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A SCO OpenServer 5.0.5 Rescue and Virtualization Story

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The owner of a business using a SCO Openserver 5.0.5 system got in touch requiring urgent assistance with their system. It was unable boot and was continually showing the error message:

NOTICE: HTFS: No Space on dev hd (1/42)

Unable to access single user mode on Sco OpenServer 5.0.5

At first I thought this would be pretty simple fix:

  1. Boot the system into single user mode
  2. Clear just enough space to get the system booted.
  3. Access the system over the network and give the machine a good clear out.

I was talking someone non technical through the procedure and they reported that the prompt for single user mode was not being shown. So we decided to call it a day and try again when her IT expert was on site. At this point I still thought this would be an easy fix once I had an IT expert to assist me remotely.

Brad (the IT expert and I) tried once at getting into single user mode, but the prompt was just never shown:

Image showing SCO Openserver failing to boot due to lack of disk space on the root Fileystem
HTFS: No space on dev hd (1/42)

There were no usable backups of the system, so that option was also out.

So there were a couple of different ways we could go:

  • Try booting from Boot and Root floppies and see if we could mount root and remove some files.
  • Try creating a backup of the system via a boot CD to then work on it on more stable hardware (virtual machine)

I decided it would be best to try image the system to prevent any potential further damage. This is when we came to the next problem, seriously old hardware! 

The system was running on a HP Netserver E60 with a Pentium 2 450 CPU, 128Mb Ram and a 9Gb SCSI Drive:

HP Netserver E60 running SCO Openserver 5.0.5

Making a CloneZilla Image of a SCO Openserver 5.0.5 System

Key Problems we faced straight away:

  • This machine has no USB Ports – so it was not possible to use an external drive to image the internal drive.
  • CloneZilla was unable to recognise the network card in this machine so the option of an SSH backup destination was unavailable
  • Server was unable to read a ISO burned onto a CD-R.

Brad was was able to find an old IDE CD-Drive and put that into the machine. We were then able to boot an old version of CloneZilla.

Although we could boot CloneZilla, it was not able to recognise the network card in the machine, so that option wasn’t going to work either. At least it did recognise the disk, so there was a bit of hope there.

Brad called some local IT shops and we able to locate various bits of old hardware, IDE drives, network cards etc. So we had some more options. We tried the 3com 3c905 card in the server but CloneZilla still didn’t see. This was starting to seem like a hopeless route.

As a last resort I suggested that we try to use the Ubuntu version of CloneZilla to see if that would have any better results at seeing the old hardware. We had to find and download an old release because the recent versions require 256Mb Ram and this machine had only 128Mb. The Ubuntu version of CloneZilla was able to see both the on-board network card and the 3com card, so we began the process of imaging the drive across the network.

I felt sure that once I was able to get the image of the machine restored into a virtual machine, things could get running pretty quickly.

The Image was restored into VMWare Workstation 14 and and first things seemed quite positive, although the machine could not boot because there was no BTLD (Boot Time Load Driver) for the VMs SCSI Controller (LSI Logic Parallel)  I knew we could get that in place fairly quickly.

Using Boot and Root floppies to access the HTFS root file system.

Using boot floppies and attempted to mount the root file system, which didn’t work because it was reporting that the Superblock was bad and that the magic number was wrong. After a period of trying different things I gave up and restored the image again, but this time on to an IDE drive instead of a SCSI LSI Logic drive. This was much more successful and I was able to boot the system to the same point the customer was getting with the out of space message.

Using boot and root floppies created I was able to mount the root file system. Unfortunately the root file system had some corruption but FSCK was able to take care of that. I was then able to remove enough files to create space to to boot the system into multi-user mode, which sort-of worked. I could boot it, but I was unable to get a login prompt. This was because the physical system was originally configured to use a DIGI Serial over Ethernet Server and that was generating so many errors that a login prompt could not be given.

Multi-User Boot and editing /etc/default/boot configuration.

I cleared out the Digi configuration and booted the system using a custom boot string. After that I edited /etc/default/boot to reflect the new drive setups and disabled the existing SCSI driver.

