Well you got your MDACs and .NETs but what versions?

 

How you can see if and what version of the .NET Framework has been installed?

You can look in the registry or look at the files on the boot drive;

via the reegistry check the keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\*

Or check for a local directory like %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\<version>

where <version> is

v1.1.4322 - for .NET Framework v1.1
v1.0.3705 - for .NET Framework v1.0
v2…. Etc etc

 

How you can see if and what version of the MDAC has been installed?

Download and install: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=1953

Run the too CC.EXE in the folder C:\CompChecker\

Windows 8 Full Screen in VirtualBox on Linux

 

Windows 8 does not support the VirtualBox display driver and the most current release of VirtualBox has a generic driver that supports some canned 1600x9 and 4x3 drivers but they were wrong for my laptop and not having full screen on Windows 8 make life hard for the charms and start menu etc. So to fix this follow these steps

Power off the the Windows 8 virtual machine.

Goto the VirtualBox console and right click ‘show in File Manager’. Note the name W8RP in my case, you need quotes if you had a space in the name.

Open a shell and go to the folder shown.

 

Find the resolution you want VirtualBox via the Linux settings menu, in my case 1600x900:

In the shell open from above enter the command:

vboxmanage setextradata W8RP CustomVideoMode1 1600x900x32

 

Start the VM, and you can select the custom resolution shown below.

Lovely.

 

Hat tip for the Windows version: http://www.mstechpages.com/2011/09/17/set-custom-resolution-in-virtualbox-for-windows-8/

 

Registry changes for the NetWare GINA in Windows XP…

 

Taking it old school…..

 

Enable the MSGINE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"GinaDLL"="MSGINA.DLL"

 

Enable the NWGINA

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"GinaDLL"="NWGINA.DLL"

 

Enable the NWGINA

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"GinaDLL"="NWGINA.DLL"

 

Enable the NWGINA Auto login

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Network Provider\Initial Login]

"Login When NWGina Not Loaded"="no"

 

Disable the NWGINA Auto Login

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Network Provider\Initial Login]

"Login When NWGina Not Loaded"="Yes"

 

Disable the NWGINA splash screen

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetwareWorkstation]

"NoLogoDisplay"=dword:00000001

 

Enable the NWGINA splash screen

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetwareWorkstation]

"NoLogoDisplay"=dword:00000000

 

Disable Novell Broadcast messages

Receive Broadcast Messages

Registry Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Novell\Broadcast

Registry Value: [dword] Mode

Default Value: 0

Range: 0, 1, 2 (0=All, 1=Server Only, 2=None)

Client Version: Implemented in NT Client versions 4.3 and later

Description: Tells the client which broadcast messages, if any, to receive. You can choose one of the following settings:

All (receive all broadcast messages), Server Only (receives broadcast messages sent by the server only), and None (do not receive any broadcast messages).

 

Disable Novell Broadcast messages

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\LDAP\Servers]

"0"="Scidmnw.domainName.net.local"

for /d %i in (*) do @cacls

 

To CACL the home directories to the existing owners

if you just moved the folders from say NetWare to Windows or a NAS that did not support the permissions (and the user names and home folder names match). This can be used on in the home drive folder (remember to use %% in batch files).

for /d %i in (*) do @cacls ".\%i" /t /e /c /g "domainName\%i":f

for /d %i in (*) do @cacls ".\%i" /t /e /c /g "domainName\Desktop Support":f

for /d %i in (*) do @cacls ".\%i" /t /e /c /g "domainName\Domain Admins":f

 

 

Via VBS – if you are adverse to DOS

' THIS must be run from the CURRENT home root DIR

dim DirName, skip

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(".\")

Set colSubfolders = objFolder.Subfolders

For Each objSubfolder in colSubfolders

'Wscript.Echo objSubfolder.Name, objSubfolder.Size

DirName = objSubfolder.Name

'Wscript.Echo objSubfolder.Name

'wscript.echo "cmd /c cacls " & objSubfolder.Name & " /t /e /c /g

domainName\" & objSubfolder.Name &":f"

command = "cmd /c cacls " & objSubfolder.Name & " /t /e /c /g

domainName\" & objSubfolder.Name &":f"

Return = WshShell.Run(command, 1, TRUE)

 

 

I use this all the time !

