Author Archives: Adrian Kielbowicz

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 – How to Sync Time from External Time Source?

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Quick post to show how you can sync your domain controllers with external time source (time.windows.com or ntp.pool.org for example). By default, all machines in the domain will sync time from the domain controller which is the internal time server – if you have more than one DC then time will sync from the DC that holds the PDC emulator FSMO role. To check which DC is PDC emulator in your domain you need to run netdom /query fsmo command like so:

Windows_Server_2008_R2_SP1_How_to_Sync_Time_to_External_Time_Source_1

Once PDC emulator role is established there is few commands we need to run in order for time to sync, these are (run on PDC emulator):

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Reporting Services tab not showing in SCCM console after R3 upgrade? Here’s how to fix it.

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Recently I have upgraded my SCCM central server which was running 2007 SP2 to 2007 R3 and encountered interesting issue. Basically after all reports have been imported I couldn’t see Reporting Services tab in my console to take advantage of any pre-defined reports showing power consumption etc. Currently my console looks as follows:

Reporting_Services_tab_not_showing_in_SCCM_console_after_R3_upgrade_Here_is_how_to_fix_it_1

where the same console on my central server has the tab I’m missing which its showing up just fine:

Reporting_Services_tab_not_showing_in_SCCM_console_after_R3_upgrade_Here_is_how_to_fix_it_2

Solution to get this problem fixed is to install hotfix from Microsoft which happens to be a pre-requisite before you install R3 on your client computer with SCCM console. Link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977384/en-us

If you’re after the actual .msi ready to be installed you can get it from here (downloading hotfixes from Microsoft can be a bit of pain sometimes):

SCCM2007-SP2-KB977384-ENU

…at this point you should be all set to install the R3 upgrade to your console which will bring the Reporting Services tab.

How to update Intel/Broadcom network drivers on ESXi 4/5?

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Following on from my last post talking about How to update mpt2sas driver on ESXi 5? today we are going to look at updating network drivers for Broadcom and Intel NICs on VMware ESXi host. Procedure documented below will work with any version of ESXi 4.x and 5.x

Lets start by listing all network interfaces in “Up” state:

esxcfg-nics -l | grep Up

How_to_update_Intel_Broadcom_network_drivers_on_ESXi_4_5_1

As you can see there are 10 network adapters in “Up” state which happens to be total as well on this host – 4 Broadcom 5709s and 6 Intel 82576s. Portion of the screenshot that we’re particularly interested in is just before the “Up” word i.e. bnx2 and igb – these are driver names that ESXi is using for our network cards. Now that we have this established lets look at the version of said drivers:
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VMware tools install fails with “An error occurred installing the package. Windows Installer returned ‘1601’”

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I have been getting An error occurred installing the package. Windows Installer returned ‘1601’ while installing/updating VMware tools on 1 VM (out of like 70..) for some strange reason. Fast forward some time and its all apparent now:

VMware_tools_install_fails_with_An_error_occurred_installing_the_package_Windows_Installer_returned_1601_2

Someone changed the startup type for Windows Installer service to Disabled…

Its one of those annoying things you could really could do without on a Friday evening!!

Anyways, that’s that sorted – time to pack up and leave for the day.

Cisco ASA 5505 and Virgin Media FTTN

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I have had my ASA 5505 running for few months now on Virgin Media FTTN (Fibre To The Neighbourhood / Node) connection and thought I’d share my config. When initial configuration was done on ASA it was a royal pain to be honest, moving from ZyXEL ZyWALL 5 device was challenging since Cisco like to do things differently and ASA is no exception. Here’s what I’m currently running software wise:

Cisco_ASA_5505_and_Virgin_Media_FTTN

ASA software version 8.4.3 and ASDM 6.4.7 – both seem fairly stable so far.

You can safely ignore any defined objects, access lists etc. in the config below as you’d need to re-create them based on what’s required by you.
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Kaplan Mountain Challenge 2013 – Help us Raise Money for Charities!

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Following on from last year’s successful event (Kaplan Mountain Challenge 2012) we are at it again! Kaplan Mountain Challenge 2013 is definitely happening and 50k at killer pace is all but waiting. Team of four called Health Raiser has been assembled to take on the challenge, list of, equally brave and stupid, members is as follows:

  • Amit P Kundalia
  • Chris Kennard
  • Adrian Kielbowicz
  • Christopher Lee Smith

    • Apart from hiking aspect of this event there is fundraising involved too. We aim to raise as much as we possibly can but the bare minimum required is roughly ~£300 per member bringing the total to about £1200 per team. Selected charities we will donate all collected funds to are:

  • Helena Kennedy Foundation – http://www.hkf.org.uk
  • SCT: Homelessness, Poverty, Drug & Alcohol Addiction – http://www.sct.org.uk

    • Donations are being accepted through Virgin Money Giving page so please donate what you can, we appreciate any amount!

