Nginx, MySQL and PHP and started serving web pages. My first tests were a success. I configured different management tools and secured the system with a software firewall. Because your VPS has a public ip address you must think good about security. It took some time getting used to the new firewall software system in CentOS 7 called firewalld. After some cursing I had it set up as I wanted.

The next step was to migrate the first of my existing websites over to the new VPS. I chose to configure virtual hosts in an organized manner so that I could always expand to more websites if needed. After transferring the databases and website data, I set course for a new goal. Making my sites more secure by using HTTPS encryption on the login pages. By using the free 1 year class 1 certificates from www.startssl.com I did not have to make any extra costs. Update: Using Let’s Ecrypt now and HTTPS on all pages! After some hours of configuring and testing I had everything running smoothly. I migrated all the DNS records to my new VPS and shortly after my 1st website was running live on the new VPS.

My next goal was to set up mailboxes for every virtual host and using IMAP to connect to them. I choose POSTFIX as the SMTP server and DOVECOT as the IMAP server. POSTFIX was configured for using virtual mailboxes that don’t require a Linux user. DOVECOT was configured for SSL/TLS encrypted connections so password are never sent in clear text. To finish it off I installed ROUNDCUBE as a web mail solution.

After my successful first website migration the second one followed quickly and went smoothly as well. This time I also needed a FTP setup and I chose VSFTPD and again made it possible to use SSL encryption.

The VPS is now running all of my websites, except this blog.

PS: If you are wondering why I don’t migrate this blog, running on my home server, that’s because it’s a challenge to keep a website running on a homeserver with minimal hardware costs and dynamic internet ip address. It also has some other uses for me besides serving this blog.