SCCM Client–No programs are available from a Terminal Services Sessions

 

User occasionally see this error when they try an run advertised programs with SCCM 2007 (on a Windows 7 PC, not a terminal server). This is generally just a timing issue due to rebooting and if needed you can train the users to wait, or go into the control panel and update the machine policy.

Here is the error.

This is a policy refresh.

After the SCCM policy refresh, the applications appear.

Users are back up and running… Joy

alternateBrowserExists: automation server…

There is a web server on site that throws this error on first connection:

An error has occurred in alternateBrowserExists: automation server can’t create object.

To resolve it I need to ENABLE the initialize and script active X for the Trusted Sites Zone (if it is a trusted site).

 

Windows CA Error - The revocation server is offline 0x80092013

 

If you are trying to start a CA and getting the error, The revocation server is offline 0x80092013

There is a CERTUTIL command to fix this, or at least stop it caring !

Run following command on the affected CA server.

certutil –setreg ca\CRLFlags +CRLF_REVCHECK_IGNORE_OFFLINE

And restart the CA.

Thinking of Bitlocker or Bitlocker To Go?

Bitlocker works well… ‘well-ish’ is probably better to say. Let just start with the issues.

1. No TPM, NO C: Encryption period.
2. With TPM, you need to reboot to enable TPM, then turn on Bitlocker for C: and the process will make a new 300mb partition on the drive and reboot again. Then it will encrypt your C: – which takes 1/2 hour or more depending on size of data.
3. BitLocker To Go – (BTG) only supports FAT/FAT32 – not NTFS?
4. Once a drive is unlocked (D: local drive or a BTLG drive) on a user session it stays unlocked unless you script it to lock or you logout/logon again.
5. Unlocking the drive is via a password, but to lock it again requires Administrator access CMD prompt “manage-bde –lock d:”

So that said, it does work, it works well and even lets you share USB drives with WXP and Vista users with provided software that lets you ‘unlock’ the data on those platforms. Which is nice.

Got C: Encrypted then you can pause it for updates/upgrades (you don't need to decrypt it). Which is nice.

So here is my little thought flow chart on how it works.

 

Unlock as user with UAC

Relock running as Administrator !

Microsoft Office 2010 Suite SKU options

(for any large customers you have the choice of Standard or Professional Pro)

SKUs for Volume Licensing (this is the business end of Office):

Office 2010 Standard – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Publisher. This is the basic Suite for businesses that have bought a volume programme.

Office 2010 Professional Plus – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, Communicator, and SharePoint Workspace.

SKUs for OEM, PKC or FPP:

Office 2010 Home & Student – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Non-commercial use. Licensed only to the PC it was sold with (FPP it can be installed in up to 3 PCs.)

Office 2010 Home & Business – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Home-based businesses and dual users. It is the entry-level commercial Office 2010 Suite.

Office 2010 Professional – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access.

FREE SKU that come with new entry level PCs only:

Office 2010 Starter – Word Starter, Excel Starter. Both applications limited-functionality, advertising-based ones. It is licensed only for the PC it came pre-installed in, no installation media.

AD Domain forest and domain levels

 

I know this is old information, but I always seem to go back to it, so here it is for me… Oh, you can look at it too.

Forest functional level

 

Forest functional level	Domain controller operating systems supported
Windows 2000 native	Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 Windows 2000
Windows Server 2003	Windows Server “8” Beta Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008	Windows Server “8” Beta Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server “8” Beta Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server “8” Beta	Windows Server “8” Beta

 

Domain functional level

Domain functional level	Domain controller operating systems supported
Windows 2000 native	Windows 2000 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2003	Windows Server “8” Beta Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008	Windows Server “8” Beta Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server “8” Beta Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 8 BETA	Windows Server “8” Beta

Want to self install SCCM WIM?

Problem summary

Deploying a Windows 7 SOE via SCCM has the requirement on the network being available to build or install of the operating system and applications, but in the event of a critical outage (such as a network worm or major virus outbreak) the network may be down or compromised. This situation is normal for traditional organisations but in the case of a critical infrastructure service provider a solution is needed to enable end-users to rebuild their own machine (with IT direction).

