IT knowledge

2012-02-13T01:02:00.001-08:00

http://www.vcritical.com/2009/09/use-coreinfo-to-view-vm-core-and-socket-count/

How to create certificate .cer file

2012-02-11T01:21:00.001-08:00

How to create certificate .cer file ?

openssl pkcs12 -export -out mycertkey.p12 -in certificate.txt -inkey key.txt

https://www.thawte.com/index.html

convert the .pfx to a .cer

openssl pkcs12 -in certificate.pfx -out certificate.cer -nodes

Convert PEM file to PKCS#12 format for Windows IIS Web Server

openssl pkcs12 -export -passout pass:"<enter a good password>" -in <faz.dhcp.fnal.gov>.pem -out <faz.dhcp.fnal.gov>.p12 -name "<faz.dhcp.fnal.gov>"

http://www.globalsign.com/support/intermediate/extendedssl_intermediate.php

To generate the needed PKCS #12 Certificate File using OpenSSL do the following:

2012-02-11T00:32:00.001-08:00

SSL Cert Installation Instructions Microsoft IIS 7

2012-02-09T19:02:00.001-08:00

The following instructions are generally only applicable if we automatically generated your CSR during the ordering process. If you provided your own CSR we recommend using our standard installation instructions by Clicking Here.

Create A New PKCS12 (PFX) File For Importing Into IIS

A PKCS12 (PFX) file is a specially formatted file which includes the SSL Certificate, Private Key and optionally any required Intermediate CA Certificates. The file has an extension of .PFX and is compatible with Windows Internet Information Service (IIS).

To create the PKCS12 (PFX) file please visit the Tracking section of our website. Scroll down to the "Create PFX" button. You will be required to enter a password for the file - this ensures the security of the file.

If your CSR wasn't generated during the ordering process you can still using our Tracking system to create a PKCS12 (PFX) file. However, you will be required to provide your associated Private Key when generating the PKCS12 (PFX) file for it to be created successfully.

The PKCS12 (PFX) file may be compressed and saved as a ZIP file, please ensure to UNZIP it before import. The (PKCS12) PFX file should include all required components (SSL Certificate, Private Key and any required Intermediate CA Certificates).

How To Import The PKCS12 (PFX) File Into Windows Server

Importing a (PKCS12) PFX file into Microsoft IIS is generally a straight-forward process. Please review the instructions below of follow the instructions that are provided by Microsoft.

Step 1 : Click "Start" and choose "Run".

Step 2 : In the "Run" dialogue box type "MMC" and click "OK". The MMC should then appear.

Step 3 : Go to the File tab or menu and select "Add / Remove Snap-In".

Step 4 : Click on "Certificates" and click "Add".

Step 5 : Select "Computer Account" and click "Next".

Step 6 : Select "Local Computer" and click "Finish".

Step 7 : Click "OK" to close the "Add / Remove Snap-In" window.

Step 8 : Double click on "Certificates (Local Computer)" in the center window.

Step 9 : Right click on the "Personal Certificates Store" folder.

Step 10 : Choose "ALL TASKS" then select "Import".

Step 11 : Follow the "Certificate Import Wizard" to import your "Primary Certificate" from the .PFX file.

Step 12 : Browse to the .PFX and enter the associated password when prompted.

Step 13 : If desired, check the box to "Mark This Key As Exportable". We recommend choosing this option.

Step 14 : When prompted, choose to automatically place the Certificates in the Certificate Stores based on the type of the Certificate.

Step 15 : Click "Finish" to close the Certificate Import Wizard.

Step 16 : Close the MMC console. It is not necessary to save any changes that you have made to the MMC console.

How To Bind The SSL Certificate To Your Site In IIS 7

Once the SSL Certificate has been imported it is important to now bind the SSL Certificate to your website so that the website functions correctly.

Step 1 : Click "Start", "Administrative Tools" and then choose Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

Step 2 : Click on the server name and expand the "Sites" folder.

Step 3 : Locate your website (usually this will be called "Default Web Site") and click on it.

Step 4 : From the "Actions" menu (on the right) click on "Site Bindings" or similar.

Step 5. In the "Site Bindings" window, click "Add" or similar. This will open the "Add Site Binding" window.

Step 6 : Under "Type" choose https. The IP address should be the corresponding dedicated IP address of the site or "All Unassigned". The "Port" which traffic will be secured by SSL is usually 443. The "SSL Certificate" field should specify the SSL Certificate that was installed during the import process above.

Step 7 : Click "OK".

Step 8 : Your SSL Certificate should now be installed and functioning correctly in conjunction with your website. Occasionally a restart of IIS may be required before the new SSL Certificate is recognised.

How To Verify Your SSL Certificate Installation

To check if your SSL Certificate and any required Intermediate CA Certificates have been installed correctly please Click Here and follow the instructions.

How to manually install the GFI LanGuard agent

2012-02-08T00:01:00.001-08:00

The GFI LanGuard Agent can be deployed manually as follows:

Locate the LanGuard10Agent.msi found in the main install folder of GFI LanGuard, under the \Agent subdirectory on the GFI LanGuard server
On a 32 bit install, the default path would be ..Program Files\GFI\LanGuard 10\Agent
On a 64 bit install, the default path would be ..Program Files (x86)\GFI\LanGuard 10\Agent
Copy the LanGuard10Agent.msi file to the target machine
From command prompt on the target machine, run the following command to install the Agent manually:
LanGuard10agent.msi /qn GFIINSTALLID="Install_IDfromCrmiini.xml" /norestart /L*v "%temp%\LANSS_v10_AgentKitLog.csv
Notes:
Install_IDfromCrmiini.xml is a dynamic variable that can be found in the crmiini.xml file of the GFI LanGuard install directory on the GFI LanGuard server. The default path for crmiini.xml is ..program files\gfi\LanGuard 10 Agent; ...program files (x86)\gfi\LanGuard 10 Agent for a 64 bit Operating System
When using Install_IDfromCrmiini.xml in above command, include the quotes from the crmiini.xml file
Example of command use: LanGuard10agent.msi /qn GFIINSTALLID="551ce557-a485-4fb6-af72-2e744fee1192" /norestart /L*v "%temp%\LANSS_v10_AgentKitLog.csv

Notes:
Any errors during the process will be logged to the 'LANSS_v10_AgentKitLog.csv' file
Once Agent installation completes, it is important that you run the deployment from the GFI LanGuard console too, as otherwise it would not be aware of the new agent

2012-01-28T17:57:00.001-08:00

Model #: SR5890D

Product #: NJ060AA-AB4

Serial #: CNX9180P0N

Software Build #: 92APv3PrA1

Service ID #: 062-409

PCBRAND: Presario¿

Application Pools

2012-01-23T05:15:00.001-08:00

http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/system.applicationHost/applicationPools

Warning: Authorization - Cannot verify access to path (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\).

2012-01-23T05:14:00.001-08:00

I'm sure you have seen the below warning message many times with IIS 7+

The server is configured to use pass-through authentication with a built-in account to access the specified physical path. However, IIS Manager cannot verify whether the built-in account has access. Make sure that the application pool identity has Read access to the physical path. If this server is joined to a domain, and the application pool identity is NetworkService or LocalSystem, verify that <domain>\<computer_name>$ has Read access to the physical path. Then test these settings again.

Now, you are getting this message, when you clicked on the 'Test Connection' button while you adding new site or virtual directory. I have seen quite many posts regarding this misleading message :)

First of all, this is not an error but warning message instead, next the warning message is pretty self explained, and no need to be extra alarm about it. Anyway, in short because the default application pool identity is NetworkService account, which is a built-in account + default authentication mode is pass-through, hence IIS can't verify 'simulate' or verify the access when you clicked the button. Hmm.... ha! well that's exactly what's written in the warning message :) haha! if you put in a custom account, IIS will take it and access using the account SID, for built-in account, 'things' will kick in at run time. Next, if the resource is readible by user, NetworkService account should have no issue reading the file as well.

Anyway, if you do experience access problem later when you test to access the content path, IIS log file - request status code + sub status code is your best friend, if it is permission related you should be getting 401.3 error. You can also get procmon to help troubleshooting access related errors.

IIS 7.5

2012-01-21T06:26:00.001-08:00

By default, IIS_WPG includes:

BUILTIN\IIS_IUSRS
NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE
NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
NT AUTHORITY\SERVICE
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error: The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

2012-01-20T15:54:00.001-08:00

http://www.winservermart.com/Howto/HTTP_Error_500_19_IIS_7.aspx

Open IIS Manager, select root node( the hosting server), in the middle panel double click Feature Delegation. In right panel select Custom Site Delegation..., In upper part of middle panel, click the drop down list and select your site. In Action panel click Reset All Delegation.

SSID

2012-01-16T19:07:00.001-08:00

dsquery * -filter "&(objectcategory=computer)(samaccountname=servername$)" -attr objectsid

Unable to migrate from to : Virtual machine is configured to use a device that prevents migration: Device '' is a SCSI controller engaged in bus-sharing.

2012-01-15T18:12:00.001-08:00

Troubleshooting migration compatibility error: Device is a SCSI controller engaged in bus-sharing

Symptoms

A VMotion migration fails
When performing a VMotion migration, the following compatibility error displays:

Unable to migrate from <source server> to <destination server>: Virtual machine is configured to use a device that prevents migration: Device '<device>' is a SCSI controller engaged in bus-sharing.

Resolution

Overview

This error appears if you have a SCSI controller being used in a virtual machine that has the bus-sharing mode changed to either virtual or physical. This configuration is used in virtual machines that are running Microsoft Cluster Services.

Workaround

VMware does not permit VMotion migrations when a virtual machine is using SCSI bus-sharing.

To migrate a virtual machine that is participating in SCSI bus-sharing, VMware recommends powering down the virtual machine and performing a cold migration to the new host.

Disabling User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7

2012-01-13T07:45:00.001-08:00

http://www.petri.co.il/disable-uac-in-windows-7.htm?utm_source=petri&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Can I quickly view other computer’s Event Logs?

2012-01-13T07:43:00.001-08:00

http://www.petri.co.il/quickly_view_other_computers_event_logs.htm

Command Line Task Management

2012-01-13T07:41:00.001-08:00

http://www.petri.co.il/command-line-task-management.htm

Command Line Event Logs – Part 2

2012-01-13T07:38:00.003-08:00

http://www.petri.co.il/managing-command-line-event-logs.htm

Command Line Event Logs – Part 1

2012-01-13T07:38:00.001-08:00

http://www.petri.co.il/command-line-event-log.htm

Backup- System?State VSS Snapshot warning. File %BeBootDrive%\bootmgr is not present on the snapshot.

2012-01-12T17:00:00.001-08:00

BOOTMGR

Error:
File %BeBootDrive%\bootmgr is not present on the snapshot.

Example of error from the Remote Agent debug log on service start:

[2444] Initializing FSs
[2444] Unable to process entry %BeBootDrive%\bootmgr, this means restore will have issues

Example of error in the Remote Agent debug log during a backup job:

[4108] AD:Trouble moving to ROOT path - Status ????? (0x2000FE07) in SystemState::AddPathToSnapshotSet:615
[4108] AD:Trouble adding "System?State\Active Directory" to set - Status FS_NO_MORE (0x2000FE07) in SystemState::AddToSnapshotSet:495
[4108] Writer Automated System Recovery include file list:
[4108] Writer Automated System Recovery exclude file list
[4108] WriterID {BE000CBE-11FE-4426-9C58-531AA6355FC4} InstanceID {9EB918D9-CFC4-4036-9154-259E516D7DD7} selected for backup or restore.
[4108] ImagePath does not has a valid File path
[4108] Status INVALID_PATH_DESCRIPTOR (0xE000FE21) processing file path \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume1\EFI\Microsoft\Boot when getting file descriptors
[4108] Unable to process entry %BeBootDrive%, this means this file will have issues
[4108] Component BCD file list:
[4108] o: %BeBootDrive%\bootmgr

Cause:
A System that utilizes uEFI may receive the exception above when the System State is backed up.

Solution:
1. Exclude the ASR writer from the list of approved writers; ASR writer id is '{BE000CBE-11FE-4426-9C58-531AA6355FC4}'.

To exclude the ASR Writer follow the steps below:
a. Open the Registry on the machine being protected.

Warning:
Incorrect use of the Windows registry editor may prevent the operating system from functioning properly. Great care should be taken when making changes to a Windows registry. Registry modifications should only be carried-out by persons experienced in the use of the registry editor application. It is recommended that a complete backup of the registry and workstation be made prior to making any registry changes.

b. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec for Windows\Backup Exec \Engine\Shadow Copy Components\
c. Right click Shadow Copy Components and create a new Key as Additional Not Authorized Writers.
d. Select or Highlight Additional Not Authorized Writers key, and create a String value named ASR.
e. Double click the created String Value ASR, add the value of ASR Writer id '{BE000CBE-11FE-4426-9C58-531AA6355FC4}'.
f. Close the Registry.
Note:
This will ignore the ASR Writer from the approved Writer list.

2. Run the System State backup.

All backups that have the System State selected and have uEFI will need to have the job recreated or System State removed from the job manually and re-selected.

How to enable or disable "debug logging" in Backup Exec for Windows Servers

2012-01-06T08:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH23853

Enable debug logging for Backup Exec for Windows Servers

2012-01-06T08:22:00.001-08:00

You can temporarily enable Backup Exec debug logging by adding the -debug start parameter to the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers service. This is a temporary setting that will be reset when the services are cycled or at the next server reboot. To enable debug logging permanently, see the second section that details editing the reqistry.

