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Remote management of Exchange 2010 using PowerShell

admin — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:57:09 +0000

You can run powershell commands on your Exchange 2010 server from machines whether or not they have the Exchange Management Tools installed using implicit remoting.

Even when you run the Exchange Management Shell on your exchange server, you’re essentially creating a powershell remoting session. The following steps take place in the background when you click the EMS icon:

Load the Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 snap-in gets loaded

The RemoteExchange.ps1 script is dot sourced

The Connect-ExchangeServer function is executed

You can set up implicit remoting from any maching using powershell v2. This imports the commands from your exchange server to your local powershell session so you don’t need any Exchange tools installed.

First we create a session using the New-PSSession cmdlet:

$s = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http:///PowerShell/ -Authentication Kerberos

Then, import the session using the Import-PSSession cmdlet:

Import-PSSession $s

The Exchange Management Shell commands are now imported into the local PowerShell session.

You could use the same method to setup a scheduled task from your machine to run a commands on your exchange server.

[source: ]

Batch editing Dial-up or VPN access settings in Active Directory

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Active Directory doesn’t let you edit the Dial-up of VPN access policies for multiple users at once through the GUI. You have to edit this setting one at a time for each user. This can be painstaking if you a lot of users. Luckily there is a VB script available like for almost everything else in AD.
Dim aConnection, aCommand, aResult, strLDAPPath, user, objUser Const ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR = 1 strLDAPPath = InputBox("Please enter the LDAP path of the OU:") WScript.Echo strLDAPPath Set aConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Set aCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command") aConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject" aConnection.Open aCommand.ActiveConnection = aConnection aCommand.CommandText=";(&(objectCategory=Person)(objectClass=User));distinguishedName;subTree" Set aResult = aCommand.Execute() Do While Not aResult.EOF strDN = aResult.Fields("distinguishedName") WScript.Echo strDN Set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & strDN) ' Comment the following line to manage connection through Remote Access Policy objUser.Put "msNPAllowDialin", FALSE ' Uncomment the following line to manage connection through Remote Access Policy ' objUser.PutEx ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR, "msNPAllowDialin", 0 objUser.SetInfo aResult.MoveNext Loop

This script will update the access settings for a group of users in a particular OU. Once you run the script, a dialog box will ask you for this OU. Once this is set all users in that OU will be updated.

The AD property this script modifies is ‘msNPAllowDialin’. This property is accepts boolean values. So the three options are

TRUE (to allow access)

FALSE (to deny access)

To manage access via the Remote Access Policy, comment out the
objUser.Put "msNPAllowDialin", FALSE
and uncomment the
' objUser.PutEx ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR, "msNPAllowDialin", 0
line.

How to tell if .Net Framework is installed

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:59:35 +0000

The officially supported method of detecting the presence of the .NET Framework 2.0 is to check the following registry key/value:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Net Framework Setup\NDP\v2.0.50727] Install = 1 (REG_DWORD)

Change password from the command line

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:50:04 +0000

net user
Or if you want to hide the password and enter it at a prompt
net user *

Allowing non-admin Windows users to change IP addresses

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:34:32 +0000

If you want to allow non-admin users in Windows to change the IP address settings on their PCs, you can add them to the built-in “Network Configuration Operators” group. This can be done from the command line as

net localgroup "Network Configuration Operators" /add

Install Office 2003 without a CD key ..sort of

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:21:43 +0000

Office 2003 wont install unless you supply a valid license key, unlike Office 2007 which lets you enter the key once you’re done installing. This is very inconvenient when you’re trying to create a base image of a system to deploy on multiple PCs. You can’t have the same Office license key for all the PCs.

In order to get somewhat similar functionality as Office 2007, i.e., install without key to be filled in later, use the following method. You will still need a valid serial key for the first install, but it will be cleared after its completed.

setup.exe /QB PIDKEY=YOURSERIALHERE regedit /S clear-key.reg

The first line installs office silently with the specified key, and second line clears the registration information. The clear-key.reg file contains the following registry key

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration]

Now when you run Office, it’ll ask you for a license key.

Allowing non-admins to manage services in Windows

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:39:21 +0000

This Microsoft KB article lists 3 ways to grant non-admin users the rights to manage services on a windows machine.

Method 1: Grant rights using Group Policy
Method 2: Grant rights using Security templates
Method 3: Grant rights using Subinacl.exe

The easiest and fastest method? Method 3 using subinacl.
SUBINACL /SERVICE \\MachineName\ServiceName /GRANT=[DomainName\]UserName[=Access]

[Source: How to grant users rights to manage services in Windows 2000]

Manage Exchange mailboxes from the command-line

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:58:21 +0000

ExchMbx is a command-line utility that lets you create user mailboxes, mail enable an AD object, move mailboxes and delete mailboxes among other tasks that can be done using the GUI.

Ex1:
ExchMbx -b cn=joe,dc=joe,dc=net -cr srv1:sg1:db2
Create mailbox for joe in Server srv1, storage group sg1, database db2.

Ex2:
ExchMbx -b cn=joe,dc=joe,dc=net -move srv1:sg1:db2
Ditto ex1 but move.

Ex3:
ExchMbx -b cn=joe,cn=users,dc=joe,dc=net -clear
Clear Exchange attrs for joe, will delete mailbox or
clean email addresses of mailenabled objects.

Ex4:
ExchMbx -b cn=gr1,cn=users,dc=joe,dc=net -me
Mail Enable group gr1

Ex5:
ExchMbx -b cn=con1,cn=users,dc=joe,dc=net -me joe@joeware.net
Mail Enable contact con1 with email address joe@joeware.net

ExchMbx can be obtained from joeware.net along with many other useful tools.

[examples sourced from the ExchMbx Usage page]

Configuring TCP/IP from the cmd line in Windows

admin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:48:41 +0000

Netsh.exe can be very useful in viewing and editing TCP/IP settings from the command line.

To view your TCP/IP settings in a Command Prompt, type
netsh interface ip show config

To configure an IP address and other TCP/IP related settings:
netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static 192.168.1.101 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 1

To obtain an IP address from a DHCP server:
netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

To configure DNS and WINS addresses:
netsh interface ip set dns "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.0.200

and this for WINS:
netsh interface ip set wins "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.0.200

Or, to dynamically obtain DNS settings:
netsh interface ip set dns "Local Area Connection" dhcp

As a bonus tip, you can export your IP settings to a text file using the following command:
netsh -c interface dump > c:IPSettings.txt

To import the settings, type
netsh -f c:IPSettings.txt OR netsh exec c:location2.txt

You can use this to quickly switch between different settings.

psexec to install msi on remote pc

admin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:17:17 +0000

psexec \\remotepc -u Domain\User -p Password msiexec /i "pathto.msi switches"