Scripting – Page 2 – Bits & Other Bytes

HOWTO: Nuke Windows Server 2012R2 #WSUS and start fresh without actually having to uninstall, reinstall, or even reboot!

April 3, 2018April 3, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Recently I ended up in a situation where WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) running on a Windows Server 2012 R2 box was messed up and would have required more time to fix and clean up than I wanted to invest. So I started looked into my notes for resetting WSUS to defaults to start over, but I found conflicting information on it in the notes I had made over the years. So – off to my R&D lab for testing and here is the working results…

First, I always install SQL Express Advanced (with tools) as the default unnamed instance (MSSQLSERVER) on the server before I enable and configure the WSUS role (both of which I do via scripting). Second, I always put the WSUS content folders in D:\SHARED\WSUS. By doing so, I find this:

allows me more control over how the server is setup
allows me to cookie cutter my customers’ environments
allows my support team to already be knowledgeable with the setup before they even see / support it
allows me to script the setup, which saves me time!!!

So, back to my current issue – nuking WSUS and starting it fresh. The general process to do so is:

Stop the WSUS, WWW, and BITS services
Delete the WSUS database from the MSSQL instance
Delete and recreate the WSUS content folders
Restart the WWW and WSUS services (BITS will start on its own when needed)
Run the WSUS post-install setup utility to provision WSUS to the MSSQL instance and set the content directory
Run the WSUS Setup Configuration Wizard

Of course, it’s very simple to script all that into a repeatable process for my support team in case they run into issues with a client’s WSUS, and because I script the initial setup of WSUS, all our clients WSUS servers are configured the same, which means my script will work on all my clients WSUS servers.

So to Nuke WSUS and start it fresh, open an Administrative Command prompt and paste in the following commands (note the -Q in sqlcmd is case sensitive).

net stop /y WsusService
net stop /y w3svc
net stop /y bits
sqlcmd -Q "drop database [SUSDB]"
rd /q /s D:\SHARED\WSUS
md D:\SHARED\WSUS
net start w3svc
net start WsusService
"C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall SQL_INSTANCE_NAME="%computername%" CONTENT_DIR=D:\SHARED\WSUS
"C:\Program Files \Update Services\AdministrationSnapin\wsus.msc"

You should now have a nice clean WSUS server to start fresh with.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Install Windows Server 2012 R2 #WSUS via script (including all prereqs)

April 3, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

It’s probably no secret that I’m a fan of scripting. I love the ability to be able to get consistent and even results on every job, install or upgrade my support team or I do. The end result is it makes installations and updates faster. And it definitely makes everyone’s life easier when trouble finds you – all you have to do is compare your broken system to a working system that is configured the same way and you can usually figure out the issue. Also I’ve been around the industry long enough to remember DOS 5, DOS 6.22, and early versions of OS/2 (not to mention the Vic20, C64 and Amiga 500s I had over the years) – I’m generally always faster on a keyboard than with a mouse (although I actually use a trackball when I’m at my desk), albeit sometimes the mouse is just simpler – but those cases are few and far between in an enterprise class IT world.

One of the tools I end up often having to install from scratch at client locations is WSUS (Windows Server Update Services). And it’s a pain in the ass to install. You need to install IIS, you need to install SQL, you need to install WSUS, and then you have to configure WSUS itself. All time consuming if you use Server Manager. But hey – breakout the Command Prompt and PowerShell and you can be done in no time with a few simple commands.

Before you follow these instructions, make sure the server you are doing this on is an already updated Windows 2012 R2 Server with all current Microsoft Updates (otherwise it may cause you extra bullshit and grief later on). Then after WSUS is installed, be to check for Microsoft Updates (hey – you could probably use your shiny new WSUS server to do that!) again to update the prerequisites you had to install before even installing WSUS.

Speaking of those prerequisites, of course WSUS on Windows Server 2012 R2 has a few prerequisites. The first one is IIS – it must be installed with specific features. Being lazy, I usually install most all the features with my catch-all IIS installation script. Open an Administrative Command Prompt and run:

