A. Mikkelsen VMware ESX scripts, commands, tools and other nice to know things that will make your virtualization days easier!!!!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Upgrading Windows 2008 from virtual HW 4 to 7 may cause problems

Filed under: Errors,ESX Migrate/Upgrade,Microsoft,Troubleshooting,vSphere (ESX) — Tags: , , , , , , — A. Mikkelsen @ 23:21 pm

Just found this very interesting article http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1013109 describing a problem with Windows 2008 and ESX 4 virtual hardware version 7.

In short the article states that you might have the disks go offline in a Windows 2008 VM if you

  • Upgrade virtual hardware from version 4 to 7
  • Installing a new VM with virtual hardware 7

There is two ways to get around this (taken from the VMware KB 103109)

————————

This can be resolved by changing the SAN Automount Policy on the system. See the Microsoft article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973834 to change the SAN Policy to online.
The SAN policy is defined within the VDS environment of the system and is represented by the following values:
  • VDS_SP_UNKNOWN = 0x0
  • VDS_SP_ONLINE = 0x1
  • VDS_SP_OFFLINE_SHARED = 0x2
  • VDS_SP_OFFLINE = 0x3
For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb525577(VS.85).aspx.
On Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, the default SAN policy is VDS_SP_OFFLINE_SHARED. On all other Windows Server 2008 editions, the default SAN policy is VDS_SP_ONLINE.
To query current SAN policy from the command line, start DISKPART and issue a SAN command:
C:\>DISKPART.EXE
DISKPART> san
SAN Policy : Offline Shared

DISKPART> exit

Alternatively, you can set the disk to Online after the hardware version upgrade.
To set the disk to Online:
  1. Log in to your system as an Administrator.
  2. Click Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management.
  3. Right-click the disk and choose Online.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Running the vSphere client on Windows 7

Filed under: Microsoft,Tools,Virtual Center,vSphere (ESX) — Tags: , , , — A. Mikkelsen @ 11:21 am

Many admins have upgraded to Windows 7 and gotten into problems when trying to install the vSphere Client.

I have found a few guides to do a workaround, but the best guide is found at techhead.co.uk.
http://www.techhead.co.uk/running-vmware-vsphere-client-on-windows-7

Thanks to Kiwi Si.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

32-bit ODBC DSN required for vSphere running on 64-bit OS and MSSQL

Filed under: Errors,Microsoft,Troubleshooting,Virtual Center — Tags: , , , , , , — A. Mikkelsen @ 10:33 am

Last week I upgraded a Virtual Center server from Win2003 & MSSQL 2000 (32-bit) to Win2008 & MSSQL 2005 (64-bit).

During the installation of vCenter it asked for a 32-bit ODBC even though all the new systems was running 64-bit.
After a some time on Google i found that Windows 64-bit also includes a 32-bit version of the ODBC.

To set up a 32-bit DSN launch the 32-bit version of the Data Source Administrator. It is located at:
%systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe

Also se
http://www.vmwarewolf.com/32-bit-odbc-dsn-for-vsphere/

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Black screen in a Windows VM or an a physical server

Filed under: Errors,Microsoft,Troubleshooting,White Papers — Tags: , , , , , — A. Mikkelsen @ 11:31 am

Over the past few months we have seen a few Windows servers with a black screen.
Meaning

  • You can’t see the logon promt
  • You get a black screen when you connect with RDP

We found that the problem was caused by a change in the Windows color scheme.

The solution is to copy the color scheme from a simular Windows servers registry and add it the VM/server that has the problem using registry to connect to a remote server.

  1. On a simular windows server locate “[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]” and export it to a file.
  2. Using the same Registry Editor connect to the remote server.
  3. Import the registry file just created or change the color scheme manually.
  4. Reboote the affected server to change the color scheme.

