You might encounter the following error while registering a new server in PG Admin.
Instance '<Server at <guid>>' is not persisted.
The issue is mostly due to uninstalling and re-installing PG Admin or installing a different version of PG Admin.
The resolution would be the following.
C:\Users\<your user>\AppData\RoamingPGAdminThis will resolve the issue
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You might need to purge all the data in all the tables in a particular database. For this we can use the following script.
USE <database name>
DECLARE @TableName AS VARCHAR(MAX)
DECLARE table_cursor CURSOR
FOR
SELECT TABLE_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND TABLE_NAME LIKE '%_Partition%'
OPEN table_cursor
FETCH NEXT FROM table_cursor INTO @TableName
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
DECLARE @SQLText AS NVARCHAR(4000)
SET @SQLText = 'TRUNCATE TABLE ' + @TableName
EXEC sp_executeSQL @SQLText
FETCH NEXT FROM table_cursor INTO @TableName
END
CLOSE table_cursor
DEALLOCATE table_cursor
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On Windows 10 and Windows 11, you will be forced to log in the machine with a Microsoft Account. There is a way to bypass this and use only a local account without having to create a Microsoft Account to set it up.
Once you get to this screen, press Shift and F10
This will open a Command Prompt. Enter ipconfig /release and press the Enter key. This will release the IP address and disconnect the computer from the internet.
Close the Command Prompt window. Go back from the arrow on the top left and you will be asked to create a local user.
Like this you will not be forced to log in with a Microsoft Account.
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When checking the logs of the Storage Replica on a Windows Server 2016, 2019 or 2022, using the below command, you get the error saying that Storage Replica has failed an application IO.
Get-WinEvent -ProviderName Microsoft-Windows-StorageReplica -max 20
In this case, the replication is not working and there are no other issues pointing to what could be the problem. In my case the solution was to restart the Storage Replica service from the services.msc. After this, I ran the Get-WinEvent command again and it was replicating again.
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When opening Server Manager on the server, in the notifications you will see an error stating Refresh Failed.
At this stage, you will not be able to add any features to the server and you will not be able to add or remove windows features.
A pop-up about collecting inventory data and a refresh error saying “Configuration refresh failed with the following error: Invalid class” will show.
Before proceeding you can take a backup of this by using the command below
winmgmt /backup %computername%_MM_DD_YEAR.WMI_backup
To fix the problem you would need to do the following in a command prompt as Administrator.
winmgmt /verifyrepository
winmgmt /salvagerepository
winmgmt /resetrepository
This will resolve the problem and when you relaunch the Server Manager, you will be able to add the features with no issues.
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While installing the NuGet PowerShell module, you will get the following error
WARNING: MSG:UnableToDownload «https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=627338&clcid=0x409» «»
WARNING: Unable to download the list of available providers. Check your internet connection.
WARNING: Unable to download from URI 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=627338&clcid=0x409' to ''.
Install-PackageProvider : No match was found for the specified search criteria for the provider 'NuGet'. The package provider requires 'PackageManagement' and 'Provider' tags. Please check if the specified package has the tags.
At line:1 char:1
+ Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -MinimumVersion 2.8.5.201 -Force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (Microsoft.Power...PackageProvider:InstallPackageProvider) [Install-PackageProvider], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoMatchFoundForProvider,Microsoft.PowerShell.PackageManagement.Cmdlets.InstallPackageProvider
To resolve the problem open a PowerShell window as Administrator and enter the following command.
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
This will resolve the problem temporarily as if you would run the command again, it will still prompt the same problem. To resolve the issue permanently, you need to update the registry by running the below command to update the registry.
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319' -Name 'SchUseStrongCrypto' -Value '1' -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319' -Name 'SchUseStrongCrypto' -Value '1' -Type DWord
Close all PowerShell windows and try again with the following command to confirm that the protocol has been updated.
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol
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When having SharePoint Online, one can easily recover items from the Recycle Bin, but unfortunately, there is no search facility for the Recycle Bin from the web interface. We can use PowerShell to easily search for the item.
To be able to connect, we need to install the new module, Open a PowerShell window and use the below to install the module.
Install-Module -Name PnP.PowerShell
If you would have an older version already installed, you need to use the below command to remove the old module, and then install the module as above.
Uninstall-Module -Name SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline -AllVersions -Force
To connect with the SharePoint Online site, we need to use the following command which will ask us to allow the script to communicate along with the Multi-Function Authentication (MFA).
Connect-PnPOnline -Url "Enter the SharePoint URL here" -Interactive
To extract the specified SharePoint Online Recycle Bin, you need to use the following command to output to the screen. Change the RowLimit to set the maximum results.
Get-PnPRecycleBinItem -RowLimit 50 | Select Title, ItemType, Size, ItemState, DirName, DeletedByName, DeletedDate | Format-table -AutoSize
To export the results to a CSV, you need to add the Export-CSV at the end as below
Get-PnPRecycleBinItem -RowLimit 50 | Select Title, ItemType, Size, ItemState, DirName, DeletedByName, DeletedDate | Export-Csv "C:\Temp\RecycleBin.csv" -NoTypeInformation
To restore a specific file, you cannot just specify the name, as you need to get the item information. We need to use the following commands
$itemtorestore=Get-PnPRecycleBinItem | ? -Property Title -EQ "filename of the deleted file"
Restore-PnpRecycleBinItem -Identity $itemtorestore -Force
This will restore the file to its original location.
Swish
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When updating your SQL server (Standalone) with a Cumulative Update (CU) you might check the error in the Rule Check Result.
Rule "Not clustered or the cluster service is up and online." failed.
The machine is clustered, but the cluster is not online or cannot be access from one of its nodes. To continue determine why the cluster is not online and rerun setup instead of rerunning the rule since the rule can no longer detect a cluster environment correctly.
This is a very strange message, especially since the SQL server is a stand alone server and there is no cluster. After a restart of the server and re-trying the update, the problems still persists.
After a lot of investigation, this issue is nothing related to SQL, but WMI. This can be verified by opening the WMI Management using the command WMIMGMT.MSC, right-click on WMI Control (Local) and click on Properties.
If your entries show Invalid Class, as the above screenshot, we need to re-compile the MOF files using the following command from a command prompt as Administrator.
mofcomp C:\Windows\System32\WBEM\cimwin32.mof
The result should be as below
After this, if you rerun the WMIMGMT.MSC and the same process, the WMI should look like this.
You can now re-run the SQL update and it will update with no issues, thus solving the problem permanently.
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You may have an issue with installing the KB5004298 and KB5004285 on your system. At first, the updates would install successfully, but when you reboot you will get an error saying “Failure configuring Windows Updates. Reverting Changes”
There will not be any error on your Windows machine, only a generic message that the update failed with the error message Code 800F0922 in the Windows Update History.
The error is due to an Acrobat Flash removal issue and the update will fail since it couldn’t find the folders. To resolve the issue, you need to create the following folders with the same case.
C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
Once the above empty folders are created, simply re-run the updates and after a restart, they will be successful. Voila!
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Today, we are going to explore an EDB to PST converter application, called Stellar Converter for EDB. This application promises safe and effective conversion from any EDB file of any version of Exchange Server – from 2007 to 2019, to PST and other formats. The application also exports EDB data directly to live Exchange Servers and Office 365 tenants. Let us take a tour of Stellar Converter for EDB and see if this application does the job as it promises.
So, first things first. Why do we need an application like Stellar Converter for EDB when we can export mailboxes, with no issues, from the Exchange Server directly with the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or by using PowerShell?
For the native tools to work, you need to have your Exchange Server online and the mailbox database mounted to be able to export. If this is not the case, apart from having your users banging on the IT door to access their mails, you will not be able to export the emails. This is where Stellar Converter for EDB comes into play.
Installation
Installation of the software was easy, since the installation file was no bigger than 30 MB. It can be installed on any machine, not required to be installed on the Exchange Server. In fact, I was able to install and use it on a Windows 10 machine with no issues.
Opening an EDB File
EDB to PST Converter software offers two options to open an Exchange mailbox database – online Exchange database and offline copy. So, what is an offline database?
If you choose the Hosted Exchange option, you need to enter the credentials of the user’s mailbox or the user who has access to all the mailboxes. If you do not know the location of the offline EDB files, you can always run the find function to find them automatically after selecting the drive.
Once found, you can select the EDB file for scanning. You can also select more than one to export from.
Once this is complete, the database will be quickly scanned. After a few minutes, depending on the size of the databases, it will display them on the interface. It delivers on the aspect of opening several EDB files at a time, including the archive mailboxes and the system mailboxes as well.
The Interface
Looking at the interface briefly, I really appreciate the fact that most of the functionality is visible on the same screen, with no complications or having several buttons on the screen. The interface is very clean and minimalist, but not lacking any functionality.
The interface resembles the one of Outlook with the folder structure on the left pane and different sections at the bottom for mail, calendar, contacts, task, etc., which is also a great way to browse and explore an EDB file. In the middle pane, you’ll see the list of items. I noticed that the search option is in-built in the pane. For example, you can search for a particular subject just by starting to type in the row of the search.
As soon as you start typing, the search results will immediately show up. You can also have multiple-column search. On the right-hand side, you will have the preview pane which shows HTML emails in full, including attachments. Two thumbs up for functionality, experience, and simplicity.
Functionality
Apart from having the in-line search in your folders, you can still have the views of the contacts, calendar, and other mailbox objects. You also have the advanced search option which gives more criteria to search with.
Apart from the advanced search, within the pane, you can also do an in-line search from the search results to drill down your results.
If the EDB file takes a while to scan for the first time, you can always save the scan so that you will not have to re-scan your databases each time you open the files with Stellar Converter for EDB.
From the tools, you can also export only the contacts to CSV of the selected mailboxes.
Export Capabilities
The application is said to export to various file formats, Exchange Server, Office 365, and Public Folders. After testing it out, it does not disappoint at all.
Once you click on save, you will be asked what export you would like. Apart from the file saving options – PST, MSG, EML, HTML, RTF and PDF, the options that caught my eye were the Export to Exchange Sever, Office 365, and Public Folders.
Let us say that you have restored an EDB file from a decommissioned server and want to export some mailboxes to PST and then import them into the new Exchange Server. You can easily use Stellar Converter for EDB to export the mailboxes directly to the Exchange Server with auto-mapping of users. You can also use the software in a migration where the two Exchange Servers cannot co-exist. You can even use it to migrate your on-premises Exchange Server to Office 365. There is a new option that allows you to export directly to a Public Folder. This option is very useful as you might have old mailboxes that you would need and import them into a particular Public Folder.
Verdict
I was surprised how the application fulfilled all it is promises. The application works flawlessly with all the functionalities being clean and easy. It offers all the functionalities that one would need – opening EDB file, browse through it with a known interface, search functionality, and export to various file formats and applications, like direct import into live Exchange Servers, Office 365 tenant, and Public Folders. It is an application worth having for any Exchange Administrator.
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