Some useful Exchange Management Shell commands:

List all mailboxes on server 2007a:
get-mailbox -server servername

Given a list of names, show mailbox info:
type list.txt | Get-Mailbox

Given a list of users, move their mailboxes:
type list.txt | move-mailbox -TargetDatabase 'mailbox database' -maxthreads 30

For all mailboxes on the server, set policy:
get-mailbox -server servername | set-mailbox -managedfoldermailboxpolicy 'policyname'

For all mailboxes, set mailbox policy:
get-mailbox -resultsize 5000 | set-mailbox -managedfoldermailboxpolicy policyname'

See members of group:
get-mailbox -member 'conference rooms'

Convert all members of a group to resource:
Get-DistributionGroupMember 'conference rooms' | set-mailbox -type room

Move mailbox to a specific mail database
move-mailbox -TargetDatabase 'servername\SGname\DBname'

Get mailboxes in a specific mail db
Get-StorageGroup 'first storage group' | get-mailboxdatabase | get-mailbox

Count the mailboxes per storage grp/mail db
get-mailbox -server servername | group-object -property:database | sort-object -property:count

Move one mailboxfrom command line
get-mailbox -identity 'username' | move-mailbox -TargetDatabase 'server\SGname\DBname'

Assign full access permissions
get-mailbox -identity username | add-mailboxpermission -user user -accessrights fullaccess

List all users on a server and sort by alias
get-mailbox -server servername | sort -property alias

Convert shared mailbox to regular mailbox
Set-Mailbox username -Type:regular

Convert regular mailbox to shared
Set-Mailbox username -Type:Shared

Have a machine you want to connect to, but remote desktop isn’t enabled? As long as you have administrator access to that machine you can enable remote desktop very easily from another machine on the same network. Just use Regedit and connect to the remote machine’s registry and make one change.

Change Dword value: hklm/ system/ currentcontrolset/ control/ terminal server/ fDenyTSConnections from 1 to 0

Of course you can do this from the command line if you have PSExec:
psexec \\computername/ipip reg add “hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server” /f /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0

You should also be able to do this with WMI:
wmic /node:”FQDN Name” RDTOGGLE WHERE ServerName=”HostName” CALL SetAllowTSConnections 1

For XP you may need to do this instead:
wmic /node:”HOSTNAME” path win32_terminalservicesetting where servername=”HOSTNAME” call SetAllowTSConnections 1

You can connect to the “console 0″ session from a command line:
mstsc /v:x.x.x.x /console – for rdp clients before v5
mstsc /v:x.x.x.x /admin – for rdp clients v6 or higher

Some of the folks over at the SANS Internet Storm Center have created a new blog dedicated to describing command line tools: http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/

Do you support Oracle databases? Are you looking for a tool to give you insight in to its performance? Check out Spotlight on Oracle from Quest Software: http://www.quest.com/spotlight-on-oracle/

I ran across this webcast today – Some interesting details about how to deal with massive amounts of data and how to serve large amounts of small data and managing multiple copies of databases across datacenters.

“High Performance at Massive Scale – Lessons learned at Facebook”
By Jeff Rothschild, Vice President of Technology, Facebook
Recorded at Calit2 Auditorium, University of California, San Diego

See the webcast at: http://video-jsoe.ucsd.edu/asx/JeffRothschildFacebook.asx

If you have remote offices (even internationally) and need remote hands support, consider using one of the consolidaters such as Crater Communications (http://cratercommunications.com).

Essentially you hire/pay Crater to find a qualified resource in the local area. Billing rates are the same or less than you would be able to find on your own, and it removes all the time/hassle involved in locating local resources on your own. All your disputes are handled centrally and if you’re not happy with the on-site staff assigned to you, Crater will find someone else.

These guys are especially good at finding emergency staff and can have someone on-site in under 4 hours almost anywhere in the world. Your mileage may vary.

If you have PCI requirements or just want to have a consolidated host based IDS system, you should check out OSSEC at http://www.ossec.net

From their website: OSSEC is an Open Source Host-based Intrusion Detection System. It performs log analysis, file integrity checking, policy monitoring, rootkit detection, real-time alerting and active response.

It runs on most operating systems, including Linux, MacOS, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and Windows.

It’s open source and available for free. There’s commercial support available for a fee.

I was reminded today of the Zeltser Cheat Sheets – short documents to walk you through the details of a particular topic like malware analysis or or indident response. Check them out at http://zeltser.com/cheat-sheets/

I also like the networking stack cheat sheets put out by Packet Life… check them out at http://packetlife.net/library/cheat-sheets/

See http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356618,00.asp to read about why Google has decided to provide DNS services similar to OpenDNS.

Point your DNS Forwarder to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 to try it out. Be aware this, like most things Google, is currently “experimental”.

Save the Date: Tue. Dec 1, 2009
The next Sea-Tug meeting will be held TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1st at 6pm at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Portsmouth.

Topic: Data Classification and Audit Reporting. What data classification is and why you need to care.

How do you report file access to your auditors?
Do you know where your Confidential, PII, PCI, HIPAA data is located?
Do you know what your sensitive data is?
What users and groups have access to sensitive data?
What users and groups are accessing sensitive data?
Where is sensitive data most at risk?
Which of my sensitive data is not being used and can be archived or simply deleted?

Meeting Location:
100 High Street, Portsmouth, NH, 03801
Directly across from the parking garage
Plenty of street parking available (meters run until 7pm)
Or you can park in the garage for 75 cents/hour
The Hilton has a full bar and kitchen (open until 10pm) on-site