Transport-Rule in Exchange 2010 to prefix the Subject

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Assume, you'd like to prepend the subject of an e-mail with a prefix, if the e-mail has been sent from the certain computer and if it has a certain sender name. In this case you can create a new transport rule with Powershell.

For example, the subject should be prepended by the phrase '[Alert]', if the From address contains 'my_sender@company.com' AND if the computer's name, which the email is sent from, is 'my_computer.company.com'. The powershell command below configures this:

New-TransportRule
-Name 'My_transport_rule' -Comments 'My comment'
-HeaderContainsMessageHeader 'Received' -HeaderContainsWords 'my_computer.company.com '
-FromAddressContainsWords 'my_sender@company.com' -PrependSubject "[Alert] "

After the command has been executed the rule is active. It acts in the whole Exchange organization and is not restricted to a single server.

Please note that the argument for the parameter -HeaderContainsWords must contain the name, which the email program on the sender computer actually uses. If the new rule doesn't work as expected, look into the internet headers of a test e-mail and note the computer name, which is in the line Received.

Check_MK plugin to get firmware and service tag of a DELL Powerconnect switch

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check_mk is a great monitoring application! I've been trying it for a couple of days first and I am convinced that check_mk has a big future due to its nice conception, super built-in capabilities and the ability to create own check plugins with less effort.

I also tried to create a new check plugin for DELL Powerconnect switches, because the check plugins for such switches provided by check_mk distribution cannot show the firmware version and the service tag of the switch. I copied a provided check plugin (to be more accurate: snmp_info)and modified it a little bit. I'd like to share my result below, please enjoy it!

Sibirien / Сибирь 2007

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Hier geht es zum neu veröffentlichen Fotoalbum Sibirien / Сибирь 2007. Fotos im Fotoalbum sind während einer Resise nach Nowosibirsk im Jahr 2007 entstanden. Außer Nowosibirsk zeige ich noch einige Fotos aus der Stadt Anschero-Sudschensk.
Aus Sibirien / Сибирь 2007

Symantec Backup Exec and Restore to Hyper-V Failover Cluster

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Assume, that your organization uses Symantec Backup Exec 2010 to backup Hyper-V VMs. What have you to keep in mind, if you need to restore a Hyper-V VM from a backup created by Backup Exec 2010? I've written a couple of points that could be useful to think of to plan such a restore job:

  • Backup Exec 2010 can restore as to the same Hyper-V failover cluster, where the VM is backed up as well to a different Hyper-V failover cluster. This method can be used to move VMs between the Hyper-V clusters, especially if the Hyper-V clusters are either not connected at all or connecvted through a WAN at a low speed.
  • Backup Exec 2010 doesn't use failover cluster capabilities while restoring a Hyper-V VM and therefore restores to a single Hyper-V node in the cluster directly.
  • The restored VM is not failover enabled, because it is restored only to a Hyper-V node. To make the VM failover enabled you must move the restored VM to another Hyper-V node in the failover cluster. Either you export the VM on the Hyper-V node with Hyper-V Manager and import it with Failover Cluster Manager or you can use Microsoft SCVMM to move the VM. Depending on the method of making the VM failover enabled and on the VHD size it takes either much time or a lot of time. You must take this fact into account, when you develop your backup and recovery concept.
  • Make sure that you enabled the option in the restore job settings to overwrite the existing VM. If you don't enable the option and you do have a VM with the same name existing on your Hyper-V node, Backup Exec 2010 restore job fails only after the whole data is written back from the tape to the Hyper-V node and the VM is going to be registered in Hyper-V. The correction the failure and a new run of the restore job cost time.
  • Pay attention to the free space of the system drive (usually C:) of the Hyper-V node, which Backup Exec chosen as target to recover to, because the standard restore path points to the system drive.
  • After the restore has finished you should review the hardware settings of the restored VM, especially if you restored from one Hyper-V failover cluster to a different one. This check includes such things like network name and the VLAN id and may be RAM and CPU settings too.
  • After the restored VM is up you must check the network settings inside of the VM to be sure, it has network access after the restoration.