Kind of in line with my previous post of bulk adding DNS zones and configuring secondaries is the need to bind multiple new host headers to a customer's site. Doing it from the IIS Manager is tedious, to say the least.
Fortunately, there is a way to bulk do this as well. This method is a little clunky, but still way better than doing it all manually.
1. From IIS Manager, locate the identifier for your website (if it's not the default site).
2. Open a command prompt and navigate to (default) \Inetpub\Adminscripts.
3. Run the following command:
cscript adsutil.vbs get w3svc/{site identifier}/serverbindings
The reason this has to be done is the adsutil.vbs set command will overwrite this settings (not add to them), so if you just plug in your new host headers, you'll lose all of your old ones!
You should get an output that looks similar to this:
":80:www.oldhostheader1.com"
":80:www.oldhostheader2.com"
4. Copy/paste the output into a notepad window. Delete the white spaces until it's all one continuous line.
5. Using the same format, add your new host headers to this list so that it looks like this:
":80:www.oldhostheader1.com" ":80:www.oldhostheader2.com" ":80:www.newhostheader1.com" ":80:www.newhostheader2.com"
6. At the beginning of the line, prepend cscript adsutil.vbs set w3svc/{siteidentifier}/server bindings, and save it as a .bat file.
7. Run.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Quick 'n dirty DNSCMD scripts
Periodically, I get requests to bulk add domains to our DNS hosting environment. Here are a few simple DNScmd scripts to help make the job easier.
On the DNS Primary server, I created a batch script named "zoneadd_primary.bat" and put this in it:
@ECHO OFF
REM
REM Add DNS zones in from command line parameter file as
REM Standard Primary zones.
REM Replace n.n.n.n with IP address of primary/master DNSserver.
REM Replace x.x.x.x and y.y.y.y with your secondary/slave servers.
REM Check for command-line parameter
if "%1"=="" GOTO USAGE
for /F %%a in (%1) do dnscmd /zoneadd %%a /primary /file %%a.dns
REM Add secondary/slave servers to zones
for /F %%a in (%1) do dnscmd /zoneresetsecondaries %%a /securelist x.x.x.x y.y.y.y
GOTO END
:USAGE
ECHO.
ECHO Error: no file specified
ECHO.
ECHO Usage:
ECHO zoneadd_primary [filename]
ECHO.
ECHO where [filename] is a text file with a list of domains.
ECHO.
ECHO Example:
ECHO.
ECHO zoneadd_primary domains.txt
ECHO.
:END
And then, on the slave servers, I put a companion script called "zoneadd_secondary.bat" with a similar script:
@ECHO OFF
REM
REM Add DNS zones in domains.txt as secondary zones.
REM Replace n.n.n.n with IP address of primary/master server.
if "%1"=="" GOTO USAGE
for /F %%a in (%1) do do dnscmd /zoneadd %%a /secondary n.n.n.n
GOTO END
:USAGE
ECHO.
ECHO Error: no file specified
ECHO.
ECHO Usage:
ECHO zoneadd_secondary [filename]
ECHO.
ECHO where [filename] is a text file with a list of domains.
ECHO.
ECHO Example:
ECHO.
ECHO zoneadd_secondary domains.txt
ECHO.
:END
Not much to it, but I do find it useful.
On the DNS Primary server, I created a batch script named "zoneadd_primary.bat" and put this in it:
@ECHO OFF
REM
REM Add DNS zones in from command line parameter file as
REM Standard Primary zones.
REM Replace n.n.n.n with IP address of primary/master DNSserver.
REM Replace x.x.x.x and y.y.y.y with your secondary/slave servers.
REM Check for command-line parameter
if "%1"=="" GOTO USAGE
for /F %%a in (%1) do dnscmd /zoneadd %%a /primary /file %%a.dns
REM Add secondary/slave servers to zones
for /F %%a in (%1) do dnscmd /zoneresetsecondaries %%a /securelist x.x.x.x y.y.y.y
GOTO END
:USAGE
ECHO.
