• Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    What Exchange NDR Codes Mean

    One of the things that hasn’t changed in all these years with Exchange is Non-Delivery Reports. An NDR is an email that is sent when a message you send fails to go out. Exchange has had a consistent set of NDR status codes since version 5, just adding some here or there with changing technology (e.g. routing connectors, smarthosts, etc). Exchange has a lot of NDR codes at this point. I keep a little list running in my collection of files I spotlight to find the answer to recurring questions (which happens to always be 42). When an email bounces in Exchange, these codes explain why without having to be…

  • Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    Create An SMTP Tar Pit In Windows Server/Exchange

    Windows Server has a role that it can run in SMTP. Exchange and other services use this role to relay mail. There is a type of attack against a mail server that revolves around effectively performing a Denial of Service (DoS) against Exchange by sending massive quantities of mail to the server and forcing it to send Non Delivery Reports (NDRs) from the mail you’ve sent the server. This is known as an NDR Flood Attack. You can also leverage what’s known as a Directory Harvest Attack to get a server to respond to each possible combination of characters for addresses on domains running on an Exchange server. A Directory…

  • sites

    Site Has Been Moved

    While DNS is propagating I figure I might as well go ahead and post that the site has been moved to the machine that’s been waiting for me to direct traffic at it for months in the colo. All the graphics, pages and menus should be fixed. The plugins should all be working as well. The last thing I’m working on right now is figuring out why the permalinks aren’t all correct. However, the site loads, works, etc. Sorry for any inconvenience during propagation and the fixes for permalinks. Now that it’s moved I should be able to get back to posting and research projects that have otherwise consumed my…

  • Uncategorized

    Managing Windows Server 2012 Shares From Powershell

    SMB cmdlets come in two modules. Before you can really use these in powershell you first need to import them. These are called SmbShare and SmbWitness, so to import the modules: Import-Module SmbShare Import-Module SmbWitness Or for short: Import-Module Smb* Once the SMB modules are imported, we’ll start by looking at what shares you’ve got on your system using Get-SmbShare: Get-SmbShare Next, we can create a new share with the minimum two pieces of information required and adding who get’s FullAccess, which is not required: New-SmbShare -Name BAK -Path E:BAK -FullAccess krypted Then we can provide a little more information if we so choose. Here, I’m going to add a…

  • Mac OS X,  Network Infrastructure,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    When Packets Are Too Large in MySQL

    Every now and then you’ll see an error like “Packet Too Large” in MySQL, as seen below. When you run into this, you’re trying to shove more information into a given SQL statement than is allowed. So to fix, you have a few different options, starting with the best, which is to make your SQL better. But not everyone has control of things like source code. So you might need to change the value in mysql itself. To do so, simply run the mysql command with the –max_allowed_packet and then put = followed by the size of the packet. For example, to make it 128: mysql --max_allowed_packet=128M Now, by default…

  • Active Directory,  Windows Server

    Use Windows Backup To Back Up Windows Server 2012

    WIndows Server’s ntbackup tools have become easier and easier to use over time. But there’s no more ntbackup. Well, there’s wbadmin, which is very similar. You can still restore data by downloading ntbackups restore tool at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=974674.  Windows Backup is now capable of backing up a system with the same ease of use that Apple brought to automated backups with Time Machine and Time Machine Server. In fact, providing access to only a few more options Microsoft’s tools provide access to some pretty nice options, easily configured. To get started, you’ll first need to install the Windows Backup Role. To do so, use the Add Roles and Features Wizard in…

  • Active Directory,  Microsoft Exchange Server,  Network Infrastructure,  Windows Server,  Windows XP

    Managing DNS In Windows Server 2012

    Previously, I covered installing the DNS role in Windows Server 2012. Once installed, managing the role is very similar to how management was done in Windows Server 2003 through 2008 R2. With the exception of how you access the tools. DNS is one of the most important services in Windows Servers, as with most other platforms. So it’s important to configure DNS. To get into the DNS Manager in 2012 Server, first open Server Manager (you might get sick of using this tool in Server 2012, similar to how my Mac Server brethren have gotten tired of it in Lion and Mountain Lion Servers. Then from Server Manager click on…

  • Mass Deployment,  Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    Install Exchange From the Command Line

    Exchange is becoming more and more command line oriented. This includes the powershell options for managing Exchange once installed, but can also include the initial installation. To install Exchange from the command line, one must first install Exchange prerequisites, which are broken down per role that is being installed on Exchange. This can be done using the Add-WindowsFeature commandlet. To install the Windows requirements for Exchange for the Client Access, Hub Transport and Mailbox roles, use the following command: Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy,Web-WMI -Restart For the Edge Transport role, use: Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Desktop-Experience -Restart For the Unified Messaging role, use: Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,ADLDS -Restart After the server restarts, also configure NetTcpPortSharing: Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType…

  • VMware,  Windows Server

    ESX: Configure Virtual Machine's To Startup Automatically

    You shouldn’t have to reboot your ESX servers very often. But when you do, you might want the virtual machines to start up automatically. To configure a virtual machine to start up (or shut down) automatically select the host and click on the Configuration tab. Then click on virtual machine Startup/Shutdown and click on Properties, selecting “Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system”. As I mentioned in a previous article, you can also configure the operating system to start after a brief delay by providing a Default Startup Delay time, allowing time for booting systems to run scripts or to throw them into Safe Mode. You…