Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan

Yesterday I was setting up Backup Exec 2010 R3 as part of disaster recovery solutions initiative for a client. Installing the media server was the easy part, but installing the remote agent on one of the servers proved to much more of a pain. Using the utility built into Backup Exec, I deployed the agent to the server. I then logged into the server to verify that the agent had indeed installed. I noticed a red "X" on the tray icon, so I investigated. Upon looking into the error it said that the service did not start so I opened the services MMC and tried to start it manually. The service started then stopped immediately with the error -

"The Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Systems service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do for example, the Performance Logs and Alerts service."

I also looked in the event logs and found an error with the event ID: 58117 - The application failed to listen on the NDMP TCP/IP port. Check the network configuration.

After digging around on the Internet I found a support document from Symantec that explained the issue. Backup Exec's remote agent requires port 10000 to operate. For those of you who may not know port 10000 is a very commonly used port. Because the administration site for the software running on this particular server was also running on port 10000 the service was failing to start and I was receiving that vague error message (Thanks Symantec!).

Solution to the issue -

1. Confirm that there is another application using port 10000 by first opening a command prompt: Goto Start -> Run -> Type "CMD" and press Enter
2. At the command prompt type:
   NETSTAT -abno
   Then press ENTER
    
   This will give a list of all ports that are in use on the system along with the name of the process that is utilizing the port.  The ports are listed in the format of IP

1.  Edit the SERVICES file located in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\ using  Notepad
2.  Add an entry that reads like the following example (12000 is just an example port.  Pick any available port that did not show as in use in the NETSTAT results):
   ndmp          12000/tcp
    
   At the end of the line press ENTER so that the cursor goes down to the next blank line.  If the ENTER key is not pressed at the end of the NDMP line, the change will not take effect.
3. After making the change, save the file and restart the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers service.

Before making any changes to ports on servers please make sure you consult your Domain Administrator or Network Administrator before changing any ports of programs as this could violate your companies Network Security Policy. Skybyte consulting provides information technology disaster recovery plans for small offices up to large enterprises.

Recently Ive been working on some Exchange 2007 to 2010 upgrades and I would like to share some of my experiences. It is no easy task to upgrade a companies email system. Planning is key to making a successful migration. Here are some key things to help plan your Microsoft Exchange Upgrade to 2010 or 2010 SP1.

• Assess your network infrastructure and decide if you need to acquire a new server or just require some server upgrades. Remember Exchange 2010 only runs on 64-bit versions of Server 2008 and R2. This also means you will need a 64-bit processor in your server.
• Do you currently use virtualization in your network infrastructure? If so you can virtualize your exchange server or servers using Microsoft Hyper V Server 2008,  Vmware Vsphere Installation, and other server virtualization systems.
• Download and read the Planning for Exchange 2010 and also the Deploying Exchange 2010 information on Microsoft's Technet site.
• Does your current network infrastructure design support an edge configuration, or will you be just installing a single server setup?
• If you are upgrading you can only upgrade from Exchange 2007 R2. This may require you to upgrade your exchange 2007 server to R2. If your running Exchange 2003 you will have to perform a migration.
• If your running an older network infrastructure like Server 2000 and earlier, it will require an Active Directory upgrade.
• Do your current email security solutions support Exchange 2010?
• When you finalize your plan also perform a business continuity risk assessment focusing on electronic communications for your business, and update your information Technology disaster recovery plan to include the new Exchange 2010 mail server or cluster. These are very important parts of the process that many neglect to do.

Hopefully these tips and suggestions will make your transition to Exchange 2010 a little easier. SkyByte Consulting has significant experience with Microsoft Exchange upgrades and Exchange migrations. We can also assist with Blackberry Enterprise Server migrations and upgrades or secure connectivity with Droid or iPhones.

SkyByte is a security based service and solution provider dedicated to the delivery of secure data communications, risk management, data integrity and corporate privacy. SkyByte offers a wide array of IT consulting services such as the design and maintenance of firewalls, VPNs, LANs, WANs, VMware server virtualization, messaging systems and secure wireless networks.