    Running totals for last year donations were £2452.50 so there is our target to aim at!
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    VMware vSphere 5.0 VM Console Shows “Unable to connect to the MKS: Console access to the virtual machine cannot be granted since the connection limit of 0 has been reached.”

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    Lets dive straight into this error message which happens to be affecting two of my VMs:

    Unable_to_connect_to_the_MKS_Console_access_to_the_virtual_machine_cannot_be_granted_since_the_connection_limit_of_0_has_been_reached_1

    As you can see I’m unable to get the console window working! Exact message displayed across the top sheds some light into why this is happening – “Unable to connect to the MKS: Console access to the virtual machine cannot be granted since the connection limit of 0 has been reached.”

    I know of at least three different ways to make this error message go away and get to the console window again.
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    Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 DNS Stops Resolving Names “Can’t find google.co.uk: Server failed”

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    I use Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 DNS to resolve my public names and precisely every two days I get “Can’t find google.co.uk: Server failed” messages and the usual “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” nonsense. This only happens when using root hints and not forwarders and only for few selected top level domains (.co.uk being one of them) Here is what the situation looks like when the DNS server is broken:

    Windows_Server_2008_R2_SP1_DNS_Stops_Resolving_Names_Can't_find_google.co.uk_Server_failed_1

    Ping returns “Ping request could not find host google.co.uk. Please check the name and try again” and nslookup throws error in title. Pretty annoying and so far the fix was to simply bounce the dns service – not elegant in any shape or form but highly successful!
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    Perfect vSphere 5 Whitebox Project

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    I have been entertaining HP ProLiant MicroServer N36L for nearly a year now. Great machine for the money and with cost of around £120 (after the cash back) it was an absolute bargain at the time! Box itself has been upgraded to 8GB of DDR3 RAM (maximum the motherboard can take) and its running ESXi 4.1 U1 absolutely fine. Disk space wise, there is only 30 GB Vertex SSD for few VMs (and .vswp files), rest of the storage needs is provided by QNAP TS-509 NAS (by means of NFS and iSCSI) This setup has been absolutely flawlessly so far but there is simply not enough RAM and CPU power for my needs (or rather my VMs). CPU Ready is going through the roof quite often due to AMD Athlon II Neo 1.30GHz processor which is just slightly better performer compared to Intel Atom range. 8GB of RAM is tight and ESXi was paging the VMs like mad to .vswp files hence why I put them on SSD which helped only to certain extent. At the end I kinda had enough and decided to build a custom server which would address all of the issues above.

    Here is what I came up with:

    Processor: Intel Xeon X3450 2.66GHz with HT/VT-x and VT-d
    Processor Cooling: Corsair CWCH100 Hydro Series H100 Cooler
    Processor Cooling Fans: 2 x Noctua NF-P12
    Motherboard: Supermicro X8SIL-F-O Server Board
    RAM: Kingston 4 x 8GB [KVR1333D3Q8R9S/8G]
    Case: Lian-Li PC-V350B
    Case Noise Dampening: AcoustiPack LITE (APL) Multi-Layered Soundproof Material
    Case Backplate: Custom backplate to incorporate moving PSU to the right and adding 120mm exhaust fan

    5.25″ Drive Bay Cooling: Evercool Armour ATX HDD Cool Box HD-AR
    5.25″ Drive Bay Cooling Fan: Noctua NF-R8-1800

    Case Exhaust Fan [Back]: 1 x Noctua NF-P12
    Case Exhaust Fan Guard: 120mm Standard Wire Case Fan Guard Grill [Black]

    Power Supply: Be Quiet! BN180 L8 430W Modular PSU
    Storage 1: Samsung 830 256GB SSD (main datastore)
    Storage 2: Seagate Barracuda 2TB [ST2000DM001] (second datastore)
    Storage 3: Vertex 1 30GB SSD (.vswp datastore)
    Storage 4: Patriot Extreme Performance Xporter XT Rage 8GB (local storage for ESXi)
    Storage Adapter Bracket: SilverStone SST-FP55B (allows 1 x 5.25″ and 2 x 2.5″ in one 5.25″ slot!)

    Network 1: Onboard Dual Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controllers
    Network 2: HP NC360T PCI Express Dual Port Gigabit Server Adapter [which effectively is Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port NIC]
    Network 3: Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-DA2, 10GbE, Dual Port

    RAID Controller: IBM ServeRAID M1015 [which kinda is OEM version of LSI 9220-8i]
    ODD: Toshiba/Samsung TS-H653 20x DVD±RW DL SATA Drive

    I will be updating this post as work on the server progresses! Stay tuned.

    Project Update #1
    Project Update #2
    Project Update #3
    Project Update #4
    Project Update #5
    Project Update #6
    Project Update #7
    FINAL UPDATE

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