Mark's Blog

Accessing MS Access from PowerShell

2009-08-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

I was trying to modify some scripts on MS Technet Script Guy's blog for working with PowerShell and MS Access.

Kept getting an error when trying to open the database, the example was using an .mdb file extension. I left my test file with the Office 2007 default of .accdb.

The example had the filename and path in a variable thought that was the problem at first then realized the connection string seemed to be referring to version 4.

I found that the ADO string need to be "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0" rather then "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0"

Example of the error
***********************************
PS C:\code\examples-powershell\msaccess> $cn.Open("Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source = C:\code\examples-pow
ershell\msaccess\msaccessdatadb1.accdb")
Exception calling "Open" with "1" argument(s): "Unrecognized database format 'C:\code\examples-powershell\msaccess\msac
cessdatadb1.accdb'."
At line:1 char:9
+ $cn.Open <<<< ("Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source = C:\code\examples-powershell\msaccess\msaccessdatadb1
.accdb")
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ComMethodTargetInvocation

PS C:\code\examples-powershell\msaccess>

************************************

2008 Winter Scripting Games - Event 9 - MS Access PowerShell
http://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/archive/2009/08/13/hey-scripting-guy-can-i-query-a-microsoft-access-database-with-a-windows-powershell-script.aspxhttp://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/archive/2009/08/13/hey-scripting-guy-can-i-query-a-microsoft-access-database-with-a-windows-powershell-script.aspx
The file I was working with - ScriptingGamesBeginnerEvent4.ps1

Other reference:
How to find a record using ADO and Jet OLE DB provider
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283874

Bandwidth Availability

2009-07-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

I typed in the address of an office I am working at to see what the results were:

http://riveroffers.com/

Carrier Distance Capability
1 3.17 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
2 4.16 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
3 4.27 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
4 4.49 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
5 5.27 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
6 5.49 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
7 7.22 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps
8 7.94 miles 10 mbps - 1 gbps

the web page then tells you that cost vary depending if fiber is already run to the building. Also they ask for contact information if you want to go forward.

Some notes about Exchange 2007

2009-07-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

Documenting some notes on Microsoft Exchange 2007 High Availability
1) single copy clusters (SCCs) - single data center - must meet clustering hardware specs
2) cluster continuous replication (CCR) - uses MS Clustering and File Share Witness, can be done across data centers.
3) Local Continuous Replication ( LCR ) - lets you make a copy of the Exchange Stores on separate storage (hard drives) attached to the same server.
LCR does not protect against server failure.
4) SCR (Standby Continuous Replication) - 2007 SP1 - uses SQL log shipping like CCR, however the nodes do not have to clustered.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Exchange_Server#Clustering_and_high_availability

Another page that had lots of nice diags was:
http://telnetport25.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/exchange-2007-database-clustering-and-high-availability-features/

Question came up today....
Will Exchange 2010 support public folders....

here is a link that has discussion threads from MS MVP's who say....
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/26d2c23d-136d-4814-b44d-0378a61f0d5c

yes! in a fashion similar to Exchange 2007 SP1.

Exchange 2007 server roles information:
# Edge Transport
# Hub Transport
# Client Access
# Mailbox - only role that can be used on SCC cluster.

Resource - Server Roles
Introduction to Exchange 2007 Server Roles
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Introduction-Exchange-2007-Server-Roles.html

Getting Started with Exchange Server 2007: Server Roles
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996031(EXCHG.65).aspx

Other Notes:
MS Recommended DAS - direct attached storage, also stating to check with storage vendor, but RAID 10 is recommended, for performance and reliability.

Simple svn gui for Ubuntu

2009-07-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

I looked at several pages and post to find a good answer.

My first attempt was to install Eclipse with Subclipse, the plugin had problems installing. I will re-attempt it again later. In the past I found eclipse sluggish on low memory machines, like the one I was installing it on anyway.

I saw this posting about installing scripts for nautilus in ubuntu.
my version Jaunty 9.04.

Link
http://www.automaticable.com/2008-09-15/easy-subversion-gui-for-nautilus-and-ubuntu/

steps it outlines:
aptitude install nautilus-script-collection-svn

nautilus-script-manager enable Subversion

killall nautilus

next step is for my to switch from file urls to svn urls.
http://www.codeandcoffee.com/2007/06/how-to-setup-a-subversion-server-on-linux/

freenx and Nomachine Client on XP - ALT-TAB

2009-06-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

I have been using ubuntu 9.04 running freenx and a windows xp client - the alt-tab not working between apps was annoying. Found this article on how to configure the nomachine client to let the session capture the ALT-TAB and Print Screen.

