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I've recently moved a DPM protected Hyper-V node from one cluster to another. No problem, except I probably should have removed the DPM agent before doing so. I didn't, and while the primary DPM server never had any issues recognising the new cluster membership or with protecting the node seamlessly, the SECONDARY DPM server soon exhibited crashes at seemingly random intervals. Application log showed event ID 943: A MSDPM SQL database inconsistency.

Unable to connect to the DPM database because the database is in an inconsistent state.

Problem Details:
Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.DB.DBCorruptionException: DLS error: Couldn't retrieve details

If you try to migrate one DPM disk (containing inactive protection groups) to another, you will get the following warning:

WARNING: Migration of inactive protection group is not supported

Somewhat more serious is the fact that after migration completes, the script will fail to remove the source disk from the DPM pool. This step is crucial, though, as it ensures that the original disk is not used again for new protection groups.

Simple fix: Delete inacvtive protection from the disk, remove it manually.

Assuming you start from the path where the update files are stored:

ls *.msu | %{start -wait $_ -argumentlist '/quiet /norestart'}

You could of course use -recurse with that ls if your updates live in different subfolders and / or specify a path.

Knowing the Express Service Code greatly speeds up your Dell support experience. Unfortunately they can't be read from WMI like Service Tags. You can use a tool to convert the tags / codes on Dell's website, but that is not always convenient and for Enterprise customers often not feasible (f. ex. because you need to convert 1000+ Tags).

I couldn't find a Powershell converter for this task on the internet, but lots of VB and JS variants. So I went ahead and made one.

Recently I’ve had to set up two Hyper-V hosts. As we are currently running a hodgepodge of VMWare products (mainly VMWare Server in various incarnations, including the disgusting version 2), we are looking for alternatives that are easier to manage. VMWare might be leading from a technical standpoint, but if you are used to proper service and operations management it’s easy to come away disappointed. Hence my foray into Microsoft’s virtualization territory. Read on for a few pointers into the various pitfalls I managed to fall into (and clamber out again).

Ever wanted to know the IP-addresses of all hosts that have names ending in “-vm”? Powershell, Quest’s AD commandlets and PSCX allow you too:

#requires –PsSnapIn Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement
#requires –PsSnapIn PSCX
get-qadobject -name $args[0] -Type dnsnode | %{resolve-host $_.name}

Save as a .ps1 file and invoke .\get-dnsinfo.ps1 *-vm

For the file server project I also had to mirgrate Symantec Storage Exec quotas to Microsoft File Server Resource Manager quotas. While the raw quota transfer was done via a .vbs script, a nice Powershell script took care of the following new feature request:

Create FSRM quota reports and send them to the person responsible (to the email address specified for the owner of the shared folder AD object), with different parameters for each share, when quota usage reaches a specified threshold.

After exporting all file share data from the old system, it's time to recreate those shares on the new system.

Powershell to the rescue!

Happy 2007. A (late) new year's resolution has led me to start this post. I'm currently assigned a task that involves retiring a file server cluster running MSCS on Windows 2000 to one running 2003, complete new hardware. That makes for a fairly straightforward and slightly boring job. We also move from Storage Central to File Server Resource manager. We also move from a L2 network to L3. To spice things up, why not learn Windows Powershell in the process?

It's back as well. It has been a while, and a lot of things changed / happened, though I never felt the urge to do something with my good old homepage. As you might know, it has been dormant for quite some time, and finally even became a target for script kiddies and bots.

Well, that combined with real live events finally led me to the decision to just erase everything (ok, everything concerning my home page) and start anew. What that actually means, I do not know. Some things I do now, though:

- Everything will be in English, this is the international cyberweb after all.

- I will separate schnellbach.de and Mirko's Blog.

- I will continue to fool around, everything will (again) be always half-broken.

Yours truly.