AuthRequired for Exchange 2007 distribution groups

When creating distribution groups in Exchange 2007 'Require that all senders are authenticated' is on by default (under Properties/Mail Flow Settings/Message Delivery Restrictions) leading to 550 5.7.1 RESOLVER.RST.AuthRequired errors.

More at TechNet.

Using NSlookup.exe

Useful for checking DNS settings, the most basic command is:

nslookup [hostname] [server]

More at Microsoft's support page. Linux uses host with more advanced alternatives being dig or drill.

Check open files and folders on a Windows server

I have a couple of networked apps where it can be useful to check which user has a certain file open (often because the app didn't close cleanly) on a given server. This is found in the Computer Managment console under System Tools -> Shared Folders -> Open Files.

Public folder administration in Exchange 2007

Apparently having giving a user administrator privilages for the Exchang server and/or public folders doesn't necessarily grant them permission to edit the contents of public folders. Adding permissions for a user to a folder is done in the managment shell with:

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission –Identity “Foldername” –user UserName –AccessRights PublishingEditor

 
More info here.

SVCHOST with 100% CPU utilization in XP

A well-known bug which has troubled many in the past, MS says they've fixed it. I haven't seen it in a few months, though the number of XP machines I administer has also been slowly decreasing.

On RAID levels

A good article on RAID levels at Datamation. Also BAARF - Battle Against Any Raid Five and a nice explanation on ZDnet.

Clean up WSUS

In WinServer2K8, the WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) information can (with time) take up quite a bit of space. The Server Cleanup Wizard (found in the Windows Server Update Services console - C:\Program Files\Update Servicesqadministrationsnapin) can remove unused update files, old revisions of updates, etc. It can take a while, if not run for a long time, first select everything but the first option (Unused updates and update revisions), after that's finished run it again with this option.

This (and other ways of regaining disk space in Win2K8) at the Technet blog.

Edit: also select and decline superseded updates.