How to open Internet Explorer in kiosk mode

I had a project recently that required a PC to open a Internet Explorer session at start up in kiosk mode:

iexplore.exe -k (web address)

MDT 2010 – Error ‘Invalid credentials: The network path was not found’ when trying to deploy an image to a device using PXE boot

I have had this issue out of the blue. MDT had been working flawlessly for around 2 years and then recently I kept getting to a point in a deployment when it would go no further.

When you are prompted for user, password and domain details so that the \\deploymentshare could be accessed I would either receive the errors:

Invalid credentials: The network path was not found

or

A Connection to the deployment share (\\computername\share\) could not be made. The
deployment will not proceed.

After a search on the Internet someone suggested changing the server name in the
bootstrap.ini from the ser ver name to include the FQDN i.e. \\mdt server\deploymentshare$ -> \\mdtserver.mycompany.com\deploymentshare$

This made no difference and I was beginning to think that this was a networking issue or port block issue of some kind.

Instead of using the FQDN I changed this to the IP address of the server i.e. \\1.2.3.4\\deploymentshare$

After updating the deployment share and then replacing the boot image used by WDS this resolved the problem.

I can only assume that there is some kind of authentication issue within Windows perhaps as a result of a Windows update

Microsoft Outlook – Reported error (0x8004010F) : ‘Outlook data file cannot be accessed.’

After you have moved an Outlook account and associated .pst file to a different location or PC you may receive this error after you try to Send/Receive mail.

I found that the problem was caused by the expected delivery locations for the send/receive process.

I found that by changing the folder to specify a different inbox, applying and then selecting the correct inbox and applying fixed the issue.

- In Outlook 2010 click File>Account Settings>Account Settings

- Select the relevant account and click Change Folder

- Select a different location and apply

- Select Change Folder and select the correct Inbox location

The send/receive process should now work

 

You cannot view the properties of a GroupWise message and are prompted to install GW}00001.TMP

I found this to be a problem on a client running GroupWise v8. When they right clicked on a message and selected properties they were prompted to download and install GW}00001.TMP. Clicking cancel left the message properties tab with a ‘Page cannot be displayed’ message.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the GroupWise client which didn’t resolve it. I found information on a Novell forum here http://forums.novell.com/novell/novell-product-discussion-forums/groupwise/groupwise-7x/gw7-clients/100739-cannot-view-mail-properties-gw7-01-a.html which mentioned that this was an issue with MSXML.

I then found official support here http://www.novell.com/communities/node/6968/properties-groupwise-message-prompts-install-gw00001tmp

When I tried to unregister and reregister the msxml4.dll I got an error message stating that it had failed as the dll didn’t exist.

Next I downloaded MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 3 (Microsoft XML Core Services) from

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15697

After installing this cleared the issue immediately.

Trying to run a scheduled task that uses an AD account to copy files to a Netware volume fails

I had problems trying to copy files from a local drive on a computer to a Netware volume using a normal scheduled task. Basically whilst logged on with a NDS and AD account you cannot write to a Netware volume. This is because the authentication used by the scheduled task is AD when Netware is expecting NDS authentication.

Trying to work around this I wrote a batch file that used the Net use command to attach to a Netware volume as a different NDS account. This was so that the task ran as a NDS user that we could define had properties that didn’t prompt for a password change.

Unfortunately when you try to connect to a volume using a second NDS account you receive the error:

“System error 1219 has occurred.
Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user,
using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous
connections to the server or shared resource and try again.”

After some research I found that you can only be authenticated to the NDS Tree once unlike AD where you can ‘Run As’ under a different AD account.

In the end I just created a batch file that the logged on user manually runs so that their credentials are used instead.

Cannot change cell properties in Excel

I found that I couldn’t change the fill colour in a specific spreadsheet created by another user.

This is caused when cells or worksheets are subject to conditional formatting.

To change the cell or entire worksheet and depending upon which version of Excel you have select  Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear rules

Groundwork will not commit and Nagios pre-flight check gives a blank screen

After I had created a new command and then a new HP ASR monitoring service I found that when I went to commit the portion of the screen on the right just went blank and nothing happened.

I looked back at the command I had created and there was no detail in the right hand side which should have been populated with the Command Wizard window that includes the specific command configuration and details.

I assumed then that the issue was caused by the command and that it had become in some way corrupt.