Link to article

Quote:
"Ctrl + Alt + K key combination to enable/disable the catching of Alt+Tab and Print Screen keys within the NX session."

Safe to check IP Address

2009-06-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

DynDNS.org is well respected and here is a link to their IP address checker.

http://checkip.dyndns.org/

I had heard in the past doing a google search for what is my ip may land you at a page with spyware, virus, etc.

Uninstall Perl Module

2009-05-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Found in a Google search that someone who goes by celso has perl script for removing modules.

http://www.celsobarriga.com/2008/01/10/uninstall-perl-module/

I wanted to remove Net::LDAP after I had done a force install of in in my win32 strawberry perl setup and had answered "y" to prompt for installing optional modules. I read on a wiki for strawberry perl the that module installed fine for a user with just the mandatory modules.

Looking for FTP solutions

2009-05-12T11:38:00.001-07:00

This is a great list of Linux FTP Server Programs
http://www.terinea.co.uk/blog/2008/03/27/linux-ftp-server-with-a-graphical-user-interface-gui/

geen way to get rid of CDs and DVDs

2009-05-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

This place in NJ seems to handle hard drives and have links for PCs too.

http://www.cdrecyclingforfree.com

Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer

2009-05-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb42fc06-50c7-47ed-a65c-862661742764&displaylang=en

Great tool from Microsoft automates creation of a Visio diagram of your Active Directory Layout. With options to include site connections, etc.

Bind 9 on Windows XP

2009-05-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted a DNS server on my workstation to test some perl and powershell dns scripts.

I downloaded Bind and had some trouble then find this page which had great directions.

http://alex.charrett.com/technical/bind-on-windows.html

Word 2007 - tricky steps to add auto updating filename and path

2009-04-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Select the location,
Insert tab ?(ribbon?),
Quick Parts,
field,
Under Field Names, Select Filename ,
Check add path to filename , ( not sure what that would look like for sharepoint stored documents?)
ok.

Here is a longer write up:
http://tortoiseshell.net/coffeebreak/blog/index.php/67/how-to-add-the-filename-and-path-to-a-word-2007-document.html

Ammo with flavor

2009-04-23T04:30:00.000-07:00

For some reason the marketing at this site interest me.

Season Shot - Ammo with flavor.
www.seasonshot.com

tags: hunter funny

timestamp - dos batch files

2009-03-18T05:24:00.001-07:00

below is a link to a nice doc batch timestamp

http://ings.ca/jim/2008/02/10/adding-timestamps-in-a-dos-batch-file/

svn add via batch

2009-03-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

problem
files get added to svn, running a svn commit does not add them to the repro, since I am working to automate pulling config files from servers, etc. I want all the new files to go into the repro.

Here are my research notes and answer.

SVN batch commands for adding or deleting multiple files (Linux)
http://blog.gilluminate.com/2008/10/16/svn-batch-commands/

I am using Windows XP, VisualSVN.
took the svn file from http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/.

"c:\Program Files\VisualSVN Server\bin\svn.exe" status | sed -e "/^?/ !d" -e "s/^?//g" > filestoadd.txt

FOR /F "eol=;" %%i in (filestoadd.txt) do "c:\Program Files\VisualSVN Server\bin\svn.exe" add %%i

Powershell Encoding - Grep

2009-02-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

I was writing something where powershell ran on the remote host and copied files to a second box. On the second box I would run a perl script and take any any lines containing "Time:" "Finished zone:", had trouble.

Found out that
cmd - "dnscmd /zoneprint zonename.com > zone-zonename.com.txt "
powershell - "dnscmd /zoneprint zonename.com > zone-zonename.com.txt "

give files with different encoding.

I ended up using | Out-file -Encoding utf8 zone-zonename.com.txt

Getting the path of a running Batch file

2009-02-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

Found on this blog, the trick
echo %~dp0.

Vmware ESX 3.5 unable to mount DVD ISO

2009-02-26T17:28:00.000-08:00

I was trying to mount a Windows 2008 DVD ISO file that someone else had downloaded, it was giving an error.

Found one some other blog the answer could be one of two things, shorten the name (MS downloads have really long names, or change the .ISO to lowercase .iso.( this is what worked for me.)

custom command prompt

2009-02-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Found a great article.