DISM.EXE /enable-feature /online /featurename:IIS-ASP /featurename:IIS-ASPNET /featurename:IIS-ASPNET45 /featurename:IIS-ApplicationDevelopment /featurename:IIS-ApplicationInit  /featurename:IIS-BasicAuthentication  /featurename:IIS-CGI  /featurename:IIS-CertProvider /featurename:IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication /featurename:IIS-CommonHttpFeatures /featurename:IIS-CustomLogging  /featurename:IIS-DefaultDocument  /featurename:IIS-DigestAuthentication  /featurename:IIS-DirectoryBrowsing /featurename:IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics /featurename:IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic  /featurename:IIS-HttpCompressionStatic /featurename:IIS-HttpErrors /featurename:IIS-HttpLogging /featurename:IIS-HttpRedirect  /featurename:IIS-HttpTracing /featurename:IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility /featurename:IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication  /featurename:IIS-IPSecurity  /featurename:IIS-ISAPIExtensions /featurename:IIS-ISAPIFilter /featurename:IIS-LegacyScripts /featurename:IIS-LegacySnapIn /featurename:IIS-LoggingLibraries  /featurename:IIS-ManagementConsole /featurename:IIS-ManagementScriptingTools  /featurename:IIS-ManagementService /featurename:IIS-Metabase  /featurename:IIS-NetFxExtensibility  /featurename:IIS-NetFxExtensibility45 /featurename:IIS-ODBCLogging /featurename:IIS-Performance /featurename:IIS-RequestFiltering /featurename:IIS-RequestMonitor /featurename:IIS-Security /featurename:IIS-ServerSideIncludes  /featurename:IIS-StaticContent /featurename:IIS-URLAuthorization /featurename:IIS-WMICompatibility /featurename:IIS-WebServer  /featurename:IIS-WebServerManagementTools /featurename:IIS-WebServerRole /featurename:IIS-WebSockets /featurename:IIS-WindowsAuthentication /featurename:NetFx4Extended-ASPNET45

Next, we need to install SQL Express. I’ve been pretty much standardized on SQL Express 2014 SP2 with tools (SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe) for a while now. From the command prompt you are going to extract it to C:\TEMP then run an unattended SQL setup using these two commands from an Administrative Command Prompt (**note: this command line expects you to be using SQL Express 2014 SP2 and not a previous version of SQL Express, even if WSUS supports it**):

SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe /q /x:"c:\TEMP\SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU"
c:\TEMP\SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU\SETUP.exe /ACTION=Install /ADDCURRENTUSERASSQLADMIN /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE="AUTOMATIC" /BROWSERSVCSTARTUPTYPE="AUTOMATIC" /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,Replication,Tools /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /INDICATEPROGRESS /INSTANCEID=MSSQLSERVER /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /NPENABLED=1 /QS /ROLE=AllFeatures_WithDefaults /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="Administrators" /SQMREPORTING=0 /TCPENABLED=1

WSUS also has a prerequisite that IIS_WPG, NETWORK, NETWORK SERVICE, and SERVICE have “Log on a service” rights on the WSUS server. Unfortunately, this part is a mouse job (I haven’t done the research yet to script this). Start the Local Security Policy Management Console on the WSUS server. Navigate to Local Policies –> User Rights Assignment branch, edit the “Log on as a service” setting, and add the following four accounts (you should be able to cut and paste these into the add accounts dialog box):

IIS_WPG; NETWORK; NETWORK SERVICE; SERVICE

There is a chance IIS_WPG won’t exist, don’t worry about it, just remove it and keep on going (if it doesn’t exist now, then it isn’t going to exist when WSUS is installed either). After closing Local Security Policy, don’t forget to update the policy with “gpupdate /force” from the Administrative Command Prompt before continuing.

Now open an Administrative PowerShell and run:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name UpdateServices-Services, UpdateServices-DB -IncludeManagementTools

Once Install-WindowsFeature completes, back in the Administrative Command Prompt run:

"C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall SQL_INSTANCE_NAME="%computername%" CONTENT_DIR=D:\SHARED\WSUS

When wsusutil.exe has completed, if KB3148812, which is a May 2016 Windows Update (or later version of it, which is required for distributing Windows 10 Anniversary or new version updates) has not yet been installed on the server (this is why told you earlier to start with a fully patched Windows 2012 R2 Server because you don’t need to deal with this bullshit if you do), after installing KB3148812 (or whatever Microsoft superseded it with) you must open an Administrative PowerShell and run:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45

Then, still related to KB3148812 (see my bullshit comment above – you should have started with a fully patched Windows 2012 R2 Server to begin with), open an Administrative Command Prompt and run:

"C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall /servicing

Finally, after taking care of all the KB3148812 bullshit (I told you that you should have started with a fully patched Windows 2012 R2 Server to begin with), or if you smart enough to actually take my advice and start with a fully updated Windows 2012 R2 server, it’s finally time to the launch the WSUS console and run the configuration wizard by running this from the Administrative Command Prompt :

"C:\Program Files\Update Services\AdministrationSnapin\wsus.msc"

Lastly, if you are lazy like me, you’ll just next, next, next all the way through the WSUS Setup Wizard, skipping the “Synchronize Now” option. Once you end up at the normal WSUS console, open a new Administrative PowerShell and run:

Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Applications"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Critical Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Definition Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Security Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Service Packs"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Tools"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Update Rollups"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Drivers"} | Set-WsusClassification -Disable Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Feature Packs"} | Set-WsusClassification -Disable Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Upgrades"} | Set-WsusClassification -Disable Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "CAPICOM"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Dictionary Updates for Microsoft IMEs"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Exchange Server 2007 and Above Anti-spam"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Exchange Server 2013"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Exchange Server 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 1"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 3"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 4"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Media 2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Media V1"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Web 3"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Web 4"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2012"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2014"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2017"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio v17"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "New Dictionaries for Microsoft IMEs"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2002/XP"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2003"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2007"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2010"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2013"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Report Viewer 2005"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Report Viewer 2008"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Report Viewer 2010"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SDK Components"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2000"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2005"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2008"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2008 R2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2012 Product Updates for Setup"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2014-2016 Product Updates for Setup"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server Feature Pack"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Silverlight"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2005"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2008"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2010"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2012"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2013"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows 10 LTSB"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows 2000"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows 7"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows Server 2008 R2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows Server 2012 R2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows Server 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct

You can then go back to the WSUS console, select Options, and now Products and Classifications. The above PowerShell commands will give you a great Product and Classification base to start your WSUS server configuration from without all the mouse clicks during the configuration wizard.

Congratulations – you now have a fully installed and configured WSUS server!

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

#Blackberry UEM Server – Exporting the serial numbers of all devices

January 31, 2018@DeanColpitts1 Comment

We use Blackberry’s UEM 12.7.2 to manage all our mobile devices and all our clients’ mobile devices – be it Blackberry, Apple, Android, or even (shudder…) Windows Phone. Recently a client asked me for a list of all his devices with the serial numbers. Since there were only 30 devices or so, I figured I’d just go into the device report for each user and cut and paste the serial number into a spreadsheet and send it to the customer. Wow – was I ever wrong. The serial number isn’t reported in the Device Report, nor is on the user’s device tab. The only place I could actually find it listed is on the All Users tab if you enable Advanced View, but that is useless because cut and paste is disabled on this page.

But since the serial number appears there, then it must be in the database.

So, I went back to one of my previous blog posts about how to script and report the last contact time of a device (see that blog post here) and did a bit of modification to it. And since I didn’t know which table the serial number was listed in, I used some code that I found elsewhere (I don’t remember where, it was a while ago, so I’m not able to link to it, and I won’t republish it since I don’t know who to give credit to) to search all the database tables for one of the serial number that I manually copied down.

Turns out the device serial number is stored in the table obj_device_setting, and that id_device_setting_definition “60” is the device’s serial number. So knowing that, I was able to create a new query based on my previous blog post that now also includes the device serial number.

Here is the updated SQL query to include device serial numbers.

Select Top 1000000
obj_user.display_name As [User],
def_device_os_family.company_name as [Manufacturer],
def_device_hardware.model as [Model],
def_device_os.name as [OS Version],
obj_device.normalized_phone_number as [Phone Number],
obj_device_setting.value as [Device Serial Number],
Convert(Varchar(10), obj_user_device.last_communication, 102) As [Last Contact]
From obj_user
Inner Join obj_user_device On obj_user_device.id_user = obj_user.id_user
Inner Join obj_device On obj_device.id_device = obj_user_device.id_device
Inner Join def_device_hardware on def_device_hardware.id_device_hardware = obj_device.id_device_hardware
Inner Join def_device_os on def_device_os.id_device_os = obj_device.id_device_os
Inner Join def_device_os_family on def_device_os_family.id_device_os_family = def_device_os.id_device_os_family
Inner Join obj_device_setting On obj_device_setting.id_device = obj_user_device.id_device
Where obj_device_setting.id_device_setting_definition = '60'
Order by [User]

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Find the SRP & Auth Key in the SQLDB of an existing BES12 installation

February 1, 2017February 1, 2017@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

This post is going to be pretty short and simple. We had a customer who had lost track of the corresponding Auth Key to their existing SRP ID in Blackberry Enterprise Server 12. A simple SQL query was all that is required to pull the SRP and Auth Key from the existing production SQL database. This **should** work on any version of BES12, but I only tested it on BES 12.5.2 and BES 12.6.

Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
Connect to the SQL server instance that hosts the BES database.
Click the “New Query” button on the toolbar (or press CTRL + N).
Paste the following query into the query editor, then click the Execute Button (adjust the BES_DATABASE_NAME as required)

SELECT TOP 1000 [id_sws_tenant]
,[created]
,[modified]
,[external_tenant_id]
,[external_authenticator_id]
FROM [BES_DATABASE_NAME].[dbo].[obj_sws_tenant]

The output will contain the SRP (external_tenant_id) and Auth Key (external_authenicator_id).

