Install Exchange Server 2013 Management Tools when there is no DC at your site

Trying to install the Exchange 2013 Management Tools, I kept receiving an error that setup couldn't proceed because "Setup must use a domain controller in the same site as this computer". The log files indicated "Failed [Rule:DomainControllerIsOutOfSite]". I was trying to install these tools onto a computer in a Site that did not have a DC. Using the unattended setup with /DomainController didn't help, as it wasn't that it couldn't find a DC, but there was no DC in my site. Unfortunately for me, sites were setup for SCCM, and some didn't have DCs. Here is how I finally worked around it and installed the Management Tools quickly, with only changes to the PC - no reboot required.

1. Navigated to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters in the Registry Editor.

2. Created a new String Value (REG_SZ), called SiteName, with a value of the Site where the DC was located.

3. Kicked off the installation again, which completed successfully.

4. Deleted the SiteName registry entry after verifying the Management Tools were installed.

Would this work on a full server installation?  Possibly. However, I certainly wouldn't recommend attempting it for anything other than a critical system outage situation.

Exchange 2013 Suspended Migrations (staging mailboxes for a mass cutover)

I have read a number of articles on using the new-moverequest -SuspendWhenReadyToComplete:$true parameter. I have read a number of places where they are supposed to automatically re-sync every 24 hours. I have not found this to be the case for me, but I'm not sure if others are wrong, or whether there is an issue with my configuration. Either way, I'm glad they don't, because that allows me to force the re-sync on my own.  Here is what I've found to pre-stage the mailbox migrations to do a mass-cutover.

I am creating a batch of move requests with a CSV (with an Alias and Destination Column) and my command looks like this:

Import-CSV C:\Temp\mailboxes.csv|ForEach-Object{New-MoveRequest $_.Alias -TargetDatabase $_.Destination -BatchName "Human Resources" -SuspendWhenReadyToComplete -AllowLargeItems -BadItemLimit 1000 -AcceptLargeDataLoss}

To view the stats:

get-moverequest -BatchName "Human Resources"|get-moverequeststatistics |select percentcomplete,bytestransferred,overallduration,displayname,status,statusdetail,LastUpdateTimestamp,*ItemsTransf*,*stalled* |Out-GridView

To resync:

Get-moverequest -BatchName "IT"|Set-MoveRequest -SuspendWhenReadyToComplete:$true

Get-moverequest -BatchName "IT"|Resume-MoveRequest

The information I read indicated you need to set the SuspendWhenReadyToComplete to false to allow it to complete. I have found this not to be the case. Whenever I run the resume-moverequest, that flag automatically gets set back to false.  That means if you have autosuspended mailboxes and you do a resume-moverequest on them, they will complete UNLESS you set the SuspendWhenReadyToComplete to True first.

I've used these steps to kick off a re-sync of each batch, one a time, to prevent too much load on the server.