Exchange Server 2003 - Migration From IMAP4

Had to migrate mailbox contents from an MDaemon Pro 8.x installation to an SBS2003 installation. Client was only using WorldClient, so I decided to use the Migration Wizard to migrate from an IMAP4 server. I had already used the Active Directory Migration Tool to migrate users, groups and computers, so account creation wasn't needed.
I fired up the Migration Wizard and proceeded to get stuck when it asked for a User List file. A bit of hunting found me this page
which provided the format for the user list file. Thankfully MDaemon has a nice account export feature, so I was able to export to CSV, then use Excel to get the extracted information into the necessary format. The format required is as follows:

IMAP_Mailbox,SMTP_Address,IMAP_Password,IMAP_Server
user1,user3@legacy.test.local,password,192.168.10.101
user2,user3@legacy.test.local,password,192.168.10.101
user3,user3@legacy.test.local,password,192.168.10.101

The header is needed. The Migration Wizard then went and matched up the mailboxes to existing accounts. All account mapping were correct and the migration then proceeded without a hitch.
Another useful time-saving migration tool is the File Server Migration Toolkit. It makes share and security migration a breeze. The DFS Consolidation Root capability also allows the migration to occur leaving the orginal UNC path intact! Very, very slick!

Re-Entering Windows XP Product Key

When I was at church yesterday the pastor came up and asked me to look at one of the admin PCs - it was running slow and he asked me if I could install some more memory and clean up any spyware on the PC. So I went and installed the memory and cleaned off the small amount of spyware (tracking cookies, FunWeb) and went to the Windows Update site to ensure the latest downloads were installed. Windows wanted to validate the Product Key, only to find that it had been installed with a blocked Volume License Key and not the Product Key stuck to the side of the case. I also couldn't find a way to get the alternate validation method to work - the one where you get to enter a validation code and you just use the validation code from a system with a valid key.
A Google search (isn't Google just wonderful?) returned a site that provided me with a way to re-enter the key on the side of the case. Here's a rundown of the steps I took:

Run regedit
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\wpaevents
Modify OOBETimer Value
Change at least one digit of this value to deactivate Windows
Run cmd
cd %systemroot%\system32\oobe
msoobe.exe /a
Click Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows, and then click Next
Click Change Product Key (at the bottom)
Enter the valid Product Key
Press Update and close the window.
Restart the PC

And voila! One PC with the blocked Volume License Key replaced with the valid Product Key that came with the PC. If only I'd looked for this info when I got my brand new laptop...

Microsoft Support Site and Firefox 1.5

When I upgraded from Firefox 1.0.7 to Firefox 1.5rc1, I found that the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles would only display about a screenful of content, then add the footer. A subsequent upgrade to 1.5 final seemed to have resolved it, but now it’s back (. I did get a pleasant surprise yesterday – some pages appeared to have displayed correctly! Further investigation revealed that the MSKB articles that are rendered poorly by Firefox have the format

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;XXXXXX

and the MSKB articles that render correctly have the format

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

(replace XXXXXX with your favourite MSKB article number)

Now all I need to do is find a URL rewriter extension for Firefox. If I can’t find one, then I might have to write my own.

Thought I’d also try the Blogger for Word addin to see how it goes…

Mobile Blogging

On a recent browse of the Nokia site I came across LifeBlog. I wasn't interested in the PC app, but the mobile app looked interesting. I tried connecting it to my Blogger blog, but no joy. Blogger's list of third party apps came up with PicoBlogger which mostly works on my Nokia 6630. Changing the connection type from Always Prompt to a specific access point seems to regularly crash it. Time (and possible updates!) will tell...

Location : Launceston
Moblog from my mobile phone

MSDE2000 Installation Error on Windows 2003 DCs

Well I've just spent the last few hours trying to install Sophos Enterprise Console 1.0 on 3 Windows Server 2003 systems. One of the server installs worked just fine and the other two failed with the following message:

Error 3500. The custom action "InstallMSDE" failed with the following error: Fatal error during installation. 1603

A Google search using "sophos error 3500" yielded nothing useful. A search of "sophos error 1603" proved more valuable. It pointed me in the direction of looking in the MSDE install log (C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\SophosMSDEInstaller.log in this case). The line of interest was:

InstallSQLAgentSecurity failed (SERVER02,LocalSystem,87).

A Google search for "InstallSQLAgentSecurity failed" then yielded "Backup Exec 9.x or 10.0 for Windows Servers fails to install ..." which detailed the exact problem, but with Veritas Backup Exec 9.x/10.x.

One of the links included in this document was "PRB: The MSDE Installation Does Not Succeed If the Installation Computer Is Running Terminal Services in Application Server Mode".
The problem with this was I wasn't meeting all the criteria - I was using VNC to remotely install the software after it failed first time. Long experience with software installation on a W2K3 system even when accessing the console session over RDP has resulted in VNC being installed on my W2K3 systems.
Further wading through the Google result set then gave me this: "Solution for the WSUS/WMSDE install error"

This accurately described my problem - MSDE failing with the same error. Not only that, but it explained why one of my servers installed Sophos Enterprise Console correctly - it was the one with the FSMO roles! I excitely followed the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article titled "How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003" and yay! A successful installation.
Performed the FSMO transfer again on the third server, then went home for much needed food and sleep.
Must allocate some time for the next time I need to do this to see exactly which FSMO role needs transferring.