I reconfigured the network, cleaned up the root file system and handed it over to for testing. It all works fine and SCO is now  running on VMWare Workstation 14.

Other small issues

There are still some minor issues to address:

  • The data backup routine will be tweaked to work over NFS to a file instead of a tape device.
  • Printer will be reconfigured from parallel to HP Jetdirect.

My gratitude goes out to Brad who was incredibly enterprising and patient with the old hardware. I could not have asked for a more helpful remote companion to work on this with me.

Key Points if you are in a similar situation with an old SCO Openserver System that needs recovery.

  • CloneZilla can take good images of a SCO Openserver System.
  • Ubuntu Version of CloneZilla seems to have better hardware support for older systems than the stable release.
  • You are probably going to need boot and root floppies, so make them while your imaging is taking place.

If you need help virtualizing your SCO system, please get in touch here.

VMWare Workstation Host unable to ping or access guests over the network

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This is going to be a quick post as I just wanted to get the information out there for anyone else having the same problem as me. I had a situation where VMWare Workstation was working fine, but I was unable to access any of the guests from the host, the situation was like this:

  • Guests could reach the internet and the rest of the LAN.
  • Other machines on the LAN could reach the guests.
  • VMWare Workstation Parent was unable to ping or access the guests.
  • The guests were unable to access the parent over the network.

I spent a long time messing around with the virtual network configuration, uninstalling VMWare Workstation, even paid to upgrade from version 12 to version 14. But nothing worked.

In the end I started looking at the network configuration of the host, which didn’t seem to have anything out of the ordinary. I did have SonicWALL Global VPN client installed, which I did not suspect would cause any issues, but out of desperation I uninstalled it and then everything worked great.

So if you have any 3rd Party VPN clients installed, try uninstalling them and see if that fixes your issues. I did try disabling the SonicWALL adapater at first, but that did not make any difference.

Office 365: How to change primary email address when using Dirsync,AADSync or Azure Active Directory Connect

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It is simple to change the Primary Email Address of an Office 365 user when your tenant is not being synced to your on-premises active directory, but if you are syncing to Office 365 with any of the following tools:

  • Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync)
  • Azure AD Sync (AADSync)
  • Azure Active Directory Connect

Then you will be unable to change any of email addresses associated with that account, and you will get the following error:

 

The operation on mailbox “Mailbox” failed because it’s out of the current user’s write scope. The action ‘Set-Mailbox’, ‘EmailAddresses’, can’t be performed on the object ‘Mailbox’ because the object is being synchronized from your on-premises organization. This action should be performed on the object in your on-premises organization.

Image showing error from Office 365 when trying to change the primary SMTP address for an account that is synced to a local active directory.

How to change the Primary Email Address for an Office 365 account using Active Directory Users and Computers

  1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers
  2. Ensure you have “Advanced Features” enabled from the view menu:
    Image showing how to enable the "Advanced Features" in Active Directory Users and Computers
  3. Double click on the user that you want to edit the email addresses for.
  4. Go to the “Attribute Editor” tab.
  5. Go to the “proxyAddresses” attribute and click edit.
  6. Edit the email addresses as per your requirements. Note that the primary address (which is the address that the user will send emails from) is in uppercase “SMTP”.
    Image showing how to edit the proxyaddresses attribute for an Office 365 user synced to local active directory.

 

How to change the Primary Email Address for an Office 365 account using Powershell

You can perform the same operation using Windows Powershell, the basic syntax is like this:

Set-ADUser paulie -Add @{ProxyAddresses="SMTP:[email protected]"}

The problem with running this command is that you may already have a primary SMTP address set and this will not stop you from adding another one. So first of all run:

get-aduser paulie -properties proxyaddresses | Select-Object Name,ProxyAddresses |fl

This will show you all the current proxy addresses for this user. If you want to remove an existing proxy address you can use:

Set-ADUser paulie -Remove @{ProxyAddresses="smtp:[email protected]"}

It is possible neither of the above methods will work if you have never had Exchange installed locally, as the users will not have these attributes. You can follow the instructions on this page in order to get the attributes enabled for your users.