Options

There are several technologies that are available for all or parts of this solution:

1. System protection (build into Windows 7)

2. Recovery console (build into Windows 7)

3. Safe Mode (build into Windows 7)

4. Windows backup (build into Windows 7)

5. Previous versions (build into Windows 7)

6. VHD, Running on (bespoke effort)

7. Self-image MOE (bespoke effort)

8. SCCM Offline Installation Media.

 

Possible solutions

Previous versions

Previous versions are copies of files and folders created automatically and saved as part of a restore point. You can use previous versions to restore files and folders that you accidentally modified or deleted, or that were damaged. Previous versions cannot be used on system files and does not offer protection for the types of errors this document is discussing.

System protection

System protection regularly creates and saves information about your computers system files and settings. It saves these files in restore points, which are created just before significant system events, such as the installation of a program, device driver or scheduled once every few days. To restore these files the user opens the control panel and restores the state via an applet.

Windows backup

The internal backup software can create a system image (exact copy of a drive). This image includes the files required for Windows to run. You can use a system image to restore the contents of your computer when your hard disk or computer fails. When you restore your computer from a system image, it’s a complete restoration – you cannot choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with the contents of the system image.

Recovery console (aka Windows Recovery Environment)

The recovery console is a partial version of Windows 7 with a set of tools that you can use, with a backup created earlier, to recover your system. This can be used to recover drives, partitions and operating systems. This software can be made available on the local computer or restarting the computer, via pressing F8 or on a boot of a Windows 7 Setup disc.

Safe Mode

Safe mode is a troubleshooting option for the Windows 7 that starts the computer in a limited state. Only the basic files and drivers necessary to run Windows are started. This service is used by IT technicians and is complicated, not user friendly and is in general a last chance option for OS repair.

VHD Running

Windows 7 has the technology built in to run the operating system in a virtual hard drive (VHD) – as compared to a traditional disk partition. This allows the flexibility of several copies of this virtual hard disk and therefor several copies of the operating system to be available at boot time. This is flexible in some ways but does have limitations (page file etc.).

Self-image

The traditional way a Windows 7 image is deployed to a workstation is via the network from a SCCM distribution point. This gives the flexibility of the most current OS image being available at any point in time, but does limit the deployment to when the network is available. A self-image MOE would have the MOE image deployed to the local computer as a file/image and would allow the user to re-install this OS as needed with a reboot.

SCCM Offline Media

Using stand-alone media doesn’t require access to SCCM during imaging because all components needed during the imaging process are copied to the stand-alone media and available locally.

Way forward

Looking at the technologies that are available some are simply not for end users and these can be ruled out for several reasons:

1. System protection – requires the user to run the restore process, and is not a simple solution for end users.

2. Recovery console – designed for IT processional and is not suitable for end users.

3. Safe Mode – designed for IT professional and is not suitable for end users.

4. Windows backup – designed for IT professional and is not suitable for end users.

5. Previous versions – not a solution for this problem.

This leave three possible solutions that are available to address this problem. These solutions will require your evaluation, testing and prototyping to see which is the best fit for for you and can be made user friendly enough so that this can be activated by the end user as needed:

1. VHD Running

This solution would require capturing the image or deploying the image as a VHD, setting up a backup process, automate the steps and creating a boot menu for users to rollback/forward as needed on reboot.

2. Self-image MOE

This solution would possibly require repartitioning the local drive, the update of the local SOE to support the self-image, the updates to the MOE image to support self-image, automate the steps and creating a boot menu for users to rollout MOS as needed on reboot.

3. SCCM Offline Installation

This is the solution is supported by Microsoft for offline deployment and it is a more simple solution leveraging existing system management platform.

Effort

Looking at these solutions an SCCM, Windows 7 expert can build a series of lab servers, clients and tests these solutions, this will allow a prototype to be created, pros and cons identified, a gap analysis identified and plan for the production rollout.

So do you think you need this technology? If so give me a call and I can organise someone to help.

LabelFlexGrid.Initialize

Object doesn’t support the property or method

This obscure error was caused by a mix of OCX (vb6 support files) that were installed on a W2K3 server. To fix this particular issue I removed all the OCXs from the server, installed a new VM, SP2’ed it, copied over the OCXs and registered them all again using the DOS command.

CD \Windows\System32
for %f in (*.ocx) do regsvr32 %f

And the app will live again for another day… I wish it would go away…

Mincom, Ellipse, WinView CICS on W2K8 R2

XenApp 6.5, Windows 2008 R2

If you are trying to get the Mincom desktop running on Citrix/Terminal Server on W2K8 R2. And the customer has not upgrade since Mosses brought down the 3 tables there are some upgrades needed:

First, this error is due to a X64 incompatibility, to fix this you need Mincom desktop v6.3.3.5 or higher. Download and install this error goes away.

