Archive for the ‘Software’ Category

RSA SecurID Appliances

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Okay, so I had with me over the weekend a SecureID Appliance from RSA. Not one of the software versions, but the RSA-based hardware appliance running a bad version of grub to boot up.

This particular device had a range of issues not withstanding failure on access to the web interface. It’s been a bit of a journey, but figured I may as well note some items down here for future reference.

* Local Administrator account for such devices is always rsalocaladmin
* Interface is accessible on TCP port 8098, SSL access
* RDP access can sometimes break on the interface. You can RDP directly to the box using TCP port 8198 (thanks, RSA)
* Host file is important – ensure its correct either manually through SYSTEM32 or through the web interface
* Backup of the database is kept on C:\authmgr\backup – it runs a backup once a week, and is triggered by an AT script rotatebackup.bat in C:\authmgr\scripts
* The authentication manager and authentication service need to be syncronised – sdconf.rec is stored in C:\authmgr\data and needs to be copied to C:\windows\system32

I had two main issues in the logs, which prevented login to any RSA required system:

* Agent Host Not Found – This was due to a Agent Host entry not being there for the RSA Appliance itself. I re-added the entry as an UNIX agent and configured OK

* Node Verification Failed – This was due to the fact that the sdconf.rec files were not identical.

The web interface that operates on 8098 can’t be accessed via rsalocaladmin, unfortunately. Following the changes above, I created a password only temporary user to test and was successful.

I also had another issue which related to the ACE Client indicating that the authentication managers were not available. These were due to agent secrets being present when they shouldn’t have been. These were cleared up, and the appliance restarted.

Exchange 2007 Public Folders

Friday, June 27th, 2008

To view current permissions on a public folder:
Get-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity “\FOLDER NAME HERE”

To view current permissions for a particular user:
Get-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity “\FOLDER NAME HERE” -User USERNAME

To add a new permission for a user:
Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity “\FOLDER NAME HERE” -User USERNAME -AccessRights PublishingEditor

You can view definitions of permissions and obtain more information at this URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998834(EXCHG.80).aspx

When reconnecting to a non-existant host, Shadowprotect takes a long time to fail

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Because Shadowprotect uses a method known as DCOM in order to connect to each Windows service it “manages” (and by manage I use that loosely until Version 4.0), the DCOM connection needs to time out before the connection fails as it were.

There is a solution to this, and that is to go to the registry (usual warning about backups first if you’re butter fingered) at this location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ShadowStor\ShadowProtect\nodes

and to delete the value within the LastConnected REG_SZ key.

 

Just make sure Shadowprotect is shut down first, either gracefully or forced.

Brightstor running within a VMware virtual machine fails a network backup or runs slowly

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

VMware is a virtualisation technology allowing server or desktop consolidation on modern hardware.  Unfortunately, some software engines written before VMware was popular still wish to use antiquated network calls in order to complete their tasks.

One of these programs is Brightstor, which – if you experience network slowness or job failures – needs some registry love in order to work correctly.  Frequent users of Brightstor will know the pain, and the problem is made worse using network switches that seem to make the issue worse (i.e. Linksys or Dlink).

To correct the problem, you need to go to the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ComputerAssociates\BrightStor ARCserve Backup\ClientAgent\Parameters

and adjust the following registry keys:

UseAsyncIO change from 1 to 0
SetWSSendBuffSize from X to 1
SetWSTCPnoDelay from 1 to 0
MaxSendPacketSize from X to 48

Re-run your backup as required, and typically all of your problems will go away.

Microsoft Money Deluxe won’t update

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

As part of my TechNet subscription, Microsoft Money is an inclusion.  I had a play with it recently, and despite the US-centric tendencies of the program (to date, Microsoft still hasn’t announced a globalised version of the program) it works pretty well.

That is, once you have it installed and updated.

There is an issue with the update procedure and Windows Vista.  If you’re uninstalled, reinstalled and still can’t update the thing, try the following:

1.  Uninstall your version of Money, remembering to keep your data file safe
2.  Reboot your PC
3.  Navigate to C:\Program Files and delete the Money Plus directory
4.  Re-install your software.

The issue is caused by the MNYCoreFiles directory which is usually hidden.  There are some nasty routines on the Internet to delete this folder, but there are numerous reports also which indicate the deletion causes bigger issues with mismatches executables.

 

Alter (or remove) the Common Feeds for Windows Vista

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Windows Vista has popularised a notion that feeds are stored centrally and called upon by a range of programs.  Unfortunately, Microsoft decided to force upon its users a couple of default feeds that mean everytime you setup or configure a feed client (be that Outlook, Live or otherwise) those feeds are automatically imported.

Not so great.

To delete them, the easiest method is to open Internet Explorer, press ALT+C and then press the Feeds button.  From there, you can delete them as needed.