Windows 7 64 bit SP1 / Windows Server 2008 R2- Fatal Error C0000034 Applying Update Operation

Windows 7 64 bit SP1 / Windows Server 2008 R2- Fatal Error C0000034 Applying Update Operation

Users across the world woke up to that lovely little error on their computers after trying to update to Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 64 bit or Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft does confirm there is an issue and is currently working on the issue. Luckily for us there is a fix, a bit involved but a fix none the less. Once you get your system back up and running would be a good idea to put off the update until Microsoft can work out the bugs.

Instructions:
1. Reboot your computer.

2. When your computer starts up again, choose the option “Launch Startup Repair” When the Startup repair starts, click cancel.

3. After you click cancel it will show a box. Click “Don’t Send” Click the link “View advanced options for recovery and support”

4. In the new window click Command Prompt at the bottom.

5. In Command Prompt type this and press enter: %windir%\system32\notepad.exe

6. Notepad will open. In notepad go to File > Open.

7. Change the type of files notepad views from .txt to All Files

8. Now in Notepad, go to C:\Windows\winsxs\ (or whichever drive Windows is installed on)

9. In that folder, find pending.xml and make a copy of it.

10. Now open the original pending.xml (it will load really slow because the file is huge)

11. In Notepad click on Format and check Word Wrap

12. Press CNTRL+F and search for the following exactly: 0000000000000000.cdf-ms

13. Delete the following text
 

(yours may be a little different): Your PC might not have all 3 sections of code (, , ). Just make sure you delete section “Checkpoint” and whatever other sections have “000000000000000.cdf-ms”. They will be right next to each other.

14. Note when you delete your screen may become non responsive, just be patient.

15. Save the file, close notepad, close command prompt, restart your computer.

16. Perform a normal start-up, most likely you won’t need to do anything. Your computer may finish the update or just revert back your system to before the update, either way things should be working properly.

Migrating Server 2003 to Server 2008 R2

Migrating Server 2003 to Server 2008 R2

1. Verify the new server’s TCP/IP configuration has been pointed to the current DNS server.

2. Make the new server become a member server of the current Windows Server 2003 domain first.

3. Upgrade the Windows Server 2003 forest schema to Windows Server 2008 schema with the “adprep
/forestprep” command on old server.
Please run the “adprep.exe /forestprep” command from the Windows Server 2008 installation disk on the
schema master. To do this, insert the Windows Server 2008 installation disk, and then type the following
command:
Drive:\sources\ADPREP\adprep.exe /forestprep

4. Upgrade the Windows 2003 domain schema with the “adprep /domainprep” command on old server.
Please run the “adprep.exe /domainprep” command from the Windows Server 2008 installation disk on the
infrastructure master. To do this, insert the Windows Server 2008 installation disk, and then type the following command:
Drive:\sources\ADPREP \adprep.exe /domainprep

5. Insert Windows Server 2008 Installation Disc in the new server.

6. Run “dcpromo” on new server to promote it as an additional domain controller in existingWindows 2003
domain, afterwards you may verify the installation of Active Directory.
Please refer to:
How to Verify an Active Directory Installation inWindows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816106

7. Verify the new server’s TCP/IP configuration has been pointed to current DNS server.


8. Enable GlobalCatalog on new server and manually Check Replication Topology and afterwards manually
trigger replication (Replicate Now) to synchronize Active Directory database between 2 replicas.
Please note:It willsome time to replicate GC between DC, please wait some time with patience.

9. Disable GlobalCatalog on the old DC.

10. Transfer all the FSMO roles from the old DC to the new DC.
Please refer to:
How to view and transfer FSMO roles inWindows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

11. Verify that the old DNS Server Zone type is Active Directory-Integrated. If not, please refer to:
How To:Convert DNS Primary Server to Active Directory Integrated
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816101

Note: Active Directory Integrated-Zone is available only if DNS server is a domain controller.

12. Install DNS component on new server and configure it as a new DNS Server (Active Directory IntegratedZone is preferred). All the DNS configuration should be replicated to the new DNS server with Active Directory Replication.