2017-02-01-11-06-42-snagit-0090

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Using #PowerShell to ensure a #Veeam USB Repository always has the correct drive letter

January 16, 2017January 17, 2017@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Some time ago I had a customer who switched completely to Veeam from Backup Exec (yeah baby!!!). Offsite replication of any sort was out of the question as the customer simply couldn’t get the necessary bandwidth from any of the ISPs that serviced the area at anything that even approached an unreasonable price. Instead we opted for a HPE StoreOnce for onsite and some sort of removable drive system for daily offsite. The customer insisted on using Western Digital My Books (USB3) due to their capacity (6TB) and semi-ruggedness for the offline repo. The drives are rotated out each day by a staff member for a new drive and they send the previous night’s drive offsite.

The My Books were originally setup using F: as the drive letter. This would work great until someone plugged a USB key into the server and it was auto-assigned F: by Windows 2012R2, or if someone logged in who had a drive mapping of F:. And then other days, Windows would randomly assign a drive letter other than F: even though F: was available. At this point, Veeam would puke because it couldn’t find the repo anymore. And occasionally the customer would forget to swap the drive for a fresh one (or even correct drive some days), which meant there wouldn’t be enough free space on the repo to complete that night’s backup (about 4.9TB is processed daily).

To work around all this, I ended up writing a PowerShell script to always map the My Book to Z:, clean the previous backups off of it (if any were found, or if the wrong drive with a different backup set was plugged in), and start the actual backup job. And if the script can’t find the My Book or free disk capacity is less than 95% after attempting cleanup, it will abort the backup and send an email warning to the support team that the backup was aborted. Rather than have Veeam schedule the job to run, I use Windows Task Scheduler instead to run the script, then use the Veeam PowerShell module to start the backup job from inside the script after I’ve verified Z: is present.

This script assumes that every rotated My Book drive has been formatted and has a volume label containing “WD MY BOOK”. It also assumes the SMTP server is called mail dot whatever the DNS domain name of the machine running the script is (i.e. my AD is jbgeek.net, so mail.jbgeek.net). All of my client sites have a cname for their Exchange server called “mail” created in their AD DNS zone – which means I can cut and paste the same script without modification from one client site to another, which cuts down the chance of an editing error, and makes it quicker to deploy new scripts when necessary for my team.

You will need to adjust the “Get-ChildItem -Path” (lines 21 to 26) directories to fit your environment, along with the $SendEmailTo variable (line 7) and the “Start-VBRJob -Job” job name (line 41). Line 28 defines the cutoff point for disk capacity – if the available disk space is less than 95% of the drive capacity, the backup aborts. Line 1 is commented it out – I generally always start my scripts with # start notepad++ script.filename so that I can just cut and paste it into a command prompt to create my script file – that way as I on-board each new customer, their sites are configured the same as existing sites. Again, it cuts down the chances of an error and makes it quicker for my guys to deploy new scripts.

**NOTE – the following deletes data from your backup cartridges. Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk. I accept zero liability and responsibility if you use these scripts!!!**

Here is the command line to create the scheduled task to run as the logged in user at 10pm each weekday (it will prompt you for your password when you run it in a command prompt):

schtasks /create /tn "Weekday Veeam USB Drive Backup" /tr "\"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe\" -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -noprofile -File  C:\Windows\Run_External_Drive_Veeam_Backup.ps1" /sc daily /st 22:00:00  /rp "*" /ru "%userdomain%\%username%"

Here is the Powershell script (updated 2017.01.17 to fix an error):

# start notepad++ C:\Windows\Run_External_Drive_Veeam_Backup.ps1

add-pssnapin Veeam*

$DnsDomain = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NTDomain -Filter "DSDirectoryServiceFlag='True'" | Select -ExpandProperty DnsForestName
$ThisComputerName = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem | Select -ExpandProperty Name
$SupportEmailAddress = "support@$DnsDomain"

# Get-WmiObject Win32_Volume | Where-Object {$_.DriveLetter -eq $null}
$drives = Get-WmiObject -Class win32_volume | Where-Object {$_.Label -match "WD MY BOOK"}
$i = 0
Foreach($drive in $drives)
{
#Set letter
$DriveLetter = "Z:"
Set-WmiInstance -input $drive -Arguments @{DriveLetter="$DriveLetter"}
$i++
}