To temporarily enable Backup Exec debug logging on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008:

1. Go to Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Services

2. Select the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers service, and click Stop. When prompted, click Yes to shut down the service.

3. Select and right-click on the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers service, and then select Properties

4. In the Startup Parameters box, type -debug. Click Start in the Properties page to start the service. Click OK

5. Select and right-click the Backup Exec Job Engine service, and then select Properties

6. In the Startup Parameters box, type -debug. Click Start in the Properties page. Click OK to close.

To permanently enable Backup Exec debug logging on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008:

1. Stop all Backup Exec for Windows Servers services

2. Run REGEDIT.EXE

3. a. Backup Exec 10d or below: Browse to HKey_Local_Machine\Software\VERITAS\Backup Exec\Engine\Logging

b. Backup Exec 11d or above: Browse to HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Symantec\Backup Exec for Windows\Backup Exec\Engine\Logging

4. Change the value of CreateDebugLog to 1 to enable debug logging

5. Quit the registry editor

6. Start the Backup Exec for Windows Servers services

After the Backup Exec Job Engine and Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers service are started, two log files will be created in the Backup Exec \Logs directory, which is located in one of the following directories:

Backup Exec 10d or below: \Program Files\Veritas\Backup Exec\NT\Logs
Backup Exec 11d or above: \Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Logs

The name of the log files will follow the format of <ServerName>-BENGINEXX.Log for the Backup Exec Job Engine service, and <ServerName>-BEREMOTEXX.LOG for the Backup Exec Remote Agent for Windows Servers service. The XX will increment each time the services are started with the -debug option, so that a new log file is created.

Reference: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/254212.htm

2012-01-06T04:38:00.001-08:00

Cause:
A System that utilizes uEFI may receive the exception above when the System State is backed up.

Solution:
1. Exclude the ASR writer from the list of approved writers; ASR writer id is '{BE000CBE-11FE-4426-9C58-531AA6355FC4}'.

2. Run the System State backup.

All backups that have the System State selected and have uEFI will need to have the job recreated or System State removed from the job manually and re-selected

Upgrade vCenter Server 4.1 to 5.0

2011-12-30T08:32:00.001-08:00

http://www.vmadmin.co.uk/vmware/36-virtualcenter

http://www.vmadmin.co.uk/vmware/36-virtualcenter/284-vsphere4to5upgradevcenter41to5

DRS Rules - Keeping VMs on and seperating VMs across physical servers

2011-12-30T08:14:00.001-08:00

http://www.vmadmin.co.uk/vmware/36-virtualcenter/59-drsvmhostrules

Restrict RDP to certain IP addresses

2011-12-29T06:59:00.001-08:00

I suggest you try to configure the following policies on TS server to allow only certain users:

[Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights assignment]

- Allow logon through Terminal Services
- Deny logon through Terminal Services.

Add the users to above policy accordingly.

Restrict remote desktop access to server via IP address

2011-12-29T06:55:00.001-08:00

You can use Windows Firewall Advanced settings to restrict the Scope.

Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Windows Firewall with Advanced Settings, Inbound Rules, Remote Desktop (TCP-In), Properties, Scope, Local / Remote IP Address.

How to restrict remote desktop control applications

2011-12-29T06:53:00.001-08:00

For instance Terminal Service/Remote Desktop uses tcp port 3389 on the
target computer. You could create ipsec filtering polices that would restrict access
to the port used for your remote access application only from authorized ip addresses
or block certain address ranges. Ipsec policies can be administered via group policy
and local administrators could not override them. If you are having an abuse of
privileges issue, you may also want to enable auditing of logon events on domain
computers which should show when these "administrators" are accessing other
computers. I don't know if it would intefere with their adminstrative functions, but
domain computers can also be configured via security policy/local policies/user
rights assignments for allow and deny access to this computer from the network.

VMware ESX physical MAC Address

2011-12-27T22:19:00.001-08:00

esxcfg-info -n | grep -B4 'MAC Address' | grep -A5 vmnic

Notes on VMware -

2011-12-27T22:10:00.001-08:00

http://www.vmware.com/kb

Knowledge base of troubleshooting information by product

http://www.vmware.com/community/index.jspa

VMware's Discussion Forums

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs

VMware's Technical Solutions Guides

http://www.vmware.com/support

File Support Requests Online. Phone Contact Information. Support Coverage. Account Information and much more

Chris Wolf

http://www.chriswolf.com/

Mike Laverick - RTFM - VI3 Admin Guides

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=7

VMwareland
http://vmware-land.com/Top_10_Lists.html

Scott Lowe
http://blog.scottlowe.org

Daniel Petri

http://www.petri.co.il/virtualization.htm

Documents
http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/

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Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) on vSwitches

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/03/11/identifying-esx-server-nics-in-blades/

Starting with version 3.5, VMware added support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) on the ESX Server vSwitches. CDP support is enabled on a vSwitch with this command:

esxcfg-vswitch -B both vSwitch0
The "-B" parameter is case-sensitive; the "-b" (note the lowercase B) displays CDP status while the "-B" (uppercase B) configures CDP.

Once CDP support is enabled on the vSwitch—and assuming it is enabled on the physical switch—running the "show cdp neighbor" IOS command will show the link between each physical switch port and the matching ESX Server NIC. The output will look something like this:

Capability Codes: R-Router, T-Trans Bridge, B-Source Route Bridge
S-Switch, H-Host, I-IGMP, r-Repeater, P-Phone

Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
s3 Gig 0/26 147 T S WS-C3524-XFas 0/24
esx04 Gig 0/22 168 S VMware ESXvmnic0
esx04 Gig 0/21 168 S VMware ESXvmnic1
As you can see in the output above, the CDP output clearly links the physical switch port and the ESX Server NIC. This makes it incredibly easy to identify the NICs in the server. This is particularly helpful in blade situations, since you can't exactly unplug the NIC and see which one goes down with "esxcfg-nics -l" (a common approach to identifying the NICs in the server). Of course, this requires Cisco switches in the blade chassis. Since the internal port mappings on the blade chassis determine which NICs connect to which ports, this command adds the mapping within ESX Server and lets us quickly and definitively identify the NICs in the server as seen by ESX Server.

*********************

As for gathering cdp information on the esx service console you can run command esxcfg-info, for example to gather cdp information for each nic run 'esxcfg-info | grep -C 18 "\==+CDP Summary"'

*********************

Grep for network info

(note: hints are a record of networks/VLANs ESX has detected - this may not be completely accurate or all inclusive)

Grep parameters

-A NUM
--after-context=NUM
-B NUM
--before-context=NUM

-C NUM
--context=[NUM]
(GNU Extension)
Print NUM lines (default 2) of output context
-e PATTERN
--regexp=PATTERN

-i
--ignore-case

Ignore case distinctions in both the pattern and the input files

*********************

To rename an esx server find and rename the hostname in the files
/etc/hosts
/etc/sysconfig/network
/usr/lib/vmware-mui/apache/conf/httpd.conf
Then reboot the host, or schedule a reboot.

We have had some bad issues with our HA/DRS cluster when renaming esx hosts. It is wise to remove the host you want to rename from the cluster before you rename it and put it back in afterwards. Even then HA will sometimes fail (we had this with one host). If that happens just rename it back and try again.

As far as we could see the issue was that other HA nodes still thought that the old hostname was a primary node of the HA cluster and so they failed to form the HA cluster again. Reinstalling is an option but I'm unsure if this will save your performance/log history (we had no issues on that with renaming).

You should replace the SSL certificate as well.

backup /etc/vmware/ssl/
rm /etc/vmware/ssl/*
service mgmt-vmware restart

vmware ESX 3.5 ip and hostname change
21. January 2008, 16:16 UhrDaily Strugglesjokach
Thanks to the this VMWare blog for providing great instruction on how to change the IP address of my VMWare ESX 3.5 server. Basically I did the following from the service console:

esxcfg-vswif -a vswif0 -p Service\ Console -i 10.1.1.1 -n 255.255.255.0 -b 10.1.1.255
(where -i is my new address, -n is the subnet, and -b is the broadcast address)

We had set it up originally (just to get it going) as a DHCP address, but are ready to put it on the network for good. I also had to change the gateway, and hostname and all as well, which I was able to do easily by logging into the Service Console as root, and then changing /etc/sysconfig/network as follows:

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=MYSERVERNAME.MYDOMAIN.COM
GATEWAYDEV=10.1.0.250

I then rebooted the ESX server (after bringing down my VM's) to ensure the change is consistent, then did the following from the commandline to ensure it can see the gateway:

[root@extapvmware1 root]# route add default gw 10.1.0.250
[root@extapvmware1 root]# netstat -r
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
10.1.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 vswif0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 vswif0
default 10.1.0.250 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 vswif0

*********************

Increase Service Console memory before installing Dell Open Manager (800)

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List network info

esxcfg-vswitch -l
esxcfg-vmknic -l
esxcfg-vswif -l
esxcfg-nics -l

Restart VC mgmt agents
service mgmt-vmware restart
service vmware-vpxa restart

List processor info
cat /proc/cpuinfo

Enter maintenance mode from the ESX command line

vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

Enable VMotion from the command line:

vimsh -n -e "hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0"

Backup every running vm via vcb in just one command:

for /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %%i in ('vcbvmname -h <virtualcenterserver> -u <user> -p <password> -s Powerstate:on ^| find "name:"') do cscript pre-command.wsf "c:\program files\vmware\vmware consolidated backup framework\" %%i fullvm

Dump a specific disk via the VCB Proxy monolithic(1 big chunk)

Open a cmd and go to your VCB installation path

"vcbexport.exe -M 1 -d test01.vmdk -s TestVM/TestVM.vmdk"

Any swapping going on or more info on memory usage in general

Open a putty session to your ESX box

"watch -n 1 cat /proc/vmware/sched/mem"

Reinitialize the VirtualCenter Database

Stop the service

Start vpxd.exe with the option "-b"

CAUTION, this will wipe out the entire database, this is a last resort!

All the VMID's also known as World ID's

vm-support -x

List Snapshots - every delta file gets listed, including the unregistered and/or orphaned snapshots

find /vmfs/volumes -iname "*delta.vmdk"

Grep for network info
esxcfg-info |grep -i -E "MAC|vmnic"
esxcfg-info |grep -i -E "MAC|vmnic|hint|pci"

Esxcfg-vswif – Creates and updates service console network settings. This command is used if you cannot manage the ESX Server host through the VI Client because of network configuration issues

esxcfg-vswif -i new.ip.add.here -n new.sub.net.mask -b new.broad.mask.here vswif0

Changing your service console IP address:

esxcfg-vswif -i new.ip.add.here -n new.sub.net.mask -b new.broad.mask.here vswif0

restart the management software using this: service mgmt-vmware restart

Change the default gateway by editing /etc/sysconfig/network
restart your network services using this: service network restart

Networking
Esxcfg-firewall – Configures the service console firewall ports
Esxcfg-nics – Prints a list of physical network adapters along with information on the driver, PCI device, and link state of each NIC. You can also use this command to control a physical network adapter's speed and duplexing
Esxcfg-route – Sets or retrieves the default VMkernel gateway route
Esxcfg-vmknic - Creates and updates VMkernel TCP/IP settings for VMotion, NAS, and iSCSI
Esxcfg-vswif – Creates and updates service console network settings. This command is used if you cannot manage the ESX Server host through the VI Client because of network configuration issues
Esxcfg-vswitch – Creates and updates virtual machine (vswitch) network settings

Storage
Esxcfg-mpath - Configures multipath settings for your Fibre Channel or iSCSI disks
Esxcfg-nas – Manages NAS mounts. You use this command to add, delete, list, and change the attributes of NAS devices
Esxcfg-swiscsi – Configures your software iSCSI software adapter
Esxcfg-vmhbadevs – Prints a map of VMkernel storage devices to service console devices (no VI client equivalent)

General
Esxcfg-advcfg - Configures advanced options for ESX Server.
Esxcfg-auth – Configures authentication (no VI client equivalent)
Esxcfg-info - Prints information about the state of the service console, VMkernel, various subsystems in the virtual network, and storage resource hardware
Esxcfg-resgrp - Restores resource group settings and lets you perform basic resource group management
Esxcfg-upgrade - Upgrades ESX Server from ESX Server 2.x to ESX Server 3.x. This command is not for general use

Boot/diagnostic
Esxcfg-boot – Configures bootstrap settings (no VI client equivalent)
Esxcfg-dumppart - Configures a diagnostic partition or searches for existing diagnostic partitions
Esxcfg-init - Performs internal initialization routines (no VI client equivalent)
Esxcfg-linuxnet - Converts vswif to eth when booting ESX Server into service-console-only mode rather than into ESX mode (no VI client equivalent)
Esxcfg-module - Sets driver parameters and modifies which drivers are loaded during startup (no VI client equivalent)

Display disk/directory information on the Service Console
Type "df –h" to show drives and space
Type "fdisk –l" to show physical drive information
Type "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" to show SCSI device information
Type "vdf –h" to show vmfs volumes and space
Type "ls –ltr" to show files and space

Other Commands
vmkping - use vmkernel to ping a device
esxcfg-vswif for configuring network interface
vm-support to run diagnostic commands
esxupdate -l query query patches installed on ESX Server
esxcfg-rescan vmhba1 to rescan HBA's
ps -ef | grep hostd To check hostd is running
esxcfg-mpath -l to list path details

esxcfg-vswif -l
Provides a list of the service console's current network interfaces. Check that vswif0 is present and that the current IP address and Netmask are correct.

esxcfg-vswitch -l
Provides a list of current virtual switch configurations.
Check that the uplink adapter configured for the service console is connected to the appropriate physical network.

exscfg-nics -l
Provides a list of current network adapters along with their names
Check that the uplink adapter configured for the service console is up and that the speed and duplex are both correct.

esxcfg-nics -s <speed> <nic>
Changes the speed of a network adapter.

esxcfg-nics -d <duplex> <nic>
Changes the duplex of a network adapter.

esxcfg-vswif -i <new ip address> vswifX
Changes the service console's IP address.

esxcfg-vswif -n <new netmask> vswifX
Changes the service console's netmask.

esxcfg-vswitch -U <old vmnic> <service console vswitch>
Removes the NIC for the service console

esxcfg-vswitch -L <new vmnic> <service console vswitch>
Changes the uplink for the service console.

