LogBlog

So we took the dive, and Logic is now running the brand new version, Exchange Server 2010.

All of our email is working great on the new server after ironing out all the kinks, the toughest one for me was getting Blackberry Professional Server (BPS) to integrate.

OWA 2010

We started out on Exchange 2007 and Blackberry Professional 4.1 was running just fine from a separate windows 2003 32bit server.

When I moved my mailbox and the BESAdmin mailbox to the 2010 machine, Blackberry stopped syncing and sending/receiving email. (big surprise)

I spent a bunch of time on the internet researching this and learned that RIM does not support the 4.1 version of BPS/BES with Exchange 2010. The new version of BES is 5.0, but BPS (which is free) will not have any future releases, which is a drag since I don’t want to spend some $2k or whatever on BES 5.

Nobody I found had posted any success stories about this yet so I figured I would.

So… do you want to run Exchange 2010 with BPS 4.1?

First download and install BPS 4.1 from the Blackberry site. Use a 32bit 2003 server.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/#tab_tab_professional

Follow the guides on the blackberry site to install BPS. You’ll need to set some permissions for the BESAdmin account on your exchange server which includes running these two commands from the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):

add-exchangeadministrator “BESAdmin” –role ViewOnlyAdmin

add-adpermission –user “BESAdmin” –accessrights ExtendedRight –extendedrights Send-As, Receive-As, ms-Exch-Store-Admin

Now on the BES, download and install ExchangeMapiCdo.EXE from the Microsoft site. (google it) I got it working with version 6.5.8153.0.

Lastly, I had to disable RPC Encryption on the Exchange 2010 server, which is on by default. Run this from EMS and replace servername with your server name:

Set-RpcClientAccess –Server servername –EncryptionRequired $False

Disable RPC Encryption

Troubleshooting:

Log in to the BES and open “Edit Mapi Profile” from the blackberry folder in the start menu.

Make sure the check name button resolves the BESAdmin mailbox with no errors. That will show that BPS is seeing the right stuff in active directory.

Connect to the BESAdmin mailbox using Outlook. Add an Blackberry user’s mailbox and try sending email as that user.

That will verify the BESAdmin has Send As permission to the mailbox.

If that stuff all works and your Blackberry still doesn’t talk, check the BPS log files. By default they are kept here:

C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\Logs

Good luck! And comment if you run into questions or find any other cool info.

-John Matzek, CEO - Logic IT Consulting

Stress Free Productivity Training, June 2009

Many thanks to those of you who attended Stress Free Productivity training, it was awesome! I hope you all are still getting value from what we learned.

We are very excited to announce our next class which is open now for free registration: Business Continuity – Avoiding Technology Disasters

Did you know?

• 42 to 71% of tape backups fail when it comes time to restore your precious data.
• 94% of businesses who lose their critical data do not stay in business past 2 years.
• Hard Drives prematurely fail 15 times more often than they are supposed to — resulting in loss of all files on a computer or server.
• Many Tucson businesses lose income due to the monsoons — lightning, flooding, and power fluctuations.
• Office fires, sewage backup, burst water heater, flooding, theft, accidents and many other unexpected incidents can destroy your client and financial info.

Good news! You can prevent these disasters from stopping your business.

Logic Consulting provides world class technology solutions for businesses. We are committed to the reliability of our clients’networks, computers, phones, and other technology.

In Business Continuity class, we will learn about possible threats to business continuity, we will learn a few ways to overcome these threats, and we will give you an avenue for having these things happen.

Register for Business Continuity using our easy registration form.

It’s free! And we’re even giving away an iPod Shuffle!

Business Continuity  – Avoiding Technology Disasters will be held at the Arizona Small Business Association (ASBA) training room, 4811 East Grant Road, Suite 261, at 9am to noon on Wednesday, August 12th.

If you missed Stress Free Productivity, you can catch it again on October 14th. Stay tuned!

I’m excited to tell everyone about savaya Coffee- they just opened this month and it’s already one of my favorite places to hang out!

savaya does coffee right. They use all organic beans that are roasted by savaya, all organic milk, and everything is made with the highest quality ingredients.

They have a beautiful setup with a mesquite coffee bar and great décor. Even the bathroom is amazingly done.

Stop in and visit them at Williams Center, South West corner of Broadway and Craycroft here in Tucson. Bring cash since their card machine isn’t setup yet.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

In our focus and expansion of Logic Software (the Software Development brand of Logic Consulting) we are implementing new tools and best practices that follow SCRUM - an Agile software methodology.  What is SCRUM?  Here is an awesome video that explains it in under 10 minutes.

