/etc/cron.daily/logrotate:
error: error running shared postrotate script for '/var/log/mysql.log
/var/log/mysql/mysql.log /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log '
run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1

Using phpmyadmin on the server shows that the debian-sys-maint user is correct and has all permissions, so I can only assume the password has some how got mangled in all the upgrading process.

You should find you have a file:

/etc/mysql/debian.cnf

 # Automatically generated for Debian scripts. DO NOT TOUCH!
[client]
host     = localhost
user     = debian-sys-maint
password = XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
socket   = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
[mysql_upgrade]
host     = localhost
user     = debian-sys-maint
password = XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
socket   = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
basedir  = /usr

If you have deleted or have lost the debian-sys-maint user then you need to recreate it with:

GRANT RELOAD, SHUTDOWN, PROCESS, SHOW DATABASES, SUPER, LOCK TABLES ON *.* TO 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

Else simply update the password

 UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD("xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx") WHERE User='debian-sys-maint';

And with any luck that should be you back on the road to logrotate!

It is easy to control Windows 7 features by turning them on and off by startup scripts. Pop along to your group policy and add the following script to add the Games features back into Windows 7 Enterprise (default is not to install games – how boring!)

REM Install Games
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:"InboxGames" /norestart /quiet

You can control any features with this simply look up the featurename of the component you want to use.

View your currently installed features with:

dism /online /get-features

You may want to pipe that to something as it can be a long list!

Pressing CTRL + ALT + PAUSE/BREAK

This causes Remote Desktop connection to change from window mode to full screen. I found out the hard way that using my laptop to connect to server screens was causing the screen refresh and to resize.

One point to note is that on some laptops you may also need to press Fn, as BREAK is a secondary keyboard option (usually in blue).

Most people in larger environment will use Group Policy to manage your printer deployment, certainly in Windows Vista/7 this was made a lot easier with the enhancement of group policy.

This script was included with Windows XP and has appeared in subsequent versions of Windows.

C:\>cscript %windir%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prnmngr.vbs /?
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Usage: prnmngr [-adxgtl?][c] [-s server][-p printer][-m driver model]
               [-r port][-u user name][-w password]
 Arguments:
 -a     - add local printer
 -ac    - add printer connection
 -d     - delete printer
 -g     - get the default printer
 -l     - list printers
 -m     - driver model
 -p     - printer name
 -r     - port name
 -s     - server name
 -t     - set the default printer
 -u     - user name
 -w     - password
 -x     - delete all printers
 -xc    - delete all printer connections
 -xo    - delete all local printers
 -?     - display command usage
Examples:
 prnmngr -a -p "printer" -m "driver" -r "lpt1:"
 prnmngr -d -p "printer" -s server
 prnmngr -ac -p "\\server\printer"
 prnmngr -d -p "\\server\printer"
 prnmngr -x -s server
 prnmngr -xo
 prnmngr -l -s server
 prnmngr -g
 prnmngr -t -p "\\server\printer"

A couple of handy commands to get you started

Remove all network connected printers:

cscript %windir%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prnmngr.vbs -xc

If you prefer your approach to be a little more precise, then below is the script I use for removing particular printers and their drivers from machine. Also a very handy way for dealing with 64 bit and 32 bit Windows printers….

rem Remove all Kyocera Drivers
 rem Check Environment
 IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" (goto ARP64) else (goto ARP86)
 REM 64 Bit
 :ARP64
 cscript %windir%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prndrvr.vbs -d -m "Kyocera FS-2020D KX" -v 3 -e "Windows x64"
 cscript %windir%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prndrvr.vbs -d -m "Kyocera TASKalfa 500ci KX" -v 3 -e "Windows x64"
 goto End
 REM 32 Bit
 :ARP86
 cscript %windir%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prndrvr.vbs -d -m "Kyocera FS-2020D KX" -v 3 -e "Windows NT x86"
 cscript %windir%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prndrvr.vbs -d -m "Kyocera TASKalfa 500ci KX" -v 3 -e "Windows NT x86"
 goto End
 :End

Outlook seems to be the most popular email client in the business world, however if you have users on one machine they usually want to have there settings on all machines. Roaming profiles is ideal for this however there are always times when you have to do it manually.

The most common bug bear from users is when you move ore re-create their profiles on another machine, outlook has “forgotton” then email contacts. ie Quick list that drops down when you start to enter an email address.

The reason for this is that this information is held in a file within the users folders, not in the PST file (if you are using PST), or Exchange.

To find this file you are looking for a file with the extension .nk2 the full name will be the Outlook profile name with the extension .nk2.

This file can usaually be found in:

Windows XP
Drive:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Windows Vista and later versions
Drive:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

If you have changed the profile name in Outlook when you set up the new account simply change the name of the .nk2 file to match.

NOTE that Outlook 2010 now stores this information inside the PST or Exchange mailbox. If you want to import these see the following link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542

One tiny little problem that came up which kept us from replicating all of our data to a remote DPM server was the rpc errors that kept appearing.

We use Forefront Threat Managment Gateway, formerly ISA server, and were having this problem until the solution was successfully found!

The problem lies with Strict RPC compliance in the FTMG (ISA). You need to remove the check box from enforce strict RPC compliance. See the following blog from Microsoft for a complete run down:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/archive/2007/05/16/rpc-filter-and-enable-strict-rpc-compliance.aspx

Also the error seems to be relevant on Windows 7 and Server 2008. Corrupted update files seem to be the order of the day. Server Manager will also show the error and refuse to refresh often with 0x800f0818 and 0x800b0100.

The fix to this is the Microsoft Update Readiness Tool, which can be downloaded from: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821

See this technet blog article for moer information about running the tool:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/roplatforms/archive/2010/05/12/how-to-fix-server-manager-errors-after-installing-updates-hresult-0x800f0818-hresult-0x800b0100.aspx

Well I plan to change that. Over the coming months, I will have more time to update with some of the interesting things I have stumbled across recently.

ps Hope you like the new theme…

Don’t worry its really easy to copy the newer group policy templates over to your DC, whether it be Windows 2003 or 2008.

Execute the following 2 commands on a Windows 7 workstation:

xcopy %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions\* %logonserver%\sysvol\%userdnsdomain%\policies\PolicyDefinitions

xcopy %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions\EN-US\* %logonserver%\sysvol\%userdnsdomain%\policies\PolicyDefinitions\EN-US\

This will copy all the updated ADMX and ADML files to your DC.

This should take but seconds, now when you access GPMC you will have a full set of Group Policy objects to look at.
 

You may also like to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on your Windows 7 workstation, visit the link below to download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7D2F6AD7-656B-4313-A005-4E344E43997D&displaylang=en

Trying to set up a new printer (MFD) on our network we wanted to roll out the drivers via group policy to all clients. As we completely skipped over Vista to Windows 7, I had never come across this problem before.

When I looked into the event log for inspiration I found the following error:

0x80070bcb The specified printer driver was not found on the system and needs to be downloaded.

This problem occured everytime group policy was applied. To fix this problem you could manually install the driver onto the workstation and it would obviously connect the printer. This however is not much of a solution as we want to roll this out to all workstations automactically.

Incidentally, if you try and manually add the printer you get this warning message:

Printer Driver Warning

The easy solution to this problem is in two group policy settings. This will reduce the security on your system if you set the policy to disable, or you can configure the policy settings to your environment for added security.

Under Windows 7, group policy you need to look at:

Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Printers | Point and Print Restrictions : Disable

User Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates | Control Panel | Printers | Point and Print Restrictions : Disable

Once applied, Group Policy processing should now compelete succesfully, and your printers should be added.