if (Test-Path -path Z:\){
Get-ChildItem -Path "Z:\Veeam\Backups\All VMs - Z Drive" -Include *.vbm -recurse | foreach { $_.Delete()}
Get-ChildItem -Path "Z:\Veeam\Backups\All VMs - Z Drive" -Include *.vib -recurse | foreach { $_.Delete()}
Get-ChildItem -Path "Z:\Veeam\Backups\All VMs - Z Drive" -Include *.vbk -recurse | foreach { $_.Delete()}
Get-ChildItem -Path "Z:\Veeam\Backups\All VMs" -Include *.vbm -recurse | foreach { $_.Delete()}
Get-ChildItem -Path "Z:\Veeam\Backups\All VMs" -Include *.vib -recurse | foreach { $_.Delete()}
Get-ChildItem -Path "Z:\Veeam\Backups\All VMs" -Include *.vbk -recurse | foreach { $_.Delete()}
$externaldrivelabel = Get-WmiObject -Class win32_volume | Where-Object {$_.Label -match "WD MY BOOK"} | Select -ExpandProperty label
Get-WmiObject -Class win32_volume | Where-Object {$_.Label -match "WD MY BOOK"} | % { if (($_.FreeSpace/$_.Capacity) -le '0.95' )
{Send-MailMessage -From "$($ThisComputerName.ToUpper())@$($DnsDomain.ToUpper())" -To "$SupportEmailAddress" `
-Subject "Backup Aborted due to low space on $($externaldrivelabel)." `
-Body  "Aborting nightly Veeam backup to $($externaldrivelabel) (Z:) on $($ThisComputerName.ToUpper()).$($DnsDomain.ToUpper()) due to low disk space." `
-Priority High -DNO onSuccess, onFailure -SmtpServer "mail.$DnsDomain"
break}
}
}
if (Test-Path -path Z:\){
Send-MailMessage -From "$($ThisComputerName.ToUpper())@$($DnsDomain.ToUpper())" -To "$SupportEmailAddress" `
-Subject "Now starting nightly Veeam backup to $($externaldrivelabel)." `
-Body  "Now starting nightly Veeam backup to $($externaldrivelabel) (Z:) on $($ThisComputerName.ToUpper()).$($DnsDomain.ToUpper())." `
-Priority High -DNO onSuccess, onFailure -SmtpServer "mail.$DnsDomain"
Start-VBRJob -Job "All VMs - Z Drive" -FullBackup -RunAsync
break
}else{
Send-MailMessage -From "$($ThisComputerName.ToUpper())@$($DnsDomain.ToUpper())" -To "$SupportEmailAddress" `
-Subject "Error:  No external backup drive (Z:) found on $($ThisComputerName.ToUpper()).$($DnsDomain.ToUpper())!!!" `
-Body  "Error:  Cannot find or mount the external backup drive (Z:) on $($ThisComputerName.ToUpper()).$($DnsDomain.ToUpper())!!!  Now aborting nightly backup to external hard drive!!!" `
-Priority High -DNO onSuccess, onFailure -SmtpServer "mail.$DnsDomain"
break
}

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Converting from BackupExec to #Veeam when using RDX drives

January 11, 2017January 11, 2017@DeanColpitts3 Comments

Ok – I’m completely done with Backup Exec when it comes to VMware. I’ve been selling, supporting, certified on and even using Backup Exec for our own internal backups since it was Conner Backup Exec for Windows NT 3.1, way back in 1993. Once upon a time, it was a great product – in fact it was the only product for backups that worked worth a damn. But it’s reliability has dropped to nothing over the past 6 or 7 years. Technical support has been off-shored and 99.9% of the time, if I am lucky enough to finally reach someone in technical support on the phone, I can’t understand a damn word they say due to their thick accent and shitty VOIP lines crossing the Pacific Ocean. Today was the last straw with Backup Exec, their crappy bugs, and unreliable VMware backups. So now it’s time to fully embrace the move to Veeam, which I’ve been considering for some time (note of disclosure – I am also a certified Veeam VMCE – v7, v8, & v9)

Several of my clients have single standalone ESXi hosts, an HPE StoreOnce appliance, a physical Windows Server 2012R2 with a RDX drive or two (for offline backups), and both Backup Exec and Veeam loaded on that Windows server. Oh – and many, many, many RDX cartridges that have months of rotated backups on them that are all three quarters full. I can’t just erase all these cartridges in one swoop and use them for Veeam backups. And I certainly don’t want to have to log into the clients’ servers everyday to manually delete the old Backup Exec folders off the RDX (as they come up in rotation) so that there is enough room for the nightly Veeam backup. And finally, even though I’m dumping Backup Exec for my VMware backups, I still need to use Backup Exec to backup the 2012R2 physical instance to the same RDX cartridge that Veeam is going to use (atleast until Veeam releases their next project). So what do I do?

A little PowerShell scripting to the rescue – that is what I am going do!

After going through a sampling of several RDX cartridges at several different client sites, I’ve determined that when Backup Exec runs with GRT enabled it dumps those backed up VMs in IMGxxxxxx folders on the root of the RDX drive (including the VMDKs). I also discovered (or at least in the environments that I’ve setup) that GRT enabled application backups (not VMs, but rather SQL, AD, Exchange) will also be in an IMG folder with either a file called ntds.dit or edb.chk, and sometimes both! In my case, my 2012R2 server has SQL and AD on it, so I want to be careful not to delete IMG folders that potentially contain my SQL and AD backups (which could screw Backup Exec up even more than normal when it uses that cartridge again for the 2012R2 server).

