How to create simple alerts if a windows service fails

As we all know, it seems like everyone but the admin knows when your server is down. The reason this happens is because one service failed but it wasn’t an important enough event to set off any of your high level alerts. Using very simple VBS and a batch file, we can setup very simple low level alerts for individual services if they fail.

First we start with the VBS using notepad create a VBS file called: MyServiceAlert.VBS and save it to c:\Alerts, then paste in the below info modifying the highlighted text:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Set objMessage = CreateObject(“CDO.Message”)
objMessage.Subject = “Service Alert for <serverName>“
objMessage.From = “alerts@mydomain.com“
objMessage.To = “helpdesk@mydomain.com; level2support@mydomain.com“
objMessage.TextBody = “The XXXXXX service has failed after one attempt to restart. Server IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx“

’2 = SMTP
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
(“http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing”) = 2

‘Name or IP of Remote SMTP Server
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
(“http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver”) = “<addressOfYourSMTPserver>“

‘Server port (typically 25)
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
(“http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport”) = 25

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Update

‘==End remote SMTP server configuration section==

objMessage.Send

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next create a very simple batch file that will call the .VBS file

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@echo off
Start C:\Alerts\MyServiceAlert.VBS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now just find the service that you want to set up the alert for click on the Recovery tab and setup your Service Failure responses. Make sure that you select the “Enable actions for stops with errors.” Box.

CRM Software Deployment: Go Vertical, Customize or Build-Your-Own?

One of the reasons the world of enterprise software is so interesting is that it is continually evolving. This quote from Box.com CEO Aaron Levie communicates this point quite eloquently: “Almost everything about this category—from how software is built to who’s buying it—is undergoing massive change, and many longstanding assumptions no longer apply.”

One topic that begs revisiting is the issue of deployment options when it comes to CRM software. Many years ago, the only option was to go with a bulky, expensive on-premise system that you had to hire an entire IT team to manage. But with the growing cloud ecosystem, not only are the traditional vendors like Oracle and Microsoft expanding their offerings, but new entrants are bringing some interesting things to the table as well. 

Today, when choosing a CRM system, buyers have three options:  go vertical, customize, or build-your-own (BYO). There are pros and cons to each, and no one option is going to be the best overall. So, in order to ease the burden of choosing one over the other, I conducted my own research and came up with both the positive and negative repercussions for each option. You can read the full analysis on my blog, but I have highlighted the main points below for scanning purposes.

Go Vertical

Pros:

- Designed specifically for your industry
- No burden of development on the buyer side
- Higher adoption rates because the system “speaks” the language of the user

Cons:

- Some systems fall behind on core technology
- Possible risk of “over-verticalization”

Customize It

Pros:

- Point-and-click systems make it easy to customize
- User has complete control over the look and feel of the system

Cons:

- If you don’t know exactly what you need, you can end up with a jumbled mess
- Cost of extensive customization can often be several times more than initial cost of system

Build-Your-Own

Pros:

- New programming languages make development much easier
- Highly-secure hosting facilities relieve users of the burden of maintaining their own infrastructure
- Great option for companies with very specific or unique business models

Cons:

- Need to find and hire great developer talent, which can be difficult
- If you build it, you own it, so you will bear the burden of implementation, updates, etc.

If you are interested in researching the different systems out there, be sure to check out Software Advice’s Customer Relationship Management software page for reviews, comparisons, demos and more. You can also read the full in-depth comparison on Lauren Carlsons blog.

Windows 7 is IT Friendly!

Tired of having to download a tool and just sit there on the phone with a technician while they just sit and watch you try to duplicate the problem? Make life easier for yourself and try these simple steps below to be able to just send out a video of what you did to create the issue you are having.

Microsoft has a new tool in Windows 7 which many people do not know about. The tool will record all keystrokes, take screenshots and pack it up in to a nice neat little zip file for your support technician. The typical user may not find this tool all that useful but if you are in IT, it can very valuable. If you find yourself on this blog because a technician wants you to run the tool then please continue with the steps below!

First open the tool. Click on the Start button and choose Run. In the Run box type PSR and then the OK button.

The Problem Steps Recorder application starts up. Make sure that you are you have the application up or what ever you need to record ready to go. When you are ready to start recording click on the Start Record button.