13. Make all the clients change TCP/IP configuration to point to new server as DNS.

14. You may configure TCP/IP on all the clients, or adjust DHCP scope settings to make them use the new
DNS Server.

How to fix Windows Server 2008 Windows Update errors

How to fix Windows Server 2008 Windows Update errors

Windows Server 2008 (and other versions of Windows) can sometimes suffer from errors on Windows update.  These usually come about from leaving the updates for a long period of time before installation.

What happens is some of the updates will fail to install and you may not be able to use server manager to examine the roles installed (it will throw an error).

If it does this then the first thing you should do is go to the Microsoft download site (www.microsoft.com/download) and search for KB947821.  Download the correct version for your version of Windows Server and run it.  This is non trivial in size (about 170M), and repairs issues it finds with the Windows update database.

If that does not work, then do the following:

1.  Open up a command prompt
2.  Type 'net stop wuauserv'
3.  Type 'net stop bits'
4.  Delete the contents of the Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder
5.  Type 'net start bits'
6.  Type 'net start wuauserv'
7.  Click Try Again on the Windows Updates screen

Finally, if you are having problems with just one or two individual updates, then try noting down the KB numbers associated with them and downloading them manually from the microsoft download center.  I have had to do this for some updates.
 

Disable Windows Server Shutdown Reason

Disable Windows Server Shutdown Reason

Windows Server 2003 and 2008 require you to specify a reason everytime you shutdown your server. If you are using Windows Server as your workstation like me, you may find this a bit annoying. Luckily, There is a way to disable it.

To disable the shut down reason, 
1) run gpedit.msc. This will start the Local Group Policy Editor.
2) Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System.
3) Look for 'Display Shutdown Event Tracker'. Then set it to Disabled

Windows Server 2008 : Run Commands For Administrators

 Windows Server 2008 : Run Commands For Administrators

AdRmsAdmin.msc = Active Directory Rights Management Services
Adsiedit.msc        = ADSI Edit
Azman.msc         = Authorization Manager
Certmgr.msc       = Certmgr (Certificates)
Certtmpl.msc      = Certificates Template Console
CluAdmin.msc     = Failover Cluster Management
Comexp.msc       = Component Services
Compmgmt.msc  = Computer Management
Devmgmt.msc     =Device Manager
Dfsmgmt.msc      =DFS Management
Dhcpmgmt.msc   =DHCP Manager
Diskmgmt.msc    =Disk Management
Dnsmgmt.msc    =DNS Manager
Domain.msc       =Active Directory Domains And Trusts
Dsa.msc            =Active Directory Users And Computers
Dssite.msc        =Active Directory Sites And Services
Eventvwr.msc   =Event Viewer
Fsmgmt.msc     =Shared Folders
Fsrm.msc         =File Server Resource Manager
Fxsadmin.msc  =Microsoft Fax Service Manager
Gpedit.msc      =Local Group Policy Editor
Lusrmgr.msc   =Local Users And Groups
Napclcfg.msc   =NAP Client Configuration
Nfsmgmt.msc  =Services For Network File System
Nps.msc          =Network Policy Server
Ocsp.msc        =Online Responder
Perfmon.msc   =Reliability And Performance Monitor
Pkiview.msc    =Enterprise PKI
Printmanagement.msc =Print Management
Remoteprograms.msc =TS RemoteApp Management
Rsop.msc        =Resultant Set of Policy
Secpol.msc      =Local Security Policy
ServerManager.msc =Server Manager
StorageMgmt.msc =Share And Storage Management
Services.msc  =Services
StorExpl.msc  =Storage Explorer
Tapimgmt.msc =Telephony
Taskschd.msc  =Task Scheduler
Tmp.msc        =Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Management
Tsadmin.msc  = Terminal Services Management
Tsconfig.msc  =Terminal Services Configuration
Tsgateway.msc =TS Gateway Manager
mstsc.msc   =Remote Desktops
Uddi.msc     =UDDI Services Console
Wbadmin.msc =Windows Server Backup
Wdsmgmt.msc =Windows Deployment Services
Winsmgmt.msc =WINS Manager
WmiMgmt.msc =WMI Control

Windows Group Policy Interview Questions and Answer

Windows Group Policy Interview Questions and Answer

What is group policy in active directory ? What are Group Policy objects (GPOs)?
Group Policy objects, other than the local Group Policy object, are virtual objects. The policy setting information of a GPO is actually stored in two locations: the Group Policy container and the Group Policy template.