If you encounter long waits when using esxcfg-* commands, it is possible that DNS is misconfigured.

*******************

To install a guest operating system from an ISO image
1 Log in to VI Web Access.
2 Select the virtual machine into which you are installing the guest operating system from the Inventory panel.
3 In the Hardware section of the Summary tab, click the CD/DVD drive's icon and choose Edit.
4 Select Connect at power on.
5 Select ISO Image. Click Browse to navigate to a file with the .iso extension in an existing datastore. If you enter the path manually, you must use the format: [ datastore_name ] path_and_filename.iso
6 Select the SCSI or IDE device node in the Virtual Device Node section.
NOTE In this release, only Host Media is supported.
NOTE You might need to change the boot order in the virtual machine BIOS so that the virtual machine attempts to boot from the CD/DVD device before trying other boot devices. To do so, press F2 when prompted during virtual machine startup.
7 Click OK to save your changes.
8 Click Power On to power on your virtual machine.
9 Click the Console tab to complete the guest operating system installation using VMware Remote Console. Follow the instructions provided by the operating system vendor.
10 If the ISO image spans multiple files, when you are prompted to insert the next CD:
a Click the Summary tab.
b In the Hardware section, edit the CD settings by clicking the CD/DVD drive's icon and choosing Edit.
c Browse to the location of the next ISO image file, and keep all other selections as they are.
d Click OK.
e Click the Console tab to return to VMware Remote Console.
f In the guest operating system, click OK or otherwise respond to the prompt so that installation can continue.
g Repeat this process for additional files.
11 Install VMware Tools, as described in "Installing VMware Tools" on page 75.

****************************

VMware Infrastructure v3.0 (ESX Server)

Error: Insufficient resources to satisfy HA failover level on cluster in data center.
Error: Internal AAM error. Agent did not start.

Solution:

- Check the HOSTNAME entry in /etc/sysconfig/network to the short name.
- Check if your FQDN is greater than 30 characters, in which case HA will not configure properly. This is a known bug in VC20 (see KB article 2259).
- Check IP, routing, and DNS for each host.
- Make sure that storage and network are available across the cluster - Ensure that the hosts are not managed directly: perform all host management through VC.
- May want to add nodes to /etc/hosts on ESX Server AND hosts file on VC Server. A better plan would be to use primary and secondary DNS servers.
- Check if Service Console has default gateway defined.
- Verify logs: /opt/LGTOaam512/* and /opt/LGTOaam512/vmsupport/*.
- Check /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf.
- In ESX 3.x the memory reservation is zero, and the limit is "unlimited." To see this, edit the settings of a virtual machine, click on the Resources tab, and select Memory on the left. To conform to the ESX 3.x defaults, change the settings to a reservation of 0, and check the Unlimited box under limit. After doing this for all virtual machines, edit the settings for the cluster. Disable HA, and then edit the cluser settings again to reenable HA. The current failover capacity should now match the configured capacity.

**************************

Important Notes on VMotion
• VMotion compatibility depends on the model and stepping of the processor involved. It does not
depend on the model of the system or speed of the processor. Figure 1-1and Figure 1-2 illustrate
VMotion compatibility with respect to Dell PowerEdge systems.
For more information on processor specific information, refer to the Knowledge Base articles 1991,
1992, 1993 on the VMware Knowledge Base website at www.vmware.com/support/kb.
• To determine if processor support exists in a specific VMware ESX release, refer to the appropriate
Systems Compatibility Guide on the VMware website at www.vmware.com.
• Each system model listed in Figure 1-1 includes all currently supported processor models, stepping,
and speeds with that system.
• Each processor specification/model number/series includes all supported processor variants of the
family.
• For the latest information on ESX server support matrix for Dell PowerEdge systems, see the Systems
Compatibility Guide For ESX Server 3.0.x on the VMware website at www.vmware.com.
• Update all systems to the latest BIOS version available on the Dell Support website at
support.dell.com.
NOTE: VMotion between systems with older BIOS versions may fail.
• Migrating between certain processor models require the NX bit to be turned off. This can be
accomplished from VI client interface.
To migrate, right-click Virtual Machine and select Edit Settings? Options? Advanced Settings.
Select Hide the NX flag from guest radio button.
• 64-bit guest operating systems are fully supported starting with ESX 3.0.1. Virtualization Technology
(VT) is required to run 64-bit guest operating systems on Intel platforms. VMware ESX Server does not
use VT to run 64-bit guest operating systems on AMD platforms. For more information on 64-bit guest
operating system VMotion compatibility, see Figure 1-2.
• Disable the the Demand Based Switching (DBS) feature on Intel platforms, in BIOS.
Legend
6 Compatibility Matrix
• Create consistent Virtual Switch names on each of the ESX Servers.
• VMotion requires the setup of a Gigabit Ethernet migration network between all ESX Servers
configured for VMotion. It is recommended that this network is isolated from other production
network traffic.

**********************************

Using Dell OpenManage™ to Configure VT and DBS
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/vmotion_compatibility_matix.pdf
In addition to using the BIOS utility, Dell OpenManage can be used to configure Virtualization Technology and DBS (on Intel platforms). For more information on OpenManage installation, see
Installing Dell OpenManage Software in a VMware ESX Server Software Environment on the Dell website
at www.dell.com/vmware.

To verify the current BIOS Settings for VT and DBS, run the following command:
$ omreport chassis biossetup

To enable VT (if it is disabled), run the following command and reboot the system:
$ omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=cpuvt setting=enabled

To disable DBS (if it is enabled), run the following command and reboot the system:
$ omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=dbs setting=disabled

Using OpenManage to Obtain Processor Information
Processor information, such as model number, is available during boot up and through the BIOS utility.
Additionally, OpenManage may be used. Run the following command on the system to get the processor information:
$ omreport chassis processors

*************************

Persistent binding and path failover policy are two different things.

persistent binding is used to map a storage array's port to a fixed SCSI address (e.g. vmhba1:1).

path failover policy tells the multipath driver within ESX server how to respond to fails and repairs of paths to an individual LUN. E.g. fail from vmhba1:0:2 to vmhba1:1:2 or vmhba2:0:2, but don't fail back if vmhba1:0:2 comes back (=MRU).

I don't know what you mean by "LUN ID", but your problem is one level 'higher' (the target 'address'). The order of targets is defined by how they are entered into the Fibre Channel switch's name server and this can change. The fix is: persistent binding (of SCSI targets = storage controller ports).

**************************

Re: The request refers to an object that no longer exists or has never existed Feb 14, 2008 8:54 AM
in response to: Engelsman
kesparlat
8 posts since
Oct 30, 2007
Reply 9. Re: The request refers to an object that no longer exists or has never existed Feb 14, 2008 8:54 AM
in response to: Engelsman

Hi,

I had the same problem. This error is caused when you add a server in mainteinance mode to your DRS cluster. VC cannot recalculate the cpu and memory for the resource pools avaiable in this moment. If you have this problem (requested object....) ,put your server in maintenance mode, drag your server out of the cluster, exit maintenance mode and drag into again.

****************************************

Renaming VM file names when changing VM machine name

Just rename the VM in VC and do a cold migrate with datastore relocation (assume you have a 2nd VMFS volume to move to). VC will move the files to the different datastore and rename them to match your VM name in the process.

*********************

Troubleshooting a purple screen of death

Panicking at the onset of a high impact technical problem can cause impulsive decision making that enhances the problem. Before trying to troubleshoot any problem, pause and relax to approach the task with a clear mind, then address each symptom, possible cause and resolution appropriately.

In this series, I offer solutions for many common problems that arise with VMware ESX host servers, VirtualCenter, and virtual machines in general. Let's begin by addressing common issues with VMware ESX host servers.

Windows server administrators have long been familiar with the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), which signifies a complete halt by the server. VMware ESX has a similar state called the purple screen of death (PSOD) which is typically caused by hardware problems or a bug in the VMware code.

Troubleshooting a purple screen of death

When a PSOD occurs, the first thing you want to do is note the information displayed on the screen. I suggest using a digital camera or cell phone to take a quick photo. The PSOD message consists of the ESX version and build, the exception type, register dump, what was running on each CPU at the time of the crash, back-trace, server up-time, error messages and memory core dump info. The information won't be useful to you, but VMware support can decipher it and help determine the cause of the crash.

Unfortunately, other than recording the information on the screen, your only option when experiencing a PSOD is to power the server off and back on. Once the server reboots you should find a vmkernel-zdump-* file in your server /root directory. This file will be valuable for determining the cause. You can use the vmkdump utility to extract the vmkernel log file from the file (vmkdump –l ) and examine it for clues as to what caused the PSOD. VMware support will usually want this file also. One common cause of PSOD's is defective server memory; the dump file will help identify which memory module caused the problem so it can be replaced.

Checking your RAM for errors

If you suspect your system's RAM may be at fault you can use a built-in utility to check your RAM in the background without effecting your running virtual machines. The RAM check utility runs in the VMkernel space and can be started by logging into the Service Console and typing Service Ramcheck Start.

While RAM check is running it will log all activity and any errors to the /var/log/vmware directory in files called ramcheck.log and ramcheck-err.log. One drawback, however, is that it's hard to test all of your RAM with this utility if you have virtual machines (VMs) running, as it will only test unused RAM in the ESX system. A more thorough method of testing your server's RAM is to shutdown ESX, boot from a CD, and run Memtest86+.

Using the vm-support utility
If you contact VMware support, they will usually ask you to run the vm-support utility that packages all of the ESX server log and configuration files into a single file. To run this utility, simply log in to the service console with root access, and type "vm-support" without any options. The utility will run and create a single Tar file that will be named "esx---..tgz". You can send it via FTP to VMware support. Make sure you delete the Tar file from the ESX Server once you are done to save disk space.

Alternatively, you can generate the same file by using the VMware Infrastructure Client (VI Client). Select Administration, then Export Diagnostic Data, and select your host (VirtualCenter data optional) and a directory on your local PC to store the file that will be created.

Using log files for troubleshooting
Log files are generally your best tool for troubleshooting any type of problem. ESX has many log files. Which ones you should check depends on the problem you are experiencing. Below is the list of ESX log files that you will commonly use to troubleshoot ESX server problems. The VMkernel and hosted log files are usually the logs you will want to check first.

VMkernel - /var/log/vmkernel – Records activities related to the virtual machines and ESX server. Rotated with a numeric extension, current log has no extension, most recent has a ".1" extension.

VMkernel Warnings - /var/log/vmkwarning – Records activities with the virtual machines, a subset of the VMkernel log and uses the same rotation scheme.

VMkernel Summary - /var/log/vmksummary - Used to determine uptime and availability statistics for ESX Server; readable summary found in /var/log/vmksummary.txt.

ESX Server host agent log - /var/log/vmware/hostd.log - Contains information on the agent that manages and configures the ESX Server host and its virtual machines. (Search the file date/time stamps to find the log file it is currently outputting to, or open hostd.log, which is linked to the current log file.)

ESX Firewall log - /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log – Logs all firewall rule events.

ESX Update log - /var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log – Logs all updates done through the esxupdate tool.

Service Console - /var/log/messages - Contains all general log messages used to troubleshoot virtual machines or ESX Server.

Web Access - /var/log/vmware/webAccess - Records information on web-based access to ESX Server.

Authentication log - /var/log/secure - Contains records of connections that require authentication, such as VMware daemons and actions initiated by the xinetd daemon.

Vpxa log - /var/log/vmware/vpx - Contains information on the agent that communicates with VirtualCenter. Search the file date/time stamps to find the log file it is currently outputting to or open hostd.log which is linked to the current log file.

As part of the troubleshooting process, often times you'll need to find out the version of various ESX components and which patches are applied. Below are some commands you can run from the service console to do this:

Type vmware –v to check ESX Server version, i.e., VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 build-32039

Type esxupdate –l query to see which patches are installed.

Type vpxa –v to check the ESX Server management version, i.e. VMware VirtualCenter Agent Daemon 2.0.1 build-40644.

Type rpm –qa | grep VMware-esx-tools to check the ESX Server VMware Tools installed version – i.e., VMware-esx-tools-3.0.1-32039.

If all else fails, restart the VMware host agent service

Many ESX problems can be resolved by simply restarting the VMware host agent service (vmware-hostd), which is responsible for managing most of the operations on the ESX host. To do this, log into the service console and type service mgmt-vmware restart.

NOTE: ESX 3.0.1 contained a bug that would restart all your VMs if your ESX server was configured to use auto-startups for your VMs. This bug was fixed in a patch for 3.0.1 and also in 3.0.2, but appeared again in ESX 3.5 with another patch released to fix it. It's best to temporarily disable auto-startups before you run this command.

In some cases restarting the vmware-vpxa service when you restart the host agent will fix problems that occur between ESX and both the VI Client and VirtualCenter. This service is the management agent that handles all communication between ESX and its clients. To restart it, log into the ESX host and type service vmware-vpxa restart. It is important to note that restarting either of these services will not impact the operation of your virtual machines (with the exception of the bug noted above).

