Backup Raspberry-PI using Ubuntu

While searching myself for a solution to backup Raspberry-PI disk using Ubuntu ,
I came across different methods and tools like, CloneZilla, dd, rsync.
I was hoping to find a tool similar to Win32DiskImager  that run on Windows.
and surprisingly, I found a solution myself that I didn't find while searching.

The solution is to use the Disk utility that ships with Ubuntu.
This utility will allow you to backup and also restore.

System.Data.Sqlite for Linux / Ubuntu / Mono

System.Data.Sqlite default Nuget package will not work in Ubuntu / Mono.
This error will occur:

System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteFactory' threw an exception. ---> System.DllNotFoundException: SQLite.Interop.dll  at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Data.SQLite.UnsafeNativeMethods:sqlite3_config_none (System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteConfigOpsEnum)  at System.Data.SQLite.SQLite3.StaticIsInitialized () <0x4037a6f0 0x00087=""> in :0   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteLog.Initialize () <0x4037a370 0x00027=""> in :0   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteFactory..cctor () <0x403645f0 0x00057=""> in :0   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

copying over SQLite.Interop.dll to the bin folder didn't fix the issue.
the solution is to download Sqlite source code and build it yourself using this command:

MSBuild System.Data.SQLite.2012.csproj /t:Rebuild /p:UseInteropDll=false /p:UseSqliteStandard=true

here is a download link to save you time:

System.Data.SQLite.dll

Access SharePoint 2013 from Linux/ Ubuntu

For a long time I couldn't access SharePoint 2013 from my Ubuntu machine.

when I try to access it, I get this error:

401 UNAUTHORIZED

Here is the solution for this problem:

1- Use any other machine to access SharePoint and for each site you want to access from Ubuntu disable (  Minimal Download Strategy ) feature.

Site settings -> Manage site features -> Disable Download Strategy

2- Make sure you use the fully qualified name for your SharePoint server in the URL
so instead of http://sharepointserver, use http://sharepointserver.compnaydomain.com

not using the fully qualified name will cause SharePoint to keep prompting you for user name and password.

download Kensho OVF Tool

Kensho OVF Tool was developed by Citrix to convert the disk format of a virtual machine from Hyper-V (vhd) or VMWare (vmdk).

It was hard to find a download link for this tool, so I decided to provide one.

Download Link

Chef Fix for ( WARNING: No knife configuration file found )

if the command (knife client list) fails with this error:

WARNING: No knife configuration file found
WARN: Failed to read the private key /etc/chef/client.pem: #

make sure you downloaded the chef-repo and configured knife.rb file which looks like this:

current_dir = File.dirname(__FILE__)
log_level                :info
log_location             STDOUT
node_name                "admin"
client_key               "#{current_dir}/admin.pem"
validation_client_name   "org-validator"
validation_key           "#{current_dir}/org-validator.pem"
chef_server_url          "https://server_domain_or_IP/organizations/org"
syntax_check_cache_path  "#{ENV['HOME']}/.chef/syntaxcache"
cookbook_path            ["#{current_dir}/../cookbooks"]

also make sure you are at the chef-repo directory, running the command from another directory will give you the same error.

check this guide to learn how to setup and configure chef workstation :

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-chef-12-configuration-management-system-on-ubuntu-14-04-servers

MS Exchange mailbox quarantined Error

Problem : 

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
User name (username@xyz.com)
Your message wasn't delivered because the recipient's mailbox is quarantined. If the problem continues, please contact your helpdesk.
The following organization rejected your message: mail.domain.com

Diagnostic information for administrators:
Generating server: mail.domain.com
Total retry attempts: 1
username@xyz.commail.domain.com
Remote Server returned '550 5.7.9 STOREDRV.Deliver; Recipient mailbox quarantined.; STOREDRV.Deliver.Exception:StorageTransientException.MapiExceptionMailboxQuarantined; Failed to process message due to a permanent exception with message Cannot open mailbox


Solution : 

this is caused by either user reaching maximum quota limit or it is could be due to exchange server running out of disk space.

In my case it was due to disk space on the server, I had to truncate mail databases logs and other logs created by exchange and also I had to change the quota limit for the user even though it was not reached yet , also rebooting the server will be required.

Storage Migration of a Windows 2012 R2 VDI Deployment (Managed Virtual Desktops Collection)

Storage migration of VMs can be performed as one step easily using either the Failover Cluster Manager in Windows 2012 R2 or  VMM . However, migrating a VDI deployment that consist of a collection of virtual desktops is far more complex and there is no direct way to do the migration yet !

when you try to edit the deployment properties to change the storage location, you will be able to change certain configuration but not all of them, for example you can change the location of the users profiles but not the location of the parent disk of the image/template used to create the collection,
so to do the migration, you will need to create a new collection.

so here what I needed to do to migrate my VDI deployment :

1- Copy the master VM/Image used to create the collection to the new storage
2- Copy the users profiles vhd files (if your deployment use them) in a temp folder
3- Drop the existing collection
4- Create the new collection based on the Image you copied
5- Move the users profiles vhd files to the new storage location

Note: it is important to use the same template, otherwise users might have problems loading their profiles .