The Group Policy container is an Active Directory container that stores GPO properties, including information on version, GPO status, and a list of components that have settings in the GPO.

The Group Policy template is a folder structure within the file system that stores Administrative Template-based policies, security settings, script files, and information regarding applications that are available for Group Policy Software Installation.
The Group Policy template is located in the system volume folder (Sysvol) in the \Policies subfolder for its domain.

What is the order in which GPOs are applied ?
Group Policy settings are processed in the following order:
1.Local Group Policy object : Each computer has exactly one Group Policy object that is stored locally. This processes for both computer and user Group Policy processing.

2.Site : Any GPOs that have been linked to the site that the computer belongs to are processed next. Processing is in the order that is specified by the administrator, on the Linked Group Policy Objects tab for the site in Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). The GPO with the lowest link order is processed last, and therefore has the highest precedence.

3.Domain: Processing of multiple domain-linked GPOs is in the order specified by the administrator, on the Linked Group Policy Objects tab for the domain in GPMC. The GPO with the lowest link order is processed last, and therefore has the highest precedence.

4.Organizational units : GPOs that are linked to the organizational unit that is highest in the Active Directory hierarchy are processed first, then POs that are linked to its child organizational unit, and so on. Finally, the GPOs that are linked to the organizational unit that contains the user or computer are processed.

At the level of each organizational unit in the Active Directory hierarchy, one, many, or no GPOs can be linked. If several GPOs are linked to an organizational unit, their processing is in the order that is specified by the administrator, on the Linked Group Policy Objects tab for the organizational unit in GPMC.

The GPO with the lowest link order is processed last, and therefore has the highest precedence.
This order means that the local GPO is processed first, and GPOs that are linked to the organizational unit of which the computer or user is a direct member are processed last, which overwrites settings in the earlier GPOs if there are conflicts. (If there are no conflicts, then the earlier and later settings are merely aggregated.)

How to backup/restore Group Policy objects ? 
Begin the process by logging on to a Windows Server 2008 domain controller, and opening the Group Policy Management console. Now, navigate through the console tree to Group Policy Management | Forest: | Domains | | Group Policy Objects.

When you do, the details pane should display all of the group policy objects that are associated with the domain. In Figure A there are only two group policy objects, but in a production environment you may have many more. The Group Policy Objects container stores all of the group policy objects for the domain.

Now, right-click on the Group Policy Objects container, and choose the Back Up All command from the shortcut menu. When you do, Windows will open the Back Up Group Policy Object dialog box.

As you can see in Figure B, this dialog box requires you to provide the path to which you want to store the backup files. You can either store the backups in a dedicated folder on a local drive, or you can place them in a folder on a mapped network drive. The dialog box also contains a Description field that you can use to provide a description of the backup that you are creating.

You must provide the path to which you want to store your backup of the group policy objects.
To initiate the backup process, just click the Back Up button. When the backup process completes, you should see a dialog box that tells you how many group policy objects were successfully backed up. Click OK to close the dialog box, and you're all done.

When it comes to restoring a backup of any Group Policy Object, you have two options. The first option is to right-click on the Group Policy Object, and choose the Restore From Backup command from the shortcut menu. When you do this, Windows will remove all of the individual settings from the Group Policy Object, and then implement the settings found in the backup.

Your other option is to right-click on the Group Policy Object you want to restore, and choose the Import Settings option. This option works more like a merge than a restore.
Any settings that presently reside within the Group Policy Object are retained unless there is a contradictory settings within the file that is being imported.