Fixing a frozen service console
Another problem that can occur is your Service Console can hang and not allow you to log in locally. This can be caused by hardware lock-ups or a deadlocked condition. Your VMs may continue to operate normally when this occurs, but rebooting ESX is usually the only way to recover. Before you do that, however, try shutting down your guest VMs and/or using VMotion to migrate them to another ESX host. To do this, use the VI Client by connecting remotely via SSH or by using one of alternate/emergency consoles, which you can access by pressing Alt-F2 through Alt-F6. You can also press Alt-F12 to display VMkernel messages on the console screen.

If you are able to shutdown or move your VMs, then you can try rebooting the server by issuing the reboot command through the VI Client or alternate consoles. If not, cold-booting the server is your only option.

Lost network configurations
The problem that can occur is that you may lose part or all of your networking configurations. If this happens, you must rebuild your network by using the ESX local service console, since you will be unable to connect using the VI Client. VMware has published knowledgebase articles that detail how to rebuild your networking using the esxcfg-* service console commands and also how to verify your network settings.

Conclusion
In this tip, I have addressed a few of the most common problems that can occur with VMware ESX. In the next installment of this series, I will cover troubleshooting VirtualCenter issues.

Check the following links for solutions to other possible ESX problems:

Tips for troubleshooting ESX Server 3.x faults

VI3 advanced diagnostics logs analysis

Troubleshooting VMware Infrastructure 3

VI3 Networking - Advanced configurations and troubleshooting

Top support issues and how to solve them - Batch 1

Top Support Issues and How to Solve Them - Batch 2

Recreating a missing virtual machine disk (VMDK) descriptor file

2011-12-21T19:57:00.001-08:00

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1002511

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1017022

To manually rename the virtual machine's files

2011-12-06T06:04:00.001-08:00

To manually rename the virtual machine's files:

Log in to VMware vSphere Client.
Locate the virtual machine in your host inventory.
Power down the virtual machine.
Right-click on the virtual machine and click Remove from inventory.
Open a console to the ESX or ESXi host. For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807) or Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 (1017910).

Navigate to the directory containing the virtual machine. For example: cd /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/originalname/.

Rename the virtual disk (VMDK) files using the vmkfstools -E command. For more information, see

Renaming a virtual machine disk (VMDK) via the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) or vSphere CLI (vCLI) (1002491).

vmkfstools -E "originalname.vmdk" "newname.vmdk"

Notes:
- In some cases, it may be required to clone (copy) a virtual disk. To clone a virtual disk to a new virtual disk, run this command:
  
  vmkfstools -i "originalname.vmdk" "newname.vmdk"
  
  This leaves the original virtual disk untouched. You need enough space available to clone the virtual disk in the destination directory. In the case of the command above, the new virtual disk is created in the current directory but a different directory can be specified.
- You need not rename the originalname-flat.vmdk file after running the vmkfstools command. Thevmkfstools command renames both vmdk files and updates the reference within the descriptor.
- Do not use the cp or mv command to rename virtual disk files. Instead, use VMware utilities such asvmkfstools.

Copy the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) using the command:

cp "originalname.vmx" "newname.vmx"

Open the file new virtual machine configuration (for example, newname.vmx) in a text editor. For more information, see

Editing configuration files in VMware ESX (1017022).

For example:

vi "newname.vmx"

Within the configuration file, modify all old instances of the virtual machine's file names to the new file names. There should be at least these to adjust:

nvram = "newname.nvram"
displayName = "newname"
extendedConfigFile = "newname.vmxf"
scsi0:0.fileName = "newname.vmdk"
[...]
migrate.hostlog = "./newname-UUID.hlog"

Repeat this process for each virtual machine disk. For example:

scsi0:1.fileName = "newname_1.vmdk"
scsi0:2.fileName = "newname_2.vmdk"

Correct the VMkernel swap file reference. For example:

sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/DatastoreUUID/newname/newname-UUID.vswp

Note: Be sure to rename both the .vswp file and the directory name for the swap file, bolded above.

Correct any other remaining lines referencing the original path or file names.

Save the file and exit the editor.

Rename all the remaining files, except for the.vmxconfiguration file, to the new names desired.

For example:

mv "originalname.nvram" "newname.nvram"

Change directory to the parent directory:

cd ..

Rename the directory for the virtual machine:

mv "originalname" "newname"

Using VMware vSphere Client, browse the datastore and navigate to the renamed virtual machine directory

Right-click on the virtual machine's new configuration file (for example, newname.vmx) and choose Add to inventory.

Alternatively, you can use this command to inventory the virtual machine:

vmware-cmd -s register "/vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/newname/newname.vmx"

Power on the virtual machine.

A question for the virtual machine displays in the Summary tab during power-on. Review the question by:

Clicking the Summary tab
Right-clicking the virtual machine in your inventory and selecting Answer question.

When prompted, select I moved it, then click OK.

Warning: Selecting I Copied It results in a change of the virtual machine's UUID and MAC address, which may have detrimental effects on guest applications that are sensitive toward MAC address changes, and virtual machine backups that rely on UUIDs.

Optionally, delete the original virtual machine configuration file.

For example:

rm /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/newname/originalname.vmx

V-79-57344-38264 - Unable to copy the virtual machine disk using the VMware VixDiskLib.

2011-12-06T05:56:00.001-08:00

To resolve the issue disable NET DMA on the Backup Exec server.

netsh int tcp set global netdma=disable

Time synchronization - non-Windows NTP server in Windows Server 2003

2011-12-06T05:28:00.001-08:00

Follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.

At the command prompt, type the following commands in the order that they are given. After you type each command, press ENTER.

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:NTP_server_IP_Address,0x8 /syncfromflags:MANUAL

net stop w32time

net start w32time

w32tm /resync

The mode that Windows Time uses to send requests is set by the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer

If the value of the Enabled entry in this subkey is 1, Windows Time uses symmetric active mode. Otherwise, Windows Time uses client mode.

The 0x8 setting that is referenced in the command in the "Resolution" section sets Windows Time to use client mode.

The valid settings for the mode used with the /manualpeerlist switch include the following:

0x01 - use special poll interval SpecialInterval
0x02 - UseAsFallbackOnly
0x04 - send request as SymmetricActive mode
0x08 - send request as Client mode

HTTP redirection

2011-12-04T00:50:00.001-08:00

HTTP redirection might not be enabled by default, you will have to enable it on the webserver. If you have command line access:

Run a command prompt as Administrator
Type: cd \windows\system32\inetsrv
Hit enter
Type: appcmd set config /section:httpRedirect /enabled:true
Hit enter

HTTP Load Balancing using Application Request Routing

2011-12-01T06:29:00.001-08:00

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/486/http-load-balancing-using-application-request-routing/

increase the file size to 10MB.

2011-11-23T23:56:00.001-08:00

cscript C:\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs set w3svc/ASPMaxRequestEntityAllowed 10484880

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772726(WS.10).aspx

2011-11-23T00:45:00.001-08:00

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772726(WS.10).aspx

2011-11-15T23:13:00.001-08:00

http://blog.vmpros.nl/2010/07/24/vmware-how-to-revert-root-user-role-from-read-only-to-administrator/

Windows 2008 R2 server cannot access shares on windows 2000 servers

2011-11-13T17:49:00.001-08:00

The solution: Registry editing for LAN manager authentication level (in Windows 2008 R2 server
this can be configured through registry)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

SYSTEM

CURRENTCONTROLSET

CONTROL

LSA

LmCompatibilityLevel

Reg_dword

remove these “phantom” NICs from Windows 2008 Server Core

2011-11-08T06:55:00.001-08:00

1. Copy devcon.exe over to the server core server (I had to extract devcon.exe from \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SUPPORT.CAB on a Windows 2003 R2 x64 disc).

2. Run devcon.exe findall =net (this should list all NICs on the system, including the phantoms). This was my output:

PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\4&B70F118&0&0088: VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter #2
PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\3&18D45AA6&0&88: VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter
PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_07B0&SUBSYS_07B015AD&REV_01\FF565000EB16A3FE00: vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter
3 matching device(s) found.

vmxnet3 was the active NIC and the others needed to be removed.

3. devcon -r remove "@PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\3&18D45AA6&0&88″ removed the first one. Repeated for the second unwanted NIC, rebooted the server for good measure and it's serving up DNS again!

2011-11-08T06:33:00.001-08:00

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

devmgmt.msc

http://vmtoday.com/2009/11/vsphere-upgrade-breaks-active-directory/

To work around this behavior and display devices when you click Show hidden devices:

Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
start devmgmt.msc
Troubleshoot the devices and drivers in Device Manager.

NOTE: Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Manager before you can see devices that are not connected to the computer.
When you finish troubleshooting, close Device Manager.
Type exit at the command prompt.

Note that when you close the command prompt window, Window clears the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 variable that you set in step 2 and prevents ghosted devices from being displayed when you click Show hidden devices.

Cisco ASA Firewall Fundamentals+FREE ASA 5505 Tutorial

2011-11-04T01:01:00.001-07:00

http://www.networkstraining.com/ciscoasaebook.php

http://www.squidoo.com/cisco-asa-5500-firewall

AOFO backup of Sharepoint data fails with '0xe0001602 - Access is denied (Share point backup)' with Backup Exec 2010 R3

2011-10-27T23:37:00.001-07:00

Problem

Backup Exec 2010 R3 Granular (GRT) backups of Sharepoint data, written to disk and with the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO) enabled, may fail with '0xe0001602 - Access is denied (Share point backup). No Restore selections will be left for the Content DBs of this job.

This has been seen for data from Sharepoint 2003, Sharepoint 2007, and Sharepoint 2010.

GRT backups with AOFO enabled, but written direct to tape or GRT backups to disk without AOFO enabled, will both complete and leave valid restore data.

Error

Completion status: Failed

Final error: 0xe0001602 - Access is denied (Share point backup).
Final error category: Security Errors

For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-5634

This Exception may also show up:

Backup- Sharepoint - 80\Content-DB1 (SERVERNAME\SHAREPOINT\WSS_Content)

Solution

A hotfix is now available for this issue in the current version(s) of the product(s) mentioned at the end of this article. Refer to the Hotfix link under Related Documents at the end of this article to obtain the hotfix needed to resolve the issue

Final error: 0xe000ff18 - A communications failure has occurred with a Virtual Machine resource

2011-10-20T23:00:00.001-07:00

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH124896

How to create a Backup-to-disk folder in Backup Exec for Windows Servers

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH14907

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system

2011-10-14T06:05:00.001-07:00

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832017

Virus scanning recommendations for Enterprise computers that are running currently supported versions of Windows

2011-10-14T06:04:00.001-07:00

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=822158

For computers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7

Warning This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.

Notes

We are not aware of a risk of excluding the specific files or folders that are mentioned in this article from scans that are made by your antivirus software. However, your system may be safer if you do not exclude any files or folders from scans.
When you scan these files, performance and operating system reliability problems may occur because of file locking.
Do not exclude any one of these files based on the file name extension. For example, do not exclude all files that have a .dit extension. Microsoft has no control over other files that may use the same extensions as the files that are described in this article.
This article provides both file names and folders that can be excluded. All the files and folders that are described in this article are protected by default permissions to allow only SYSTEM and administrator access, and they contain only operating system components. Excluding an entire folder maybe simpler but may not provide as much protection as excluding specific files based on file names.

Turn off scanning of Windows Update or Automatic Update related files

Turn off scanning of the Windows Update or Automatic Update database file (Datastore.edb). This file is located in the following folder:
%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Datastore
Turn off scanning of the log files that are located in the following folder:
%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Datastore\Logs
Specifically, exclude the following files:
- Res*.log
- Res*.jrs
- Edb.chk
- Tmp.edb
The wildcard character (*) indicates that there may be several files.

Turn off scanning of Windows Security files

Add the following files in the %windir%\Security\Database path of the exclusions list:
- *.edb
- *.sdb
- *.log
- *.chk
- *.jrs
Note If these files are not excluded, antivirus software may prevent proper access to these files, and security databases can become corrupted. Scanning these files can prevent the files from being used or may prevent a security policy from being applied to the files. These files should not be scanned because antivirus software may not correctly treat them as proprietary database files.

Turn off scanning of Group Policy related files

Group Policy user registry information. These files are located in the following folder:
%allusersprofile%\
Specifically, exclude the following file:
NTUser.pol
Group Policy client settings file. This file is located in the following folder:
%Systemroot%\System32\GroupPolicy\
Specifically, exclude the following file:
Registry.pol

For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

951059 On a Windows Server 2003-based computer, registry-based policy settings are unexpectedly removed after a user logs on to the computer

930597 Some registry-based policy settings are lost and error messages are logged in the Application log on a Windows XP-based computer or on a Windows Vista-based computer

Back to the top

For Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 domain controllers

Because domain controllers provide an important service to clients, the risk of disruption of their activities from malicious code, from malware, or from a virus must be minimized. Antivirus software is the generally accepted way to lessen the risk of infection. Install and configure antivirus software so that the risk to the domain controller is reduced as much as possible and so that performance is affected as little as possible. The following list contains recommendations to help you configure and install antivirus software on a Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000 domain controller.

Warning We recommend that you apply the following specified configuration to a test system to make sure that in your specific environment it does not introduce unexpected factors or compromise the stability of the system. The risk from too much scanning is that files are inappropriately flagged as changed. This results in too much replication in Active Directory. If testing verifies that replication is not affected by the following recommendations, you can apply the antivirus software to the production environment.

Note Specific recommendations from antivirus software vendors may supersede the recommendations in this article.

