It appears that Domino’s Pizza has changed their online ordering interface. Now, it subscribes you to their email special offers by default. You’d think companies would learn by now…
Oh Domino’s…
Exchange 2007 SP1 Setup Fails: “The system cannot find the file specified”
If you’re installing Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows 2008 R2 you may run across the error: “The system cannot find the file specified”
If you examine the setup log located at C:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log and find that the file referenced is ldifde.exe you’ll need to install Active Directory Domain Services from Server Manager. This is accomplished by loading Server Manager from Start -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager, selecting Add Roles and then checking the box for Active Directory Domain Services.
Once the Active Directory Domain Services installation is completed, re-run the Exchange 2007 SP1 Setup Wizard.
Girls on Longboards
Frazil Ice
Automagically Fixing FailedAndSuspended Exchange 2010 Databases with PowerShell
Another quick script, this one finds all databases located on Exchange 2010 servers with a status of ‘FailedAndSuspended’ and then reseeds them. Since this scripts makes changes to the systems, instead of just reading information, all activities are logged via PowerShell’s transcript feature. You’ll need to change the path in the 5th line of the script to reflect an actual location on your system.
Note that there are other options besides a reseed, this just makes the most sense the majority of the time.
add-pssnapin *0* -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$startstring="Start script run at: "
$startendtime=date
$startannounce=$startstring+$startendtime
Start-Transcript -Append -Force -Path 'C:\<path>\DBHealthFix.log'
$startannounce
#gets list of mailboxservers, locates 2010 servers, gets db copy status, finds copies that are failed, updates failed copies
$mailboxservers = get-mailboxserver | get-exchangeserver | ?{$_.IsE14OrLater -eq 'True'}
foreach ($mailboxserver in $mailboxservers){
get-mailboxdatabasecopystatus -Server $mailboxserver.name | ?{$_.Status -like 'FailedAndSuspended'} | update-mailboxdatabasecopy -deleteexistingfiles -confirm:$false
}
stop-transcript
Here are some screenshots of what happens along the way:
The script shown in the first and last screenshot is available here.
Checking Exchange 2010 Database Health with PowerShell
Just a quick script that checks your databases. Anything besides ‘Healthy’ or ‘Mounted’ should probably be investigated. :)
Add-PSSnapin *0* -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$mailboxservers = get-mailboxserver | get-exchangeserver | ?{$_.IsE14OrLater -eq 'True'}
$A = (get-host).UI.RawUI
$A.WindowTitle = "Database Health Check"
$B = $A.windowsize
$B.width = 110
$B.height = 30
$A.WindowSize = $B
while ($true) {cls; foreach ($mailboxserver in $mailboxservers){Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server $mailboxserver.name | ft -AutoSize Name,*Status,ContentIndexState,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength} ;sleep 5}
This it the output, refreshed every 5 seconds:
An example of when databases are actually doing something:
Unbeknownst to most..
The Birthday Skeleton
As found on Reddit…
Seriously?
Interview Tips
Since starting back at my current role in February, I’ve been performing a large number of interviews. A few candidates have really impressed me, a few were woefully unprepared, and most fell somewhere in between. In the spirit of sharing knowledge, I have a few tips to share on how to be a candidate who impresses the hiring manager.
Know The Company – Do some basic research to find out what the company does. A good sized percentage of the candidates who I sit down with think they’re applying at a hosting company when 10 minutes of research would tell them we do remote monitoring and management; the small minority of candidates who find out what our company does start off the interview heads and shoulders above the other candidates.
Be Honest - During the interview process we ask quite a few in-depth technical questions, and even though I always inform candidates that “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer, I still see the vast majority of individuals trying to either change the subject or guess when they don’t know an answer. This is not the way to get a job. I ask technical questions to find out how a candidate thinks and how much training they would need if hired, not as a determining factor in whether or not to hire them. I do use a candidate trying to pull on over on me as a determining factor in hiring though, which is why I want to emphasize Be Honest. This also goes for what is on your resume; if you put it on there I will do my best to work a question on it into the interview process.
Dress With Respect - When a hiring manager or recruiter contacts you to setup an interview, ask what the company dress code is and then dress one step above that for your interview. We don’t have a dress code so business casual is what I would expect to see candidates in, but you’d be amazed at the number of candidates that make me feel over dressed while I’m wearing jeans and a polo.
Know The Hiring Manager – In our case we actually use a panel of 3 people for in-person interviews, but the same concept still applies. I always give candidates a list of people that will be in the interviews in the hope that they will do some research to find out our backgrounds; we’re all on LinkedIn after all. When you know the background of a hiring manager, you can use that information to both establish a personal connection with them and gain a better understanding of why they are asking certain questions.
I’ll never forget the candidate who got upset when he didn’t know the answer to a question and proceeded to very angrily ask me “What have you done in your career that makes you so special?” He didn’t get the job if you’re curious.
The above four are the most important things you can do to make a positive impression during your interview. Thoughts, questions and comments are welcome!