Category: Windows

BigBlueButton Update & Nefsis

Jeff Miles Leave a comment


So after a month or two encouraging my users to make use of our BigBlueButton implementation for virtual boardrooms, it looks like we’ll be slowly moving away from it in favor of Nefsis.

Logo's for Nefis and BigBlueButton

BBB was working well for general use such as brown bag sessions and impromptu meetings, however I’ve recently had a use-case pop up of remote collaboration between two offices, with some requirements that BBB just can’t meet (yet?).

Specifically the things that have prompted me to look elsewhere:

  • Lack of remote control support
  • Incomplete document sharing support (file formats)
  • Poor full-screen document sharing, desktop sharing
  • Poor user reception (Not a shortcoming on BBB in my opinion, just hard to please personnel with emotional attachment to brand names)

I found Nefsis during my last go-round at finding a web conferencing solution, and was very impressed by the trial I was involved in. After some more inspection and user showcasing, we found Nefsis operated better than Webex, with a more user friendly and discoverable interface.

One of the best features about Nefsis is the full support for almost any document type. What they appear to do is convert it on the fly to either a set of slides, or perhaps even a PDF. This gives us the ability to share Office documents, Wordperfect, AutoCAD DWG files and many more. One of the primary uses is discussion-led mark-up so having all these formats available is key.
Overall I’m disappointed we had to go for a paid (and expensive) solution, and by the fact that good solutions aren’t being utilized simply due to name recognition.  Perhaps I have to find a better way to introduce this type of software.

Inject 3rd party drivers into WDS image

Jeff Miles Leave a comment

I use Windows Deployment Services (WDS) under Server 2008 to deploy images of Windows 7 x64 over PXE to my desktops and laptops.

I’ve standardized on Dell Latitude and Optiplex computers, so I want these drivers to remain in place after the sysprep, so they don’t need to be added later.

Apparently Server 2008 R2 WDS has the ability to add drivers through the GUI, but I don’t have that luxury yet. Here’s how I’ve gotten these drivers into my image.

 

The major prerequisite is that you’ll need the Windows AIK tools installed on your server. They can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34&displaylang=en

Note: you’ll need to have extracted folders of each driver you wish to inject, with the .INF file available. For each model, put all your drivers in it’s own folder under the master one. For example:

  • E5420
    • Video
    • LAN
    • Audio
    • Chipset

First, open the WDS console, and export the image you want to modify. Right click on the image, and choose Export. Export it to D:\ExportedImages

WDS Export image right click context menu

Then, from an elevated command prompt window, run the following (two separate lines):

"C:\program files\windows aik\tools\petools\copype.cmd" amd64 d:\windowspe-amd64
Imagex /mountrw D:\ExportedImages\Windows7-x64-Field.wim 1 mount

Then copy d:\windowspe-amd64\mount\windows\system32\dism.exe to d:\windowspe-amd64\mount\windows\system32\dism\

Use the following command template to inject the drivers for each system:

dism.exe  /image:d:\windowspe-amd64\mount /add-driver /driver:d:\drivers\E6420\ /recurse

When completed, run this command:

imagex /unmount /commit mount

Now re-import the image, either by adding, or replacing the existing one from the right click menu.

Replace WDS image

Searching folder across VPN produces no results

Jeff Miles Leave a comment

I came across an issue where a user on Windows XP was using Windows Explorer to search within a folder located in a branch office across a VPN. However, their search produced no results, even when it was confirmed there should be.

After some digging I found a Microsoft hotfix that fixed this, but it wasn’t easy to find so hopefully this post may help others find it sooner.

The hotfix is available from this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885843

 

When you run a search for files or for folders across a slow network link in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or in Microsoft Windows XP, the search result set is empty. This symptom occurs even though the files or the folders in question actually exist. Additionally, you receive the following message:

"Search is complete. There are no results to display."

For example, you may experience this problem when you search a remote mapped drive over a wide area network (WAN) link.

PDF Link creates new IE window that disappears

Jeff Miles Leave a comment

I’ve got a few users using separate sites that are showing the same problem with PDF links. Upon clicking the link, a new IE window opens and then immediately disappears.

So far this only seems to affect IE7 and IE8.

One workaround we’ve found is to hold CTRL while clicking the link, but this isn’t ideal.

I stumbled upon the solution to this issue today though. Try this:

 

Open Internet Explorer, and go to Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level

 

 

Scroll down until you find the Downloads section, and change “Automatically prompt for file downloads” to enable:

 

Now your link should prompt you to save the file.

 

Automated DFSR Backlog email

Jeff Miles 2 Comments

If you’re using DFSR for branch office replication, chances are you’re concerned about the number of files in the backlog queue. This page details a script I’ve been using to automate sending of emails, using a combination of blat and dfsrdiag.

To begin you’ll need to download Blat.

I suggest placing the Blat files within C:\Windows so that it’s automatically added to the system path; you could just use the full folder path when calling it though.

Here’s an example batch script I’m using for one replication group:

:: BATCH SCRIPT START
@ECHO OFF
dfsrdiag Backlog /receivingmember:hub-server /sendingmember:branch-server /rgname:domain.com\files\departments /rfname:Departments >C:\users\administrator\documents\backdept-from-branch-server.txt
FOR /R "C:\users\administrator\documents\" %%F IN (backdept-from-branch-server.txt) DO (
       IF %%~zF GTR 3000 (blat C:\users\administrator\documents\backdept-from-branch-server.txt -to email@domain.com  -server smtp.domain.com -f dfsbacklog@domain.com -subject "Backlog exists: Departments incoming from Branch-Server"))
EXIT
pause
:: BATCH SCRIPT END

 

Here’s a quick rundown on what this is doing:

dfsrdiag Backlog: this command generates a backlog report for the specified sending and receiving server, for the specified replication group, and outputs it to a text file.

This report looks like this:

Member  Backlog File Count: 1367
Backlog File Names (first 100 files)
     1. File name: DSC03752.JPG
     2. File name: DSC03786.JPG
     3. File name: DSC03794.JPG
     4. File name: DSC03796.JPG
     5. File name: DSC03809.JPG
     6. File name: DSC03810.JPG

 

The next line in the script beginning with “FOR /R”, looks for the text file just generated, and runs logic on it.

IF %%~zF GTR 3000: If the size of the backlog report text file is greater than 3KB, then generate an email to the specified people, with the text file as the message body.

Scheduling the commands

So I’ve got 16 batch files that generate reports; 2 replications groups in two transfer directions to 4 separate locations. To reduce the number of scheduled tasks, and ensure that all 16 backlog reports aren’t run at the same time, I’ve got separate batch files that call 4 at a time, and are scheduled 5 minutes apart.