Antivirus software must be installed on all domain controllers in the enterprise. Ideally, try to install such software on all other server and client systems that have to interact with the domain controllers. It is optimal to catch the malware at the earliest point, such as at the firewall or at the client system where the malware is introduced. This prevents the malware from ever reaching the infrastructure systems that the clients depend on.
Use a version of antivirus software that is designed to work with Active Directory domain controllers and that uses the correct Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to access files on the server. Older versions of most vendor software inappropriately change a file's metadata as the file is scanned. This causes the File Replication Service engine to recognize a file change and therefore schedule the file for replication. Newer versions prevent this problem. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
815263 Antivirus, backup, and disk optimization programs that are compatible with the File Replication Service
Do not use a domain controller to browse the Internet or to perform other activities that may introduce malicious code.
We recommend that you minimize the workloads on domain controllers. When possible, avoid using domain controllers in a file server role. This lowers virus-scanning activity on file shares and minimizes performance overhead.
Do not put Active Directory or FRS database and log files on NTFS file system compressed volumes.
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
318116 Issues with Jet databases on compressed drives

Turn off scanning of Active Directory and Active Directory-related files

Exclude the Main NTDS database files. The location of these files is specified in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters\DSA Database File
The default location is %windir%\Ntds. Specifically, exclude the following files:
Ntds.dit
Ntds.pat
Exclude the Active Directory transaction log files. The location of these files is specified in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters\Database Log Files Path
The default location is %windir%\Ntds. Specifically, exclude the following files:
- EDB*.log
- Res*.log
- Res*.jrs
- Ntds.pat
Note Windows Server 2003 no longer uses the Ntds.pat file.
Exclude the files in the NTDS Working folder that is specified in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters\DSA Working Directory
Specifically, exclude the following files:
- Temp.edb
- Edb.chk

Turn off scanning of SYSVOL files

Turn off scanning of files in the File Replication Service (FRS) Working folder that is specified in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NtFrs\Parameters\Working Directory
The default location is %windir%\Ntfrs. Exclude the following files that exist in the folder:
- edb.chk
- Ntfrs.jdb
- *.log
Turn off scanning of files in the FRS Database Log files that are specified in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\Services\Ntfrs\Parameters\DB Log File Directory
The default location is %windir%\Ntfrs. Exclude the following files:
- Eedb*.log (if the registry key is not set).
- FRS Working Dir\Jet\Log\Edb*.jrs (Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2).
- Edb*.jrs (Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2).
Note Settings for specific file exclusions is documented here for completeness. By default, these folders allow access only to System and Administrators. Please verify that the correct protections are in place. These folders contain only component working files for FRS and DFSR.
Turn off scanning of the Staging file as specified in the following registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\Services\NtFrs\Parameters\Replica Sets\GUID\Replica Set Stage

By default, staging uses the following location:
%systemroot%\Sysvol\Staging areas
Exclude the following files:
- Nntfrs_cmp*.*
Turn off scanning of files in the Sysvol\Sysvol folder.

The current location of the Sysvol\Sysvol folder and all its subfolders is the file system reparse target of the replica set root. The Sysvol\Sysvol folder uses the following location:
%systemroot%\Sysvol\Sysvol
Exclude the following files from this folder and all its subfolders:
- *.adm
- *.admx
- *.adml
- Registry.pol
- *.aas
- *.inf
- Fdeploy.inf
- Scripts.ini
- *.ins
- Oscfilter.ini
Turn off scanning of files in the FRS Preinstall folder that is in the following location:
Replica_root\DO_NOT_REMOVE_NtFrs_PreInstall_Directory
The Preinstall folder is always open when FRS is running.

Exclude the following files from this folder and all its subfolders:
- Ntfrs*.*
Turn off scanning of files in the DFSR database and working folders. The location is specified by the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Currentcontrolset\Services\DFSR\Parameters\Replication Groups\GUID\Replica Set Configuration File=Path >
In this registry key, "Path" is the path of an XML file that states the name of the Replication Group. In this example, the path would contain "Domain System Volume."

The default location is the following hidden folder:
%systemdrive%\System Volume Information\DFSR
Exclude the following files from this folder and all its subfolders:
- $db_normal$
- FileIDTable_2
- SimilarityTable_2
- *.xml
- $db_dirty$
- Dfsr.db
- Fsr.chk
- *.frx
- *.log
- Fsr*.jrs
- Tmp.edb
If any one of these folders or files is moved or is put in a different location, scan or exclude the equivalent element.

Turn off scanning of DFS files

The same resources that are excluded for a SYSVOL replica set must also be excluded when FRS or DFSR is used to replicate shares that are mapped to the DFS root and link targets on Windows Server 2008 R2-based, Windows Server 2008-based, Windows Server 2003-based, or Windows 2000-based member computers or domain controllers.

Turn off scanning of DHCP files

By default, DHCP files that should be excluded are present in the following folder on the server:

%systemroot%\System32\DHCP

Exclude the following files from this folder and all its subfolders:

*.mdb
*.pat
*.log
*.chk
*.edb

The location of DHCP files can be changed. To determine the current location of the DHCP files on the server, check the DatabasePath, DhcpLogFilePath, and BackupDatabasePath parameters that are specified in the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters

Back to the top

For Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 domain controllers

Turn off scanning of DNS files

By default, DNS uses the following folder:

%systemroot%\System32\Dns

Exclude the following files from this folder and all its subfolders:

*.log
*.dns
BOOT

Turn off scanning of WINS files

By default, WINS uses the following folder:

%systemroot%\System32\Wins

Exclude the following files from this folder and all its subfolders:

*.chk
*.log
*.mdb

Back to the top

For computers that are running Hyper-V based versions of Windows

In some scenarios, on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that has the Hyper-V role installed or on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 or on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2-based computer, it may be necessary to configure the real-time scanning component within the antivirus software to exclude files and entire folders. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

961804 Virtual machines are missing in the Hyper-V Manager Console or when you create or start a virtual machine, you receive one of the following error codes: "0x800704C8", "0x80070037" or "0x800703E3"

Creating Centralized Exception Policies in Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager

2011-10-12T06:59:00.001-07:00

NAME OF PREFIX	Description
PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON	A folder for components that are shared across applications. A typical path is C:\Program Files\Common Files
SYSTEM	The Windows System folder. A typical path is C:\Windows\System32 or C:\WINNT\System32
COMMON_PROGRAMS	The file system folder that contains the folders for the common program groups that appear on the Start menu for all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs
COMMON_DOCUMENTS	The file system folder that contains documents that common to all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents
PROGRAM_FILES	The Program Files folder. A typical path is C:\Program Files
COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY	The file system folder that contains files and folders that appear on the desktop for all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
WINDOWS	The Windows folder or SYSROOT. This corresponds to the %windir% or %SYSTEMROOT% environmental variables. A typical path is C:\Windows or C:\WINNT
COMMON_APPDATA	The file system folder containing application data for all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data
COMMON_STARTUP	The file system folder that contains all the programs that appear in the Startup folder for all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

NOTE: Endpoint does not allow the use of wildcards.

AVVI backup fails with error "Unable to open a disk of the virtual machine. VixDiskLib_Open() reported the error: You do not have access rights to this file"

2011-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Problem

Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) fails with the error below:

Error

Error from Job Log:
Final error: 0xe0009585 - Unable to open a disk of the virtual machine.
V-79-57344-38277 - Unable to open a disk of the virtual machine. VixDiskLib_Open() reported the error: You do not have access rights to this file

Error in beremote debug log:
[fsysshared] - VDDK-Warn: [NFC ERROR] NfcNewAuthdConnectionEx: Failed to connect to peer. Error: Host address lookup for server esx_host.intra.domain.com failed: The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found
[fsysshared] - VDDK-Log: NBD_ClientOpen: Couldn't connect to esx_host.DOMAIN:902 Host address lookup for server esx_host.intra.domain.com failed: The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found
[fsysshared] - VDDK-Log: DISKLIB-LINK : "vpxa-nfc://[DATASTORE NAME] VM_NAME/VM_NAME_1.vmdk@esx_host.DOMAIN:902!52 6b bd d7 c0 14 9f 6e-1d 1d ea 36 f8 74 27 b0" : failed to open (NBD_ERR_NETWORK_CONNECT).
NOTE: If beremote shows
VDDK-Log: NBD_ClientOpen: Couldn't connect to ESXFQDN:902 Cannot connect to host ESXFQDN: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.
This may happen if port 902 is being blocked

Cause

This issue occurs because Backup Exec does not have access to the ESX Host.
vCenter provides Backup Exec with a central point of integration to automatically discover and protect Guest virtual machines across multiple ESX hosts even when Guest virtual machines are being relocated via vMotion during a backup between ESX hosts. This makes setting up and configuring backups of large numbers of Guest virtual machines easy regardless of which ESX server is currently hosting them.
During the backup process Backup Exec will need to establish connection to the ESX host(s) to gather metadata. As such, an open connection between the Backup Exec server and the ESX host(s) is necessary.
The port being used to communicate between the Media Server and the ESX server will need to be opened, port 902 is default

Solution

Backup Exec must be able to connect directly to the ESX host(s) for backup and restore operations to complete successfully.

Restarting hostd (mgmt-vmware) on ESX hosts restarts hosted virtual machines where virtual machine Startup/Shutdown is enabled

2011-10-04T22:27:00.001-07:00

Disable Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown for the ESX host through VirtualCenter or a VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client that is directly connected to the host.

To disable Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown:

Log in to VirtualCenter.
Select the ESX Server host where you want restart hostd.
Select the Configuration tab.
Select Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown.
Select Properties.
Deselect Allow Virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system.

If the host is not reachable through VirtualCenter or the VI Client:

Log in to the ESX Server service console as root.
At the command line run vimsh.
At the [/] prompt, type:

hostsvc/autostartmanager/enable_autostart 0
Type exit. You can now safely restart mgmt-vmware (hostd).

2011-10-04T22:26:00.001-07:00

Determining whether virtual machines are configured to autostart

To determine if your virtual machines are configured to autostart:

Log in as root to your ESX host with SSH.
Open the /etc/vmware/hostd/vmAutoStart.xml file in text editor.
Search for a line that reads:

<enabled>true</enabled>

If you find the line, the functionality is enabled. If you do not find the line, the functionality is disabled.
If you want to disable autostart for all virtual machines on the host, remove the line.
If you want to enable the functionality, add the line immediately after the line ending with:

</dynamicProperty>
Save your changes and exit.
Restart the management agents on the ESX host. For instructions on restarting the agents, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX Server (1003490).

Caution: For this change to take effect, you must restart the management agent. This poses a circular logic problem in the case where you are disabling virtual machine autostart because you want to restart the agent. In this case, use the vimsh command as discussed in Restarting hostd (mgmt-vmware) on ESX Server Hosts Restarts Hosted Virtual Machines Where Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown is Enabled (1003312).

Additional Information

ESX Servers can be shut down from the command line using the halt command.
ESX Servers can be rebooted from the command line with the reboot command.

How to troubleshoot backup jobs that complete with an error or exception "Failed to mount one or more virtual disk images"

2011-09-29T09:58:00.001-07:00

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH63607

Problem

How to troubleshoot backup jobs that complete with an error or exception "Failed to mount one or more virtual disk images"

Error

V-79-57344-38721 - Failed to mount one or more virtual disk images

Cause

Several configurations can cause the above error. Please review the possible causes below, and reference the matching solution.

1. Backing up the same virtual machine running concurrently to the same temporary staging location.

2. The VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is not installed.

3. The VMware Consolidated Backup is not targeted correctly in the backup job properties.

All of these scenarios when using the Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure will cause the job to report the error or exception "V-79-57344-38721 - Failed to mount one or more virtual disk images". The GRT (Granular Restore Technology) functionality will fail for this backup, and individual file restores will not be possible as the VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is not able to mount the image file.

Solution

1. To avoid conflicts schedule jobs so they do not overlap when backing up the same virtual machine.

2. Install the VMware Consolidated Backup
http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/drivers_tools.html

3. Verify the location of where VMware Consolidated Backup is installed, compared to the location specified in the backup job properties.

If the issue still occurs after performing the steps above, review the TechNotes in the Related Documents Section below for additional troubleshooting information.

2011-09-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

Q: How can I start a program without logon the server?

A: Use NET START SecviceName, for example, net start messanger.

Q: How can I find which services the server are running?
A: Using the NET START command and it will display all running services name.

Q: How to add a user right remotely
A: If you cannot access the computer locally, you may try to use the Ntrights.exe utility to remotely add the user right. Ntrights.exe is a Resource Kit utility that can be used to set user rights from a command prompt. Ntrights.exe can be used to manipulate the rights on either the local computer or a remote computer. (Refer to MS Q152478). Note: to use NTRight.exe utility to add a user right remotely, the computer must already connect to a workgroup or domain and can access by another machine.

How to Determine Which Program Uses or Blocks Specific TCP Ports in Windows Server 2003

The 2003 Netstat.exe utility has a new switch, the -o switch, that can display the process identifier (ID) that is associated with each connection. For example, the netstat -ano command can produce the following output:

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State PID

TCP 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:0 Listening 888

Q: How to find my logon server and domain
Command Set shows COMPUTERNAME, LOGONSERVER, USERDOMAIN and USERNAME.

How to manage services remotely
The NT Resource Kit has two utilities, sc.exe and netsvc.exe, that allow you to manage remote computer services. For example, to view the services on a remote machine, use this command: netsvc /query \\servername /list. To startmssqlserver, use netsvc mssqlserver \\servername /start.

