Network Audit and Documentation, CENTREL Solutions Blog

With XIA Configuration version 6 it is now possible to automatically audit and document your ODBC configuration settings throughout your environment. This includes information about the ODBC drivers (both 32-bit and 64-bit) as well as the data sources configured on the servers in your environment. Basic information is available for all ODBC data sources however we support the collection of detailed information for the following data sources Oracle SQL Server SQL Native Client MySQL Microsoft Office Each data source type has it's own configuration settings. The following screenshot displays a Microsoft Office Access ODBC data source.  NOTE:  The password required to access the data source has been collected in this example, this is an optional feature. For more information see the  ODBC Configuration  page on our web site.

When using the Oracle InstantClient ODBC driver for Windows you may receive the error "The setup routines for the Oracle in instantclient version_ ODBC driver could not be loaded due to system error code 1114: A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routing failed. " This error can occur if the path variable does not include the path to the Oracle Instant Client and ODBC files. Document ODBC Configuration Settings

Microsoft Office ODBC drivers all share a common dll for their various functions. The DriverID field that is stored in the registry in the following location determiners which ODBC driver is used within that library file. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI I've started to put together a list of the various driver names as they are seen in the ODBC data sources tool (odbcad32.exe) and the corresponding driver ID Platform Driver ID Application 32-bit 25 Microsoft Access-Treiber (*.mdb) 32-bit 25 Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) 32-bit 25 Driver do Microsoft Access (*.mdb) 32-bit 27 Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt; *.csv) 32-bit 27 Microsoft Text-Treiber (*.txt; *.csv) 32-bit 790 Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls) 32-bit 790 Driver do Microsoft Exc

When you try to install the MySQL ODBC driver version 5.2.6 you may find that you receive the error Error 1918.Error installing ODBC driver MySQL ODBC 5.2 ANSI Driver This is because the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package must be installed 32bit version http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=5555 64bit version http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=14632 To document the configuration of your ODBC connections on your enterprise network see our network documentation tool XIA Configuration Server.

As of the newly released Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 you will now find that you can access both the 64bit and 32bit versions of the ODBC data sources tool (odbcad32.exe) from control panel. As you can see in the screenshot this makes it a lot easier to access the correct version of the tool. Support for the documentation of both 32bit and 64bit ODBC drivers and data sources will be added in the forthcoming XIA Configuration Server v6.

It is now possible to document the various Windows Event Log overwrite policies using XIA Configuration Server v6. For more information see the following blog post. http://david-homer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/document-event-log-configuration.html This includes the "Archive the policy when full, do not overwrite events" found in Windows 2008 and above.

It seems sometimes that the WMI classes are often ignored when Microsoft adds new functionality to the management functions on Windows machines. I've noticed that there are several Event Log settings not supported by the Win32_NTEventLogFile WMI class. One such option is the ability to set and read the overwrite method "Archive the log when full, do not overwrite events" from the class. This setting is a combination of the OverwriteOutDated property and also the following registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\ Name AutoBackupLogFiles When the registry value is set to a non-zero value this option is enabled. The following whiteboard shows how the WMI value and registry key value work together for the various options in the user interface. The ability to audit the event log has been updated in our Server Audit Tool XIA Configuration Server v6 More information can be found here http://david-homer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/document-event-lo

With XIA Configuration Server it is possible to document the Event Log configuration of your Windows Servers and Workstations including the Name Creation Date Filename File Size Maximum Size Number of Records Overwrite Policy A specified number of recent event log entries. The new XIA Configuration Server v6 supports the documentation of the new overwrite policy setting "Archive the policy when full, do not overwrite events" found in Windows 2008 and above. The updated user interface makes it easier to view the event log configuration in the Enterprise.

This is an interesting problem. If you have a table where you have very long words you find that rather than breaking the words the browser resizes the table so it flows off the page. This is quite simple to fix by adding the following CSS to the table table-layout: fixed; word-wrap: break-word; And setting a fixed size to the first column using a standard style="width:200px;" for example. The very long words are then broken appropriately. Very nice What happens however when you add a title row to the table (using a <Row ColSpan="2"> for example) is that the table ignored the width declarations for the subsequent rows because when using a fixed layout the width of the columns in the first row is consulted. The first column then sizes itself automatically. In the screenshot you can see if resizes to around 50% of the browser window as the browser is resized. To solve this in HTML is quite simpl

With XIA configuration Server version 6.0 it is now possible to read the Shadow Copy configuration settings for your network servers. Shadow Copy allows the preservation of point in time copies of files on folders on Windows servers allowing users to access these previous versions in the event of an authorised change or deletion of the file using the Previous Versions table on their client machines. For more information about Shadow Copy see the Microsoft site http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771305.aspx Shadow Copy must be enabled on each volume and configured with a storage space and schedule o which the copies will be taken. Using XIA Configuration Server it is now possible to document this configuration. For more information please see the XIA Configuration Server site. More information about the Shadow Copy capabilities can be found here .

You may find that when you right click the desktop the right click context menu takes a long time to be displayed, this slow right click can be caused by the Intel Graphics drivers. Intel provide a registry patch to remove the right click context menu here which immediately speeds things up again. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17570 Why not take a look at our Automated Server Audit and Documentation  software..?

I've recently spent a few hours stuck with all my VMware workstation guests showing that their network cable was unplugged ("Media disconnected" is displayed when using ipconfig) when using NAT connections for the guests. After trying everything and Googling no end of pages I found that the best solutions to this is simply to Open the virtual network editor in VMware workstation Make a note of the current IP address range Click the "restore default" button at the bottom left of the editor Re-enter the IP ranges Disable and re-enable the network interface in control panel on the guest machine This seems to uninstall and reinstall the components and everything works as expected afterwards. For information about our Server Documentation Tool XIA Configuration Server please see our web site .

We've recently come across a strange problem after upgrading to Windows 8.1. We use a Windows forms based test construct application that generates PDF documents and then displays them in the .NET WebBrowser control. The application (and Visual Studio when it is hosting the application) run as Administrator (configured in the App.Manifest) causing a UAC problem when the application is debugged. What we've noticed is that the .NET WebBrowser control cannot display the PDF when the application is running under UAC nor an the PDF be launched using the System.Diagnostics.Process.Start() method. If we remove the lines in the App.Manifest file the PDF displays correctly in the browser and also launches externally. When running as Administrator the Acrobat process is running (it can be seen in Task Manager) however isn't visible in the user interface.

When you are upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8 and you are asked to Choose what to keep  using an MSDN install you might see that the Keep personal files only is the only option and you cannot keep your existing applications. This can occur if you are using an install media other than the language that was originally installed. The simplest way is to goto the Windows Store on your Windows 8 machine and there is a very obvious upgrade tile you can select For more information about our products including our Desktop Application Launcher see our web site .

When accessing an IIS web page you may see the error Unable to cast object of type 'System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal' to type 'System.Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal' This can be due to the Windows Authentication role service not being installed. This can be found in Server Manager on server operating systems from Windows 2008 and above, or on desktop operating system goto Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off Screenshot: Enable Windows authentication on Windows 8 For more information about our products including our Network Documentation Tool  please see our web site .

XIA Automation our tool for user provisioning and Active Directory management has been listed on TechRepublic's Five Apps for Active Directory management. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-apps-for-active-directory-management/ XIA Automation allows to automate tasks such as user provisioning. Large companies and many educational establishments use XIA Automation to automate away these time consuming tasks. Users can launch these automation profiles from a web browser or mobile device, information can be provided using a web form, CSV or other applications using the API. For more information see the XIA Automation product page. http://centrel-solutions.com/XIAAutomation