You want to standardize the desktop environments (wallpaper, My Documents, Start menu, printers etc.) on the computers in one department. How would you do that? 
go to Start->programs->Administrative tools->Active Directory Users and Computers
Right Click on Domain->click on preoperties
On New windows Click on Group Policy
Select Default Policy->click on Edit
on group Policy console
go to User Configuration->Administrative Template->Start menu and Taskbar
Select each property you want to modify and do the same

What?s the difference between software publishing and assigning?
Assign Users :The software application is advertised when the user logs on. It is installed when the user clicks on the software application icon via the start menu, or accesses a file that has been associated with the software application.

Assign Computers :The software application is advertised and installed when it is safe to do so, such as when the computer is next restarted.

Publish to users : The software application does not appear on the start menu or desktop. This means the user may not know that the software is available. The software application is made available via the Add/Remove Programs option in control panel, or by clicking on a file that has been associated with the application. Published applications do not reinstall themselves in the event of accidental deletion, and it is not possible to publish to computers.

What are administrative templates? 
Administrative Templates are a feature of Group Policy, a Microsoft technology for centralised management of machines and users in an Active Directory environment. Administrative Templates facilitate the management of registry-based policy. An ADM file is used to describe both the user interface presented to the Group Policy administrator and the registry keys that should be updated on the target machines.

An ADM file is a text file with a specific syntax which describes both the interface and the registry values which will be changed if the policy is enabled or disabled.

ADM files are consumed by the Group Policy Object Editor (GPEdit). Windows XP Service Pack 2 shipped with five ADM files (system.adm, inetres.adm, wmplayer.adm, conf.adm and wuau.adm). These are merged into a unified "namespace" in GPEdit and presented to the administrator under the Administrative Templates node (for both machine and user policy).

Can I deploy non-MSI software with GPO?
create the fiile in .zap extension.

Name some GPO settings in the computer and user parts ?
Group Policy Object (GPO) computer=Computer Configuration, User=User ConfigurationName some GPO settings in the computer and user parts.

A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for? 
make sure user not be member of loopback policy as in loopback policy it doesn't effect user settings only computer policy will applicable. if he is member of gpo filter grp or not?
You may also want to check the computers event logs. If you find event ID 1085 then you may want to download the patch to fix this and reboot the computer.

How frequently is the client policy refreshed ?
 90 minutes give or take.

Where is secedit ?
It’s now gpupdate.

What can be restricted on Windows Server 2003 that wasn’t there in previous products ?
Group Policy in Windows Server 2003 determines a users right to modify network and dial-up TCP/IP properties. Users may be selectively restricted from modifying their IP address and other network configuration parameters.

You want to create a new group policy but do not wish to inherit.
Make sure you check Block inheritance among the options when creating the policy.

How does the Group Policy 'No Override' and 'Block Inheritance' work ?

Group Policies can be applied at multiple levels (Sites, domains, organizational Units) and multiple GP's for each level. Obviously it may be that some policy settings conflict hence the application order of Site - Domain - Organization Unit and within each layer you set order for all defined policies but you may want to force some polices to never be overridden (No Override) and you may want some containers to not inherit settings from a parent container (Block Inheritance).

A good definition of each is as follows:

No Override - This prevents child containers from overriding policies set at higher levels

Block Inheritance - Stops containers inheriting policies from parent containers

No Override takes precedence over Block Inheritance so if a child container has Block Inheritance set but on the parent a group policy has No Override set then it will get applied.

Also the highest No Override takes precedence over lower No Override's set.

To block inheritance perform the following:

1. Start the Active Directory Users and Computer snap-in (Start - Programs - Administrative Tools - Active Directory Users and Computers)
2. Right click on the container you wish to stop inheriting settings from its parent and select 
3. Select the 'Group Policy' tab
4. Check the 'Block Policy inheritance' option
5. Click Apply then OK

To set a policy to never be overridden perform the following:

1. Start the Active Directory Users and Computer snap-in (Start - - Administrative Tools - Active Directory Users and Computers)
2. Right click on the container you wish to set a Group Policy to not be overridden and select Properties
3. Select the 'Group Policy' tab
4. Click Options
5. Check the 'No Override' option
   