How can I find all computers, their IPs and users who logon particular computer in our network?
A. If you have a WINS server, you should be able to find these information. To list all computers, their IPs and users who logon particular computers.. Go to WINS server's Administrative Tools>WINS>Active Registrations, right-click>find By Name or By Owner, type * and press enter. WINS will show all computer names, IPs and active users.

How to use net helpmsg to check error details

net helpmsg

For example, net helpmsg 1355 equates to "The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted."

Sample: How to Use the NETSH Command to Change IP address

You can use the netsh command in Windows 2000 to script the process of changing a computer from a static Internet Protocol (IP) address to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or vice versa. The netsh command accomplishes this task without the need to restart the computer. This feature is particularly useful for laptops that move from one environment to another, when it is necessary to use statically assigned IP addresses at one location and DHCP assigned IP addresses at another.

1) To display all of the adapters in the computer with their current IP addresses to determine the correct adapter name, type the following command:

Netsh interface ip show config

2) To switch the specified adapter from a static address to DHCP, type the following command:
netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

NOTE: The InterfaceName parameter must match the name of the interface as specified in Network Connections. If InterfaceName contains spaces, use quotation marks around the text (for example, "Interface Name").

3) To change to a static address, type the following command:
netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" static ipaddr subnetmask gateway metric

NOTE: Replace ipaddr with the static IP address, subnetmask with the subnet mask, gateway with the default gateway and, if necessary, metric with the appropriate metric. For example, to change my NIC, 3COM, from 10.0.0.11 to a static address of 10.0.0.111 with the same subnet mask and the default gateway with a metric of 1:

netsh interface ip set address 3COPM static 10.0.0.11 255.255.0.0 10.0.0.111 1

How to use netsh to add/delete/list the DHCP server

Adding Syntax: "netsh dhcp add server ServerDNSServerIP"

Example: netsh dhcp add server dhcpsrv.myomain.com 10.0.0.1

Deleting Syntax: "netsh dhcp delete server ServerDNSServerIP"

Example: netsh dhcp delete server dhcpsrv.myomain.com 10.0.0.1

Listing Syntax: "netsh dhcp show server

Example: netsh dhcp show server

How to change IP using batch file

Depending on what you want, you may have two options: 1) if you want renew IP, create a batch file including ipconfig /renew; 2) if you want to re-setup another static ip, use netsh (refer to How to Use the NETSH Command to Change IP address)

How to check which port is opened in my proxy server (must be from XP)

Syntax connect iphost Host Port (host would be host name or ip)

Example: 1) netsh; 2) diag; 3) from netsh diag>connect iphost 10.0.0.1 25. If [none}, that means port 25 is closed; if [25], it is opened.

How to use Task Manager

Task Manager provides many useful information about applications, processes, performance and network (for XP only) running on your computer. You can use Task Manager to monitor key indicators of your computer's performance. You can see the status of the programs that are running and end programs that have stopped responding. You can also assess the activity of running processes using as many as fifteen parameters, and see graphs and data on CPU and memory usage. In addition, if you are connected to a network, you can view network status and see how your network is functioning. If you have more than one user connected to your computer, you can see who is connected, what they are working on, and you can send them a message. To run Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del together

How to determine which program uses specific TCP ports 2

2011-09-28T00:34:00.001-07:00

Now, you can use Task Manager to find out the process ID that is listed to a program. To run Task Manager, do these:
1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, and then click Task Manager.

2. Click the Processes tab.

3. If you do not have a PID column, click View, click Select Columns, and then click to select the PID (Process Identifier) check box.

4. Click the column header that is labeled "PID" to sort the process by their PIDs. You should be able to find the process ID and match it to the program that is listed in Task Manager.

How to determine which program uses specific TCP ports 1

2011-09-28T00:33:00.001-07:00

How to find open ports on a computer

2011-09-28T00:31:00.001-07:00

To find open ports on a computer, you can use netstat command line.
To display all open ports, open DOS command, type netstat and press Enter.

To list all listening ports, use netstat -an
find /i "listening" command.

To see what ports your computer actually communicates with, use netstat -an
find /i "established"

To find specified open port, use find switch. For example, to find if the port 3389 is open or not, do netstat -an
find /i "3389".

You can use PULIST from the Windows Resource Kit to find which process is using a specified port. For example, pulist
find /i "4125" may display

Process PID User

mad.exe 4125 Chicagotech/blin
Or you can use tasklist to find PID.

SEP11 Guide

2011-09-23T01:53:00.001-07:00

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/symantec_endpoint_protection/11.0/manuals/

How to Create Exceptions or Exclusions for Tamper Protection Alerts that have already been logged

2011-09-23T01:52:00.001-07:00

Solution

How to add a centralized Exceptions Policy if you don't already have one to edit

1. Open the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager.
2. Click Policies.
3. Click Centralized Exceptions.
4. Click "Add a Centralized Exceptions Policy".
5. Click OK.
6. Assign Policy dialog box will pop up.
7. Click YES to assign the policy to the group or groups of your choice.
8. Check the box next to the group to which you would like to assign the policy.
9. Click Assign.

How to create exclusions and exceptions for: Tamper Protection, Application Control Driver, or Application Control Rules.

Example: Tamper Protection

In order for the following process to work you must have alerts already generated.

1. Click Monitors.
2. Click the Logs tab.
3. For Log type, choose Application & Device Control.
4. Click Advanced Settings.
5. For Event Type, select Tamper Protection.
6. Click View Logs.
7. Click a tamper protection event that contains the executable to exclude.
8. At the top of the table, in the Action box, choose: Add file to Centralized Exceptions Policy.
9. Click Start.
10. Check Process File to be added is correct. This will be the Actor Process, not the Target.
11. Select the Centralized Exception policy to which you want to add the new exception.
12. Click OK.
13. Click OK at the Message box .
14. When client checks in with SEPM it will get new policy based on heartbeat interval.

Note: Default Communication Settings is set to Push, which means the server has a constant connection to the clients. The SEPM will prompt the clients to check in right away for updated policy.

UEFI-aware operating system does not boot after load defaults or deployment - IBM BladeCenter and System x

2011-09-17T08:45:00.001-07:00

http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5079636

Workaround

The workaround is dependent upon the particular UEFI operating system. Refer to the UEFI operating system information for the actual file name and path used to boot that particular operating system.

For example, for Microsoft Windows Server 2008, the steps are as follows:

Power on the system, and, when prompted, press F1 to enter setup.
Select Boot Manager.
Select Boot from File.
Select the GUID Partition Tables (GPT) System Partition where you installed Microsoft Windows Server 2008.
Select EFI.
Select Microsoft.
Select Boot.
Select bootmgfw.EFI.

Additional information

This is working as designed.

Operating system vendors are aware of the symptom. When you boot your UEFI operating system using "use the Boot from File method," the operating system may recreate the UEFI Boot Order Entry if it has been deleted.

By copying the UEFI operating system boot manager to the GPT System Partition directory \EFI\BOOT with the name BOOTX64.EFI, this will allow the EFI operating system to boot automatically.

The boot manager for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is as follows:

\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Bootmgfw.EFI

Copying the UEFI operating system boot manager when building the master disk image that will be cloned for deployment will allow the EFI operating system to boot the first time the system is started.

Local operating system boot fails when external storage is attached - IBM BladeCenter and System x

2011-09-17T08:37:00.001-07:00

http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?brandind=5000008&lndocid=MIGR-5081613

Symptom

Operating systems that are not Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) aware can fail at the point of bootstrapping the operating system from local hard drives.

The issue occurs when a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) is installed in the server and attached to external storage. The issue has only been seen with the QLogic and Emulex HBAs.

One of the symptoms of this issue is seen at the point where the OS normally starts to load, but instead, the end user will see the "feed me" screen, indicating an unsuccessful bootstrap of the operating system.

Another symptom is that the duration of the "Configuring system ..." stage of initialization may be excessively long (up to 20 minutes has been observed)

Workaround

The following steps detail what to do when either a UEFI or non-UEFI aware operating system is used.

UEFI aware operating system:

IBM X3650 M2, SAN Attached, Issues booting to local drives

2011-09-17T08:36:00.001-07:00

Start by rebooting the system and when you see the prompt to hit F1, you hit the F1 key which takes you to the System Configuration and Boot Management screen.
Boot Manager should be an option on the left side, approximately the fifth entry. Use your cursor keys to highlight it and hit the Enter key which should take you to the Boot Manager screen.
Highlight the Add Boot Option entry, around the first entry, and hit Enter.
Scroll down until you highlight Legacy Only and hit enter.
Once you do that, the changes should require you to commit the changes. Commit the changes.
Go back to the Boot Manager screen. You should see an option to Change Boot Order. Highlight that and hit the Enter key.
On that screen, you should see your Legacy Only as the last option. Highlight it and hit Enter.
Use your cursor key to move that above Hard Disk 0. Make sure that you hit the Commit key after you complete the move.
Bring the system down, connect your fibre cables, and reboot. This change should allow the system to boot to the local drives instead of the SAN.

http://www.uefi.org/about/

http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2009/07/24/ibm-x3650-m2-san-attached-issues-booting-to-local-drives.aspx

Ibm x3650 M2 - can't boot from hard drive

2011-09-17T08:25:00.001-07:00

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=14300822

set the correct boot order in the uefi Bios.

set the option "Legacy only" as first boot-device in the uEFI BIOS

How to register server HBAs to an EMC Clariion storage system

2011-09-17T01:59:00.001-07:00

http://serverfault.com/questions/14457/how-to-register-server-hbas-to-an-emc-clariion-storage-system

physically connected to the storage system.
the server's HBAs or NICs are registered to the storage system (either manually or via the Navisphere Server Utility or Host Agent).

1.) setup "naviagent", a piece of software that runs on your servers and "phones home" to the management addresses of the storage processers and does the registration for you.

2.) manually, its somewhere in the navisphere gui.

http://www.carumba.com/talk/quicknotes/quicknote_001.txt

vmware snapshot issue.

2011-09-08T18:00:00.001-07:00

service mgmt-vmware restart

service vmware-vpxa restart

Dynamic Ports in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the IANA)

2011-08-30T04:37:00.001-07:00

http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xml

By default, the dynamic port range in Windows Server 2003 was 1024-5000 for both TCP and UDP.

In Windows Server 2008 (and Windows Vista), the dynamic port range is 49152-65535, for both TCP and UDP.

What this means is that any server-to-server RPC traffic (including AD replication traffic) is suddenly using an entirely new port range over the wire. We made this change in order to comply with IANA recommendations about port usage. Therefore, if you start deploying Windows Server 2008 on your network, and are using firewalls to restrict traffic on your internal network you will need to update the configuration of those firewalls to compensate for the new port range.

It doesn't stop at RPC traffic though. The dynamic port range is used for any and all outbound requests from your computer that don't use a specific source port. This means that if you fire up Internet Explorer and browse to a web page, the network traffic is going to source from a port higher than 49152 on Vista or 2008. This means that potentially, any application that connects to other machines via the network could be impacted by a firewall that's not configured for this change. In Directory Services support here at Microsoft, we really care mostly about Active Directory related traffic, but this is something that everyone should watch out for. So for example, look at this snippet of a NETSTAT command run on a Vista machine where we are simply connected to a web site with IE7:

C:\Windows\system32>netstat -bn

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 10.10.0.10:53556 65.59.234.166:80 TIME_WAIT
TCP 10.10.0.10:53572 65.59.234.166:80 TIME_WAIT
[iexplore.exe]

In Vista and 2008, most administration of things at the network stack level is handled via NETSH. Using NETSH, it's possible to see what your dynamic port range is set to on a per server basis:

>netsh int ipv4 show dynamicport tcp
>netsh int ipv4 show dynamicport udp
>netsh int ipv6 show dynamicport tcp
>netsh int ipv6 show dynamicport udp

These commands will output the dynamic port range currently in use. Kind of a neat fact is that you can have different ranges for TCP and UDP, or for IPv4 and IPv6, although they all start off the same.

In Windows Server 2003 the range always defaults to starting with TCP port 1024, and that is hard-coded. But in Vista/2008, you can move the starting point of the range around. So if you needed to, you could tell your servers to use ports 5000 through 15000 for dynamic port allocations, or any contiguous range of ports you wanted. To do this, you use NETSH again:

   >netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport tcp start=10000 num=1000
   >netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport udp start=10000 num=1000
   >netsh int ipv6 set dynamicport tcp start=10000 num=1000
   >netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport udp start=10000 num=1000

The examples above would set your dynamic port range to start at port 10000 and go through port 11000 (1000 ports).

A few important things to know about the port range:

· The smallest range of ports you can set is 255.
· The lowest starting port that you can set is 1025.
· The highest end port (based on the range you set) cannot exceed 65535.

For more information on this, check out KB 929851.