Once this is fixed the CICS Gateway 6.02 throws this error.

Get the updated software, then remove 6.02 and install 8.1

The location for the configuration INI has moved to a new location (programdata\ibm\cics transaction gateway)

Update the INI file via the configuration tool to add TCP (not sure if this is 100%required)

Lastly change from CICS gateway manual to automatic and start the CICS transaction gateway.

XenApp Delivery Console has no XenApp node? XA5

 

I am running a retro XenApp 5 on Windows 2003 to support Internet Explorer 6 and after they are running and in the Delivery Console the XenApp node for configuration is MIA.

Nice.

It should be just at the bottom of this picture but is sadly missing.

The problem is with Dot.Net 2.0 and you need to re-register the PSE.core.dll, complete the following procedure:

So open a command prompt, enter the following:

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>regasm /codebase "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Citrix\Presentation Server - Administration Snap-in\PSE.Core.dll"

Start the delivery console and volar !

Here is the Citrix article on it: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126048

XenApp v5 install fails – no error message

 

If you are having a retro day too (need IE6?) then you may be installing XenApp 5 on W2K3 and IE6, but the installation fails with the error… no error. Nice

The log file in the temp folder has something like this:

MSI (c) (70:74) 11:05:13:794: Failed 1603

So to get a better log run the installation manually using this command:

msiexec /i mps.msi /L*v install.log CTX_MF_SERVER_TYPE=”P”

Where “P” = Platinum,”E”=Enterprise,”A”=Advanced

This told me that the MPS.MSI file failed….

“Message : Installation of 'c:\xa5\XenApp Server\w2k8x32\mps.msi' failed with error code 1603. Fatal error during installation”

There are several issues

My problem was the ISO extractor. I had used MagicISO to extract the ISO. I deleted this and used WINRAR to extract it to C:\XA5 and it worked fine.

It can be the Visual C++ Redistributable Package (VCRedist) installation might not complete correctly during the XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack 2 installation. 

Or you need to install from local media (not over the network)

Changing SQL account, password XenApp 6.5

 

If you have problems connecting to the XenApp servers via the AppCenter it could be the test account you are using had its password expire? It did for me, this is the useless error and how to fix it.

Look into the event log for more information

If it is the password use the dsmaint command.

Here is how, open CMD as administrator and go to:

CD “C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture”

The command to run is:

dsmaint config /user:yourDomain\yourAccount /pwd:yourPassword /dsn:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\mf20.dsn"

Restart the IMA Service

 

 

 

Changed SQL Server?

If you are changing the SQL server, you will need to edit your MF20.DSN with the new server name:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\mf20.dsn“

If you are changing the SQL logon name change this in the DSN too.

Here is a sample:

[ODBC]
DRIVER=SQL Server
DATABASE=MyFarmDataBaseName
UID=MyUserAccount
APP=Citrix IMA
SERVER=MySqlServer
Trusted_Connection=Yes

Created the wrong DHCP option type?

 

Never fear the NETSC command will help you…

So you created the scope and choose WORD. nice.

But you wanted STRING.. doh.

And of course it cant be changed. But go to a CMD prompt and away we go.

Open a CMD window…

Run netsh

dhcp server 10.0.0.1

Command completed successfully.

delete optiondef 60

Command completed successfully.

Reload the server manager to re-read this information and you can start again.

App-V RDS not running locally W2K3

 

If you are testing App-V then you are likely to use the local installed package (ie an sequences application that has been created as an MSI that you install and run without a streaming server or remote share or SCCM server).

This works fine on (in my case, all terminal servers nah RDS servers) W2K8 x86 and W2K8r2 but on W2K3 x86 I would get the same error over an over. “A network connection was not detected”.