6. Click OK
7. Click Apply then OK

how to configure Backup Windows Server 2003

how to configure Backup Windows Server 2003

Introduction

Oh no, the hard disk crashed, all data is gone, what do I do now?? Recognize this? I hope not. Every administrator should have backed up all the data. And to do that we need some kind of software (ok, we can do it manually by using ctrl+c and ctrl+v, but do you want to do that?). The backup utility in Windows Server 2003 is such software. And it's better then ever now, with things like Open File Backup (files can be accessed by users the same time it's backed up). The storage medium can be a logical drive, such as your hard disk, a removable drive, or a library with disks or tapes controlled by a robot. Read on and find out what's new, how you perform backups and how it works.

What is backup?

Before we start with the actually backup we must know what we are doing. This section will give you all the information you need to understand how backup works.

Types of backups

• Normal backup
  The normal backup is normal (surprised?). So, what does this mean? It simply means that it copies all the files you have marked to be backed up, and marks the files as having been backed up. You also only need the most recent copy of the backup file (other types of backups requires several files, see below) to restore. This type is usually what you use the first time you backup files.
• Incremental backup 
  The incremental backup backs up only those files that have been created or changed since last incremental or normal backup. It also marks the files as having been backed up. A combination of Normal backups and Incremental backups is common, and also a very good combination. It also requires the least amount if storage space and is fast for backing up the data. The disadvantage of this is that it's time-consuming to recover files, simply because you need the last normal backup set and all incremental backup sets, which can be stored on several backup drives or tapes.
• Differential backup 
  The differential backup is similar to the incremental backup and only copies files that have been created or changed since the last normal or incremental backup. No, it wasn't a typo, it doesn't check if a differential backup has been run. This is because differential backups does not mark files as having been backed up. A combination of differential backups and normal backups is more time-consuming concerning the backup part then the incremental + normal backups are. But on the other hand it is faster to restore data because all you need is the last normal backup and the last differential backup.
• Copy backup 
  A copy backup copies all the files you have selected, but does not mark the files as having been backed up. This backup type is useful when you must backup single files between normal and incremental backups because it does not affect these operations.
• Daily backup 
  The daily backup copies all the files that you have selected that have been modified on the day, without marking the files as having been backed up.

Volume Shadow Copy Technology

This is a new technology in Windows Server 2003 that did not exist in Windows 2000 Server. This technology is used to create a copy of the original volume at the time a backup is initiated. Data is then backed up from the shadow copy instead of the original volume. By doing this, all activity such as file changes, will not affect the backup, because it is using the shadow copy instead, which is not changed. So with this new feature users can access files during a backup, files are not skipped because they were in use, files open appears to be closed.

You should use Volume Shadow Copy, but you can disable it. The only time when you want to disable it is when you don't have enough free disk space. As you can imagine you need as much extra disk space as the file you will backup uses. This consumption of disk space is however temporarily and will be free when the backup is completed.

If sufficient temporary disk space is not available Windows Server 2003 cannot complete shadow copy and the backup will skip open files.

To use this feature you must use NTFS as file system.

Volume Shadow Copy does not mean that you from now on can backup when the server usage is high. You should always backup when it's low, for example at nights and weekends.

[Volume Shadow Copy can be used for several other things. In this text I'm covering the backup part of Volume Shadow Copy.]

Permissions

Not everyone can backup files and folders and you must have certain permission to do this. To be able to backup any file and folder on a local computer you must be an administrator or a backup operator in a local group on that computer. Likewise, to be able to backup any computer in a domain you must be administrator or backup operator on the domain or a domain with which they have a two-way trust relationship.

You can however always backup files and folders for which you have ownership of or one or more of the following permissions for the file and/or folder: Read, Read and execute, Modify, Full Control.

You can also be limited in the backup because of disk-quota restrictions that may restrict your access to the hard disk. To check this, right click the disk you want to save the data to and click Properties. Then click the Quota tab.