 

Plantronics CS510/CS520 with Cisco SPA 504G and Cisco SPA 525G

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We’ve been using Cisco SPA Series IP Phones for a long time in our Office, mainly we now use the 504 and 525G models. You need a wireless headset if you are going to spend a significant amount of time on the phone – and we have settled on the Plantronics CS510 for our Cisco SPA Devices.

Plantronics CS500 Series general information

There are four variants in the CS500 range:

  • CS510 (Pictured in this review)
  • CS520 (Same as 510 but covers both ears)
  • CS530 (Over the ear)
  • CS540 (Over the ear or over the head)

All of the models are compatible with the Cisco SPA Series by using various accessories that Plantronics make available.

The CS510 and CS520 are the same but the CS510 has only one ear piece and the CS520 covers both ears. If your office is noisy then the CS520 is probably a better choice.

I’ve never tried the 530 or 540 as I spend a lot of time on the phone and just feel like over the head is more comfortable for long conversations.

Plantronics CS510 Wireless Headset with Cisco SPA504G

The Cisco SPA504G works perfectly well with the CS510, but it requires the use of a handset lifter – the Savi HL10. This is a mechanical device which actually lifts the handset off the telephone in order to answer calls and make the headset active.

Video showing the handset being lifted by the HL10 on a Cisco SPA 504G

To use the Plantronics CS500 Series with the Cisco SPA 504G, you need:

Cisco SPA 504G with Plantronics CS10 Wireless Headset
Cisco SPA 504G with Plantronics CS10 Wireless Headset in charging dock

Plantronics CS510 Wireless Headset with Cisco SPA525G

The Cisco SPA 525G with the Plantronics CS510  is an elegant solution as there is no need for a handset lifter because it has support for an Electronic Hook Switch (EHS).

But you do require a special cable from Plantronics, which is called the APC-45 to connect the CS510 to the phone.

Cisco SPA525G with Plantronics CS510 Wireless Headset
Cisco SPA525G with Plantronics CS510 Wireless Headset

To use the Cisco SPA525G with the Plantronics CS500 Wireless Headset Series, you need:

Call Quality and Battery Life

I spend about 3-4 hours a day on the phone and have never run out of battery, probably because I store the headset on the docking station between calls, so it is always kept topped up.

Wireless range is really good. I have not tested it to extremes, but I often walk at least 20 meters away without any issues.

We have been using the CS510 for years and it has been reliable and comfortable. I never use the standard handset from the phone as I find it incredibly uncomfortable.

Having the headset leaves both hands free for keyboard use and because it is wireless, there are no annoying cables distracting you.

Cisco SPA Series IP Phone Personal Directory Management

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There is not an easy way to centrally manage the Personal Directory of Cisco SPA IP Phones and it has been a frustration for users of these popular handsets. I wrote a small application to manage the personal directories of Cisco and Linksys phones in 2011 which made things easier.

MDM Cisco SPA Personal Directory Manager

There is now a new solution which makes managing the Personal Directory on the Cisco SPA series phones very simple. It is a web service which also has a companion desktop application to enable Cisco SPA users to make calls directly from Windows desktop.

If you just want to go ahead and try it out, please register for an account by visiting:

https://ciscospa.mdm.co.uk/

Here is a quick video that shows how to set it up and the functionality it provides:

 

Cisco SPA Handset Compatibility

The web service and application is compatible with:

  • Cisco SPA 303
  • Cisco SPA 501G
  • Cisco SPA 502G
  • Cisco SPA 504G
  • Cisco SPA 508G
  • Cisco SPA 509G
  • Cisco SPA 512G
  • Cisco SPA 514G
  • Cisco SPA 525G

Key Features

  • Centralised Web Based Personal Directory Administration
  • Custom contact entries for each device
  • Unlimited number of contacts
  • Ability to group contacts into categories
  • Central administration of screen saver
  • Make calls directly from your Windows Desktop without having to use phone interface
  • Integration with Microsoft Outlook – call contacts from your Outlook address book.

Please give us any feedback that you have on the solution via this blog or through the main site. We really hope you enjoy using it. We will be replicating the functionality to work with Yealink phones in the near future.

Here are some screenshots of the solution: