Category: IIS

IISRESET and Microsoft Azure cloud services don’t mix well!

I recently performed am IISRESET on some production Azure cloud servers and found to my horror that the website died. A restart resolved the issue, but I had just discovered a little too late that IISRESET is not an option on a Cloud Services server.

This blog (http://www.morestuffabout.net/2012/01/game-over-on-azure-dont-iisreset/) explains some of the alternative options, such as using a utility called ASPRESET which you can find info about at ASPRESET – Jon Galloway blog. This can help avoid needing to do an IISRESET.

Setting up external URL access to your Team Foundation Server 2010

I came across a great blog outlining all the steps to setting up alternative URLs for Team Foundation Server 2010 (TFS), Team Web Access and the Reporting server too.

It’s well written and easy to follow and can be found here http://www.tjopsta.net/2010/04/16/how-to-change-team-foundation-server-2010-urls-for-use-externally/

Testing an SMTP Service using telnet

Here’s a quick way to manually test your SMTP service.

The best plan is to run this test on the server first (ensure that localhost or 127.0.0.1 is allowed to access the service) and then from a remote client next.

Follow these steps

(the response examples are those returned against a Windows 2008 R2 Server SMTP Service):

  1. Type Telnet <server name or IP> 25 at a command prompt, and then press ENTER.

    The output should look something like:
    220
    CP5-15164 Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 7.5.7600.16601 ready at  Fr
    i, 16 Sep 2011 11:23:30 +0100

  2. Type ehlo, and then press ENTER.

    The output resembles the following: 
    250-CP5-15164 Hello [127.0.0.1]
    250-TURN
    250-SIZE 2097152
    250-ETRN
    250-PIPELINING
    250-DSN
    250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
    250-8bitmime
    250-BINARYMIME
    250-CHUNKING
    250-VRFY
    250 OK

  3. Type mail from:email@domain.com, and then press ENTER.

    The output resembles the following:
    250 2.1.0 email@domain.com….Sender OK

  4. Type rcpt to:youremail@domain.com, and then press ENTER.

    The output resembles the following:
    250 2.1.5 youremail@domain.com

  5. Type Data, and then press ENTER.

    The output resembles the following:
    354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>

  6. Type Subject:Test # subject, and then press ENTER two times.
  7. Type Test # body, and then press ENTER.
  8. Press ENTER, type a period (.), and then press ENTER.

    The output resembles the following:
    250 2.6.0 <CP5-151641XvpFVjCRG00000007@CP5-15164> Queued mail for delivery

  9. Type quit, and then press ENTER.

    The output resembles the following:
    221 2.0.0 CP5-15164 Service closing transmission channel