Hyper-V, Volume Shadow Copy and Task Scheduler

If you're using a combination of a scripting language, diskshadow and task scheduler to backup your Hyper-V machines take special care to make sure that task scheduler does not cut off the job whatsoever. Doing so can cause the host server to crash out, although it doesn't seem to be perfectly repeatable I've been able to track down an issue we were having at work where the power was blipping at a customer's site very briefly causing task scheduler to stop the job which immediately crashed out the host box. Unfortuantely it only seems to crash out in this circumstance, when attempting to backup certain virtual machines, although I'm yet to figure out a pattern.

Removing the "stop task if computer goes onto battery power" option and then ensuring that the UPS interface software takes care of it when the battery runs low is a good enough solution for us, for now.

Search bar support challenges

If you're even slightly geeky you will have seen any of several articles in the last 2 years that state "the URL is dead". With the inclusion of the search box in many browsers this is starting to become true, and is starting to present some interesting support challenges.

Every now and then you will need someone to visit a specific site, and you might not be able to connect to the user's device to assist. The solution in most cases is to politely educate the user (or get another user to assist) and move on, but I have had a few users who have been unable to understand the concept that the address/location input is actually what we're looking for. Perhaps the user has removed or shrunk the location bar so that its really insignificant, or perhaps they're just really too stressed to follow simple instructions.

For publically accessible websites the answer is to ensure that your site can be reliably found via all the major search engines, and have a link if necessary. This means that SEO becomes an important feature of your support framework. This is scary but something that very well will become a genuine systems and support concern.

Things get worse for internal-only addresses. In theory you shouldn't be in the position where you're not able to remotely assist a user inside of your own network, but lets face it, shit does happen - or it might be a guest/embedded device (such as a WiFi enabled phone). Whats the answer in this instance? Application level filtering and redirection in your proxy server(s)?

For the love of deity; Use BCC

The last 6 months I've seen 3 companies that I've used both professionally and personally for various services using CC to mass email their clients. This is not acceptable. As result one of my personal accounts is on various lists and receives a marked increase in junk mail.

The latest cock up came from MessageLabs. This is a company that provides email services. If they can't get this right, what hope is there for anyone else out there? If you're in the business of mass emailing any of your customers please, please either send individual mails or use BCC, and make sure that your staff understand why. It's not just a case of your customer's privacy, it's your company's also. Whos to say that on your list you don't have someone who want to steal your business?

This whole cock up doesn't fill me with confidence for MessageLabs, which is unfortunate as Symantec has bought Softscan, whom we use for mail filtering at work and they're now pushing new contracts onto the MessageLabs system instead. It begs the question as to whether or not they're actually technically a competent solution in comparison. In the past I've only had bad experiences. Anyone want to weigh in?

Slow Relaying with Microsoft Exchange 2010

If you've got an application that sends messages via your Exchange 2010 server, using SMTP, you might've noticed that things have slowed down a bit. The reason for this is because the Exchange 2010 receive connectors have a "MaxAcknowledgementDelay" setting, that will inform you if the delivery is successful, within a certain time frame. If the timelimit is hit, it then acks the submission.

To disable this you can set your receive connector not to use this feature: Set-ReceiveConnector "Connector Name" -MaxAcknowledgementDelay 0

Further details are available on technet.

Dear Bloglines

I'm sorry that I couldn't do this to your face, but I'm writing to tell you that it's over. You might not have seen it, but I've tried to be loyal, but the temptations were just too much in the face of your problems, which I'll admit seem quite small and petty to begin with - but they build and they build.

I loved using your beta interface, but it's been in beta for quite sometime, and getting less reliable; the SSL issues that happened during June/July/August and the endless "Server Communication Error"s. Switching back to the normal interface just made me sad. Then I met Google Reader. I'd heard about her a few times in the past, but just brushed her off as some supermodel that I'd hear all about, but never meet. After the breaking of Google's services several times fairly recently I certainly didn't want to meet her - I wasn't sure that I could cope with breakage when I most needed it.

But whilst out this week I couldn't load your mobile interface, and I had no choice. Like some sort of rabid, sickly WoW user needing his daily heroic dungeon grinding fix (I'm over that now, honestly. I only think about it sometimes), I needed my precious news. Thats when Google Reader came around the corner and I bumped into her. She picked me up, casually imported my OPML file and everything just worked. The organisation stayed the same, the mark-as-read-on-scroll, all those things that I loved about your beta interface were there. Then I realised what you were and what you had become.

You might be thinking, "but what about all that stuff you've got pinned with me?". I realise that it's a shame, but at the end of the day I'll just have to treat it like I've forgotten to do a recent back up prior to migrating hardware. I could go back and grab the pinned stuff as and when I need it, or maybe transfer it to a wiki or bookmarks but that would be too much.

I wish you a good life Bloglines, and I hope that you can understand. Maybe we'll see each other again soon at the shopping counter and make a little awkward conversation.

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