I tried the RDS client 4.5, 4.6, 4.6 sp1 and hotfix 1/3/4. All the same. Then I removed it, rebooted and reinstalled the 4.6 client using this command line to install it:

“Stand-Alone Client for use With Streaming”

Setup.exe /s /v"/qn SWICACHESIZE=\"12144\" SWISKIPDATASETTINGS=\"false\" SWIGLOBALDATA=\"C:\AppVirt\Global\" SWIUSERDATA=\"^%APPDATA^%\" SWIFSDRIVE=\"Q:\" REQUIREAUTHORIZATIONIFCACHED=\"0\" ALLOWINDEPENDENTSTREAMING=\"1\" AUTOLOADONLAUNCH=\"1\" AUTOLOADONLOGIN=\"0\" "

As you see above in bold the allow independent streaming was set but it did not work, it should have be set to ‘1’. But it gave the error that "you do not have sufficient permissions to stream from a file" Shown below.

To fix this go to the registry and set the following:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\Configuration and change the value "AllowIndependentFileStreaming" value to 1.

And then it works fine.

 

ME:
https://twitter.com/DaveColvin
http://davestechnology.blogspot.com.au
https://facebook.com/DaveColvin
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108931920885627816138
http://XPFalcon.com

Windows x86 and x64 App-V Packages

 

So you want to re-use the packages already built on a 32bit OS?? In some cases the packages will work, but once they get a little more complicated and have more requirements (for example the Oracle client just caused me issue, etc etc). They may no longer work.

My Problem: App-V variables for file path

The App-V Sequencer and client use Windows “well-known”  paths such as
%ProgramFiles% for a 32bit computer as “C:\Program Files” but on a x64 computer this is “C:\Program Files” and there is also %ProgramFiles(x86)% which is “C:\Program Files (x86)”.

With the client doing the substitution when the software installs then it can go to the wrong location and break internal links and references…

And before you ask, no you cannot change these settings. So you may need to update your source program BEFORE you sequence it.

Additional to this is the registry can cause issues, that has not affected me yet, but read the following article for more information. Oh and good luck…

Note: App-V 4.6 supports x86 and x64 bit applications on x86 and x64 operating systems.

Note2: Supported platform matrix:

Really good details are here:
http://blog.gridmetric.com/2011/09/26/possible-caveats-in-mixing-32-bit-and-64-bit-app-v-packages-and-environments/

Story about App-V 64 bit support:
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/kkaminski/archive/2010/02/22/app-v-4-6-64-bit-application-support.aspx

Error 1603 while installing XenApp 6.5 on W2K8 R2

 

This error showed up as many problems, drilling into the log it showed as the SRM.MSI and then another and another after recopying these faulty MSI packages...  By the way 1603 is a general MSI failure, not Citrix specific.

I looked into the log and tried to run it directly with the same error.

I was not using the ISO image as it was a VM on someone else VMware and so I could not mount it, I had infact extracted it via a linux computer. This caused issues with SOME not all of the MSI’s or support files.

The way I fix it was to mount the CD/DVD as a image on a VM, copy the files out, and recopy these over the media I was trying to use. That fixed it.

Lazy ANZ Bank Phishing Spam

 

Wow, they are getting lazy now.

Citrix, constancy is nice in a GUI

 

It is a small thing but a little consistency would be nice… I have one example below, just one, I am being nice.

MFCOM Error in the Citrix XA 6.5 discovery process (W2K8R2)

 

Error MFCOM Service error when running doing the initial Citrix discovery (w28kr2/XA6.5)

“Errors occurred when using <server name> in the discovery process.

An unexpected error occurred. Check that the server name is correct, that the server is on, that Citrix Presentation Server is installed on this server, and that the Citrix MFCOM Service is running.”

There are multiple possible causes for this issue. The most common are as follows:

First, did you run the first time configuration?

See below, it will show this error as the IMA service does not start because it is not configured… Run the XenApp Role Manager and follow the bouncing ball.

Still a problem?

Enable / install the network com+ service

Add the user to the BUILT-IN\Distributed COM

Users group on the server you are connecting to. The recommendation is to do this using groups.

Another option to check.

set the DCOM Default Impersonation

On the server, set the DCOM Default Impersonation Level to Impersonate by following these steps:
a. Go to Administrative Tools, Component Services, Computers, Right-click My Computer and select Properties.
b. Select the Default Properties tab.
c. From the Default Impersonation Level drop-down list, select Impersonate and click OK.

Reboot and try again.