Good practice is to limit access to a backup file so only administrators and the owner (the one who created the backup file) is able to restore files and folders. This is available as an option during the backup wizard.

System state data

You can choose to do a System State backup, and this is very important if you want to be able to get a functional system in the event of a crash. This table shows which components that are backed up on a System State backup.

Component	Included in System State Backup
Boot files and system files	Yes
Registry	Yes
COM+	Yes
System files under Windows File Protection	Yes
Active Directory, directory service	If it's a domain
SYSVOL directory	If it's a domain controller
IIS Metadirectory	If it's installed
Certificate Services database	If it's a Certificate Services server
Cluster Service information	If it's within a cluster

You don't have to know which of these components to backup. The Backup Utility included in Windows Server 2003 will choose this when you perform a System State backup. Likewise you cannot choose which components to restore; all the System State data will be restored. This is due to dependencies among the components. You can however restore the System State data to an alternative location. This does not mean that you can restore it to another computer and think it will work as the one you backed up. Not all data is restored when you restore to an alternative location. Only the components System boot files, registry files, SYSVOL directory files and Cluster database information files will be restored.

Backup data

We will use this backup scheme to create our backups.

Day	Type of backup
Friday night	Full backup (normal)
Saturday night	Incremental, files and folders only
Sunday night	Incremental, files and folders only
Monday night	Incremental, files and folders only
Tuesday night	Incremental, files and folders only
Wednesday night	Incremental, files and folders only
Thursday night	Incremental, files and folders only

Designing a good backup scheme is not always as simple as you might think. Questions like, what should I backup and when should I back it up occurs. The answer to these questions varies for every network and every server. Say that you will back up a Domain Controller and you add objects to Active Directory all the time. Then the above scheme would not be recommended. You'll have to backup System State data at least one more time during the week (if not every day). The above scheme does likewise not have to apply web servers. You'll have to find out when the load is as low as possible on the web server and use this information to find out what kind of backup scheme you want to use. Here are some general rules:

• Backup when the load is as low as possible
• If System State data is changed frequently, back it up more often
• If files and folders are changed often, perform Full Backup more often
• You will most likely have to perform backups beside this scheme. When doing this, if it is possible, do not use Full Backup or Incremental Backup because it can disturb the normal backup scheme (files are marked as already backed up). Sooner or later you won't know where files are and it can be very time-consuming to restore.
• Consider what you think is most important, a fast backup or to be able to restore fast, you cannot have both these features.

• Click Start->Run and type ntbackup
• Click the Advanced Mode link
• Click Backup Wizard (Advanced)
• Click Next
• Make sure Back up everything on this computer is selected and click Next

• We will backup to a file, you can place it wherever you want, just make sure you name it Friday and click Next

• Click Advanced
• Make sure Normal is selected as type of backup and click Next

• Check the box Verify data after backup and click Next (You will most likely have errors when the backup is completed and verified. This is because System State data is changed all the time. If there are too many errors, there might be problems with the file you are using to back up data.)
• Click Replace the existing backups and click Next

• Click Later and in the Job Name box type Friday Nights, click Set Schedule
• In Schedule Task select Weekly and as Start time 11:00 PM (or whenever you want the backup to be scheduled). Make sure it's set to run every 1 week and on Fridays. Click OK

• You will be prompted to run the task as a user. Use a user with privileges to backup data.
• Click Next
• Click Finish

The Backup Wizard should close and you should be back in the Backup Utility. You can now verify that the backup is scheduled by clicking on the Schedule Jobs tab.

In case you want to edit the backup you can do it from here. Just click the backup symbol on the day you want to edit.

