Access Based Enumeration (ABE)

To enable "Access Based Enumeration on a Windows 2008 or later server, ensure that the appropriate NTFS and Share permissions are set on the root share directory.  In my case I needed to allow everyone the ability to see the root share but restrict access to the subdirectories.  To avoid giving the users unnecessary access, I removed the "Everyone Group" and added the "Authenticated Users Group" with the Read and Change Share permissions.  I then gave explicit NTFS permissions to those groups who needed access to any of the subdirectories. 

Since I only wanted the "Authenticated Users to see the Root Share but not have access to the sub directories, I  gave the “Authenticated Users” Read NTFS permissions which includes the Travers folder permissions to allow them to drill down past the root share.  I then broke inheritances and made sure the “Authenticated Users” group had the following Special NTFS permissions. I also made sure to select “ Apply only to this folder”. 

List folder / read data

    Read attributes

    Read extended attributes

    Read permissions

I then added my other groups with explicit permissions to their respective directories.  So at this point the root share is visible to all Authenticated Users but the subdirectories are only displayed to those users/groups with explicit NTFS permissions, “Read, Write and Modify” and all of the special permissions that are included.   

Netbackup Policy Reporter

Every few months management asks for a list of backed up clients and over all details of the backup policies.  For a very long time I would reference a spreadsheet that would be manually updated.  Well, that was tedious and not so accurate work, so I started to look for a solution that would export the neatly formatted results of bppllist -allpolicies –U command.  My method was to export the results to a txt file and then use powershell to manipulate the text and format it. 

After a few searches, I found this post on the Symantec Connect site about the “Netbackup Policy Reporter”.  It is a VB utility written to format the results of the bppllist command.  This utility formats the result in a neatly organized spreadsheet that can be used as a report. 

I used the following steps listed on the post to generate the Netbackup Policy Report. 
1.    Download the Policy List Parser.txt file and rename it to Policy_list_parser.exe . This is a VB utility so the exe extension is necessary.  The machine where the Utility is executed will need to have excel installed.

2.    .  Executing the utility may give an error related to “COMDLG32.ocx”. I used a Windows 7 32bit workstation, so I downloaded the COMDLG32.ocx  and placed in System32  and registered the file with Windows by running the following at an elevated  command prompt. regsvr32  %Systemroot%\System32\comdlg32.ocx.

3.    After successful launch of the utility execute the “bppllist -allpolicies –U” command by navigating to AdminCmd directory.  On Windows: C:\program files \veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd. 

4.    Send the command results to an out-file: C:\program files \veritas\netbackup\bin\admincmd\ bppllist -allpolicies –U>>C:\temp\rpt.txt. 

5.    To process the results of the command, enter the path to the text file in the input file field and enter the name of the new .xls file in the otput filed.

6.    Example Input: C:\temp\RPT.TXT
Ouput: C:\temp\Report.xls
Note: Error 1004" The file could not be accessed may occur if input and output fields are not filled out correctly. 

Make sure that all files are in the same directory to avoid any annoying errors. 


Symantec Connect Netbackup Reporter Post


Download comdlg32.zip

Lync 2010 Client Incorrect DisplayName

A few weeks ago we started having an issue where a users display name in the lync 2010 client would display a username other than the what we expected to see.  We started to notice this issue after a women would change her last name.  So, a a Women who was married and her name was changed other user would still see her old name. It turns out that we needed to make the following change:   EnableContactMergeUsingProxyAddress -Value $False. 

The forum post below is where I got the information to make the modifications  After a service restart the usernames displayed correctly. 

Cod Snipit from Forum Post.
 
$PolicyObject = Get-CsClientPolicy
$PolicyEntry = New-CsClientPolicyEntry -Name EnableContactMergeUsingProxyAddress -Value $False
$PolicyObject.PolicyEntry.Add($PolicyEntry)
Set-CsClientPolicy -Instance $PolicyObject
Get-CsClientPolicy

Thanks to TechNet Forums.

Lync 2010 Client Incorrect DisplayName.

Grand a user permission to send to Everyone

Grant a user permission to send to the everyone group. 

1. Open properties of everyone Group in EMC.
2. Open MailFlow Settings.
3. Open MessageDeliveryRestrictions
4. Add user

Script Resources for IT Professionals

PowerShell Script Repository containing cool scripts to help automate AD/Exchange taks.

Script Resources for IT Professionals

Configure Time Source on PDC Emulator

We recently had an issue with our time source and it caused us a bit a of a head ache.  It turns out that our time source was a router that lost its time and therefore affected the our DCs.  I issued the following command on on the DC holding the PDC Emulator Role and it immediately  solved our issue.  . 

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.windows.com /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update

the m anualpeerlist is where multiple sources are specified but I only included the time.windows.com source and it worked.

Configure The Time Source for the Forest

Upgrading from a vdr 1.x appliance

Upgrading from a vdr 1.x appliance:

    unmount any CIFS shares while the vdr appliance is idle
    shutdown and delete or rename vdr 1.x appliance
    deploy vdr 2.0 appliance
    configure vdr 2.0 appliance and re-add CIFS shares
    manually perform an integrity check

there’s no method to directly upgrade a vdr 1.x appliance to a vdr 2.0 appliance. it simply must be replaced.

VMWare Data Recovery Release Notes