In the end, I setup the RDX drive as a new rotated drive repository in Veeam (prior to this Veeam only backed up to the HPE StoreOnce). I then create a new Veeam job that did active fulls to the RDX drive every night (with a restore points to keep of 1). In the job’s Advanced Settings menu, I added a pre-run script that runs C:\Windows\Remove_BackupExec_IMG_Folders.cmd. This script in turn launches a PowerShell script that deletes all the IMGxxxxxx folders off the RDX drive except IMG folders that contain either ntds.dit or edb.chk.

**NOTE – the following deletes data from your backup cartridges. Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk. I accept zero liability and responsibility if you use these scripts!!!**

Here is the contents of my batch file.

rem start notepad++ "C:\Windows\Remove_BackupExec_IMG_Folders.cmd"
PowerShell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell -ArgumentList '-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""C:\Windows\Remove_BackupExec_IMG_Folders.ps1""' -Verb RunAs}"
exit/b

Here is the contents of the PowerShell script to remove the IMGxxxxxx folders (adjust the drive letter accordingly)

# start notepad++ "C:\Windows\Remove_BackupExec_IMG_Folders.ps1"
foreach ($i in Get-ChildItem R:\IMG*)
{if ((test-path "$i\ntds.dit") -eq $False -and (test-path "$i\edb.chk") -eq $False) {Remove-Item $i -force -recurse -confirm:$false}}

But wait! There is more!

Because I am still going to have to suffer with Backup Exec a while longer to backup my 2012R2 server, I need to make sure my nightly Backup Exec job doesn’t eject the RDX cartridge on me before Veeam finishes it’s RDX job. To ensure this, I disabled the scheduled RDX jobs on my Backup Exec server. Fortunately, Backup Exec includes a PowerShell module called BEMCLI. So I wrote a second set of scripts as it was simply a matter of starting PowerShell from a script, importing the module, and starting the job. So this time my scripts are a post-job script to start the Backup Exec job only after the Veeam job completes.

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Here is the batch file to launch PowerShell.

rem start notepad++ "C:\Windows\Start_BE_UTIL01_RDX_JOB.cmd"
PowerShell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell -ArgumentList '-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""C:\Windows\Start_BE_UTIL01_RDX_JOB.ps1""' -Verb RunAs}"
exit/b

And here is the PowerShell script to start the Backup Exec job called “23:10 UTIL01 RDX-Full”.

# start notepad++ "C:\Windows\Start_BE_UTIL01_RDX_JOB.ps1"
Import-Module BEMCLI
Get-BEJob -Name "23:10 UTIL01 RDX-Full" | Start-BEJob -confirm:$false

Now when my Veeam backup job to RDX starts, it deletes all the IMGxxxxxx folders off the RDX drive (unless those folders contain either ntds.dit or edb.chk), and when it completes, it starts the remaining Backup Exec job, which ultimately ejects the RDX cartridge when it completes.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Silently remove old VMware vCenter 5.x apps/tools and install the newest 6.x ones

January 8, 2017@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

It appears that VMware has finally figured out how to make vSphere 6 stable, which means it is finally time for my team to start migrating our clients off vSphere 5.5 and onto vSphere 6. Upgrading a vSphere host takes all of 60 seconds with esxcli followed by a reboot of the host. Upgrading all the apps and tools to manage the vSphere hosts however can take hours if doing it manually across all the machines in a domain though.

Like many of you (I’m sure), we generally have the various VMware apps and tools such as VIClient, PowerCLI, VMRC, Client Integration Plugin, and Update Manager client installed on multiple machines throughout the client’s computer system. It’s time consuming and a real pain in the butt to go into Add/Remove programs and manually uninstall all the old 5.x tools and then manually install all the new 6.0 tools on each of these machines. So, after a bit of testing and troubleshooting, I’ve come up with a series of one liners to cut and paste into an administrative command prompt to do all the time consuming pain the butt work without actually doing any of the work myself… Using these scripts, I can generally remove all the old 4.x and 5.x software and install all the new 6.0 software in less than 5 minutes per machine.

