Ubuntu Server 18.04 – Postfix 3.3.0 Issues

After doing a release upgrade to Ubuntu Server 18.04, Postfix stopped working with the following messages in the syslog:

Mar 11 09:56:02 servername postfix/master[1046]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtpd pid 12628 exit status 1
Mar 11 09:56:02 servername postfix/master[1046]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/sbin/smtpd: bad command startup -- throttling
Mar 11 09:57:02 servername postfix/smtpd[12650]: fatal: in parameter smtpd_relay_restrictions or smtpd_recipient_restrictions, specify at least one working instance of: reject_unauth_destination, defer_unauth_destination, reject, defer, defer_if_permit or check_relay_domains

The fix:

postconf -e 'compatibility_level=2'
systemctl restart postfix.service

Bash Script – Install HP Server Management Tools on Ubuntu Server

Here’s a quick and dirty, no-frills bash script to install the HP Server Management Tools on Ubuntu Server. As is, it will install the command line utilities to configure ILO and your RAID controllers. You can look up the other package names available for your distribution by examining the Packages file as in this example here:

Continue reading “Bash Script – Install HP Server Management Tools on Ubuntu Server”

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”

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”

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.
Continue reading “Exchange 2010 – Add Send As Permission for All Users/Future Users from a User Account”

Logitech BCC950 Conference Cam – Bad Speakers, Blown Speakers, Defective Speakers

Since the internet has become overrun by a gaggle of free speech hating corporations, I thought I would take a brief moment to display my discontent for what I feel are some sort of manufacturing defects of the Logitech BCC950 conference cam.

Don’t get me wrong, for the price, this thing kicks major ass in comparison to many of the alternatives out there. The video is amazing quality for 1080@30fps with PTZ and honestly I do love the camera for all it’s strong points.

Butt, and I say that with an improperly formed sentence and a huge ASS in mind, I just wanted to make the general public aware to the fact that in the last two years, the company I work for has purchased thirty-one of these units and four out of those have had prematurely failing speakers that just start crackling out of nowhere. Continue reading “Logitech BCC950 Conference Cam – Bad Speakers, Blown Speakers, Defective Speakers”

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”

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”