Detroit transplants living in Dallas

Category: work (Page 1 of 3)

we all do it, but we don’t have to like it

Exchange 2010 Public Folders Not Replicating

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010I manage an Exchange 2010 messaging environment with two mailbox servers and two public folder databases that replicate between each other. The migration from 2003 to 2010 went smoothly and 2003 was decommissioned back in September 2012.

Recently out of the blue I had an issue where the public folder replicas decided to stop replicating causing some major confusion in user-land. After a few hours running commands, checking reference links, and tracking diagnostic log events I wasn’t able to determine a specific root cause other than replication messages were being generated but staying queued on the local server and never making it to the other. Even after some creative googling I wasn’t able to come up with any matching symptoms, and the replication queues continued to grow.

Then low and behold I happen to stumble on a blog post outlining a similar situation. I was able to replicate his error message using ExFolders, so taking a leap of faith I went into ADSIedit and deleted the empty CN=Servers container from the old administrative group in CN=Configuration,CN=Services,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=OrgName,CN=Administrative Group,CN=OldAdminGroupName. Running ExFolders again worked as intended, and suddenly new data was successfully being replicated! Unfortunately the existing queued replication messages did not want to clear out, so I ended up removing these and forcing replication from each server.

Really wish I knew why 7 months after decommissioning the old 2003 environment this snuck up all of a sudden without warning, but thankfully I was able to sort it out quickly enough to avoid too much of an issue. And since it took several hours of banging my head on my desk to find the answer, maybe by posting this it will save someone else a little headache.

They Make Spellcheck??

My phone rings at work, and I answer as I’m oft to do in such situations…

Phone: How do you spell politicians and officials?
Me: Can’t you just use spellcheck?
Phone: Yes but none of them are in their office right now.

Take Your Bike To Work Day 2

sore /sɔr, soʊr/
Pronunciation[sawr, sohr]
adjective, sor·er, sor·est, noun, adverb

-adjective
1. physically painful or sensitive, as a wound, hurt, or diseased part: a sore arm.
2. suffering bodily pain from wounds, bruises, etc., as a person: He is sore because of all that exercise.
3. suffering mental pain; grieved, distressed, or sorrowful: to be sore at heart.
4. causing great mental pain, distress, or sorrow: a sore bereavement.
5. causing very great suffering, misery, hardship, etc.: sore need.
6. Informal. annoyed; irritated; offended; angered: He was sore because he had to wait.
7. causing annoyance or irritation: a sore subject.
–noun
8. a sore spot or place on the body.
9. a source or cause of grief, distress, irritation, etc.

***

I almost bailed on taking the bike to work day 2, because – in a word – SORE. I thought about dropping drawers this morning and mooning C to see if she saw bruising, but then remembered I don’t like looking at my own ass so I could only imagine her response at being mooned at 7:30 in the morning. It would have been a bad scene…

Take Your Bike To Work Day 1

So I did it. I didn’t die of exhaustion, get hit by a bus, or *gasp* get overly mocked by co-workers. It’s strangely refreshing to go out and get some fresh air in the morning. Hell, I didn’t even have to drink my normal 3 cups of coffee to get going and motivated at work today. The ride home was a bit more rough, but there really is something to the whole human-power thing that I could get to like…

The Experiment

I’m going to start my great bike experiment and prove to myself and others that its pointless to drive 4 miles to work, when I have a bike. All it took was the gift of a bike, $100, and some of my own elbow grease to get here.
More tomorrow…

Retrospective: New Job 3 Months In

I was thinking to myself last night that it’s been nearly 3 months since I switched jobs and there are absolutely no regrets. It’s AWFULLY REFRESHING to not dread waking up and going to work with every particle of your being. When I come home at night, my very soul and ambition to live is not crushed or destroyed. HOW DID I LIVE WITH MYSELF FOR NEARLY 3 YEARS?! More importantly, how did C?

So now I’m my own boss, a part of management, integral in the day to day operations of a major entertainment complex, and I couldn’t be happier where I am.

World\'s Best Boss

Sorry, I was too busy betting on horses

Yes, I’m the supreme slack. I haven’t made a new post in weeks, so sorry. I could have filled up the entire time with snide remarks about my old boss, or how awesome my new job is, or about all the ridiculously fun things we’ve done over the past 3 weeks, but I didn’t. I’ll be putting in some double time to get back in the habit of posting things as they happen…

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