ECHO Error: no file specified
ECHO.
ECHO Usage:
ECHO zoneadd_primary [filename]
ECHO.
ECHO where [filename] is a text file with a list of domains.
ECHO.
ECHO Example:
ECHO.
ECHO zoneadd_primary domains.txt
ECHO.
:END
And then, on the slave servers, I put a companion script called "zoneadd_secondary.bat" with a similar script:
@ECHO OFF
REM
REM Add DNS zones in domains.txt as secondary zones.
REM Replace n.n.n.n with IP address of primary/master server.
if "%1"=="" GOTO USAGE
for /F %%a in (%1) do do dnscmd /zoneadd %%a /secondary n.n.n.n
GOTO END
:USAGE
ECHO.
ECHO Error: no file specified
ECHO.
ECHO Usage:
ECHO zoneadd_secondary [filename]
ECHO.
ECHO where [filename] is a text file with a list of domains.
ECHO.
ECHO Example:
ECHO.
ECHO zoneadd_secondary domains.txt
ECHO.
:END
Not much to it, but I do find it useful.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Mitch McConnell, This One's For You
Also titled, "Everything that's wrong with Republicans and Democrats."
It's been a while since I've posted something political; now that the dust is getting kicked up around the compromise deal between President Obama and the Senate Republicans, I think it's a good time to let my feelings out.
Hearing Mitch McConnell on the radio is an audio reminder of why I don't consider myself a Republican anymore. I have no idea how he can claim that extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans is going to help our ailing economy. Since it's obvious that it's been a few years since he's had an economics course, I'm going to share my limited recollection of college econ.
Now, mind you, I was born and raised in a house that bled Reaganomics. I still hear stories about how I ran around the Whitewater Armory on election day yelling "Ronald Reagan is a good man!" I was always told that the rich people create jobs and that you never asked a Wal-Mart greeter for a job. I was told that everyone's born a Democrat, and then they grow up.
However, I've come to the realization that this particular viewpoint was very one-sided and not very practical.
While rich people and businss owners *do* create jobs, they create jobs when there is sufficient economic cause to do so. Rich people didn't get to be rich by spending their money foolishly, and few things are more foolish than employing a bunch of people making stuff that isn't getting sold.
For some reason, Mitch McConnel seems sold on the idea that the richest 2% of Americans need all of these tax breaks extended because we're in a fragile economy and that extra oomph is needed to entice them to create jobs.
Mitch, I've got news for you--no one with bags of money sits around thinking, "I'm going to create some jobs by employing a bunch of minimum wage folks in hopes of stimulating the economy." There is no benevolent employer who is looking for the opportunity to create a warehouse full of unsold goods. Rich people don't get to be rich by hiring a bunch of people to stand around idle. What stimulates the economy is a lot of people buying stuff over a sustained period. The spending must come before the job creation does.
What he (and the other Congressional Republicans) need to remember is that the most direct ways to stimulate the economy and reduce the deficit are:
1. Extend unemployment benefits. People who are on unemployment aren't building a rainy day fund. UE is barely enough to keep food on the table for most families; every last penny of it is going immediately back into the economy.
2. Simplify the tax structure. It was tried in 1986, but didn't really have a huge net change. There are so many loopholes favoring the rich that they can, in some cases, pay less taxes than people making 1/10 of what they make. Eliminate the vast majority of deductions. There is no reason that the personal tax code can't be under 100 pages, or even 50.
3. Broaden the tax base. Get more people to pay taxes. Fewer exemptions and deductions means more people are affected.
4. Lower marginal tax rates. If the tax base is sufficiently broad, everyone's marginal rates can go down. This woul directly put money back into pockets to be spent. A family of four making $40,000 per year spends a much higher percentage of their income on necessities than a single person making $2m a year. Lowering the tax rates (especially on the low end of the income scale) again means that more money would be going directly back into the economy. And we all know that money flowing in means employers need to hire more people (that whole supply and demand thing).