Complete the steps you need to record, when done, click on the Stop Record button.

You will then be presented with a Save As box. Give the zip file a name and save to your harddrive.

Now send the file to your technician. That is it!

Reference:

How Too (More detail from the source!)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-do-I-use-Problem-Steps-Recorder

Download Tool

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=22292

Preparing Your Computer For Remote Access (using TeamViewer)

In preparation for your upcoming support session please follow the instructions below to setup TeamViewer on your computer.

Click on the following link to download the TeamViewer file. You can save the file to your hard drive for re-use in [possible] future support sessions or you can choose to run the file and download again if a future support session is needed.

Direct link to TeamViewer “Run-Once” client

http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewerQS.exe

After the file is run you will see the box below. Take note of the Your ID and Password fields and send these to our support staff at support@phase2.com referencing your support ticket.

KEEP TEAMVIEWER RUNING. TeamViewer must be running for our support staff to connect to the computer. If the support session is intended for unattended access (accessing your computer without you physically at it), lock the computer. In this type of access we will need to have the Username/Password of the computer account we are accessing (typically your login credentials).

SharePoint Document Libraries and Internet Explorer Caching

Here is the situation. You open an Excel file from your trusty SharePoint document library and realize it is way out of date. After spending an hour editing the file, you check it back in to SharePoint. Before notifying your coworkers of the changes you decide to take a look at the file once more to make sure it looks good. You click on the link in SharePoint but the changes you spent an hour doing are not there! Is SharePoint broken? No, it is acting exactly as it should. Actually this has nothing to do with SharePoint and everything to do with Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is acting as it should by caching sites but can cause issues when you open a file which changes over and over again. Web developers have been dealing with this for years as code that is changed does not show up until cache is cleaned or the site is viewed in a new session. Unfortunately there is no solution to this aside from clearing the local cache everytime you open a file that you think might have changed.
However there are a couple of easy workarounds that could help you out.

Force IE to refresh every a page every time

This one is either all or nothing and will affect general browsing but only if IE is used. For instance, most people I know these days only use IE if a site requires it. Many people use Chrome (which is much lighter and faster) or Firefox but unfortunately very limited in functionality when showing sites like SharePoint or PWA. To set this option go to Tools -> Internet Options, click the Settings button
then check the Every time I visit the webpage under “Check for newer versions of stored pages:”

Browsing with this feature turned on is not that bad at all. Internet connections are typically so fast these days that pages typically do not talk long to load. So this could be an option most people can live with.

Open New Browser Session

Before going to your SharePoint site, open a new browser session. This is an alternative to closing IE, clearing the cache and starting IE again. This option will ensure a fresh cache without having to clear out your main cache. This option also comes in handy if you need to be logged in to the application with 2 sessions simultaneously or to be logged in as two different users at the same time on the same machine.

Keep in mind that this option will become inconvenient if you are continuously editing a file and then looking at it through IE. A new session (or cache clear if you so choose) will have to be done each time. It will also not show you files that may change while you are in the same browsing session.

Connecting to Microsoft Project Server 2010 with Older versions of Client Software

Backward compatibility mode (BCM) is a feature in Project Server 2010 that assists in the upgrade of your Enterprise Project Management environment. Project Server 2010 accepts connections from the Microsoft Project Professional 2010 client, but it can also accept connections from Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) if BCM is enabled in Project Server 2010. BCM allows you to avoid having to upgrade your Office Project Professional 2007 clients at the same time. Because Project Server 2010 accepts connections from both Office Project Professional 2007 SP2 and Project Professional 2010 clients when BCM is enabled, you can decide to upgrade your clients later, and in batches (running in a mixed environment), if you want. When you have finished upgrading the clients to Project Professional 2010, you can turn off BCM in Project Server 2010 server settings, which then allows for only Project Professional 2010 connections.

So why would you want to use this when Project Server 2010 has all these great new features? It allows different versions of Project to exist in an environment and gives you time to upgrade to 2010 clients at your own pace. You may be using 2007 currently and sign up for a hosted Project Server 2010. With BCM implemented you can then use your 2007 clients in the new environment with the same functionality and upgrade them at your own pace.

Q: What functionality do I lose running in BCM mode?