And I use our inventory and software management system to determine which machines have 5.x apps installed on them before I ever begin so I can target just the machines I need to without wasting time. So basically once I have all ESXi hosts upgraded to version 6, I use Remote Desktop Connection Manager to connect to each machine I have identified as having 5.x apps, open an Administrator command prompt and cut and paste all my command lines in (both uninstall and install). Once that machine is cranking away, I move onto the next machine and start the same process over again, and then on to the next machine. Generally the first machine is completed before I get the last machine even started. Then it is just a matter of verifying the apps work as expected…

So first we want remove all existing VMware apps on the target machine except VMware Tools and VMware Update Manager (server, not client). You should be able to cut and paste all 7 of these command lines into the administrative command prompt at the same time and they will run one after the other, silently uninstalling any installed application on the machine with a name that matches the search parameters. The 7th line will open Add/Remove programs for you so you can manually verify everything has been removed before continuing.

Important – make sure there are no opened/running browsers on the machine and that none of the VMware apps are opened (very important if you are doing this on a Windows server that allows Remote Desktop for Administration and another admin is logged into it at the same time!!!)

**Note – if you are still using a Windows based vCenter server – it likely wouldn’t be too wise to run these uninstall commands on the vCenter server – consider yourself warned**

start /wait wmic product where "name like 'vmware c%%'" call uninstall
start /wait wmic product where "name like 'vmware r%%'" call uninstall
start /wait wmic product where "name like 'vmware vix%%'" call uninstall
start /wait wmic product where "name like 'vmware vsphere c%%'" call uninstall
start /wait wmic product where "name like 'vmware vsphere p%%'" call uninstall
start /wait wmic product where "name like 'vmware vsphere update manager c%%'" call uninstall
start appwiz.cpl

So now we all our old version 5.x tools and apps removed from our management stations, so we can go ahead now and silently deploy our new version 6.x apps. Again, you should be able to paste these 6 lines all at once into a command prompt and they will run sequentially and install the VIClient, VMware Remote Console, vSphere CLI, vSphere PowerCLI, and the Update Manager client.

start /wait \\SERVER\SETUP\VMWARE\ESXi60u02\VMware-viclient.exe /q /s /w /L1033 /v" /qr"
start /wait msiexec /qb- /i \\SERVER\SETUP\VMWARE\ESXi60u02\VMware-VMRC-9.0.0-4288332.msi EULAS_AGREED=1 AUTOSOFTWAREUPDATE=0 DATACOLLECTION=0
start /wait \\SERVER\SETUP\VMWARE\ESXi60u02\VMware-vSphere-CLI-6.0.0-3561779.exe&nbsp; /s /v/qn
start /wait \\SERVER\SETUP\VMWARE\ESXi60u02\VMware-PowerCLI-6.3.0-3737840.exe&nbsp; /s /v/qn 
start /wait \\SERVER\SETUP\VMWARE\ESXi60u02\VMware-UMClient.exe&nbsp; /s /v/qn 
start appwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs should once again automatically open for you to manually verify that everything has installed correctly.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

REVISED – HOWTO: Grab the all file download links on a HP Inc driver download page and wget them

January 2, 2017January 2, 2017@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

About 3 months ago, I posted how to grab all the download links on a HP Inc driver download page and wget them. After some messing around, I decided to take my previously posted instructions (which you can find here) and turn them into a pair of macros for Notepad++ to save some manual labor. Below is the content of the two macros. I also assigned ALT+F12 to the first macro, and ALT+F10 to the second macro. And finally I assigned ALT+F11 to the Hex to Ascii plugin.

So now all I need to do is open Notepad++, paste the HP Inc’s driver download page’s source into Notepad++ and hit ALT+F12, ALT+F11, and then ALT+F10 to get my wget links.

To use these two macro’s, you’ll need to edit %AppData%\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml and insert these two macros, then save shortcuts.xml. You also need to close Notepad++ and reopen it before using the macros.

Macro #1 – HP Inc Download Source Cleanup Part 1 – ALT+F12

<Macro name="HP Inc Download Source Cleanup Part 1" Ctrl="no" Alt="yes" Shift="no" Key="123">
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="#" />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="768" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="\t" />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="768" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam='&apos;&quot;&gt;\r\n' />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="\r\n" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="768" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam='&quot;&gt;\r\n' />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="\r\n" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="768" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="obtainSoftware?url=" />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="\r\n###" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="768" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="2" message="0" wParam="42043" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="2" message="0" wParam="42056" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="2" message="0" wParam="42059" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="^###" />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="2" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="784" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1615" sParam="" />
<Action type="2" message="0" wParam="43051" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="###" />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="768" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="2" message="0" wParam="43008" lParam="0" sParam="" />
</Macro>

Macro #2 – HP Inc Download Source Cleanup Part 2 – ALT+F10

<Macro name="HP Inc Download Source Cleanup Part 2" Ctrl="no" Alt="yes" Shift="no" Key="121">
<Action type="3" message="1700" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1601" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="http:" />
<Action type="3" message="1625" wParam="0" lParam="1" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1602" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="\r\nwget -c -N -T 20 -t 20 http:" />
<Action type="3" message="1702" wParam="0" lParam="896" sParam="" />
<Action type="3" message="1701" wParam="0" lParam="1609" sParam="" />
<Action type="0" message="2318" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
</Macro>

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Change a Windows’ network type from Public to Private via PowerShell

December 24, 2016December 24, 2016@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Stupid Windows Server 2016… Stupid Windows 10… Damn Microsoft…

Ever find yourself with a network interface that is stuck as Public and no obvious way to change it via GUI?

