Here is one hell of annoying error message (to look at, if you have OCD that is!)
Symptoms – yellow exclamation mark on the host icon and error in “Summary” tab. This only happens after you enabled SSH on ESXi host (which you want to).
Quick screenshots from vShpere client showing the ugly:
To get rid of the above you can proceed in two ways:
You just have to love the simple things in this world that are not so obvious at first thought…
In AD if you try to search for computer name and would like to be slightly more specific you have a problem. Here is the default choice:
The rather obvious choice would include “computer name contains” but sadly the option is not there! Solution? Simple – use LDAP search string instead! In ADUC define new query with custom search for:
(&(objectcategory=computer)(name=*0112*))
where 0112 is what you’re looking for (or computer name contains)
Few bullet-points on how to edit crontab and use cron to schedule jobs:
1] Edit /etc/config/crontab file and add your custom job to the scheduler. I’m scheduling backup of my MySQL databases (mysqlbackup.sh in /bin) to happen daily at 0:45 AM so the syntax will be:
45 0 * * /bin/mysqlbackup.sh
Please follow these instructions to choose custom timing:
2] Run crontab /etc/config/crontab to make cron aware of changes to crontab file.
3] Restart cron – /etc/init.d/crond.sh restart
4] Check the new crontab by using crontab -l or by cat /etc/config/crontab
/EDIT
I have just realized that in my last line when you run the .sh script you need to provide an absolute path. It should read:
/bin/sh /bin/mysqlbackup.sh
Now it will work!
This week I took the delivery of 4 x Dell R720s at work for our Dev environment. Lovely kit this new 12G line of servers is, 96GB of RAM each, 10 NICs, dual SD cards with 2 x 2GB cards for local install of ESXi etc. Fast forward few hours later after all cabling up was done I pop the CD in to actually install ESXi 5.0 and guess what?
I’m like what’s not detected?!? When we did install last 11G servers (R810s only few months back) there was no messages like that at all! In each of the new servers there is a daughter card (NDC, 4 ports based on Broadcom BCM5720), PCI-E card (4 ports, Broadcom BCM5719) and another PCI-E card but this time with 2 ports based again on BCM5720 chip by Broadcom. Unless I’m completely unlucky there must be driver(s) included for at least one of them cards? It turns out there is not.
Here are the steps you need to perform in order to import .nk2 file from Outlook 2007 and earlier versions into Outlook 2010 and Exchange suggested contact list:
1] Copy the .nk2 file to:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Outlook
Please Note: .nk2 file name must match your current Outlook profile name. If Outlook profile has been left at the default setting it will be called simply “Outlook” therefore .nk2 file must be named as Outlook.nk2
To check your profile name go to: Start / Control Panel / Mail / Show Profiles. If your profile is not named Outlook please rename the .nk2 file accordingly.
2] Go to Start / Run and type cmd.exe to open a new command prompt window.
3] For 32bit OS and 32 bit version of Ooutlook type:
%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office14\Outlook.exe /importnk2
If you happen to be running 64bit OS type:
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office14\Outlook.exe /importnk2
Hit enter key, Outlook will open and you should have your contacts all imported!
Please Note: Once the import happens .nk2 will get renamed to .nk2.old and you need to rename it back to .nk2 if you need re-importing.
Today I got this interesting error when deploying new VMs from a pre-defined template with customizations. Its basically failing on Setup is applying system settings part and to be precise on specialize pass of Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup of unattend.xml file.
Here is the screenshot:
At this point the only option is to press OK which will cause the VM to reboot, needless to say it will be constantly rebooting never taking you back to the actual login screen. Trick to get us out of this one is dating back to old XP days and SCCM troubleshooting during task sequence issues – press F8! You should now have nice cmd window, navigate to C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC and look for file called setuperr.log, use notepad to open it up.
