Click here to download and install the gadget. I’ve only tested it on Windows 7 x64, but it should work on Vista too.

Technically speaking, the Express service tag is a Base 10 (Decimal) number. The service tag is just a Base36 representation of that number.

TF50605: There was an error looking up the SID for OLD-DOMAIN\CCNETNIGHTLYBUILD.

In order to delete the workspace, we need to remap it to a valid user account. Here’s the process to do just that.

Firstly, we should list the workspaces on this computer we’re having problems with (in this case, BUILDSERVER01).

C:\>tf workspaces /owner:* /server:http://tfs-server:8080 | findstr BUILDSERVER01
Workspace		Owner				Computer	Comment
----------------------- ------------------------------- --------------- -------------------------------
BUILDSERVER01		saCCNetNightly			BUILDSERVER01	Temporary CruiseControl.NET Wo
BUILDSERVER01		OLD-DOMAIN\CCNETNIGHTLYBUILD	BUILDSERVER01 	Temporary CruiseControl.NET Wo
BUILDSERVER01		saCCNetNightly			BUILDSERVER01

We may as well attempt to delete the workspace, though the process is likely to fail as it wont be able to resolve the SID if the domain is no longer available.

C:\>tf workspace /delete /server:http://tfs-server:8080 BUILDSERVER01;OLD-DOMAIN\CCNETNIGHTLYBUILD
TF50605: There was an error looking up the SID for OLD-DOMAI\CCNETNIGHTLYBUILD.

At this point, we need to open up the TfsVersionControl table and manually point the workspaces to a valid identity. The first stage is to identify the ID of the missing account:

SELECT IdentityId FROM tfsVersionControl.tbl_Identity WHERE (DisplayName LIKE 'OLD-DOMAIN\CCNETNIGHTLYBUILD')

Now that we have the ID, we can locate the workspaces the owner has on the server we’re having problems with.

SELECT WorkspaceId, OwnerId, WorkspaceName FROM tfsVersionControl.tbl_Workspace WHERE (OwnerId = 311) AND (Computer = 'BUILDSERVER01')

We should now update the tfsVersionControl.tbl_Workspace table with a valid IdentityId from the tfsVersionControl.tbl_Identity table. Once that’s done, try the delete command again:

C:\>tf workspace /delete /server:http://tfs-server:8080 "BUILDSERVER01;Dave Hope"
A deleted workspace cannot be recovered.
Workspace 'BUILDSERVER01;Dave Hope' on server 'http://tfs-server:8080' has 0 pending change(s).
Are you sure you want to delete the workspace? (Yes/No) Yes

And hey presto, the workspace is gone.

I came across a product called Likewise, the free open-source version is available in the standard Ubuntu repositories. Here’s a quick guide for how to get up and running with likewise-open.

Firstly, install Likewise.

$ sudo aptitude install likewise-open

The final part of the installation will prompt you for some information about your Active Directory domain. If you need to change the settings you enter here run dpkg-reconfigure krb5-config.

The second screen asks you for an administrative domain controler where password changes will occur.

With the installation complete we now need to join the system to the Active Directory domain, this is accomplished with one simple command.

$ sudo domainjoin-cli join NWTRADERS.MSFT Administrator

I then wanted domain admins to be able to use sudo. This can easily be achieved by adding the following to the end of the /etc/sudoers file.

%NWTRADERS\\domain^admins ALL=(ALL) ALL

@echo off
REM ================================================================
REM CONFIGURATION INFO
REM ================================================================
set USERNAME=backupAccount
set PASSWORD=superSecretPassword
set CFGFILE=BackupList.txt
set DESTDIR=C:\Backups\

REM ================================================================
REM STOP CHANGING HERE OR YOU'LL BREAK SOMETHING
REM ================================================================
SET TIMESTAMP=%date:~-4,4%.%date:~-7,2%.%date:~-10,2%
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%A in (%CFGFILE%) do (
	IF NOT EXIST "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%" mkdir "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%"
	pscp -q -scp -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%@%%B:ns_sys_config "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%\%%A.cfg"
)

The above will read the details of the firewalls from a CSV file (BackupList.txt) in hostname,ip address format. PSCP is then used to SCP the configuration from the firewall to the location specified in DESTDIR.

You’ll need to make sure SSH + SCP is enabled on your firewalls and that pscp is in the same directory as the script. You can find the latest version of Putty and PSCP here.

Facts

• 8 Chapters, 116 pages with an RRP of $34.99 US / £31.99 UK
• The book is aimed at anyone who wants to manage a network using Cacti. No previous Cacti or Linux experience is needed

Pros

• The book is ideal for someone who has never used a Linux or Cacti system before. It’s an ideal introduction to Cacti.
• The instructions and illustrations are clear and concise, with no room for misinterpretation
• Provides a good introduction to data, host and graph templates and how to use them.

Cons

• The book is filled with poor sentence structure and typos. Given that PACKT had someone review the writing and correct mistakes, this is a real shame.
• The book makes frequent and consistent spelling mistakes. For example, the book constantly refers to Tobi Oetiker as Tobi Oeticker
• The first 46 pages (of 116) cover what SNMP and rrdtool are and how to install Cacti. Given the book is so short, this seems a waste when a simple aptitude install cacti would have covered it.
• 10 pages on user management really is a waste. If you can’t figure out how to create a user on your own you really shouldn’t be setting up the network monitoring system for your organization.