How to Create a Custom Windows Command Prompt
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Custom-Windows-Command-Prompt

I went searching for this as the path is too long and then the command line is hard to read.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]
"PROMPT"="$P$_$G"

error with ms excel and powershell 0x800A03EC

2009-01-27T21:29:00.000-08:00

Searched for answer and found other people who had the issue but no answer.
Answer for me was I needed to use qoutes, I guess that way powershell does not send a blog but just the qouted string.

here are more details.

$strextensionattribute1 = $objUser.extensionattribute1
$strextensionattribute12 = $objUser.extensionattribute12
$strextensionattribute13 = $objUser.extensionattribute13
$strextensionattribute14 = $objUser.extensionattribute14

Exception setting "Item": "Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC"
At C:\code\ps-examples\list-proxy-search-samaccountname.ps1:55 char:15
+ $c.Cells.Item <<<< ($strExcelRow,6) = $strextensionattribute1
Exception setting "Item": "Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC"
At C:\code\ps-examples\list-proxy-search-samaccountname.ps1:56 char:15
+ $c.Cells.Item <<<< ($strExcelRow,7) = $strextensionattribute12
Exception setting "Item": "Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC"
At C:\code\ps-examples\list-proxy-search-samaccountname.ps1:57 char:15
+ $c.Cells.Item <<<< ($strExcelRow,8) = $strextensionattribute13
Exception setting "Item": "Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC"
At C:\code\ps-examples\list-proxy-search-samaccountname.ps1:58 char:15
+ $c.Cells.Item <<<< ($strExcelRow,9) = $strextensionattribute14

answer was to use qoutes , I guess that way it gets passed as a string rather then a blob?"
$c.Cells.Item($strExcelRow,6) = "$strextensionattribute1"
$c.Cells.Item($strExcelRow,7) = "$strextensionattribute12"
$c.Cells.Item($strExcelRow,8) = "$strextensionattribute13"
$c.Cells.Item($strExcelRow,9) = "$strextensionattribute14"

Microsoft Access 2007 Unknown Errror

2009-01-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

I had a database with several tables, all linked to Excel xlsx files.

It was csv converted to xlxs files from the adfind tool, issue was trying to use a like with wildcard when running vbcript, then I found same issue existinged when I tried to query the database from within access. I am not sure if this was a no primary key issue or something else, however I know that once I imported the data and give a primary key the error didn't return.

SELECT [adfind-users].*, [adfind-smg].proxyAddresses
FROM [adfind-users]
WHERE ((([adfind-users].proxyAddresses) Like "*math*"));

Advanced Registry Tracer

2008-12-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

Advanced Registry Tracer
http://www.elcomsoft.com/art.html

Stores registry to database to allow for changes and review.
Seems interesting.

pop3 and MS Exchange 2007

2008-11-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

Looked here to see how to test via telnet
file:///c:/leddymj/research/exchange2007/testing-pop3-access-using-telnet.html

Got error
"Command is not valid in this state" after supplying credentials.
found answer here:
http://msexchangetips.blogspot.com/2007/11/exchange-2007-pop3-err-command-is-not.html

need to use exchange shell command
Set-PopSettings -LoginType PlainTextLogin
then restart the service.

I used
Get-PopSettings -LoginType PlainTextLogin | fl > before.txt
and
Get-PopSettings -LoginType PlainTextLogin | fl > after.txt

when did a Active Directory User Last Logon

2008-11-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

first let me say I think Novel Netware user login, I think Windows users Logon.

With several DCs it used to be a bear to get the real last logon, as you would have to check the lastlogon timestamp on each DC, with Windows 2003 Native mode this has been changed.

Details:

lastLogon – old style not replicated to other DCs
lastLogonTimestamp – replicated for each user if the user’s lastlogonTimestamp is older then 14 days ( This is the one to go by for the report. )

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/win2003/lastlogon.mspx

http://addicted-to-it.blogspot.com/2008/09/ad-how-to-determine-last-logon-time-of.html

I included a hist01.txt which has the command line used to generate the report. The adfind tool is a command line utility, already on corpadmints1.
Also found at http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/adfind/.

adfind -b "base dn"
-f filter - all user objects except disabled accounts
-csv csv export
-tdc time date change - changed ldap time date into readable format
then attributes DisplayName samaccountname lastLogon lastLogonTimestamp

Godo site with Lots of AD info and vbscript examples

2008-11-13T07:29:00.000-08:00

good site they have vbscript examples and more

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vbscript/

they have great pages on using ldifde and csvde