-Ira

Logic IT Consulting is always looking for new and creative ways to provide reliable IT services. We are proud to announce that we can now provide reliability in the instance of a gravitational fluctuation.

Your office may have a high Gravitational Fluctuation Index (GFI). We determine your Gravitational Fluctuation Resistance (GFR) and provide services to prevent your network from going down when there is a fluctuation in gravity.

We provide cutting edge solutions to raise your GFR. Some of these solutions include:

• Glue
• Screws and Nails
• Tape
• Velcro
• Many More!

Please take a minute to consider the risk to your business if there were a gravitational fluctuation. Logic IT Consulting will provide solutions to keep you up and running. Go with the experts!

Samples of Logic IT’s GFR technologies:

Article Author:  John Matzek

If you’ve talked to me recently, you know about True Food Kitchen in Phoenix - the first restaurant to feature all foods approved by Dr. Weil and consistent with his Anti-Inflammatory diet!  I have eaten there so many times in the last few weeks that I lost count :).  TFK took something like 2 years to open and is a collaboration between Dr. Andrew Weil and restaurateur Sam Fox (Sauce, Zinburger, Montana Ave, NoRTH).  The food there is not only healthy and fresh, but also amazing!  VERY delicious.  They even have deserts like Flourless Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Mousse.

I hope they open one in Tucson.  I would eat there a lot.  Then, maybe I’d run into Andy Weil one day (since he lives in Tucson too) and I can thank him for the positive impact he’s had on my life.  In the meanwhile I am very thankful that the only True Food Kitchen in the world is only 2 hours away.

I try to get new dishes every time I go — so far, these are the best dishes I have tried and highly recommend are:

Appetizers:

• Raw Fish Appetizer Special (Spicy Raw Fish with homemade Sriracha sauce)

Best sashimi I’ve ever had!

• Herb Hummus with Pita Bread & Greek Salad

Best Hummus I have EVER had.  They home-make it.

• Caramelized Onion Tart with Smoked Garlic, Black Figs & Gorgonzola

Main Dishes:

• Andy’s Favorite “TLT” Tempeh, Lettuce & Tomato on Whole Seed Bread

Surprisingly good.  I had this for lunch today and am STILL craving it.  Jenni ate the half I took home.  She agrees :).

• Tuscan Kale Salad, Lemon, Parmigiano Reggiano & EVOO
• Fresh Tomato, Pasilla Chile & Manchego Pizza

They go VERY easy on the cheese.  This is great if you are following the Anti-Inflammatory diet.

• Miso Glazed Black Cod, Bok Choy, Asian Mushroom

WOW!  The first time I’ve ever eaten Black Cod.  It was a little sweet and delicious.

• Butternut Squash Ravioli with Mushrooms, Savoy Cabbage & Pistachios

This pasta is really incredible.  One of the best tasting pasta’s I’ve had.

• Grilled Sustainable Salmon, Shiso, Lime, Avocado & Cilantro Aioli Sandwich

THE best Salmon I have ever eaten.  It was very tender and did not taste fishy AT ALL.

• Sustainable Salmon, Roasted Apples, Carrots, Celery Root, Mustard Vinaigrette

A different preparation of THE best Salmon I have ever eaten :).

• Wild Ahi Sliders, Wasabi, Radishes, Cucumber on Sesame Brioche

Drinks:

They make the mixed drinks fresh at TFK:

• Pina Colada

This is hands-down the most delicious Pina Colada I’ve ever had.

There are a couple other drinks I tried at TFK and was not a fan of, but then I tried the Pina Colada and I’m glad I did.

• Medicine Man

Has rare and powerful Olivello antioxidant juice in it from sea buckthorn berries.  Not as sweet as I’m used to, but once I realized that and changed my expectations, this became a very tasty drink.  I got it with Green Tea instead of Black Tea.

• Iced Green Tea

Deserts:

• Chocolate Mousse

My Favorite Desert there so far

• Flourless Chocolate Cake

Jenni’s Favorite Desert

Here is the full menu (but not the deserts).

More Info:

Dr. Weil Opens His Restaurant

Dr. Weil’s Blog about where TFK gets it’s produce

Dr. Weil’s Blog - Link to Radio Interview about TFK on KJZZ

True Food Kitchen Address and Phone Number:
Biltmore Fashion Park
2502 E Camelback Rd #135
Phoenix, AZ 85016
P: 602.774.3488

-Ira

Warning: This is a highly technical article.  If you are not an IT Expert, don’t try this at home :).