A: You will lose features that have been implemented in the new version, including:

•Manually scheduled tasks

•Tasks cannot be set to inactive

•Font strikethrough is not available

•Departmental Custom Fields

•Workflow controlled custom fields

•Team Planner view

•Timeline view

•Cross-Project Links

So you see BCM is not something you want to live with forever but it does give you the flexibility to go to the new Project Server 2010 without having to upgrade all your clients at once. Also remember that with Project Server 2010, many of the users that used Project client to view schedules may not need the client anymore. PWA will perform many of the standard functions as the client. Upgrading to Project Server 2010 is not only easy but will save you a significant amount money as well.

For more information on BCM please see the following:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502585.aspx

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032442975&culture=en-us

IBM Lotus Domino Sync Manager

IBM^® Lotus^® Domino^® Sync Manager (formerly Domino Off-Line Services – DOLS) provides a way for users to take Lotus Domino Web applications offline, work in them, and synchronize the changes with an online replica on the Domino server. Users are not required to have IBM^® Lotus^® Notes^® client because the applications are accessed with a browser.

Nearly all Lotus Notes functionality is retained when a DOLS-enabled application (called a subscription) is taken offline. Users can compose, edit, delete, sort, and categorize Notes documents, and perform full-text searches. DOLS subscriptions can make full use of Java^™ applets, agent execution, and workflow. DOLS also supports full data replication, retains application logic, and supports the full Notes security model.

• It is assumed that your Domino administrator and developer have set-up and configured Domino Off-Line Services for the Lotus Sync Manager solution.
  

IBM Lotus Sync Manager – Installation and Configuration

Prerequisite: The iNotes user MUST have a copy of their Notes ID file (think of this ID file as the key to your car, “you use the key to unlock and start your car”. The Notes ID file allows you to securely access “unlock” your individual iNotes e-mail (any DOL’s enabled application and access it with your browser). If you haven’t been given a copy, or don’t know how to obtain a copy of your Notes ID file, contact your administrator on how to get it.

Assumption: You’ve received information containing access details to your Lotus iNotes your account.

Let’s get started …

Launch iNotes from your web browser (Supported browsers: IE 7, 8, & 9 Firefox 3.6 and greater, Chrome 12, Apple Safari 4.0 and greater). Follow this link for complete details ..

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27023171#Windows_Web_Browsers_sw

Enter your username & password and click “Sign In”

You’ll be brought to the iNotes main screen for this subscription (in this example we’re using iNotes e-mail as the subscription).

In the upper right corner of this page you’ll see a set of links: Full, Preferences, Online, Logout, Help

From the “Online” drop-down select “Go Offline”

Select “OK”

The Lotus Domino Sync Manager Installer will ask if it’s OK to .. select “Yes”

Agree to the License Agreement by clicking “Yes”

The Lotus Domino Sync Manager Installer will start …

Next you’ll be asked which folder you want to install the Lotus Domino Sync Manager to .. (you may go with the default setting c:\Users\Fred Pycko\ … \Lotus iNotes or point/navigate to the folder of your choice)

Next you’ll be asked to Notes ID file (remember, the Notes ID file allows you to securely access “unlock” your individual iNotes e-mail or DOL’s enabled application you’ll access it with your browser).

** You should have been given a copy of your Notes ID file by your administrator.

Once you’ve navigated and highlighted your ID file, click the “Open” button and the Lotus Domino Sync Manager Installer will start ….

In order to complete the installation you will be asked to enter your password and confirm it …

Upon the successful completion of the installation an automatic synchronization process will start for the subscription (in this example, iNotes e-mail).

That’s it, you’re done.

When you open your iNotes browser you’ll select which subscription you want to work with. Any changes, modifications, adds and/or deletes you make are automatically updated back to the Domino server next time you’re on-line (your local subscription is also reverse updated from the Domino server).

As many have discovered, there are very few useful articles or tools available on how to avoid your email messages being tagged as spam on the internet. This is because spam filtering is a very complex process with thousands of rules and tests which are used to classify messages, which vary widely by which products are being used.

