Category Archives: Support

Installation of .NET 3.5 fails on Windows 8 with Error Code 0x800F0906

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You would have thought that installing .NET 3.5 on Windows 8 will be relatively straight forward – wrong answer!

The easiest way to do this is to go to Control Panel –> All Control Panel Items –> Programs and Features and simply add .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)

Installation_of_.NET_3.5_fails_on_Windows_8_with_Error_Code_0x800F0906_1

but you are likely to hit one of the following errors:

“Windows couldn’t complete the requested changes. Windows couldn’t connect to the internet to download necessary files. Make sure that you’re connected to the internet, and click ‘Retry’ to try again. Error code: 0x800F0906”

“Update NetFx3 of package Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 failed to be turned on. Status: 0x800F0906.”

“Update NetFx3 of package Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 failed to be turned on. Status: 0x800F081F.”

“Update NetFx3 of package Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 failed to be turned on. Status: 0x800F0907.”
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HTTP Status 403 Error on Citrix Access Gateway 5.0.4 VPX Logon Point

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I was messing with logon points on Citrix Access Gateway 5.0.4 VPX trying to add secondary authentication pointing to SafeNet (RADIUS) and came across the following error:

HTTP_Status_403_Error_on_Citrix_Access_Gateway_5.0.4_VPX_Logon_Point_1

Solution was relatively straight forward but not immediately obvious as I was able to login fine just to be met by the error above. It turns out when I was creating the test logon point I forgot to set the homepage address under Website Configuration:

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Citrix XenApp 6.5 run discovery fails when using custom administrator role

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Another quick post to show one possible resolution for Run Discovery to fail when using custom administrator role on XenApp 6.5. Basically discovery fails with the following error:

“This user account is not an administrator of this farm, or there was a problem contacting the data store. Check that the data store server for the Citrix XenApp farm is online, and verify that your account is configured and enabled as an administrator on the farm”

Solution is to make sure you tick Log on to the Management Console under Permissions apart from any other custom settings you with to set:

Citrix_XenApp_6.5_run_discovery_fails_when_using_custom_administrator_role_1

There you have it, sorted! 🙂

Changing Windows 7 system locale for non-Unicode programs

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Changing Windows 7 system locale for non-Unicode programs in registry

Something rather strange crept up today and its do to with non-Unicode language settings in Windows 7 which weren’t working properly. Basically some of our printers didn’t print barcodes properly and after some extensive troubleshooting the culprit was language in Windows that was set to English (United States) instead of English (United Kingdom) You can find system locale settings for non-Unicode programs under:

Changing_Windows_7_system_locale_for_non-Unicode_programs_in_registry_2

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Scripting DHCP server deployments using netsh in Windows Server 2008 R2

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Another quick post to show how you can quickly deploy fully working DHCP server with multiple scopes in a matter of seconds. In my case it was a single server with 90 very different scopes and doing this manually would be just soo boring and long that’s unreal. Unfortunately Windows Server 2012 wasn’t an option so no PowerShell love but Windows Server 2008 R2 is still pretty decent and using netsh wasn’t as painful as it seemed. To get us started we need to install the DHCP Server role and start the required service (dhcpserver):

Next step is to authorize DHCP server in the enterprise so we can actually use it to dish out IP addresses:

Other useful commands here would include:

To deauthorize the server –

and to list all authorized servers –

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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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VMware_tools_install_fails_with_An_error_occurred_installing_the_package_Windows_Installer_returned_1601_1

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.

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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