Can’t get workflow to start when mailing to list

I just had major problem with getting a workflow to start when mailing to a sharepoint 2010 list. I found this solution to the problem. Not really obvious so im putting it here.
Error description: When mailing to announcement or document library list, a workflow configured to start when new item is created, doesn’t start. When creating item manually in list the workflow kicks off without any problems.
Solution: On the sharepoint server. Check if mailto list is enabled
/> stsadm -o getproperty -pn declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled
if this is returned: <Property Exist=”No” />
or <Property Exist="Yes" Value="fales" />
Then run /> stsadm -o setproperty -pn declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled -pv true
It will take a few seconds but after this the workflow starts when mail is received to the list.

Sharepoint alert user when case is assigned

To set your own alertsystem to notify user when they are assigned a case.
1. Set up a securitygroup in Sharepoint where you add your users. You need to configure their emails in sharepoint user config. Your sharepointserver also need to be able to send emails. Aka you’ve already setup your smtp.
2. In your sharepointlist, choose Create a workflow in Sharepoint Designer.
3. If CurrentItem:Assigned is not empty e-mail CurrentItem:Assigned
To make this fly the assigned column need to be of type Person or Group and only allow selection from Sharepointgroup you’ve previously created.
In Sharepoint Designer you can now edit Start Options for the workflow to start automatically when an items is changed or created.
You can also design the email which is sent to the user to contain basically anything from the current item.
References:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointcustomization/thread/26649ef1-3333-4d08-b2a5-1c988c975959

Free up more space

If you’re aching for more space on your server or workstation, use this command to remove all uninstallfiles related to servicepack1 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded /hidesp 

For an offline WIM-image,

dism /image:wimfile.wim /Cleanup-Image / spsuperseded /hidesp.

/hidesp option removes SP1 from the “Installed Updates” section of Programs and Features, to ensure that users do not try to uninstall the service pack.

After doing this maneuver on a Server 2008 R2 my winsxs went from 12.12GB down to 6.82GB. Not a real true value though since winsxs contains mostly softlinks, but still an indication.

References:

http://matthewlong.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/cleaning-up-windows-7-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-files/

Find that missing driver

A nice resource to have is the ability to grab the device id of a missing hardware driver and get the correct softwaredriver in return.

Get the hardware device-ID. Copy the last line of values, for example \\USB\VID_08FF&PID_2580 for the struggling fingerprintreader.

Goto catalogue.microsoft.com, and input the deviceid. Put the device in your basket and download. This will get you a cab-file, which you can extract using 7Zip. Then just update your missing driver and point the search to your newly extracted folder.

Resources:

catalogue.microsoft.com

Backup Exec migration

When I recenty upgraded a backup exec server to x64. I needed to do a completed reinstall so I needed a way to migrate my selection lists and jobs. I found this method was very straightforward and worked perfectly! The idea is to copy the entire database straight over.

1. Stop all backup exec and sql services on the old server

2. Copy catalogs and Data catalogs from Backup Exec directory to a temporary location.

3. Do the reinstallation and install backup exec again.

4. Stop all backup exec and sql services.

5. Copy catalogs and data directories onto existing.

6. Start services again.

7. Use beutility and choose Copy Database, pick your newly copied databasefiles from the data catalogue.

8. Use Beutlity to Update configuration for New Media Server Name.

9. Restart.

Some small issues that had to be resolved afterwards…

Devicepools – Backup exec also imported the old devices onto the new installation. This causes conflicts with the deviceids and if the device isn’t the same as before it needs to be removed.

All policies will retarget jobs to All Devices after this so these will need  to be reconfigured.

In my case, there where some B2D-devices that couldn’t be removed from the devicetab. The solution was to remove them directly from the the database table. Open up SQL Management Studio and remove the old devices from table dbo.devices . Problem solved.

Selection Lists shows only All Resources –

Issue with selection lists being empty, both when editing a existing lists and creating a new. Though through View Selection Details you could actually see the selections on a existing list. Also when trying to show the User Selection Lists this error was displayed

This was resolved by changing the System logon Account under Network> Logon Accounts to better reflect the new server.

References:

http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/cannot-delete-device-devices-tab-backup-exec-2010

http://insanelabs.com/misc/backup-exec-transfer-scheduled-jobs-database-and-settings-to-a-new-backup-server/

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH35390

http://www.webbosworld.co.uk/blog/?p=137

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH139808

Wireless (in)security

For the past year a contact of mine has been carrying a wireless network sniffer around Gothenburg and outskirts. Hidden in plainview on his smartphone, steadily going wherever he went. Adding network after network. All while noting their coordinates, securitylayers and names. Now when the number of AP’s in his database has exceeded 11 000 he decided to share this data with me to try to make sense of the information and try to present the statistics in an orderly fashion.

Regarding security level it’s comforting to know that WPA is, by far, the dominating encryptionmethod.

11097 Access Points was detected. Of these there was 3468 using WPA2 Personal, 3561 using WPA Personal, 489 using WPA2 Enterprise, 119 using WPA Enterprise, 1706 using WEP and 1751 using no security at all.

Using no security can sometimes be justified. It might be a guestnetwork or it might be network with some form of authentication mechanism like a Radius-server or something like that. Therefore we’re not gonna read to much into the fair number of open networks in our fair city.

WEP-security however, it rarely justified. One reason might be that your Wii gamingconsole doesn’t support any higher encryption than WEP. That was actually true when I bought my console several years ago but I find it hard to belive they haven’t fixed that yet.

Another common reason noted is that the ISP is delivering their equipment with WEP-encryption predefined! This although their equipment still supports WPA2. With some ISP you can’t even manage your own network equipment. You have to call them over the phone (in this decade?) and ask them nicely to raise your wireless security to something that can’t be cracked in 4 minutes.

Very pretty boot analysis tool

While I’ve previously used BootRacer to get a general idea of my computers boottime I’ve now come across a much better tool. Sure Sysinternals autoruns is the perfect tool for monitoring your boot processes it just doesn’t give all the information. Enter Soluto Boot Analysis. This great tool gives you an overview of exactly how long each application takes to start and gives you the option to delay it or pause. If you want to remove it completly it’ll have to be done the old fashioned way. It also gives you overall information of the application, how many Soluto users worldwide is using this app, and whether not they’ve opted to pause it or not. It’s also carrying a pretty interface that’s kind of cool. Try it out!

References:

http://www.soluto.com/