Conclusion

I’m in two minds about this book. On the one hand it’s full of typos and poor English. It doesn’t go into much depth in the areas I wanted it to (Cacti XML Queries and data templates) but spends a long time on simple tasks (installing and basic configuration). On the positive side the book does provide a good introduction to SNMP and how to get started with Cacti.

All considered I think the book is suitable for someone who is looking at implementing Cacti but shouldn’t be considered a complete guide. One to avoid if endless typos are likely to get on your nerves.

Once the update fails to install, you’ll likely have to reboot as the system will be flagged as pending a reboot. Once rebooted we need to attempt to complete the SQL Server installation:

1. Open up Add or Remove Programs, select Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and click Change
2. On the Component Selection screen, choose Database Engine under SQL Server 2005 Instances and click Next
3. On the Feature Maintenance screen, choose Database Engine and click Next
4. Go through the setup wizard until the Change or Remove Instance screen. Then click Complete the suspended installation.
5. Follow through the wizard, if you get a prompt for the files point it at your SQL SP3 installation media and continue.

If you’re using SQL Server 2005 Express you can extract SQLEXPR32.EXE with the /x switch.

The installation will likely fail with the following error:

SQL Server Setup has encountered the following problem: [Microsoft][SQL Native Client][SQL Server]Password validation failed. The password does not meet Windows policy requirements because it is too short.. To continue, correct the problem, and then run SQL Server Setup again.

Edit C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Upgrade\sqlagent90_msdb_upgrade.sql with notepad or similar.

Change password on line 30683 to something more complex, from:
encryption by password = 'Yukon90_'
To (for example):
encryption by password = 'Yukon90_23423ASDzz}{'

Then further down, change line 30977 to reflect the same value:

From
set @exec_str = N'add signature to ' + @sp + N' by certificate [##MS_AgentSigningCertificate##] with password = ''Yukon90_'''

To
set @exec_str = N'add signature to ' + @sp + N' by certificate [##MS_AgentSigningCertificate##] with password = ''Yukon90_23423ASDzz}{'''

Cancel out of setup. Back in Add or Remove Programs choose Change again for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 continuing through the wizard as before. This time, you wont get the error and the upgrade will complete.

• Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer
• OCS Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Both domains look to be owned by Microsoft and are hosted on servers run by Microsoft. Even so, I’d suggest using a test account rather than your own.

Once your license has expired, you’ll want to do is check with Google and make sure they don’t want the hardware back (they never do, but best to check). It’s safe to say that doing this is going to void your warranty.

The first thing you’re going to need to do is reset he password on the BIOS so that you can change the boot order. The easiest way to do this is to open the chassis and remove the jumper labeled PWRD_EN. The jumper is located just behind the memory towards the rear of the server. The next time you boot you can hit F2 to get into the BIOS.

With the BIOS now open, set the option to boot form the front USB ports. You’re going to want to flash the BIOS with a newer, non-branded one. A Google appliance is just a Dell PowerEdge 2950 with a yellow coat of paint and a snazzy front bezel. Head over to the Dell site and download the latest BIOS (I used 2.6.1). Once downloaded, run the utility to create a BIOS update floppy disk.

With the floppy disk in hand, connect an external USB floppy drive to one of the front USB ports and boot from your BIOS update disk. The update will give you an error message saying that a Dell PowerEdge 2950 BIOS cannot be applied to a Google Enterprise Search Appliance. Fear not, when the update exits it’ll leave you at a DOS prompt. Run the following command:

020601 /forcetype

It should complete successfully and reboot. Remove the floppy drive, enable visualization support in the BIOS and then install ESX. If you don’t have a USB CD drive handy, check out my guide on installing ESX from a USB Key.

Usage is simple, run the program with the /remote argument, like so.

CPP-ProductKeyFinder.exe /remote Dave-Win2k8
The keys will be logged to a txt file in the working directory in a file named whatever the computer name is, in this case Dave-Win2k8.txt.

Any errors will be logged to Errors.txt in the same directory.

This application will not generate license keys, it will recover them from your system. It will not help you pirate software.

Unfortunately the system didn’t come with a CD drive so the next easiest installation was going to be from a USB thumb drive.

If you’re keen to install ESX from a USB thumb drive, you’ll need:

• A USB thumb drive, I used a 1Gb Lexar
• An ESX iso, I used VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64.iso
• The latest version of syslinux (I used 3.82)

With those bits in hand, do the following.

1. Format the USB drive with a FAT32 filesystem
2. Use something like 7-Zip to extract the ISO to your USB thumb drive
3. Download the latest syslinux ZIP file and extract it somewhere
4. From the “syslinux\win” directory run
   syslinux.exe -s -m -f -a h: Where h: is the letter your USB thumb drive is assigned
5. Rename the hidden file isolinux.cfg on your USB thumb drive to syslinux.cfg
6. Safely Remove your USB thumb drive and install ESX