The majority of these are pretty much incomprehensible to the average user, here is one example of a message that will most likely be flagged as spam:

FSL tripod

uri FSL_TRIPOD         uri =~ /\d+\w+\.tripod\.com/

score FSL_TRIPOD               3.0

header FSL_TRIPOD2             Body =~ /\w+\d+\.tripod\.com/

uri FSL_TRIPOD2                uri =~ /\w+\d+\.tripod\.com/

score FSL_TRIPOD2              3.0

uri __FSL_TRIPOD_LINK /tripod\.com/

meta FSL_TRIPOD_SPAM __FSL_TRIPOD_LINK && FREEMAIL_FROM score FSL_TRIPOD_SPAM 7.0

Email Guidelines:
Here are some guidelines to practice if you are unsure if your e-mail will register as spam:

1. Send plain text emails

2. Don’t attach long fancy HTML signature with embedded links to email

3. Don’t assign a background image to your email (most mail servers won’t recognize it anyway)

Additional tips to avoid false positives can be found here: http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/AvoidingFpsForSenders

Diagnostics:

A few things to note; the determination whether to quarantine a message is based on complicated series of gates.  Some are predefined (See http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_3_x.html), some are based on external sources (i.e. blacklisting sites and reverse lookups), and others are learned (i.e. if a certain word indicated spam for an organization 200 times, this will become a new learned rule).  A “spam score” is applied based on criteria and weighting for each of these tests and by default a score of 0-4.99 is not spam, 5-9.99 is “Low” spam (Quarantined), and 10+ is “High” spam (Quarantined).�

There are a few options to try to diagnose why emails are being marked as spam, here are the two of the easiest ways to diagnose spam:

-Read the headers of tagged spam message to see exactly what spam tests were triggered. You can use tools such as this one: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx to analyze the header of emails that were tagged spam.

-Another test is to run a report to for the sender of the email tagged as spam and see why this is happening. For instance is there is a specific rule that is consistently being hit in their inbound messages.

If the cause can be found and is consistent, the rule or rules can be suspended for that sender and the emails will then come in nicely.

-Lastly, it is possible to take a more extreme measure and manually override the spam score settings for an individual user. NOTE: This can potentially increase the amount of spam, but also decrease the number of emails that are flagged as spam. The default spam score for Low Spam is: 5.00 and High Spam is: 10.00

Some site that can also be helpful:

Tests and Weight:        http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_3_x.html
Blacklist lookup:        http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Tips to avoid false positives:    http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/AvoidingFpsForSenders
Email composing tips:        http://www.emaildeliveryjedi.com/avoid-spam-filters.php.

Using the Domino Web Administration DB (webadmin.nsf) is probably even easier than using the Administrator Client to create new users on the Domino server.
Note: To register Domino users with the web admin client, you will need to have the CA Process configured on your server.

Start by going to your web administration console: http://yourdomain.com/webadmin.nsf

In the opening splash screen, you will see your server info and some statistics:

Now get the Registration Screen loaded: People and Groups > Tools > People > Register

Your registration server by default will be the server you are logged in to. Select your CA certifier that you would like to use and any explicit policies (optional) and click “OK”

Enter your users information, if your registration requires it, you can select the advanced check box and manually configure Mail, Address, ID, Group, and Roaming configurations

When you have completed, click “OK” and you will see that your user is now in the Registration queue

Click “Register All” and you should then see a message that says “Registered successfully”

You should now see your new user in the Domino Directory

For security purposes, IBM Connections 3.0.1 comes with the AJAX proxy disabled. This way, you can keep your connections site secure with only IBM provided widgets. If you would like to add a widget from an external source, and see an error messages that says something along the lines of: BMWIW0001E: Unable to load iWidget …. Status: 403, it most likely means that your proxy has been disabled. Please follow the notes below to enable your server for external widgets.

To prevent this issue, we have to modify the AJAX Proxy on the IBM Connections server. The file name can be found in: …\profiles\Dmgr01\config\cells\<yourCellName>\LotusConnections-config\

We now need to modify the proxy policy which can be found near the end of the proxy-config.tpl file to allow the widget you are trying to use (in this case we are allowing the Lotus Learning Widget provided by IBM)

<proxy:policy url=”http://www-10.lotus.com/learning/connections/*” acf=”none”>
<proxy:actions>
<proxy:method>GET</proxy:method>
</proxy:actions>
<proxy:headers/>
<proxy:cookies/>
</proxy:policy>

Note: you can set the policy url=”*” if you would like to allow widgets from any external domain

After you have modified the policy URL, you will need to restart your server. Once the server is up, you should now have a working widget from an external source.