How To Rewrite A Sub Domain To A Directory In IIS

When I signed up with my current web host the deal was limited to six domains and unlimited websites; a restriction I figured I could live within as a lot of what I intended to do would be in sub-domains and the unlimited websites allowed me to have each sub-domain in an individual website.

However, since I signed up they have, without giving any form of notification, changed the deal so it is now unlimited domains and only six websites. I’m currently in a position that I have five domains and twelve websites without the ability to create another website; the control panel shows me as having 12 of 6 websites. The only positive is that they have not, as yet, required me to trim down the number of websites I have.

I therefore spent a little time yesterday looking for a resolution to this problem. Continue reading “How To Rewrite A Sub Domain To A Directory In IIS”

How To Create A Domain Controller

Windows ServerThe release of Management Reporter brought several advantages over FRx; x64 compatibility, replacement of the Access database with SQL Server and a modern client among them. However, one of the downsides is that Management Reporter requires a domain to be available for both the installation and running.

Where FRx could be run on any PC or laptop regardless of the operating system, Management Reporter can only be run on a server OS. This means that the Business Development Managers, and I, need either a laptop with Windows Server 2008, or better the R2 version, installed or we need a VM with the same. To make everyday life easier I opted for the latter as I can install it once and then copy the VM between machines.

I am a Microsoft Dynamics GP consultant by training, certification and experience but I don’t have a huge amount of experience with Active Directory. I am the most knowledgeable here about installing GP and Management Reporter though, so it falls to me to do the setup of the demo systems and I figured I might as well do the full monty rather than getting someone else to install the operating system and then passing it back to me.

To this end I needed to learn how to install and configure Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) and I thought it best to document here for anyone else interested and also for my own future reference. Continue reading “How To Create A Domain Controller”

Error Code 2337 When Installing Microsoft SQL Server Into A Virtual Machine

Microsoft Dynamics GPI have installed SQL Server into Virtual Machines many times in the past but I’ve recently seen an error when trying to do it again;

The following error has occurred: The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2337.

I had a think about the error and realised that I usually installed SQL from the VM HDD and not, as I was in this case, by attaching the iso image to the VM as external media. I uncompressed the iso onto the VM HDD and ran the installer again from this source and it installed without problem.

Transferring GP To A New Server Without Resetting All Passwords

[One of the annoyances when migrating a client’s installation of Microsoft Dynamics GP to a new server is that, unless the new server has the same name as the old one, the password of every user needs to be reset as the server name is encrypted in with the password.

The is another alternative though and that is to create a DNS CNAME Alias and use this as the server name in the SQL Server ODBC instead of the servers actual name. When GP is migrated to a new box you only need to amend the DNS CNAME Alias and users can continue logging in with the same password. Continue reading “Transferring GP To A New Server Without Resetting All Passwords”

How To Change The SQL Server Backup Folder

Microsoft SQL ServerWhen you install Microsoft SQL Server you select the Data, Logs and Backup folder during the installation process. If you subsequently need to change these folders you can only change two of them through the SQL Server Management Studio UI. On the Server Properties dialog there are boxes for the Data and Logs default locations;

Server Properties

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VAT 100 Is Missing

Microsoft Dynamics GPI ran into an issue recently when installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 where the VAT Return was not available. I was configuring the system in preparation for training a new client and was running through the Company options (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu » Tools » Routines » Company » Company » Options button) where I was sure the Enable VAT 100 option was but in this case wasn’t;

Company Options - No Enable VAT 100 Option

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Financial Year End Closing – Only Open Year Error Message

Microsoft Dynamics GPI was recently doing some training for a new client and, when showing them how to do period and year end processing encountered an error message when trying to do the Financial Year End Closing (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu » Tools » Routines » Financial » Year End Closing);

Financial Year End Closing - You must set up a new financial year before you can close the only open year.

This had me stumped for a few minutes as there were Open Year calendars (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu » Tools » Setup » Company » Financial Periods) on the system for 2011, 2012 and 2013. Typically in the UK a financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March; but this isn’t a hard and fast rule. This particular client has a different financial year and the error message was being produced as there was a gap of one day between the end of 2011 and the start of 2012. Once the calendar was fixed, the Year End Closing could be run without issue.

Integration Manager Error – MSScriptControl

Microsoft Dynamics GPI’ve spent a fair bit of time recently importing data into Microsoft Dynamics GP using Integration Manager with which I have encounterd a few different error messages (ADO Field Is Nothing, All GP Windows Must Be Closed and Source Document Doesn’t Exist).

The latest error I’ve encountered related to the MSScriptControl;

Integration Manager - MSScriptControl Error

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