• Click the Welcome tab and start the Backup Wizard again.
• Click Next
• Select Backup selected files, drives or network data and click Next
• Expand My Computer in the left pane and select all drives (in my case C: and D:) and click Next

• Name it Monday and click Next
• Click Advanced
• Select Incremental as type of backup and click Next
• Check the box Verify data after backup and click Next
• Click Replace the existing backups and click Next
• Click Later and in the Job Name box type Monday Nights, click Set Schedule
• In Scheduled Task select Weekly and as Start time 11:00 PM (or whenever you want the backup to be scheduled). Make sure it?s set to run every 1 week and on Mondays.
• Click Advanced and set the Start Date the same day as when the full backup will run. In my case that is January 03, 2003, so that is the start date I choose. Click OK, click OK
• You will be prompted to run the task as a user. Use a user with privileges to backup data.
• Click Next
• Click Finish

Use the steps above to create incremental backups for the other five days of week. Of course all this can be done by writing a script, but I'll leave that for now. And again, this is only a suggestion for a backup strategy. A backup strategy varies from company to company and it is not something you develop in one hour. You must analyze and find out what fits your company best. Also remember that if you followed the steps above, you will only save the backup files for a week. This is probably not what you want, and you have to schedule a script to move the files every week.

Where are the log files?

Of course you should read the log files so you are sure that the backup was successful. You do this be looking in Event Viewer for error messages, and you can also read a complete report by clicking Report on the Tools menu. If you want to log more or less, take a look in the Options on the Tools menu, and click on the Backup Log tab.

Restore data

It's Wednesday, and you discover that an important file is corrupt. The question is, how do I restore the file from a backup? Well, it's quite simple. The first thing we have to do is locate where the file are. If we know where on the disk it's supposed to be, we can start from the latest incremental backup (Tuesday) and try to find it. If it's not there, it means that the file was not altered, and we have to try the next file (Monday). On the other hand if we do not know where the file is, we have to restore the full backup file (Friday), find the file, and then find out if there is a newer version.

• If the Backup Utility is not open, open it and click on the Advanced Mode link.
• Click Restore Wizard
• Click Next
• Expand Tuesday.bkf, find the file you want to restore and check the box in front of the file. In my case it is 0055.txtin D:\sql

• Click Next
• Click Advanced
• Select Single Folder. This is because I am only restoring one file, and I don't want to restore it to the original location. If I choose Alternate Location it will keep the folder structure (in my case it will create the folder sql). Usually you will use Alternate Location when restoring files.

• In Folder Name type where you want to restore the file (in my case c:\restore) and click Next
• Select Leave existing files and click Next
• Make sure Restore security settings and Preserve existing volume mount points are selected and click Next
• Click Finish

That's it! The file is restored.

You use the same process to restore System State data. Just remember that if you are restoring the System State data on a Domain Controller you must start the computer in Directory Services Restore Mode, which you access be pressing F8 when the computer is starting. And if you want to perform an Authoritative restore, remember to run ntdsutil before restarting the computer. More info about the ntdsutil can be found by typing ntdsutil /? in a command prompt.

Use the Restore and Manage Media tab

This is the tab where you format tapes, mark a tape as free, delete catalogs etc. And everything is very simple to do, just right click the object you want to do something with, and choose what you want to do.

Advanced Options

There are a lot of other options you can set to get the Backup Utility to work as you want. You access this from the Toolsmenu and then click Options. I will not write about everything here, instead I recommend you take a look there and if there is some option you do not understand, use the ? in the upper right to get more info about it.

Recovery Console

When nothing else works, Recovery Console saves you. You can use Recovery Console when you cannot boot into safe mode to read and write data (including NTFS) on local drives, enable and disable services, and many other things.

You can start the Recovery Console in two ways:

• Boot the Windows Server 2003 CD and start the setup. When the text-based setup begins follow the prompts and choose recover by pressing R
• Select Recovery Console from the list of available Operating Systems. To do this you must run a x86-based computer and install Recovery Console.

When you have started the Recovery Console, you will have to choose which Operating System to recover (if you are multi-booting). After that you will be prompted for the password for the administrator account. When you are logged on you will get a console from which you perform all tasks. This console is very similar to the command prompt in Windows Server 2003. The only command you have to remember is help. By writing that you will get a list of available commands to use. If you don't know how to use a command, write the command name followed by /? . To exit the Recovery Console, write exit.

Install Recovery Console

You can only install the Recovery Console on a x86-based computer.