 

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX112853

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126977

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119519

Do you need VMware ESX? (vSphere)

Update:1 – corrected some numbers. Thanks @jasonboche

Let me just say I love VMware, particularly ESX and have worked with it from before GSX was in shorts, back in the workstation days, when only para-virtualisation existed. I have rolled out ESX 2/3/4 farms (no 5 yet)… I have never had a purple screen of death, I have never had to rollback a workload to hardware, I have VMed Exchange 2k/2k3/2k7, DCs 2k-2k8r2, file & print, SQL servers, Citrix servers they all run great on ESX/ESXi.

But do you need it? Or are you after a solution has all the features, are you after the Rolls Royce? What are you really trying to do? Are you exotic or somehow special?

You want ESXi that's fine, go ahead I don't get paid either way, but then nor does anyone so please do.

Lets just think about what server virtualisation does (as of todays date):

Feature	ESX/ESXi	Hyper-V	XENserver
Bare-metal architecture	Yes	No, but core	Yes
VMotion like	Yes	Yes	Yes
Small footprint	Yes	No, but core	Yes-ish
Cluster (pool)	32 nodes	16 nodes	16 nodes
CPU virtualisation	Yes	Yes	Yes
RAM Support Host	2TB	1TB	1TB
RAM support VM	1TB	64GB	128GB
RAM overcommit	Yes	Yes	Yes
NIC teaming	Yes	No*/vendors	Yes
VM RAM Page sharing	Yes	No	No
Ballooning	Yes	Yes	Yes
Capacity prioritisation	Yes	Yes-ish	Yes-ish
Traffic Shaping	Yes	No	No
Virtual NIC	Yes	Yes	Yes
Virtual switches	Yes	Yes	Yes
VLAN tagging	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dynamic volume resizing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Raw device mapping	Yes	Yes	Yes
LUN management	Yes	Yes-via vendors	Yes-add on
Guest Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes
Guest Linux	Yes	Yes-limited	Yes-good
Guest Other	Great	OK	Good
Paravirtualisation	None (good!)	Yes, LAN/Disk	yes-ish
Distributed Power Mgnt	Yes	Some	Some
Wake-on LAN	Yes	No	No

There are hundreds more features such as “Boot from SAN” which are specific or particular so I have not listed them above, if YOU need them they are critical but lets just focus back on the 99%

So to look at this list above there are some clear areas where ESXi wins out, specifically on the very large scale, telco scale, intensive power saving, dare I say cloud providers… But if you are one of the people who just need a bunch of VMs per server for general workloads any of the three products above is going to work fine. Scale up the CPU, RAM, Network cards and you can go to higher density?

The limits are disappearing.

So now lets look back at yourself, do you really need ESX? Maybe you could save some money… Look around.

Just before signing off, read this: http://www.thincomputing.net/2011/03/07/how-many-users-can-i-host-per-server-with-remotefx-for-hyper-v-and-what-is-the-cost-per-user/

This document is the source for the core of this post:
“vmware-vsphere-features-comparison-ch-en.pdf”
Intel: “xeon_7500_Virtualization_solbrief.pdf”

* Microsoft say dont use teaming, but vendors support it. Buyer beware… Microsoft Support Policy for NIC Teaming with Hyper-V - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968703

Folder redirection on Windows 7

Without an intervention from you, users settings and user files are stored in the local user profile, under the Users folder on the local drive. “C:\USERS\etc”. I think we all know we cant trust users to backup so lets look at it.

There are two technologies to ‘fix’ this situation, Roaming Profiles and Folder Redirection.

Folder Redirection lets you redirect the path of a folder to a new location. The location can be another folder on the local computer like a D: or a directory on a file server. to the users it is as if the documents were based on a local drive. The documents in the folder are available to the user from any computer on the network and offline via offline folders.

Advantages of Folder Redirection

If users log on to different computers on the network, their data is available.

Offline Files (which is turned on by default) gives users access to the folder even when they are not connected to the network. This is for people who use laptops.

When it is stored in a network it can be backed up…. Nice idea huh?

When using Roaming User Profiles, you can use Folder Redirection to reduce the total size of your Roaming Profile and make the user logon and logoff more quicker for the user.

You can use GPO to set disk quotas, limiting how much space is taken up by user profile folders.

You to select the location of the redirected folder on a network or in the local user profile:

1. Redirect everyone's folder to the same location. This setting enables you to redirect everyone's folder to the same location and is applied to all users included in the GPO
2. Create a folder for each user under the root path. This option creates a folder in the form \\server\share\User Account Name\Folder Name. Each user has a unique path for their redirected folder.