Thanks to Dennis J Krohn (DDK Communications) for working with Microsoft on this and emailling me and Susan Bradley who pointed me to http://sbsc.techcareteam.com/archives/325 and has been working with Microsoft to track this issue and find the culprit (application or service that makes this happen); we now have a quick fix for the KSOD we have been seeing in Windows Vista.

KSOD Defined: Where after a reboot the Windows Vista PC boots up to a black screen with a white mouse cursor and nothing else ever loads (no logon screen, etc).  Safe mode does the same thing.  Last Known Good configuration and System Restore do not fix it except in rare cases where performing a System Restore to 1 month ago or earlier does (thanks Mike Katz for figuring that out).

So about an hour after Dennis and Susan emailed me the resolution last night, my main workstation KSOD’d.  It has already done this once before and Microsoft did not have a resolution — so my resolution last time was to reinstall Windows to a new directory and manually reinstall and reconfigure all my applications and settings.  THIS time, very fortunately, I got to try these steps out and they worked like a charm.  My workstation was back up and running in less than 5 minutes.

Here is how to recover from the KSOD (blacK Screen Of Death):

There apparently this a problem related to the Remote Procedure Call service (RPC) running under LocalSystem account instead of NT Authority\NetworkService account.

1. On the affected machine, boot using the Vista Media and Select “Next” and then in the bottom left you will see “Repair your Computer”; select Next and then Select Command Prompt.

2. At the command prompt, launch regedit.exe and load the SYSTEM hive, follow the below steps.

a. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

b. On the File menu, select Load Hive.

c. Browse to %WINDIR%\System32\Config Folder and select “SYSTEM”

d. Select Open.

e. In the Load Hive dialog box, type in “MySYSTEM” box for the registry hive that you want to edit.

3. After the hive is loaded, modify the following key value per the instructions below: You will need to know what ControlSet the machine is currently running on, this can be determined by going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MySYSTEM\Select and find the “Current” value in the Right hand side. (Example: Current value is 1 then the ControlSet will be ControlSet001)

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MySYSTEM\ControlSet00X\Services\RpcSs (X is the Number from the Current Key from above)

Value Name: ObjectName

Old Value: LocalSystem

New Value: NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService

4. Unload the SYSTEM hive by selecting the key “MySYSTEM” and then select File -> Unload Hive… menu item.

5. Exit regedit.exe

6. Reboot the system normally

-Ira

This video explains dimensions really well.  This is the first time I have understood the 4th dimension and how there could be more dimensions.

Imagining the Tenth Dimension - Rob Bryanton

-Ira

Logic Co-CEO John Matzek quoted in this recent Processor Magazine article:

Best Tip

Investing a substantial amount of money for an IT employee’s training almost always harbors the risk that he or she will use the skills learned to move on to greener pastures for more money. One way to mitigate the risk is to share training costs or schedule reimbursement after the training is completed. “You can offer a partial scholarship where an employee pays for part of the class and gets reimbursed after a certain amount of time,” says John Matzek, co-chief executive officer of Logic IT Consulting (www.logicitc.com). “Or the employee needs to work at the job for a certain amount of time before being eligible for a full scholarship.”

It is also good to keep in mind that keeping good employees involves more than just worrying that they might leave after acquiring better skills.

“At the end of the day, your organization needs to remain competitive to retain talented IT employees, and this requires offering some form of training or certification,” says Michael Taivalmaa, an analyst for Corporate Integrity (www.corp-integrity.com). “Who knows, maybe your next new hire sees you as their greener pasture.”

by Bruce Gain Processor.com

To read the full article go to http://www.processor.com/email.asp?emid=13163

Rainy day cycling in Tucson

• Logic IT Consulting uses cutting-edge network management tools and software to conduct most of our work remotely while improving response time and quality of service, reducing on-site visits by over 90%;
• Logic IT Consulting has a recycling program for used computers and equipment;
• Logic IT Consulting is proud to be the first carbon-neutral IT Consulting company in Arizona
• Logic IT Consulting offsets it’s carbon footprint with clean Wind-power energy credits;
• Participants of the TEP Greenwatts program.
• Listed in Who’s Green AZ as a Green Company

Also take a look at our Company Culture:
Logic IT Consulting promotes a healthy and active lifestyle for our team by providing healthcare coverage, organic produce delivery, activities including group bicycle rides and volleyball, and a flexible and positive work environment.