The President and his Debt Commission have several recommendations; I think a lot of the ideas are good. There are only two ways to shrink the deficit--raise revenues and cut spending. Republicans and Democrats seem to think that those ideas are mutually exclusive. Democrats want to increase revenues, Republicans want to cut spending on bleeding-heart programs.
Things that I think would beneficial for a comprehensive tax plan:
1. Exempt first $35,000 from personal income tax.
2. Do away with all deductions except charity and medical expenses (EIC, mortgage deduction, etc)
3. Eliminate capital gains tax.
4. Eliminate inheritance tax.
5. Implement progressive income tax (maybe about 18% on $35,000-70,000; 22% on $70,000-150,000; 25% on 150,000-$500,000, etc. It would take a bit of math, but in the end, the marginal tax rates drop significantly, but with a broader base and only two deductions (charity and medical expenses), I think we'd see an overall increase in government revenue.
My numbers may need some tweaking, but I think in teh end, it's going to take some out-of-the-box ideas like that (like touching the sacred cow "Mortgage deduction") to put real money back in the pockets of the people most likely to spend it and start growing our economy.
It's been a while since I've posted something political; now that the dust is getting kicked up around the compromise deal between President Obama and the Senate Republicans, I think it's a good time to let my feelings out.
Hearing Mitch McConnell on the radio is an audio reminder of why I don't consider myself a Republican anymore. I have no idea how he can claim that extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans is going to help our ailing economy. Since it's obvious that it's been a few years since he's had an economics course, I'm going to share my limited recollection of college econ.
Now, mind you, I was born and raised in a house that bled Reaganomics. I still hear stories about how I ran around the Whitewater Armory on election day yelling "Ronald Reagan is a good man!" I was always told that the rich people create jobs and that you never asked a Wal-Mart greeter for a job. I was told that everyone's born a Democrat, and then they grow up.
However, I've come to the realization that this particular viewpoint was very one-sided and not very practical.
While rich people and businss owners *do* create jobs, they create jobs when there is sufficient economic cause to do so. Rich people didn't get to be rich by spending their money foolishly, and few things are more foolish than employing a bunch of people making stuff that isn't getting sold.
For some reason, Mitch McConnel seems sold on the idea that the richest 2% of Americans need all of these tax breaks extended because we're in a fragile economy and that extra oomph is needed to entice them to create jobs.
Mitch, I've got news for you--no one with bags of money sits around thinking, "I'm going to create some jobs by employing a bunch of minimum wage folks in hopes of stimulating the economy." There is no benevolent employer who is looking for the opportunity to create a warehouse full of unsold goods. Rich people don't get to be rich by hiring a bunch of people to stand around idle. What stimulates the economy is a lot of people buying stuff over a sustained period. The spending must come before the job creation does.
What he (and the other Congressional Republicans) need to remember is that the most direct ways to stimulate the economy and reduce the deficit are:
1. Extend unemployment benefits. People who are on unemployment aren't building a rainy day fund. UE is barely enough to keep food on the table for most families; every last penny of it is going immediately back into the economy.
2. Simplify the tax structure. It was tried in 1986, but didn't really have a huge net change. There are so many loopholes favoring the rich that they can, in some cases, pay less taxes than people making 1/10 of what they make. Eliminate the vast majority of deductions. There is no reason that the personal tax code can't be under 100 pages, or even 50.
3. Broaden the tax base. Get more people to pay taxes. Fewer exemptions and deductions means more people are affected.
4. Lower marginal tax rates. If the tax base is sufficiently broad, everyone's marginal rates can go down. This woul directly put money back into pockets to be spent. A family of four making $40,000 per year spends a much higher percentage of their income on necessities than a single person making $2m a year. Lowering the tax rates (especially on the low end of the income scale) again means that more money would be going directly back into the economy. And we all know that money flowing in means employers need to hire more people (that whole supply and demand thing).
The President and his Debt Commission have several recommendations; I think a lot of the ideas are good. There are only two ways to shrink the deficit--raise revenues and cut spending. Republicans and Democrats seem to think that those ideas are mutually exclusive. Democrats want to increase revenues, Republicans want to cut spending on bleeding-heart programs.