Folder Redirection in Windows 7 improves first-time Folder Redirection performance because the the computer redirected folder data in the background, not just at logon. However the first time a user logs on, Offline Files moves all files and folders from the server to the local cache. The user is blocked from logging on to the computer during this task. Then, Offline Files synchronises from the local cache with the redirected user folder on the server. . So turn this on at the initial deployment, not later and be careful of WAN links.

Offline Files synchronises new and changed files and folders from the local computer to the server when the network becomes available or in the background when the connection is slow.

Windows 7 new slow link detection

Slow link detection works via Network Location Awareness (NLA). This networking layer service allows applications, like GPOs, to request networking information from the network adapters in a computer, rather than implementing their own. NLA  monitors the existing traffic of a specific network interface. This provided two important benefits:

1. it does not require any additional network traffic to accomplish its bandwidth estimate no network overhead, and
2. it does not use ICMP.

Windows 7 slow-link mode, Offline Files

A shared folder automatically transitions to the slow-link mode if the round-trip latency of the network is greater than 80 milliseconds, or as configured by this policy.

After transitioning a folder to the slow-link mode, Offline Files synchronises the user's files in the background at regular intervals, or as configured by the 'Configure Background Sync' policy. While in slow-link mode, Windows periodically (every 2 Minutes) checks the connection to the folder and brings the folder back online if network speeds improve.

Wrap-up

It is not always plane sailing occasionally the laptop users loss where it was, don't let it sync or don't know where files are, but this is outwaited by the value of having their information backed up.

From the Start menu, type sync and it will bring up the sync centre to allow you to see what is going on.

 

This information is generally from here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732275.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/netro/archive/2010/09/15/slow-link-detection-for-offline-files-in-windows-vista-sp2-amp-windows-7.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2009/10/23/group-policy-slow-link-detection-using-windows-vista-and-later.aspx

VirtualBox Network command lines

 

If you run a bunch on VMs in VirtualBox and use NAT to keep consistent addresses changing the active network card (from wireless to wired etc) on the computer is a pain as you need to go into the VM and click disconnect network, ok, connect network ok.

Well that is way to may steps for my liking. Here is the command line to pop and icon in the desktop or run as a task/script.

vboxmanage controlvm "WORK SOE" setlinkstate1 off
vboxmanage controlvm "WORK SOE" setlinkstate1 on

If you want to change the network adaptor connection (ie, not connected or to the NAT), this is how.

vboxmanage controlvm "w2k8r2dc1" nic1 null
vboxmanage controlvm "w2k8r2dc1" nic1 nat

You can also start and sleep them on the command line.

vboxmanage controlvm "nameOmachine" savestate
vboxmanage startvm "nameOmachine"

And just to suspend the laptop from the command:
sudo pm-suspend

VMware clusters and multiple SANs

 

Most large organisations have two SANS and many larger organisation still have two or more data centres.

Lets just start with this is not a cloud, it is a data centre or separate SAN, OK that is off my chest. Bloody private cloud, this and that, don't get me started, “Why I oughta…”

You can utilise this architecture with VMware ESX/vSphere as active-active or active-passive, but I don't see value in active-passive so lets not speak of it again, it is not cheap, not effective and not quick. So back to Active-Active.

To build a single ESX cluster over 2 SANs (or 2 data centres) is basically the same, but as you reach out of the single data centre you need some extra configurations such as:

• An IP network with a minimum bandwidth of 622 Mbps is required.
• The maximum latency between the two VMware servers cannot exceed 5 milliseconds (ms).
• The source and destination ESX servers must have a private VMotion network on the same IP subnet and broadcast domain.
• The IP subnet on which the virtual machine resides must be accessible from both the source and destination ESX servers.
• The data storage location including the boot device used by the virtual machine must be active and accessible by both the source and destination VMware ESX servers at all times.
• Access from vCenter to all ESX servers is needed.
• The two SANs to be supported it must have synchronous data replication (sometimes and expensive add on).

The value of this is protection from a SAN failure and all hardware used. If this is across data centres then you also have DR knocked on the head (your mileage may vary).