• Click Start and then Run
• Type (where x is the CD-ROM drive letter) x:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons
• Follow the wizard

Remove Recovery Console

• Open My Computer and double click the hard drive on which you installed the Recovery Console
• Click on Tools->Folder Options
• Click on the View tab, check Show hidden files and folders and clear the Hide protected operating system filescheck box
• At the root directory delete the folder Cmdcons and the file Cmldr
• Right click My Computer and click Properties
• Click on the Advanced tab and under Startup and Recovery click the Settings button
• In System startup click the Edit button. This will display boot.ini in Notepad
• Remove the entry for Recovery Console, it will look like: C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
• Save the file

Remember that the boot.ini is a very important file, and if you modify this incorrectly you can cause the computer to not boot up.

Automated System Recovery

Do you remember Emergency Repair Disk (ERD)? Forget about it. Well, ok, not yet, you have probably still some Windows 2000 Servers. But ERD is replaced by Automated System Recovery (ASR) in Windows Server 2003. ASR is a last resort and should only be used when options like Safe Mode and Last Known Good Configuration fails. ASR consists of two parts: backup and restore. The backup part can be accessed through the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard in the Backup Utility. This wizard backs up the System State data, system services and all disks associated with the operating system components. It also creates a floppy disk that you should store in a safe place. This floppy disk contains for example information about the backup.

When recovering by using ASR it will use the floppy disk to read the disk configuration and restore the disk signatures, volumes and partitions that is required to start your computer. ASR then installs a simple installation of Windows and automatically starts to restore from the backup ASR created in the wizard.

ASR will not backup data files. That should be backed up separately.

Create an ASR set

• Start the Backup Utility by clicking Start->Run and type ntbackup
• The Backup or Restore Wizard starts by default, we will not use this(though we could) , so click the Advanced modelink
• On the Welcome tab, click Automated System Recovery Wizard
• The wizard is pretty self-explained so follow it

Recover using ASR

• Boot from the Windows Server 2003 CD and start the installation.
• If you have a mass storage controller and must install drivers for it, do that by pressing F6 when prompted
• Press F2 when prompted. You will be prompted to insert the ASR floppy, do that.
• Follow the wizard
• You will reboot and if you pressed F6 previously, do that again when prompted
• Follow the wizard

Configuring RRAS for Windows Server 2008 R2

Configuring RRAS for Windows Server 2008 R2

here are several ways to set up virtual networks. I experimented with several options prior to finding this particular method. I found that not using RRAS had complications in environments with strange DNS rules like hotels. This method is an example of trial and error, so if there are any network experts out there that see an alternate way to set up this configuration, let me know.

The first thing we need to do is launch Server Manager and add a new role.

The role we are looking for is ‘Network Policy and Access Services’. Check it and move on. You should see the following illustrations as you follow the wizard.

Now that we have completed the steps for RRAS role, we are going to create virtual networks for our Hyper-V images. We do this by first launching the Hyper-V manager and clicking on the Virtual Network Manager. You should see the dialog box shown below:

In my environment, I have created two virtual networks: LAN and WIFI. I tie ‘LAN’ to my Local Area Connection associated with my internal network card and ‘WIFI’ to the Local Area Connection associated with my wireless connection. I will walk you through these steps in the following illustrations:

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Now that we have created our two new network connections, we are going to bridge ‘LAN’ to the internal network card (Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit). To do this, select both networks connections, right click, and select ‘Bridge Connections’.

Bridging these two connections creates a new ‘Network Bridge’. Select the properties and follow along the images below, ensuring that you set the IPs as indicated. This will make it easier for you to complete the other tutorials in this series. If you select a different IP, make a note as you go through the series so that you do not forget to change it on the walk-throughs.

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

We will now uncheck the ‘Internet Protocol Version 6′ connection. This causes errors that gets reported in the Roles summary.

 
 

 
 

Here is a copy of the error.

We will now complete the RRAS configuration. Navigate to the Server Manager and drill down the roles. You will find that Routing and Remote Access has a red indicator. Follow the illustrations below to complete the configuration.

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

This should complete the configuration of RRAS.