Dynamic Ports in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the IANA)

2011-08-30T04:33:00.001-07:00

Dynamic Ports in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the IANA)

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2007/08/24/dynamic-client-ports-in-windows-server-2008-and-windows-vista-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-iana.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772723(WS.10).aspx

Windows 2008 NLB

2011-08-24T01:45:00.000-07:00

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff849728.aspx

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006558

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.09.cableguy.aspx

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-SG/winserverPN/thread/373eb373-56ba-4d0c-9e32-4b67a8a1e894

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779254(WS.10).aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/ad-main.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/default.mspx

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1556

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/implmenting_ms_network_load_balancing.pdf

Remove Snapshot Hangs in VC

2011-08-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

vimsvc//task_list

vimsvc/task_info haTask-208-vim.VirtualMachine.removeAllSnapshots-168

service mgmt-vmware restart

Remove Snapshot Hangs in VC

2011-08-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

# service mgmt-vmware restart
It's completely safe to run, this command will only reset management services for the esx host you're logged onto. The virtual environment will remain uneffected. The ESX host will become unresponsive from the virutal center server for around 2 to 5 minutes, then all should come back to life.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/microsite.do

Configuring VMware vCenter Server to send an alarm when virtual machines are running from snapshots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl0VmmKNhYk

A virtual machine can freeze under load when you take quiesced snapshots or use custom quiescing scripts

2011-08-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=5962168

Troubleshooting Virtual Machine snapshot problems

2011-08-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

http://geosub.es/vmutils/Troubleshooting.Virtual.Machine.snapshot.problems/Troubleshooting.Virtual.Machine.snapshot.problems.html

Enable Symantec Backup Exec 2010 Live Update

2011-08-02T18:00:00.001-07:00

BEUpdateOps.exe -AddBE -OptOut

Tracking Logon and Logoff Activity in Windows 2000

2011-07-18T19:48:00.001-07:00

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742436.aspx

Audit Account Logon Events

2011-07-18T19:46:00.003-07:00

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb742435.aspx

Maintaining and Monitoring Account Lockout

2011-07-18T19:17:00.001-07:00

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776964(WS.10).aspx

To disable Kerberos event logging on a computer

2011-07-18T19:13:00.001-07:00

1.Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.

2.Delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\Kerberos\Parameters\LogLevel registry value.

3.Close Registry Editor and restart the computer

Maintaining and Monitoring Account Lockout

2011-07-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 Domains

The Audit Policy settings are located in the Default Domain policy settings. To view the Auditing policy settings, in the Group Policy MMC, double-click Computer Configuration, double-click Windows Settings, double-click Security Settings, double-click Local Policies, and then double-click Audit Policy. Enable auditing for the event types listed in the previous section.

Settings for Event Logs

For troubleshooting purposes, change some of the settings for the Security event logs:

Set the maximum security log size to 10,000 KB or more. This helps to ensure that important events are not overwritten when the log file becomes large in size.

Set the event retention method to Overwrite events as needed to ensure that the computer is not shut down because there are too many Security event log entries, even when the log file becomes large in size.
For information about how to change the size and retention method of the Security event log, see the Help documentation for the operating system with which you are working.
Because the events can occur on both the client and the server, you can use the following tools to help you gather the information in a single location.

Use the EventCombMT.exe tool, a multithreaded tool, to gather specific events from event logs from several different computers to one central location and then search those event logs for specific data of interest. Some specific search categories are built into the tool, such as account lockouts, which is already configured to include events 529, 644, 675, 676, and 681. For more information, see the Help file that is included with the tool.

Use the Eventlog.pl tool to help you manage event logs in Windows 2000. You can use this tool to change the properties of event logs, back up event logs, export event lists to text file, clear event logs, and query the properties of the event logs. For more information, see "HOW TO: Use the Event Log Management Script Tool (Eventlog.pl) to Manage Event Logs in Windows 2000" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Netlogon Logging

You can use Netlogon logging to capture Netlogon and NTLM events. It is recommended that you configure Netlogon logging in a Windows 2000 domain that has Windows 2000 clients.

You must configure Netlogon logging on the primary domain controller (PDC) and on any other domain controllers that are involved in user authentication. To determine the authenticating domain controller, at a command prompt, type set l or use the LockoutStatus.exe tool. For more information about the LockoutStatus.exe tool, see the "Account Lockout Tools" section in this document. For enterprises that have less than 10 domain controllers, you should enable Netlogon logging on all domain controllers for each domain.

Enabling Netlogon Logging on Computers Running Windows 2000 Server

To enable Netlogon logging on computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, at a command prompt, type nltest /dbflag:2080ffff. The log file is created in Systemroot\Debug\Netlogon.log. If the log file is not in that location, stop and restart the Netlogon service on that computer. To do this, at a command prompt, type net stop netlogon & net start netlogon. For more information, see "Enabling Debug Logging for the Netlogon Service" on the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

If free disk space is low, make sure there is enough space to allow the 40 megabytes (MB) maximum space for the logging. You should also consider the disk space that Netlogon logging uses. When Netlogon.log reaches 20 MB in size, it is renamed to Netlogon.bak and a new Netlogon.log is created with the latest Netlogon data. After that Netlogon.log reaches 20 MB in size, Netlogon.bak is truncated, and the current Netlogon.log file is renamed to Netlogon.bak. Because of this process, the total disk space that is used by Netlogon logging is never more than 40 MB.

Note
Performance may be slightly degraded by the logging process. Therefore, you should disable Netlogon logging after you have captured the events that you want in the log file. To disable Netlogon logging, at a command prompt, type nltest /dbflag:0, press ENTER, type net start netlogon and then press ENTER.

Kerberos Logging

If account lockouts involve Kerberos clients that are running a member of the Windows 2000 family or later, you can enable Kerberos logging on those client computers. You would typically perform this step after you have determined that there is an authentication issue that is related to Kerberos.

To enable Kerberos event logging on a computer
1.Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2.Add the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\Kerberos\Parameters registry value to the registry key:
Registry value: LogLevel
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1

If the Parameters registry key does not exist, create it.

3.Close Registry Editor and restart the computer.

Unix

2011-04-23T07:50:00.001-07:00

# dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/vmimages/filename.iso
WinSCP (http://winscp.sourceforge.net/eng/index.php)
# scp /tmp/sourcefile.iso username@remotehost: /vmimages/osname/destfile.iso
# mount -o loop /vmimages/w2k3std/w2k3std.iso /mnt/cdrom
# umount /mnt/cdrom
winMd5Sum (http://winmd5sum.solidblue.biz/)
df -h
vdf -h

VMware ESX

2011-04-23T06:44:00.001-07:00

/boot: 50MB

The first partition that should be created as a primary partition on the

disk is the /boot partition. This partition contains the kernel of the

Console OS, which tells the system how to boot and what drivers to

load to properly initialize the system.

This does not have to be a large partition as VMware has an optimized

kernel for its Console OS that is a set size. The recommendation

here is to set the /boot partition to 50MB. It is highly recommended

that this partition be the first created on any disk as some

systems may have an issue detecting the /boot partition if it is created

beyond the first 1024 cylinders.

Swap: 768MB

The second partition created should be the swap partition and should

also be created as primary. This should be set to two times the

amount of memory assigned to the service console during the install

process. We often configure the service console with 384MB of

memory, which allows for up to 32 virtual machines to run at one

time. Based on the best practices, we create at least a 768 MB swap

partition. If your Console OS memory is set at other than 384, set

this partition to 2x your configured memory.

/ (or root): 2.5GB

The third partition and final primary partition created should be the

/ partition, which is commonly referred to as the root partition. This

is where all files of the Console OS will be installed. All partitions

that begin with a /, including /var and /boot, will be mounted in a

directory under the root file system. This allows partitions to be created

that fall under the directory structure of the console operating

system. A value of 2.5GB is recommended for this partition, as that

should be more than sufficient to hold the entire ESX console operating

system.

/var: 1GB

The next partition that we recommend be created is the /var operating

system. This mounts underneath the root file system and is the

default directory for all log files. In addition, this directory is used for

temp files when creating unattended install scripts via the VMware

Web Interface. Creating a separate partition for log files prevents

/vmimages: 10 GB

The final partition that is created during the initial VMware install

process will contain CDROM ISO images for OS installation files

and can be used as temporary storage space for exporting disks or

installing third party applications. The name of this directory

depends on the direction you wish to go with an enterprise management

solution. The size should be configured at 10GB and allow for

numerous images and files to be stored.

/home: 300MB

VMware's VirtualCenter application, in its current state, uses this

directory to store VM configuration files. 300 MB should be enough

since the configuration files for the VMs are nothing more than small

text files.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Domain to Windows 2003 Upgrade Procedure

2011-04-16T06:30:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Windows 2000 Domain to Windows 2003 Upgrade Procedure

Several glossy Microsoft presenters have stated that all you need to do to complete a Windows 2003 Domain upgrade is run ADPREP and then upgrade away. This may work for very small / simple environments but it is definitely not good advice for most companies. After upgrading five servers in two unrelated domains and installing many fresh copies of 2003 I can say that I personally would not skip a single step in the process I have developed below.

NOTE: This process below is offered with no guarantees and we acceprt no liability.
To keep an otherwise complex process simple, it is provided in a terse point form.

Windows 2000 to 2003 Domain Upgrade Process:

set internal DNS servers to "scavenge" every 7 days

do this as far before the upgrade as possible: 61+ days preferred but not required

have all W2K servers running SP4

any machines being upgraded should have 512MB of RAM or better (256MB works but it is damn slow)

run CD \i386\winnt32.exe /checkupgradeonly

verify all your applications are supposed to function under W2003 by contacting your vendors
- if you have MS Exchange 2000 or older you are in Hell and must read Q325379
note that only "local" (LPR) and "Standard TCP/IP" printer ports work under 2003
- i.e. Lexmark printers using LexLink will have to have their ports recreated
  - this is not true in an pure upgrade environment
    - they will still continue to function even though MS says they won't
    - I suggest your take a few minutes to remove your old ports and create new TCP/IP ports
  - if you run a Lexmark laser printer driver update you will find that your print run very slowly
    - (i.e. 3 minutes for a test page)
    - go to each printers properties, click the PORTS tab and remove the BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATION check mark
    - also click the button to the right of the this check mark and uncheck SMTP
check with your hardware vendor for W2003 issues
- possibly require updated BIOS
- RAID cards are a real issue under W2003 so make sure yours will work
  - my experience has been that the problems lie with new cards.
  - I have not had any problems with cards that were greater than 2 years old
ensure that the first server you upgrade has the PDC Emulator and Domain Naming Master & RID Master FSMO's.
- if these roles are on different computers, upgrade them in the order listed PDC, then DNM, then RID
note that IIS Lockdown and/or FrontPage Server Extensions do NOT need to be removed before the upgrade
- IIS6 inherits the restrictions you set in IIS Lockdown and then removes the IIS lockdown tool (it is 'built in' now)
if you do not already have it, install the W2000 Recovery Console (x:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons)
disable Link Tracking Server Service - click HERE for details
remove W2000 Admin Tools, W2000 ResKit (not required but a very good idea), and WinZip < version 8.1 if you have it installed
STOP and DISABLE the FAX Service
update / create Repair Disks using NTBackup
backup the SYSTEM STATE preferably using NTBACKUP
backup your SQL or other databases
if your are upgrading a print server, backup your printers using PRINTMIG which you can get HERE
reboot and do a common sense check:
- resolve any service errors
- check for major event viewer errors relating to key AD components like FRS and DNS
- verify their is a pile of hard drive space (like 1GB+)
from the W2003 CD run ADPREP /forestprep - only required once
- You should complete the W2003 upgrade within the week of running ADPREP tools.
from the W2003 CD run ADPREP /domainprep - only required once
force replication to all DC's via AD Sites and Services
- wait a MINIMUM of 20 minutes before starting the Windows 2003 upgrade
disable all anti-virus and non-windows applications / services
- (i.e. event log trackers, 3rd party FTP servers...)
- SQL2000 services do NOT need to be shut down
insert the W2003 CD, let it autoplay, and select INSTALL then Upgrade
- complete the upgrade process which will take about an hour for most machines
- don't get too concerned about the COMPLETE TIME meter during this install
  - my experience on a variety of machines is that it is off about 25% and the status bar regularly appears 'stuck'; just keep waiting
after the upgrade is complete, check event viewer for key errors - ignore Event ID 1931
check DNS and AD replication
- i.e. add a new user on one server and see if it shows up on the other DC's
install W2003 admin tools from x:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\ADMINPACK.MSI
- Note that the incredibly useful tool NETDIAG is now integrated into the OS under HELP & SUPPORT, TOOLS, HELP & SUPPORT TOOLS
if you had a copy of the W2000 I386 directory on the server delete it and copy new I386 files
install the Support Tools from the \TOOLS\SUPPORT TOOLS folder on the CD
delete any $xxxx$ folders from x:\WINNT\ which contained W2000 service pack / hot fix uninstall info (i.e. all of them)
install the new W2003 Recovery Console (x:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons)
install ALL patches from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
- this is CRITICAL to avoid problems like MSBLAST virus
- note that the 4 critical updates that were available at the time this article was written installed EXTREMELY slowly on every machine I worked on
verify that SYSTEM PROPERTIES, ADVANCED tab, PERFORMANCE OPTIONS, ADVANCED tab is set to BACKGROUND SERVICES and SYSTEM CACHE
- after one of the upgrade I did, the machine was very slow . as soon I changed performance settings to SYSTEM CACHE, speed improved dramatically
In the same place in SYSTEM PROPERTIES, set the VIRTUAL MEMORY (read Swap File) to be MANAGED BY WINDOWS
- don't forget to click SET after making each change to each drive
  - you may want to go back and check your settings were applied as you expected after the reboot
- it is a good idea to put your Swap File on a different drive than the Operating System is on
backup at least the System State of the server preferably using NTBACKUP
- do NOT overwrite pre-upgrade backup as you just might need it in the future
  - Note that W2003 Backup does not read W2000 NTBackup files but if you need to restore back to W2000 you will be happy you still have a W2000 System State to use
re-enable Antivirus and another of 3rd party services disabled before the upgrade
install WinZip 8.1 or newer (if desired)
download (now for free!) and install the W2003 Resource Kit from HERE.
download and install GPMC (Group Policy Management Console) from HERE
perform your usual system maintenance routine
- delete temp files, old profiles...
- chkdsk, defrag...
repeat the relevant steps for all DC's
delete Link Tracking Server Service objects as per the end of Q 312403 - Q315229 may be useful as well
wait 24 hours then perform an Offline Defragmentation of the Active Directory Database as per 232122
- .DIT files will be as much as 40% smaller
in DNS, CHANGE ZONE REPLICATION SCOPE to ALL DC's IN AD DOMAIN GPMC
after all DC's are upgraded, increase "Functional Mode" via AD Domains & Trusts
- this is like W2K Native Mode

HOW TO: Add Support for Multiple Processors in Windows 2000

2011-04-07T22:08:00.001-07:00

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234558

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/getting-your-second-cpu-recognized-in-windows-2000-pro/6146856

http://labmice.techtarget.com/FAQ/win2000faq.htm

2011-04-07T22:06:00.001-07:00

After upgrading to VMWARE 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5, the SYSTEM proces on our File server had an high CPU load (100%). This especially occurred when we were copying files from the file server. Killing the SYSTEM proces did not result in a lower CPU load.