There are some issues such as a power outage in DC1 will cause all the VMs to restart in DC2 via HA so it is not true protection from massive outages. Secondly if you use vMotion to move the servers to the other nodes in DC2 the SAN writes are now subject to the latency of this link, so there can be a performance penalty. Additionally DRS may need to be manually updated to be aware of this configuration.

This is how it would look (minus some SAN switches etc.)

Here are the VMware prerequisites:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2007545

Here is Cisco discussing this:

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2009/06/vmotion-between-data-centersa-vmware-and-cisco-proof-of-concept.html

Here is a good blog on this:

http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/11/geographically-dispersed-cluster-design/

Stooging on XenApp 4? Upgrade now.

 

To clarify the distinction between upgrade and migrate:

• Upgrade: Installing a newer version over an existing version
• Migration: A clean, new installation of that program or service.

XenApp 4/4.5 –> XenApp 5

1. Upgrade Pres Server 4.0 for Windows Server 2003 to XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003. In this case, to maintain the existing data store and server farm configuration. Each server must be upgraded, and Hotfix Rollup Pack 3 should be installed. In addition, the relevant components will also be upgraded. Lastly, .NET 2.0 SP1 or higher and Java Runtime Environment 1.6 Update 5 or higher are required.
   
2. Upgrade Pres Server 4.5 No FP1 or FP1 farm to XenApp 5 for Windows 2003. In this case, to maintain the existing data store and server farm configuration. This type of deployment is based on upgrading the relevant components only. If FP1 is not installed, please note that .NET 2.0 SP1 or higher and Java Runtime
   Environment 1.6 Update 5 or higher are required. In addition, Hotfix Rollup Pack
   3 should be installed.
   
3. Upgrade all servers in the existing Pres Server 4.5 FP1 farm to XenApp 5 for W2K3 and add several XenApp 5 for W2K8 servers to the farm until it can be
   transitioned to XenApp 5 for W2K8 entirely. This case is similar to the previous one, except that some XenApp 5 for W2K8 servers are added to the farm. In this case, maintain a mixed farm based on the existing data store and server farm configuration.
   
4. Migrate to a new XenApp 5 for W2K8 farm. In this case, the farm migration is based on a completely new installation of XenApp that initiates a new data store and server farm.

XenApp 5 –> XenApp 6

To transition to XenApp 6, administrators must migrate to a new farm and have the following options:

1. Create a new XenApp 6 farm and configure all settings manually
2. Create a new XenApp 6 farm and migrate settings from an existing XenApp 5 or Presentation Server 4.5 farm
   

Transferring settings from the legacy farm is best performed by installing the XenApp 6 Migration Tool on a XenApp 6 server and directly importing the settings by pointing at a server in the legacy farm. It is possible to import all settings or be selective. If the existing farm is based on server or application folders, these settings can be exported and designated so that they will be identified as Worker Groups within the new farm. Additional command-line entries are available to include, exclude, or modify specific settings. The administrator must have full administrative
rights in the target XenApp 6 farm and a minimum of view-only rights in the source legacy farm.

Prior to initiating the migration of settings, Worker Groups should be designated so that server and application silos can be assigned appropriately. This provides administrators with additional flexibility and enables a significant number of new servers to be added to the new XenApp 6 farm at once using a tool such as Citrix Provisioning services.

XenApp 6 –> XenApp 6.5

XenApp 6.5 implementations must be based on clean Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system installations as Citrix does not support operating system upgrades. Thus, there is no upgrade path to XenApp 6.5 from XenApp 5 or earlier products. In addition, a XenApp 6.5 farm can only encompass XenApp 6.5 servers - mixed farms are not supported.

Want ‘proper’ Java on Ubuntu 11.10?

 

I am of course an open source fan, but when it doesn't work, it is time for some proprietary solution. IE, Webex did not work with Icedtea Java Plugin and OpenJDK. Error "applet not initialized” at the bottom of the browser window.

So either apt-get remove or ubuntu software centre, remove OpenJDK and IcedTea java components.

then copy and paste the following:

cd 
wget https://raw.github.com/flexiondotorg/oab-java6/master/oab-java6.sh -O oab-java6.sh
chmod +x oab-java6.sh
sudo ./oab-java6.sh
sudo apt-get upgrade

Open the browser and go to:

http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

It was ask for a plug in, select the IcedTea java plug and you should be sweet.

Furth (dated) details here:

https://github.com/flexiondotorg/oab-java6