Back in December 2011 I have passed my VCP4 exams and was trying to avoid taking classroom training by passing VCP5 before end of Feb 2012. Guess what – it didn’t happen!
Last week on Tue-Wed I was sitting in a classroom for two days (hurray not!) following VMware vSphere: What’s New [V5.0] course objectives. Not great already knowing what’s new in vSphere 5 but it had to be done. For me this was the only prerequisite needed before taking my exam and being officially certified on version 5.
Fast forward few days and today I have passed my VCP5 certification with rather respectable score (again!) Very pleased with that. I’m now a double VMware Certified Professional – already on version 4 and now on version 5.
Exam itself wasn’t too much different from VCP4 really, in fact I do recall some questions from previews exam but in tweaked form i.e. vSphere 4.x became 5.x but the question was exactly the same etc.
Next logical step is to either self study and/or attend VMware vSphere: Optimize and Scale [V5.0] (not compulsory) course in order to properly prepare for VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 exam. Currently there is a choice of two paths leading from VCP5:
VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 5 – Datacenter Administration (VCAP5-DCA)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vSphere 5 – Datacenter Design (VCAP5-DCD)
There is no restrictions in place for not allowing you to take both exams and be certified on both VCAP’s – its perfectly fine to have both certifications. For me though its all about VCAP5-DCA for the time being and I shall carry on the momentum of studying from my recently passed VCP5!
What I really like about the VCAP exams is that they are 100% practical exams. No more ridiculous configuration maximums or other meaningless numbers – VCAP is all about pure practice and experience. Examples of problems to solve – vMotion is broken and VMs aren’t migrating between host A and B, go fix it. I can’t wait to sit the exam!
Here’s an interesting error:
The above comes up when trying to install Cisco VPN Client 5.0.07.0410 on Windows XP SP3 (so far). I didn’t have this issue on Windows 7 SP1.
To get rid of the error message download Fix.mst file and run the .msi against it:
|
1 |
START /WAIT MSIEXEC.EXE /I vpnclient_setup.msi TRANSFORMS=Fix.mst /QUIET |
Some very generous people at work decided to offer me (for free!) Cisco ASA 5505 security appliance. Great isn’t it? Great indeed given ASAs are top class firewall devices.
Appliance itself has unlimited number of users (other options made by Cisco are 10 and 50 users based on internal to external VLAN connections) and its running security plus licensing model. Needless to say that’s about £500 worth of money!
So moving to the ASA itself – model I have shipped with 512MB of RAM and 128MB CF card. Both of them modules can be upgraded to incorporate e-pen (RAM) and more space for historical data i.e. logs (CF card).
I just happen to have spare Integral IN1T1GNSKCX 1GB DD1 PC3200 (400 MHz) stick which, to my surprise, worked straight away! ASA didn’t have any issues detecting the new memory and booted up absolutely fine. There are lots of modules that won’t work full stop and quick search using your favourite search engine reveals that some people had tried 2-3 different sticks with no luck whatsoever. In my case completely random module worked first time. Awesome.
2GB compact flash card has been ordered from eBay and should turn up any day now so I will let you guys know how that goes. 2GB is the maximum that ASA can take, anything above will be most likely seen as 0MB so no point trying (it’s a limitation of FAT16 and cluster size not the ASA itself though). Card I have ordered is made by SanDisk and the exact model reads as ‘Ultra II 2GB 15MB/s’. USB CF card reader is also required so you can copy ASA firmware, ASDM and license file from old card to the new one.
So, for now, my ASA looks like this:
If you’re looking for MDT 2010 Update 1 then Microsoft STILL provides download links for it:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2932
All other links have been replaced with MDT 2012 so grab it while you can!
One thing to keep in mind here is that official Microsoft support for MDT 2010 Update 1 ends in April 2013.
Enjoy!
EDIT – 3rd of December 2013
Looks like Microsoft have taken the links down – I have uploaded both x86 and x64 versions here:
MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x86
MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x64