splattne's questions

I'm configuring two server as IIS web servers on Windows Server 2008 in load balancing mode. I want to enable DFS replication for synchronizing web content files and IIS configuration data (via IIS 7 shared configuration.)

The servers are not in a Windows domain. After I addded the DFS role, I'm getting the following error message in the event log:

The DFS Replication service failed to contact domain controller to access configuration information. Replication is stopped. The service will try again during the next configuration polling cycle, which will occur in 60 minutes. This event can be caused by TCP/IP connectivity, firewall, Active Directory Domain Services, or DNS issues.

Additional Information: Error: 1355 (The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.)

I know there are advantages having pure web servers in a domain, but I want to know if this is a conditio-sine-qua-non or is there a way to configure DFRS between Windows Server 2008 servers without a Windows domain?

How to find the size of file in MB in UNIX command line?

I'd like to start a collection of good, free cheat sheet resources for system administrators. Please add your favorite ones. From the Wikipedia "cheat sheet" article:

In more general usage, a "cheat sheet" is any short (one or two page) reference to terms, commands, or symbols where the user is expected to understand the use of such terms etc but not necessarily to have memorized all of them.

I have a certain budget for ordering a couple of new servers from a vendor. The new servers will run Windows Server 2008/IIS 7 with a lot of web sites (ASP.NET and classic ASP). They don't have to run SQL Server or any other database software. All databases are on other, dedicated servers.

The servers will have 24 GB of RAM, but I'm not sure about the CPUs. What configuration would you chose between these two CPU options (both have four cores) and why:

• multi-processor: 2 Intel Xeon E5504 (4M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel QPI)
• single-processor: 1 Intel Quad Core Xeon X3363 (12M Cache, 2.83 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB)

Will all the computers on the network will answer me?

I'm looking for a Windows eventlog analyzing and monitoring software for Windows Server 2000/2003 (there are some new features in Windows Server 2008.) The feature set should include:

• real-time monitoring (alerts via email or other messages)
• definition of events/event groups which are watched
• multiple-server
• reporting (daily/weekly etc. reports)
• nice client tools
• not necessarily free or open-source, but that would be nice (of course)

Any recommendation or tip how to implement this using standard tools?

Thanks!

Since Linux has a lot of useful tools, while Windows has a lot of apps (like Chrome), instead of buying another machine to run Linux, is there a way to run it as a Virtual Machine on the PC? The Ubuntu installation CD-ROM doesn't seem to have such an option.

Today I listened to a HanselMinutes podcast about PowerShell 2.0. Scott Hanselman interviewed Hal Rottenberg and Kirk Munro at TechEd 2009.

They talked about RunSpaces in PowerShell 2.0. Can somebody please explain the concept behind them and give some (real-world) use-cases or examples?

Thanks!

I never use Internet Explorer on my Windows Servers. Is there any reason I should upgrade Internet Explorer (version 6 or 7 to 7 or 8)?

If you run hundred of web sites on your servers, what it is the most efficient, automated way to detect if bots are using your HTML forms to send spam email, even if your forms have some kind of protection?

On one specific server sometimes I get an error message when I'm trying to install security updates. The message is showed immediately after trying to install them. Where can I find the log files which show what's causing the problem?

Update: Here are some details from the WindowsUpdate.log, the first relevant line in the log is:

... Agent WARNING: LoadLibrary failed for srclient.dll with hr:8007007e

If log files (or log data) contain sensitive information which needs to be protected from being deleted, manipulated or prevented from "log injection", what safety measures are considered best-practice?

What do I have to prove, that my logs are authentic and reliable, if they were used as evidence in court?

Sometimes I have to troubleshoot machines on my LAN which have flaky wireless connections without any seemingly logical reason. Contrary to "normal" network connections in most cases I don't know where to start in order to debug or solve the problem.

Any hints?
Thank you!

Since I'm not a hardware expert, I don't know what features make a network switch a good network switch. What should I pay attention, when I'm comparing the different models from different vendors?

How can I enable an encrypted network connection to SQL Server? What have I to do on the client and on the server side?

What do I have to consider when I'm planning a new server room for a small company (30 PCs, 5 servers, a couple of switches, routers, UPS...)?

What are the most important aspects in order to protect the hardware? What things do not belong in a server closet?

Edit: You may also be interested in this question: Server Room Survival Kit.

Thank you!

There are many things you have to do/consider when you want to enable HTTP compression on IIS 6.0 (Windows Server 2003).

Can somebody please provide a comprehensive list of the actions you have to take in order to enable HTTP compression properly?

Sometimes I have to answer support calls responding to PC crashes with blue screens. How can I effectively narrow down the problem giving the information on that screen? What are the most important questions I have to ask the user?

Edit: By "diagnose" I mean, how can I interpret the information on the blue screen in order to narrow down the cause of the problem?

Is there a way to configure PPTP VPN on Windows Server which automatically tells the client to add a route for the private network?

I have to do it manually on every PC (once) using following command for example:

 route add 192.168.111.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.112.101 -p

and assigning a fixed IP address for every account.

What is the best backup strategy for saving IIS 6.0 data: web metadata, files, logs etc. for disaster recovery?