The problem had the following characteristics:

■After a migration of a virtual machine to another ESX server, the SYSTEM proces constantly took 100% CPU

■Killing the SYSTEM proces did not help

■Rebooting the server did not help lowering the SYSTEM CPU usage

■A reboot of the VMWARE ESX server solved the problem for only a while

■You have VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) enabled on VMWARE ESX 3.5

After some research I found the solution (copied from the VMWARE site):

Starting with ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5, VMware DRS applies a cap to the memory overhead of virtual machines to control the growth rate of this memory. This cap is reset to a virtual machine specific computed value after VMotion migrates the virtual machine. Afterwards, if the virtual machine monitor indicates that the virtual machine requires more overhead memory, VMware DRS raises this cap at a controlled rate (1MB per minute, by default) to grant the required memory until the virtual machine overhead memory reaches a steady-state and as long as there are sufficient resources available on the host.

For VirtualCenter 2.5, this cap is not increased to satisfy the virtual machine’s steady-state demand as expected. Thus, the virtual machine operates with an overhead memory that is less than its desired size, which in turn may lead to higher observed virtual machine CPU usage and lower virtual machine performance in a VMware DRS-enabled cluster.

Diagnosing the Issue

To diagnose the issue:

1.Log in to VirtualCenter with Virtual Infrastructure Client as an administrator.

2.Right-click your cluster from the inventory.

3.Click Edit Settings.

4.Disable VMware DRS.

5.Click Ok and wait for 1 minute.

6.In the Virtual Infrastructure Client, note the virtual machine’s CPU usage from performance tab and the virtual machine’s memory overhead from the summary tab.

7.Right-click your cluster from the inventory.

8.Click Edit Settings.

9.Re-enable VMware DRS.

10.se VMotion to migrate a problematic virtual machine to another host.

11.Note the virtual machine CPU usage and memory overhead on the new host.

12.Disable VMware DRS on the cluster again, as noted above and wait for 1 minute.

13.Note the virtual machine CPU usage and memory overhead on the new host.

14.If the CPU usage of the virtual machine increases in step 11 in comparison to step 6, and decreases back to the original state (similar to the behavior in step 6) in step 13 with an observable increase in the overhead memory, this indicates the issue discussed in this article.

You do not need to disable DRS to work around this issue.

Working around the issue

To work around this issue:

1.Log in to VirtualCenter with Virtual Infrastructure Client as an administrator.

2.Right-click your cluster from the inventory.

3.Click Edit Settings.

4.Ensure that VMware DRS is shown as enabled. If it is not enabled check the box to enable VMware DRS.

5.Click OK.

6.Click an ESX Server from the Inventory.

7.Click the Configuration tab.

8.Click Advanced Settings.

9.Click the Mem option.

10.Locate the Mem.VMOverheadGrowthLimit parameter.

11.Change the value of this parameter to 5 and click OK.

Note: By default this setting is set to -1.

Verifying the workaround

To verify the setting has taken effect:

1.Log in to your ESX Server service console as root from either an SSH Session or directly from the console of the server.

2.Type less /var/log/vmkernel.

A successfully changed setting displays a message similar to the following and no further action is required:

vmkernel: 1:16:23:57.956 cpu3:1036)Config: 414: VMOverheadGrowthLimit” = 5, Old Value: -1, (Status: 0×0)

If changing the setting was unsuccessful a message similar to the following is displayed:

vmkernel: 1:08:05:22.537 cpu2:1036)Config: 414: “VMOverheadGrowthLimit” = 0, Old Value: -1, (Status: 0×0)

Note: If you see a message changing the limit to 5 and then changing it back to -1, the fix is not successfully applied.

In the case that the fix is unsuccessful attempt the following:

1.Create a new cluster and move the ESX Server hosts to this cluster.

2.Check to see if the fix has been implemented successfully.

To fix multiple ESX Server hosts

If this parameter needs to be changed on several hosts (or if the workaround fails for the individual host) use the following procedure to implement the workaround instead of changing every server individually:

1.Log on to the VirtualCenter Server Console as an administrator.

2.Make a backup copy of the vpxd.cfg file (typically it is located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg).

3.In the vpxd.cfg file, add the following configuration after the tag:

5

This configuration provides an initial growth margin in MB-to-virtual machine overhead memory. You can increase this amount to larger values if doing so further improves virtual machine performance.

4.Restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server Service.

Note: When you restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server Service, the new value for the overhead limit should be pushed down to all the clusters in VirtualCenter.

This issue will be addressed in a future VMware VirtualCenter update release. The workarounds will not be needed in the update release and in any subsequent releases of VirtualCenter.

ESX requires several partitions.

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Mount Point

Type

Size

Location

Partition Description

/boot

ext3

The ESX boot disk requires 1.25GB of free space and includes the /bootand vmkcorepartitions. The/boot partition alone requires 1100MB.

Physical partition

The boot drive usually defaults to the specified /boot partition location.

Stores information required to boot the ESX host system. For example, this is where the grub boot loader resides.

Not applicable

swap

600MB recommended minimum

1600MB maximum

Use the default value applied during installation.

Virtual disk in a VMFS volume

Allows ESX to use disk space when more memory is needed than the physical RAM allows.

Note

Do not confuse the ESX swap partition with virtual machine swap space. See theResource Management Guide.

ext3

Calculated dynamically based on the size of the/usr partition. By default, the minimum size is 5GB and no/usr partition is defined.

Virtual disk in a VMFS volume

Contains the ESX operating system and services, accessible through the service console. Also contains third-party add-on services or applications you install.

Not applicable

VMFS3

esxconsole.vmdk: 1200MB

Physical partition located on one of the following:

■	Local or boot drive

■	Local SCSI volume

■	Networked SCSI volume

■

SAN

The service console must be installed on a VMFS datastore that is resident on a host's local disk or on a SAN disk that is masked and zoned to that particular host only.

Used to store virtual machines.

You can create any number of VMFS volumes on each LUN if the space is available.

VMFS2 is supported in read-only mode to import legacy virtual machines.

Not applicable

vmkcore

The ESX boot disk requires 1.25GB of free space and includes the /bootand vmkcorepartitions. The/boot partition alone requires 1100MB.

Physical partition located on one of the following:

■	Local SCSI volume

■	Networked SCSI volume

■

SAN

Cannot be located on a software iSCSI volume.

Used to store core dumps for debugging and technical support.

If multiple ESX hosts share a SAN, configure a vmkcore partition with 100MB for each host.

ESX 4.0 - Optional Partitions

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Mount Point	Type	Recommended Size	Location	Partition Description
/home	ext3	512MB	Virtual disk in a VMFS volume	Used for storage by individual users.
/tmp	ext3	1024MB	Virtual disk in a VMFS volume	Used to store temporary files.
/usr	ext3		Virtual disk in a VMFS volume	Used for user programs and data.
/var/log	ext3	2000MB	Virtual disk in a VMFS volume	Used to store log files. The graphical and text installers create this 2000MB partition by default.

VMware ESX 4.0 Disk Layout

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Mount Point	Size	Notes
/(root)	5120 MB	This is the VMware recommended value
swap	1600 MB	This is the maximum value. Minimum value is 600 MB
/boot	1.25 GB	This mount point is automatically created and included both /boot and vmkcore partitions. The /boot partition requires 1100 MB of this value
VMFS	1200 MB	This mount point is automatically created and includes the COS vmdk named esxconsole.vmdk
/var/log	4096 MB	Created by default during manual installation. VMware recommends a minimum of 2000 MB
/home	2048 MB	VMware recommends 512 MB
/opt	2048 MB	VMware does not have any recommendation for /opt
/tmp	2048 MB	VMware recommends 1024 MB

Service Console Partitions and Sizes for Each ESX Server Host

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Service Console Partitions and Sizes for Each ESX Server Host

MountPoint	Partition	Size	Description
/dev/sda (Primary)
/boot	ext3	250 MB	Change for additional space for upgrades
N/A	swap	1600 MB	Change for maximum service console swap size
/	ext3	5120 MB	Change for additional space in root
/dev/sda (Extended)
/var	ext3	4096 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with log files
/tmp	ext3	1024 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with temporary files
/opt	ext3	2048 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with VMware HA log files
/home	ext3	1024 MB	Create partition to avoid overfilling root with agent / user files
	vmkcore	100 MB	Pre-configured
		Free Space	(Optional) Auto-configured and used for local VMFS-3 volume (needed for virtual machines running Microsoft’s Clustering Software.

VMware ESX 4.0 and 4.1

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For VMware ESX 4.x, the ESX Console OS is instead situated within a virtual machine disk (.vmdk) file on a VMFS file system. The size of this disk file varies between deployments, based on the size of the logical unit used. A minimum requirement is approximately 8GB.

Notes:
-The stored Console OS virtual machine disk files may increase in size over the course of a deployment, accommodating for additional log data and files.
-It can be stored on a SAN LUN or different block device than the system disk, as long as it has been partitioned and formatted as VMFS.
-The Console OS disk, as a best-practice, should not be situated on a shared SAN LUN.

System Disk Partitions
-1100MB boot partition
-110MB VMkernel core dump partition
-Extended partition spans the remainder of the disk
-Logical VMFS partition spanning the remainder of the extended partition

VMFS Partition / Console OS VMDK Partitions
These are partitions that reside within the Console OS VMDK, stored on the formatted VMFS volume:
-600MB swap partition
-2GB system log partition
-Extended partition spanning remainder of Console OS .vmdk file
-5GB system (root) partition

VMware ESX 3.0.3 and 3.5

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VMware ESX 3.x requires a minimum of approximately 8GB.

System Disk Partitions
-100MB boot partition
-5GB system root partition
-VMFS partition, if defined, spans the remainder of the disk
-Extended partition

System Disk Logical Partitions
-1GB swap partition
-2GB system log partition
-110MB VMkernel core dump partition

Instructions for Guest File System Alignment

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Once you have aligned your VMware VMFS partitions, you also need to align the data file system
partitions within your virtual machines.

Note: Aligning the boot disk in the virtual machine is neither recommended nor required.
Align only the data disks in the virtual machine.

The following sections discuss how to align guest operating system partitions in Linux and
Windows environments.

Linux
A best practice for Linux physical as well as virtual machines is to align file system partitions
using fdisk. Use the fdisk procedure in the previous section of this paper, and instead of
setting the partition system id to fb, set it to 83 (Linux) or other appropriate partition system ID.

Windows
For Windows virtual machines there is an additional layer of NTFS partitioning that requires
alignment using the diskpart.exe tool from the Microsoft Download Center or MSDN.
Also, using a larger allocation unit (also called cluster size) improves performance of NTFS
volumes.

Note: The previous version of diskpart.exe was diskpar.exe. The main difference is
that diskpart.exe creates partitions in sectors (512 bytes) while diskpart uses KB.
This example assumes the new disk is disk 0. To create an aligned partition, take the following
step

1. 1.Ensure that no data exists on the disk. Then open a command prompt and start the disk
partitioning utility.
diskpart

2. Enter the command to select disk 0.
select disk 0

3. Create the aligned primary partition.
create partition primary align=64

4. Exit the diskpart.exe utility.
exit

5. Close the Windows command prompt window.

6. Format the drive with a 32K allocation size.
Start Windows Disk Manager by right-clicking My Computer on the desktop, then
choosing Manage. From Computer Management, choose Disk Management.

7. Select the new unformatted disk, then right-click and choose Format.

8. When asked for the allocation unit size, choose 32K

Instructions for VMware VMFS Partition Alignment Using fdisk

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To check that your existing partitions are aligned, issue the command:
#fdisk -lu

The output is similar to:
Device boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdj1 128 167766794 83883333+ fb Unknown

Aligned partitions start at 128. If the Start value is 63 (the default), the partition is not aligned.

If you choose not to use the VI Client and create partitions with vmkfstools, or if you want to
align the default installation partition before use, take the following steps to use fdisk to align a partition manually from the ESX Server service console

1. Enter fdisk /dev/sd where is the device suffix.
2. Determine if any VMware VMFS partitions already exist. VMware VMFS partitions are
identified by a partition system ID of fb. Type d to delete to delete these partitions.
Note: This destroys all data currently residing on the VMware VMFS partitions you delete.
Ensure you back up this data first if you need it.
3. Type n to create a new partition.
4. Type p to create a primary partition.
5. Type 1 to create partition No. 1.
6. Select the defaults to use the complete disk.
7. Type t to set the partition’s system ID.
8. Type fb to set the partition system ID to fb (VMware VMFS volume).
9. Type x to go into expert mode.
10. Type b to adjust the starting block number.
11. Type 1 to choose partition 1.
12. Type 128 to set it to 128 (the array’s stripe element size).
13. Type w to write label and partition information to disk.