Noel Alvarez

Migration – Email Service Provider – 2

October 15, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Email Migration

If you are ever completing an email service provider migration (to Google Apps) you may use the Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook® tool provided by Google for users who have POP accounts.

To use the tool you sign in with the credentials for the email user, locate the .pst file(s) to be migrate and the migration tool does the rest.

Additionally, the tool creates a log file in Windows 7 in the C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Google Apps Migration\Tracing\ClientMigration directory.

Enjoy!

Microsoft Outlook 2010 – Locate a .pst File

October 13, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Email Migration

In order to find the location of a .pst file, for a Microsoft Outlook profile, in Microsoft Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 you may use the following method.

File > Info > Account Settings > Account Settings… > Data Files

The default directory for Microsoft Outlook 2010 .pst files in Windows 7 is C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files

Enjoy!

Migration – Email Service Provider – 1

October 9, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Domain Name System Email Migration

Currently, I am assisting with the technical planning for an email service provider migration for my employer. One of the things to take into consideration for this type of project is reducing the impact of any possible down time with email.

One of the ways to reduce any impact is to perform such a project over a weekend (when normal business is not taking place). Additionally, you may considering changing the default time-to-live (TTL) for the MX records. In our case, the default TTL is set to 86400 (1 day) so we are changing it to 7200 (2 hours). This will make sure that when we change the MX records for our domain all of the DNS servers around the globe will receive that change within (2) hours. Therefore, theoretically, any new incoming email while be forwarded to the correct mail servers within (2) hours of the MX record changes.

As always, with any changes made to your existing infrastructure always plan carefully and document the changes (i.e. change management or change tracking).

Linksys – Default Parameters for WAP54G Wireless Access Point

October 8, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Linksys Network Wireless Networking

If you ever find yourself configuring a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point you will need to use the following information to connect to the device.

IP: 192.168.1.245/24

Username: none

Password: admin

After you login to the wireless access point you may change the administrator’s password, configure an SSID and change the IP address of the device.

Enjoy!

Cisco – Configure Cisco Catalyst 3560 VLANs

September 7, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Cisco Network VLANS and Trunking

You may use the following method to configure Virtual LANs (VLANs) on a Cisco Catalyst 3560 switch. VLANs allow you to segment a layer 2 switched network by increasing the number of layer 2 broadcast domains and decreasing their size. Additionally, VLANs provide an added measure of network security.

Begin by entering global configuration mode with the configure terminal command.

Next, use the vlan # command where the # sign is the number of the VLAN. Additionally, use the name “name” command to provide a custom description of the VLAN. In this example there are three created VLANS, 2 (Sales), 3 (Marketing) and 4 (Accounting).

Lastly, you may verify the creation of the VLANs with the show vlan command.

Enjoy!

Cisco – Configure Cisco Catalyst 3560 Switch Trunk

September 6, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Cisco IEEE 802.1q Network VLANS and Trunking

You may use the following method to configure a Cisco Catalyst3560 switch port as a trunk. In this example we will use the FastEthernet 0/24 port.

Begin by entering global configuration mode and specifying the port, FastEthernet 0/24, that will be configured as a trunk port.

Next, we must specify the version of trunking we will implement. In this example we will implement IEEE 802.1q trunking which is specified by the switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q command.

Next, we enable the trunk with the switchport mode trunk command. Note that this command will automatically negotiates to convert the link on the other end to a trunk link.

Lastly, you may verify the trunk port with the show interface trunk command.

Enjoy!

Microsoft Windows PowerShell – Save Output Directly to a Text File

August 22, 2013 Noel Alvarez

Microsoft Windows PowerShell Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012 Network

Using the Out-File Cmdlet in Microsoft Windows PowerShell allows you to send the output of a command directly to a text file. For instance, the example below you will send the output of the netstat -a command directly to the desktop of the user.

NOTE: Substitute the the actual username where %username% is located.

Enjoy!

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 – Identify an iSCSI Initiator IQN

August 20, 2013 Noel Alvarez

iSCSI Microsoft Windows PowerShell Storage Area Network

You may use the following method to identify an iSCSI Initiator IQN in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 from Windows PowerShell.

After opening Windows PowerShell type the command iscsicli.

In this example the iSCSI Initiator IQN is iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:clus01a.root.sysadmin.net.

Enjoy!

