Hi, Just a quick one from me today, detailing the steps required to upgrade the CPLD against a Dell switch stack. I’ve seen all too often that customers have got issues with their switch stacks that are caused by CPLD version mismatch, such as ports not working intermittently on all but specific switches. To remind… Continue reading Upgrading CPLD on a Dell PowerSwitch N20xx/30xx/40xx-Series Switch Stack
Category: On-Premise
Database Considerations: Veeam Backup & Replication / Veeam ONE on Windows Server 2022 – Part One
Veeam v11a is now available in RTM, bringing support for Windows Server 2022 amongst its many other features. If you’re planning a new deployment however, you’ll want to read on…
Skype for Business Server 2015 CU12 Released – Important Changes & Prerequisite Troubleshooting
Microsoft have released the CU12 cumulative update for Skype for Business Server 2015, and with it, some huge changes. In addition to the usual bug fixing, they’ve also taken the stance that they won’t be investing any further effort into the Skype for Business Online PowerShell module, instead you MUST use the Microsoft Teams PowerShell… Continue reading Skype for Business Server 2015 CU12 Released – Important Changes & Prerequisite Troubleshooting
Data Protection Best Practice: Encrypting Backups
Today I want to talk about backups, and the importance of encrypting them, everywhere. When people think of encrypted backups, the usual first thoughts are around portable backups such as tape and USB or backups outside of your trust domain such as cloud storage. This is a great starting point, and if you’re not currently… Continue reading Data Protection Best Practice: Encrypting Backups
Fix: AzureAD/Teams – Unable to Update SIPProxyAddress
I had an interesting issue over the past week that stumped Microsoft Support for a while. A customer of mine had created a user but accidentally left a trailing space after their UPN. When the user had synchronised to AzureAD with this attribute and their Microsoft 365 licensing had deployed, this created a SIPProxyAddress with… Continue reading Fix: AzureAD/Teams – Unable to Update SIPProxyAddress
VMware vCenter Server Appliance: Sequence Wrong Size for a Certificate when replacing SSL Certificates
Hi! Just a quick one today. I was replacing a certificate for a customer’s VCSA today with one from their internal CA when I hit the error “Sequence Wrong Size for a Certificate”. To clarify, I had generated a CSR from the VCSA, requested the certificate from the CA, downloaded this and the certificate chain… Continue reading VMware vCenter Server Appliance: Sequence Wrong Size for a Certificate when replacing SSL Certificates
Windows Server 2022 Released – What to remember before you start upgrading!
Microsoft dropped a surprise on us today by releasing Windows Server 2022 to no fanfare at all. It’s been released today 18th August 2021, it will have mainstream support until the 13th October 2026 and will be considered end of life on the 14th October 2031 (how are we talking about the 2030’s already?!). This… Continue reading Windows Server 2022 Released – What to remember before you start upgrading!
Workaround: KB5005043 / Security Update August 2021 Won’t Install on Windows Server 2016
I’ve found a lot of clients are having the same issue with their Windows Server 2016 servers and getting KB5005043 to install. It seems that Microsoft might not be identifying this patch correctly as it doesn’t show within Windows Update for most and then downloading the patch manually from the Microsoft Catalog results in the… Continue reading Workaround: KB5005043 / Security Update August 2021 Won’t Install on Windows Server 2016
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010/2013/2016/2019 – Unable to connect to OWA/ECP “protectionCertificates.Length<1"
Microsoft have done it again, with another security update, they’ve broken a lot of environments, I wish there was a better communication method than finding a small footnote on a blog post that a patch was going to potentially break environments. Many organisations have automated patch workflows that end up catching people out when this… Continue reading Microsoft Exchange Server 2010/2013/2016/2019 – Unable to connect to OWA/ECP “protectionCertificates.Length<1"
Troubleshooting Tip: Recovering Access to a MSSQL Database
I was recently helping a customer create a SQL database backup for a support ticket and noticed that they had an interesting SQL Server configuration. There was only a single account with sysadmin rights, the sa account, but this account wasn’t allowed to sign in. The SQL Server was domain joined but there was just… Continue reading Troubleshooting Tip: Recovering Access to a MSSQL Database
