For future reference the DHCP settings are:

OPTION 66 = IP OF WDS Server
OPTION 67 = \boot\x86\wdsnbp.com


1st I tried changing the group from distribution to security, but, I still got the same error.

Then I found this post. Turns out the GUI doesn’t completely change the object. You need to run the following command from the Exchange Management Shell (Exchange 2007 for me):

Set-Distributiongroup–identity

In my case it was:

Set-DistributionGroup -identity AmbCare

You can read the linked post for the command for Exchange 2010.

To get the GUID of the dangling SR’s run this command from any host in the pool:

xe sr-list –minimal params=uuid host=”<not in database>”

Then run this command using the GUID’s from the above command to remove them:

xe sr-forget uuid=%dangling-SR-GUID%

Repeat the command to remove each of your dangling storage repositories.

1. If you ask me technical questions please don’t argue with me because you don’t like my answer. If you think you know more about the topic, why ask? And if I’m arguing with you…it’s because I am positive that I am correct, otherwise I’d just say “I don’t know” or give you some tips on where to look it up, I don’t have the time to just argue for the sake of it.
2. Starting a conversation by insulting yourself (i.e. “I’m such an idiot”) will not make me laugh, or feel sorry for you; all it will do is remind me that yes, you are an idiot and that I am going to hate having to talk to you. Trust me; you don’t want to start a call that way.
3. I am ok with you making mistakes, fixing them is my job. I am not ok with you lying to me about a mistake you made. It makes it much harder to resolve and thus makes my job more difficult. Be honest and we can get the problem resolved and continue on with our business.
4. There is no magic “Fix it” button. Everything takes some amount of work to fix, and not everything is worth fixing or even possible to fix. If I say that you just need to re-do a document that you accidentally deleted 2 months ago, please don’t get mad at me. I’m not ignoring your problem, and it’s not that I don’t like you, I just can’t always fix everything.
5. Not everything you ask me to do is “urgent”. In fact, by marking things as “urgent” every time, you almost ensure that I treat none of it as a priority.
6. You are not the only one who needs help, and you usually don’t have the most urgent issue. Give me some time to get to your problem, it will get fixed.
7. Emailing me several times about the same issue in the same day is not only unnecessary, it’s highly annoying. Emails will stay until I delete them, I won’t delete them until I’m done with them. I will typically respond as soon as I have a useful update. If it is an urgent issue, let me know (see number 5).
8. Yes, I prefer email over telephone calls. It has nothing to do with being friendly, it’s about efficiency. It is much faster and easier for me to list out a set of questions that I need you to answer than it is for me to call and ask you them one by one. You can find the answers at your leisure and while I’m waiting I can work on other problems.
9. Yes, I seem blunt and rude. It’s not that I mean to, I just don’t have the time to sugar coat things for you. I assume we are both adults and can handle the reality of a problem. If you did something wrong, I will tell you. I don’t care that it was a mistake, because it really makes no difference to me. Don’t take it personal, I just don’t want it to happen again.
10. And finally, yes, I can read your email, I can see what web pages you look at while you are at work, yes, I can access every file on your work computer, and I can tell if you are chatting with people on an instant messenger or chat room (and can also read what you are typing). But no, I don’t do it. It’s unethical, I’m busy, and in all reality you aren’t all that interesting. So unless I am instructed to specifically monitor or investigate your actions, I don’t. There really are much more interesting things on the internet than you.

Your friendly neighbourhood IT Guy

You will need to have access to a FTP server to host your own Xmarks files. You can host your own FTP server with Filezilla Server or use space on a web server if you have FTP access to it. (Setup of Filezilla is beyond the scope of this post. I may add a tutorial on this in the future.)

Here are the steps we will follow to use Xmarks BYOS:

1. uninstall Xmarks
2. create a folder on your FTP server
3. install Xmarks BYOS
4. configure Xmarks to use your FTP site

Step 1: Uninstall Xmarks

• Open Firefox
• Click on Tools
• Click on Ad-Ons
• Highlight Xmarks
• Click Uninstall
• Reboot Firefox

Step 2: Setup your FTP server

• Create a folder on your FTP server called “Xmarks”

Wow that was easy wasn’t it?

Step 3: Install Xmarks BYOS

• Head here for the installer
• Click on the Continue to Download button
• Click the Download button
• Accept all prompts and reboot Firefox to complete the install

Step 4: Configure Xmarks BYOS

• Enter your FTP site username and password in the appropriate fields.
• Enter the URL to your FTP site
• i.e. ftp://ftp-server-address/xmarks/bookmarks.json
• i.e. ftp://ftp-server-address/xmarks/passwords.json
• Click Synchronize now
• If you want to sync your passwords click on the Sync tab and check the passwords check box
• Enter the password you want for your passwords file. This cannot be the same as your Xmarks BYOC password.
• Click OK to finish

You can repeat steps 3 & 4 on as many computers are you require. Just make sure the settings are exactly the same or sync will not work.

If you’re using your own FTP server make sure to make backup copies of your .json files.

UPDATE 29/09/10:

Thanks to Jonathan & Alicia we see that BYOS will not work with Firefox 4.0, whenever it is released. However, Alicia reports that these instructions do work with the latest Xmarks release, which you can find info on here.

I’ve been using the service for years and it will be missed. There is nothing like installing a browser add-on, filling in your user info and having all your bookmarks and passwords available to you in less than 5 minutes.

Since the weather was nice on our 1st day there we ventured to the Duluth Zoo. It was a quite impressive collection of animals for a small city. After spending most of the day there we headed to The Grate Lakes Aquarium. It wasn’t the hit the Zoo was, but it was the end of a long day and some of the fish were quite scary. Once the kids are older I’m sure it will be a place to revisit.

On day 2 we woke to torrential rains. Since we had hit the 2 major outdoor activities the day earlier we headed to The Depot. The Deport has 4 museums within it and is contained in the old Duluth train station. Keely loved the Duluth Children’s Museum. We also took a ride on the North Shore Scenic Railway and looked through the many historic trains in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.