No SQL Server selection during Installing Operation Manager 2012 R2

during the installation of System Center Operation Manager 2012 R2, you might stuck at the step of selecting a SQL server instance for Reporting Services. the drop box is empty and there is nothing to select .

searching for a solution on the internet was not easy , this could happen for different reasons , one main reason is connectivity to the SQL server and the reporting services as described here :


but for me the reason was different and not obvious !
This problem could happen when you are trying to install the first Management Server and at the same time you selected to install both Management Server and Operation Console.

The solution will be simply to first install the Management Server and then run the setup again to Install the remaining features like Operation Console and Web Console.

Dell OpenManage SAS Controller Warning

Sometimes you will see "non-critical" warning on your storage node .
the problem is not easy to understand why this happen , looking at the details of the hard drives won't give you a direct answer.

after doing some research , I found out that the reason is because I am using drives that are not certified by Dell and there are no way to get rid of this warnings !

MS System Center App Controller 2012 R2

Starting 2012 SP1, you need to install App Controller beside VMM to get the Self Service Portal.

Install App Controller : Remote Database Server Configuration

When you try to install System Center App Controller 2012 R2,

you might get the below error:

"A netvvork-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or 

was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections."

This error could happen because the current user does not have permission to 

create the database on the server, so assign the right permissions or use a different user.

Hyper-v Failover Cluster Disk Repair

How to fix Cluster disk / volume ?

When Failover cluster manager show the below error for any cluster disk :
"chkdsk scan needed on volume", you need to repair that disk ,

running chkdsk.exe should fix the error and take care of the problem,
but in some cases you need to also run the below deprecated cmdlet for the error message to disappear :

Repair-ClusterSharedVolume -ChkDsk

for more information about cluster disks , have a look at this blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2014/01/01/10486462.aspx 

Reset XenServer CPU Masking/Features

if you plan to upgrade or migrate your servers that run XenServer ,
it is recommended to join the new servers to the existing pool, when you do so,
you will get this message:

You are attempting to add the server 'xenserver-2' to a pool that is using older CPUs.

XenServer can continue by rebooting the server and reducing its CPU to the level of the existing servers in the pool. This will shut down any VMs running on the server. This feature is supported for CPU combinations listed in the XenServer Hardware Compatibility List.

Do you want to do this?

The only way to be able to join the new server is to accept and lower the CPU feature to match the existing old servers in the pool.

the problem happens after you remove all old servers, so now you have one new server that is the pool master, but when you try to add a second new server that is identical to the master  , you will still get the same error above, so before you do that, you need to reset the CPU mask for the new server and then add the remaining new servers.

execute the command below and reboot the server :
xe host-reset-cpu-features 

now you will be able to add identical servers to the pool without any issues.

Microsoft System Center DPM 2012 R2 - Exchange Backup Error

When you try to backup Exchange Databases , the backup fail ,
with this error :

Data consistency verification check failed for LOGS of Exchange Mailbox Database $DBNAME on $EXCHANGESERVER. (ID 30146 Details: Unknown error (0xc0000135) (0xC0000135))

I immediatly thought something is not right with eseutil.exe that handle the verification,
so when I tried to run eseutile.exe , I got this error :

The program can't start because MSVCR110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

the best solution to fix this problem is to download and install

Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 4

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

QNAP does not work with SCVMM 2012 !

Today, I kept trying to add QNAP TS-879 Pro as a storage device using System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM 2012) but I failed every time, after doing lots of research I found that QNAP does not support SMI-S protocol which is needed to connect SCVMM to SAN devices.

SMI-S basically defines a method for the interoperable management of a heterogeneous Storage Area Network (SAN).


This is a bad news to to me, If I knew this is the case , I will not buy QNAP for our Hyper-V infrastructure.
so my advise is to look for another SAN that support SMI-S. Don't buy QNAP until they implement this feature and you can add your request/ vote for this feature :
http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=42395&p=238573#p238573

XenServer the nfs server version is unsupported .

after a power failure , one xenserver powered off and when it came back again, it couldnt connect to the pool storage , I tried to repair the storage but I kept getting this error:
 the nfs server version is unsupported 



I rebooted the pool master hoping that this will fix the issue , but it made it worse, the pool master also lost the connection to the storage, I rebooted the networking switch , this didn't fix the problem either, the last step I did , was to reboot the storage device and then the repair worked.

I hope this will help anyone who face this problem, I searched google and bing for a solution and i couldn't find few old articles that didn't help.