2016-12-24-14-24-28-snagit-0024

Five simple PowerShell lines to the rescue!

Get-NetConnectionProfile
$Profile = Get-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceAlias "interface_alias_name"
$Profile.NetworkCategory = "Private"
Set-NetConnectionProfile -InputObject $Profile
Get-NetConnectionProfile

2016-12-24-14-25-51-snagit-0025

2016-12-24-14-26-07-snagit-0026

And now your network type should be set to Private network.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Grab the all file download links on a HP Inc driver download page and wget them

October 14, 2016October 14, 2016@DeanColpitts1 Comment

So you have a brand new HP Inc machine to deploy, or you are finally getting around to upgrading to Windows 10… You’ll need to download the drivers for that machine from HP Inc’s support site. But you don’t want to use their 2 year old driver pack, kill your internet connection by launching 38 separate downloads at once from your browser, or babysit one or two downloads in the browser at a time (an all day task). Well here is a simple way to grab all the file download links at once and then use wget to sequentially get those files one after another – hands free in a command prompt. All you need is Notepad++ and a copy of wget.exe somewhere in your machine’s system path.

I’ve had good luck with getting wget from here: https://eternallybored.org/misc/wget/
And you can install Notepad++ using Ninite’s installer from here: https://ninite.com/

Extract wget.exe and put it somewhere in your system path (i.e. C:\Windows).

Open your browser of choice, go to the HP Inc driver support download page for the product and OS version you need and then view the page’s source code in your browser (typically accomplished by right clicking the page and selecting “view page source”.

Copy the entire page’s source code (“CTRL + A” then “CTRL + C“) and paste it (“CTRL + V“) into an empty Notepad++ window, then hit “CTRL + H” to open Notepad++’s search/replace dialog box.

Click the “Extended Search Mode” radio button.

Search for: #
Replace with: {blank}
Hit the Replace All button
Tip – press CTRL + A then hit backspace or delete in the Replace with box to blank it’s contents

Search for: \t
Replace with: {blank}
Hit the Replace All button

Search for: ‘”>\r\n
Replace with: \r\n
Hit the Replace All button
Tip – this is an apostrophe, quote, greater than sign, backslash, r, backslash, n

Search for: “>\r\n
Replace with: \r\n
Hit the Replace All button
Tip – this is quote, greater than sign, backslash, r, backslash, n

Search for: obtainSoftware?url=
Replace with: \r\n###
Hit the Replace All button
Hit the Close button (on the replace dialog box)

Press “CTRL + A” to select all text

From the Edit drop down menu, select Blank Operations –> Trim Leading and Trailing Space
From the Edit drop down menu, select Blank Operations –> Remove Empty Lines (Containing blank characters)
From the Edit drop down menu, select Line Operations –> Sort Lines Lexicographically Ascending

Hit “CTRL + Home” to go to the top of the document

You should now see several lines that start with ###6874 – highlight just these lines and copy them with “CTRL + C“, then press “CTRL + N” to create a new document, then press “CTRL + V” to paste the copied lines into the new document.

Hit “CTRL + H” to open the replace dialog box again.

Search for: ###
Replace with: {blank}
Hit the Replace All button
Hit the Close button (on the replace dialog box)

Press “CTRL + A” to select all text

From the Notepad++ Plugins drop down menu at the top of the screen, select Converter –> “HEX -> ASCII”

Hit “CTRL + H” to open the replace dialog box

Search for: http:
Replace with: \r\nwget -c -N -T 20 -t 20 http:
Hit the Replace All button
Hit the Close button (on the replace dialog box)

Hit “CTRL + Home”

You should now be left with a bunch of wget lines.

Press “CTRL + A” to select all text
Press “CTRL + C” to call all the text

You should now be able to open a command prompt, change the folder of your choice and right click to paste the whole group of wget commands at once into the command prompt, which will start sequentially downloading the files from HPE or HP Inc, one at a time until all the files have been downloaded.

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Now you are free to go work on something else (or have a coffee, lunch, beer, nap, etc.) while your files are downloaded.

Once all the files are downloaded, in Explorer enable the Product Name and Product Version columns (in detailed view) to determine what each SP file is. As an added bonus, the original time stamps of the download files are maintained too.

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As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.