When you create an entity within Groundwork such as a host, service, command etc it is written to the Monarch database. Once it is committed it is then also added to the Nagios config files in.

So it is simple – remove the specific command entry from the commands table in the Monarch database.

Except it wasn’t. I wanted to install MySQL workbench on the CentOS server hosting Groundwork. I just couldn’t get it to load. Then I couldn’t open MySQL from the command line and was receiving a variety of errors. After much trial and error this is how I managed to delete the offending command entry from the Monarch database.

1. Installed MySQL Workbench on my Windows 7 client

Need to allow remote access to the MySQL database

MySQL looks at the file my.cnf when opening the mysql client. You will get an error when trying to open the client because MySQL is looking at the /etc/my.cnf rather than /usr/local/groundwork/mysql/my.cnf

This can be done remotely using putty or on a terminal window on the server itself

2. Backup or take a copy of /etc/my.cnf and overwrite with the /usr/local/groundwork/mysql/my.cnf version

3. Stop and restart gwservices which will restart MySQL

/etc/init.d/groundwork stop

/etc/init.d/groundwork start

4. Open mysql by typing mysql

5. Type GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO username@yourclientIPaddress;

For example GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO root@158.3.2.6;

6. Connect to the MySQL instance via MySQL Workbench

7. Locate the Monarch database and select the relevant table

8. Edit the table data and remove the row entry that contains the corrupt record

9. Select Apply changes to data

10. Check within Groundwork and Configuration whether the offending record has gone

11. I stopped Groundwork services and added back the original my.cnf to /etc/my.cnf and restarted the server to complete

When trying to load the Groundwork portal you receive a HTTP Status 500 webpage and various java errors

In my ongoing mission to troubleshoot a problem with Groundwork and Nagios I keep stumbling upon random errors which set me back each time. This time after I had made some changes to the /etc/my.cnf file as this seemed to be referenced rather than the /usr/local/groundwork/mysql/my.cnf file. I chose to copy the contents of the /usr/local/groundwork/mysql/my.cnf file to the /etc/my.cnf which amongst other things allowed me to connect remotely using MySQL Workbench. However after a reboot the portal would no longer load and there was a number of Java reported errors as below.

After I had completed the MySQL admin I simply restored the original /etc/my.cnf file which instantly resolved the problem

HTTP Status 500 -

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException

org.jboss.portal.server.servlet.PortalServlet.service(PortalServlet.java:278)

javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)

org.jboss.web.tomcat.filters.ReplyHeaderFilter.doFilter(ReplyHeaderFilter.java:96)

root cause

java.lang.NullPointerException

org.jboss.portal.core.impl.model.portal.PersistentPortalObjectContainer.getObjectNode(PersistentPortalObjectContainer.java:252)

org.jboss.portal.core.impl.model.portal.AbstractPortalObjectContainer.getContext(AbstractPortalObjectContainer.java:112)

org.jboss.portal.core.impl.model.portal.AbstractPortalObjectContainer.getContext(AbstractPortalObjectContainer.java:81)

org.jboss.portal.core.model.portal.DefaultPortalCommandFactory.doMapping(DefaultPortalCommandFactory.java:72)

org.jboss.portal.core.controller.Controller.handle(Controller.java:252)

org.jboss.portal.server.RequestControllerDispatcher.invoke(RequestControllerDispatcher.java:51)

org.jboss.portal.common.invocation.Invocation.invokeNext(Invocation.java:131)

org.jboss.portal.common.invocation.Invocation.invoke(Invocation.java:157)

org.jboss.portal.server.servlet.PortalServlet.service(PortalServlet.java:252)

javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)

org.jboss.web.tomcat.filters.ReplyHeaderFilter.doFilter(ReplyHeaderFilter.java:96)

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA logs.

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2) when you attempt to start the MySQL client

Make sure that your my.cnf in /etc is actually pointing to the correct MySQL instance

I found MySQL installed within a different location (for Groundwork Community Edition) with its own my.cnf file

I overwrote the /etc/my.cnf file with the values in usr/local/groundwork/mysql/my.cnf

’503 Service Temporarily Unavailable’ error when opening the Groundwork Community Edition web interface

You receive the error

503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

It was a relative easy solution. Simply add the hostname in /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain your_hostname

For example:

10.32.1.2 nagiossrv.adir nagiossrv