Windows Storage Server 2012 – Verify the iSCSI Initiator Sessions

August 19, 2013 Noel Alvarez

iSCSI Multipath I/O Storage Area Network

You may use the following method to very which iSCSI Initiators are currently connected to an iSCSI Target in Windows Storage Server 2012.

On the Server Manager navigate to File and Storage Services > iSCSI.

Right click the iSCSI Target that you would like to verify under the iSCSI TARGETS section and select Properties. In this example the iSCSI Target is iqn.1991-05.microsoft.com:iscsi01-clus01.

In the properties dialog box for the iSCSI Target select the Connections option to view the iSCSI Initiator Sessions. In this example there are (2) sessions from iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft.com:clus01a.root.sysadmin.net and iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft.com:clus01b.root.sysadmin.net.

Enjoy!

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 – Add and Configure the Multipath I/O Feature

August 16, 2013 Noel Alvarez

iSCSI Multipath I/O Storage Area Network

You may use the following method to install and configure the Windows Server 2012 Multipath I/O role that may be used for a Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster. The steps below assume that an iSCSI target has already been properly configured. Additionally, below you will find the Internet Protocol (IP) information that will be used in this configuration.

iSCSI Targets: 172.16.25.1/24 & 172.16.50.1/24

iSCSI Initators: 172.16.25.102/24 & 172.16.50.102/24

We begin by configuring the iSCSI Initiator on the server that will be utilizing the iSCSI SAN. On the Targets tab in the Target: field enter the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the iSCSI target and click Quick Connect….

In the Quick Connect dialog box click Done after verifying that the connection has been established successfully (Progress report > Login Succeeded.).

On the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box click OK.

Next, we will enable the Multipath I/O feature. Begin by opening the Server Manager then navigate to Manage > Add Roles and Features.

On the Before You Begin page click Next >.

On the Installation Type page select Role-based or feature-based installation and click Next >.

On the Server Selection page select the local server (in this example it is CLUS01B.ROOT.SYSADMIN.NET) then click Next >.

On the Server Roles page click Next >.

On the Features page click the box to select Multipath I/O then click Next >.

On the Confirmation page click Install.

On the Results page click Close.

Next, we will enable iSCSI for Multipath I/O. Open the MPIO Properties dialog box by navigating to Start > MPIO.

On the Discover Multi-Paths tab click the check box to Add support for iSCSI devices then click Add.

On the Reboot Required dialog click Yes.

After the reboot open the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box and remove the current sessions from the Target, Discovery and Favorite Targets tabs.

Click on the Discovery tab and click Discover Portal…then enter the IP address of the iSCSI target in the Discover Target Portal dialog and click OK.

To create the first session switch to the Targets tab then click Connect. In the Connect To Target dialog box select the check box to Enable multi-path and click on Advanced…. In the Advanced Settings dialog box select Microsoft iSCSI Initator for the Local adapter:. Additionally, for the Initiator IP: select 172.16.25.102 and for the Target portal IP: select 172.16.25.1 / 3260. After these settings have been select continuing clicking OK to close out each dialog box.

To create the second session click Properites… on the Targets tab. In the following Properties dialog box click Add Session. On the Connect To Target dialog box select the check box to Enable multi-path and click Advanced…. In the Advanced Settings select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator for the Local adapter:. Additionally, for the Initiator IP: select 172.16.50.102 and for the Target portal IP: select 172.16.50.1 / 3260. After these settings have been select continuing clicking OK to close out each dialog box.

Lastly, we will verify the iSCSI sessions that we have just configured. On the Favorite Targets choose one of the each session then click Details.

Additionally, on the Targets tab click on Devices… to view a list of devices per session.

Now you may use Disk Management to mount the LUNs.

This completes the configuration.

Enjoy!

Migration – Email Service Provider – 2

Microsoft Outlook 2010 – Locate a .pst File

Migration – Email Service Provider – 1

Linksys – Default Parameters for WAP54G Wireless Access Point

Cisco – Configure Cisco Catalyst 3560 VLANs

Cisco – Configure Cisco Catalyst 3560 Switch Trunk

Microsoft Windows PowerShell – Save Output Directly to a Text File

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 – Identify an iSCSI Initiator IQN

Windows Storage Server 2012 – Verify the iSCSI Initiator Sessions

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 – Add and Configure the Multipath I/O Feature

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