Default color scheme for a Windows 2003 server.
Default color scheme for a Windows XP.
Default color scheme for a Windows 2000 server.
Default color scheme for a Windows 2008 server.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Microsoft is giving SharePoint Designer 2007 away for free

Filed under: Microsoft,Tools — Tags: , , , , — A. Mikkelsen @ 10:34 am

Finally Microsoft is giving away it’s software for free.
They are starting with SharePoint Designer 2007 (formally Frontpage).
It’s a start and I’m hoping they will keep up the “good work” 🙂

Get it from Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Compare the installation og ESXi and HyperV

Filed under: ESXi,Microsoft — A. Mikkelsen @ 10:58 am

VMware has released a video comparing the two installations.
The video is worth watching

http://www.vmware.com/technology/whyvmware/resources/esxi-hyper-v-installation.html

Comparing ESXi and HyperV

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Problems with WSUS. Fails or Not Working

Filed under: Microsoft,Tools — A. Mikkelsen @ 17:59 pm

Today my WSUS stopped working, every time i tried to install a new update it failed.
I googled a bit and found a few guides to get it working.

I have had the best luck with Method 2.

Here is what you need to do:
Method 1:

  1. Open a command prompt. (If you don’t know how please contact a technical support person)
  2. net stop wuauserv
  3. regsvr32 /u wuaueng.dll
  4. del C:\WINDOWS\SOFTWAREDISTRIBUTION
  5. del C:\WINDOWSUPDATE.log (if this tells you that it is in use just go to the next step).
  6. regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
  7. net start wuauserv
  8. wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow

Method 2:

  1. Open a command prompt. (If you don’t know how please contact a technical support person)
  2. net stop wuauserv
  3. regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll
  4. net start wuauserv

Method 3:

  1. Download the relevant version of Windows Update for your system
    AgentWindows, x86-baserede systemer

    http://download.windowsupdate.com/WindowsUpdate/redist/standalone/7.0.6000.381/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe
    Windows, x64-baserede systemer

    http://download.windowsupdate.com/WindowsUpdate/redist/standalone/7.0.6000.381/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x64.exe
    Windows, Itanium-baserede systemer

    http://download.windowsupdate.com/WindowsUpdate/redist/standalone/7.0.6000.381/WindowsUpdateAgent30-ia64.exe
  2. From Start -> Run click Browse and browse to wher you downloaded the Windows Update installation.
  3. Add the following /wuforce to the end of the path.
    C:\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe”/wuforce
  4. Click OK
  5. Follow the installation guide

There you go, you should be able to request Windows Updates and they will download and install as you expect.

See more here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Trim your XP installation to a minimum with nLite

Filed under: Microsoft,Tools,White Papers — A. Mikkelsen @ 13:47 pm

Ever wanted a XP installation disc that only had the bare minimum of features and the smalest foot print?
The take a look at nLite and if you a a gamer also take a look at Game XP.

You can find a guide to both Freeware programs here.

Last week I created a new WinXP media including SP3 using nLite.
After installation of a new VM I discovered that the VM boots faster and that the foot print is alot smaller around 1.3 GB.

I will in future use nLite or vLite to trim all my WinXP, WIN2003 server and Vista installation medias with.
This will result in my DR of VM’s will take up less space.

I know disk storage isn’t expencive but I also move the DR to tape 😉

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Service Unavailable – On a Windows 2003 SP1 server.

Filed under: Microsoft — A. Mikkelsen @ 15:49 pm

Today, after installing a VM with Windows 2003 ee, SP1 and IIS, I got ‘Service Unavailable’ when i tried to see it the webserver worked as planned.

After quite a bit of googleing, I found a working solution.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899965

  1. In Start -> Run type “dcomcnfg”
  2. Right Click “IIS Admin Service” under Component Services -> Computers -> My Computer -> DCOM Config
  3. Choose “Security”
  4. In the section “Launch and Activation Permissions” click “Customize”.
  5. Add the local user “Network Service”
  6. Set the permission so “Network Service” is allowed to:
    • Local Launch
    • Remote Launch
    • Local Activation
    • Remote Activation
  7. Restart the server or restart the WWW service.

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