Things that I think would beneficial for a comprehensive tax plan:
1. Exempt first $35,000 from personal income tax.
2. Do away with all deductions except charity and medical expenses (EIC, mortgage deduction, etc)
3. Eliminate capital gains tax.
4. Eliminate inheritance tax.
5. Implement progressive income tax (maybe about 18% on $35,000-70,000; 22% on $70,000-150,000; 25% on 150,000-$500,000, etc. It would take a bit of math, but in the end, the marginal tax rates drop significantly, but with a broader base and only two deductions (charity and medical expenses), I think we'd see an overall increase in government revenue.
My numbers may need some tweaking, but I think in teh end, it's going to take some out-of-the-box ideas like that (like touching the sacred cow "Mortgage deduction") to put real money back in the pockets of the people most likely to spend it and start growing our economy.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
How to Join Windows XP Media Center to a Domain
During an SBS deployment, I ran into a few machines at my customer's site that were running Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). As most of you know, the only machines that are technically eligible to join a Windows domain are "Business" class operating systems, such as Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise (although not technically "business" class, Windows Vista/7 Ultimate Editions are also able to join domains, since they're supposed to be everything-but-the-kitchen-sink editions).
And, as luck would have it, the customer has critical LOB applications installed on these machines and some other pieces of legacy software for which the media is no where to be found, so a fresh install with Windows XP Professional media is out of the question.
No problem, right? I've upgraded dozens of Windows XP Home PCs to Windows XP Professional for this exact reason. I pop some newly acquired Windows XP Professional with SP3 "Get Genuine" media (designed for those folks that have potentially illegitimate Windows versions); the upgrade is going well until ... the part where I enter the license key. It won't take it, even though I know it's valid (tested against an XP Home machine in the same office).
While trying to find a reason why I can't upgrade, I stumble upon another blog with some basic instructions on how to join XP MCE to a domain. The first step the author lists is to install the Windows XP Recovery Console; I run the command and restart ... and ... bluescreen.
I turn to my trusty recovery tools disc (which has gotten me out of more tight spots than you can imagine) and boot to a WinPE shell which has a bunch of great tools loaded, including RegEdit PE.
To perform this feat of amazement yourself:
1. From a WinPE installation, launch RegEdit PE, point it to the Windows installation director, and load up the registry hives.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\_REMOTE_SYSTEM\WPA\MedCtrUpg.
3. Double-click the value IsLegacyMCE.
4. Change the '0' to a '1'.
5. Close RegEdit PE and restart the machine into Windows.
6. Join domain.
And, as luck would have it, the customer has critical LOB applications installed on these machines and some other pieces of legacy software for which the media is no where to be found, so a fresh install with Windows XP Professional media is out of the question.
No problem, right? I've upgraded dozens of Windows XP Home PCs to Windows XP Professional for this exact reason. I pop some newly acquired Windows XP Professional with SP3 "Get Genuine" media (designed for those folks that have potentially illegitimate Windows versions); the upgrade is going well until ... the part where I enter the license key. It won't take it, even though I know it's valid (tested against an XP Home machine in the same office).
While trying to find a reason why I can't upgrade, I stumble upon another blog with some basic instructions on how to join XP MCE to a domain. The first step the author lists is to install the Windows XP Recovery Console; I run the command and restart ... and ... bluescreen.
I turn to my trusty recovery tools disc (which has gotten me out of more tight spots than you can imagine) and boot to a WinPE shell which has a bunch of great tools loaded, including RegEdit PE.
To perform this feat of amazement yourself:
1. From a WinPE installation, launch RegEdit PE, point it to the Windows installation director, and load up the registry hives.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\_REMOTE_SYSTEM\WPA\MedCtrUpg.
3. Double-click the value IsLegacyMCE.
4. Change the '0' to a '1'.
5. Close RegEdit PE and restart the machine into Windows.
6. Join domain.
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