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Implementing DKIM on Exchange 2019 CU11 with Microsoft DNS

Sometimes the path we choose is only met with minimal speed bumps. We’ll call that a good day. Spoiler alert, MS DNS doesn’t play nice. Who’da thunk it? 👎 What, no middle finger emoji? I am appalled, Windows 10.

So, you’ve been putting it off for a real long time, maybe you got sidetracked reading r/ShittySysadmin on Reddit, and you haven’t felt like dicking with it, but today’s a new day, and you haven’t totally had your fill of punishment yet, so you decide to take the plunge.

For a little back story, after almost twenty years of being a sysadmin, dealing with endless server problems, Windows problems galore, buggy software, and providing direct tech support to crabby, ungrateful end-users, I’ve recently come to the conclusion that to be a sysadmin, whether you know it or not, you have to be a masochist deep down, because only a crazy man would willingly endure this kind of torture. Smh. It’s true, it’s true. 🙄 Anywho, I’ll be your copilot this evening, so let’s kick this bitch into overdrive, and get some shit done.

Here’s some basic instructions to implement DKIM signing on Microsoft Exchange 2019 CU11 relatively painlessly in about 15 minutos, pending you’re on a recent version of Windows. In my case, I was on Windows Server Standard 2019 LTS v1809, so no .NET dependencies needed to be met. Cue Ranier Wolfcastle, “Up and at them!“.

Continue reading “Implementing DKIM on Exchange 2019 CU11 with Microsoft DNS”
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Server 2012 and Up – Sync DHCP Filter List on Hot Spare Failover Server

Once again, we find out how worthless and pathetic Microsoft is when it comes to thoroughness. Starting with Server 2012, they added the ability to have a failover DHCP server using load balancing or by acting as a hot spare and have it replicate the server configuration, which is great, except they left out the MAC filtering lists, forcing us to use scripts yet again to accomplish something that should have been built in.
Continue reading “Server 2012 and Up – Sync DHCP Filter List on Hot Spare Failover Server”

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How to Clone Windows with Clonezilla when the Destination Disk is Smaller than the Original – OR – Cloning a Large Drive to a Smaller SSD

I’ve done this dozens of times now over the last couple of years when it comes to swapping out workstation hard drives with SSDs and it’s pretty much become second nature at this point, but I think the world could use a good write up on this because I’ve wasted countless hours acquiring this knowledge.

So, for today’s lesson, we will be cloning a Windows 8.1 installation from a 500GB desktop hard drive onto a 250GB SSD. Basic knowledge of how to use tools like the command line and Disk Management are assumed. Continue reading “How to Clone Windows with Clonezilla when the Destination Disk is Smaller than the Original – OR – Cloning a Large Drive to a Smaller SSD”

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Exchange 2010 – Add Send As Permission for All Users/Future Users from a User Account

No need for a bunch of hoopla, here’s the short and sweet version.

Add Send As Permission for All Users from a User Account

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Add-ADPermission -User "YourDomain\Username" -Extendedrights "Send As"

To add send as permissions for future users, we need to create a powershell script with the above line in it, make sure you have enabled the use of unsigned scripts by issuing the “Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned” command at an administrator ran PowerShell prompt, and create a task scheduler job to run our script with the administrator credentials saved in there.
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HP 280 G1 MT/Intel HD4600 Dual Monitor DVI Problem Finally Resolved

Personally I’d been fighting this Intel HD 4600 DVI/dual monitor issue for several months now, but at the time I had bigger fish to fry, so I kept putting it off until today. Those poor people on the Intel forums have been complaining about this issue for like three or four years now because “they weren’t able to reproduce the issue”, very sad. Indeed it is a very strange problem. Initially I was convinced it was strictly a driver problem, but now I think it may be some sort of weird driver/OS oddity.

If you’re unfamiliar with the issue, there are multiple threads out there on the Intel forums and several I’ve seen on the HP forums as well. The problem is that after a system reboot, the display on the DVI port is no longer detected and all you get is a black screen. The second monitor is not detected in the operating system whatsoever and the monitor shows no input signal. Right after the initial installation of the display driver, dual monitors would work, but only until the next system reboot. One workaround for this issue was to uninstall/reinstall the display driver and just never reboot the machine again, which totally sucked donkey balls. Continue reading “HP 280 G1 MT/Intel HD4600 Dual Monitor DVI Problem Finally Resolved”

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PowerShell Script – Generate DFS-R Health Reports and Email Them

Sure there are a few DFS-R scripts out there to choose from in various languages like batch, vbscript, and even PowerShell to name a few, but I decided to write one to fit my own personal needs at the time.

I created this so that it could be ran as a scheduled task each morning. Basically the script just lets you set an array of different replication groups to run the Health Report on, attaches them all to a single email, and then shoots that email off via an SSL connection through an Exchange server in this particular case. Continue reading “PowerShell Script – Generate DFS-R Health Reports and Email Them”

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Server 2012 – Force a Network Type with PowerShell

Here’s an annoying one that I run into quite frequently. On Windows Server 2012, it appears there’s not a quick and easy way to change the network type for a network connection other than to use PowerShell. The problem that I typically run into, is that firewall rules for a specific program are only set for the “domain” profile, so here’s how to force the network type on some interface. This is just for my own personal reference, but I took this info directly from here. Continue reading “Server 2012 – Force a Network Type with PowerShell”

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Batch Script – How to Check if the Current User is a Member of a Group

Here is a batch script, using only DOS commands, to check if the current user is a member of a specific group. The way it is currently written, you can call a batch file containing this code using the CALL command and pass the short NetBIOS domain name (or possibly the computer name if it is a local account) and the group name to search for as arguments, and it will return a “1” if the user is a member of the specified group and “0” if they are not. Just be sure to put quotes around any group name that contains any spaces. Continue reading “Batch Script – How to Check if the Current User is a Member of a Group”

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Ultra VNC – Send Custom Keys Workaround and ASCII Reference Chart

Unfortunately, not only is the option considered experimental, but the Ultra VNC documentation on how to “Send Custom Keys” is less than ideal, and remembering the decimal equivalent of each key on the keyboard is simply not an option for me. I currently have no want or need to know this information by heart, so I’m not even going to attempt to do so. So, when desperate times call for desperate measures, it’s time to start thinking on your feet and stop pouting like a little man-girl, you’ve still got options.

Luckily, if your running any newer version of Windows (I guess if you want to call it luck), you’re a slug-headed, loser douche, extraordinaire (present company included, I just wish the Linux desktop environments weren’t so damn slow) that doesn’t care about his or her right to computer privacy…Wait, I mean, luckily, you can use the On-Screen Keyboard as a workaround for this, and you can send whatever custom key combinations you need. Continue reading “Ultra VNC – Send Custom Keys Workaround and ASCII Reference Chart”