vCenter Upgrade 2.5 Upgrade 5 Fails and Windows 7/2008R2 Freezing

I downloaded vCenter Server 2.5 upgrade 5 and fought to get it loaded on our server this week.  Every time I launched the wizard I ran into an error once the MSI installer kicked off. I kept getting 25035 and 25055 errors from the installer.  I found one article, http://communities.vmware.com/thread/140517, which finally tipped me in the right direction.  Someone was getting 25095 errors while trying to install the infrastructure client, and it was failing for them, because of a GPO restriction.  When I checked the file properties inside the vCenter 2.5 upgrade 5's folder, I found that all but the autorun program for the upgrade (.exe and .msi files), were all being blocked by the Windows Attachment Manger.  I'm guessing the files are packaged in the zip file blocked, which caused the problem. I went through and unblocked them all and installed the patch without incident. (Outside of accidently selecting purge my existing database... doohhhhhh!!!)



I originally was trying to remedy a problem with a Windows Server 2008 R2.  I found out that the VMware video driver is the culprit.  The problem seems to occur on ESX Server 3.5 and 4.0 with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 virtual machines.  The remedy is to uninstall the VMware SVGA video driver and/or don't install it with the VMware tools. The problem was the video locking up and the system not properly responding. You could RDP into the virtual machine, but it wouldn't reboot or shutdown under it's own power; You had to turn off the VM power and restart it. So far, so good. Hopefully, the SVGA II driver will be updated soon.






KB from VMware:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1011709

Microsoft Technet Forum:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsserver2008r2general/thread/bc0f3c12-eda7-440d-a228-213a8d0b956c


Happy Turkey Day!

Playing with Windows 7

I just installed Windows 7 today.  So far, so good. (Is that even a sentance?)

I installed office and some basic programs quickly.  I started at 1:00 and was done by 2:00.  Only loaded a video driver, everything else detected on it its own.  The machine is a Dell Latitude D630 with 4GB of ram and Core2 2.4GHz.

Only problem I ran into was with my Cisco VPN Client.  I only needed to install the latest client version available from cisco.com, http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2308/  I only had version 5.0.03 installed initially and the latest version is 5.0.06.0110.  The old version worked, but the split-tunneling appeared to not work.  After I uninstalled the old version and installed the new 5.0.06, I had no problem connecting to my VPN network and the internet.  (Spilt-Tunneling has to be configured on your router as well.  Our is configured for split-tunneling, but the old client appeared to no longer work with Windows 7)

Update: 5 hours and 26 minutes of run time isn't too bad either...

220 and not 110

Keep 220 outlets and me away from computers.  In the last two years, most recently in August, I've managed to burn up not one, but two power supplies in workstations by plugging them into 220V ups units without flipping the voltage switch.  Good news, the new Dell OptiPlex 960's are auto switching.  Bad news it was too late for those others. ;)

Irresponsibly Reported Vulnerability

Watch out how you let some know about a bug, they may document how "Irresponisble" you are in their advisory...



http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2009/09/08/microsoft-security-advisory-975497-released.aspx

WPA / TKIP - Hacked in 60 seconds!

Ahhh crap... there goes the neighborhood...

["... Kobe, Japan - Japanese scientists took just sixty seconds to break the WPA encryption used in wireless routers. The previous record stood at 15 minutes.

Toshihiro Ohigashi of Hiroshima University and Masakatu Morii of Kobe University plan to reveal exactly how they did it at a conference on September 25 in Hiroshima. ..."]
Source: TG Daily - Japanese break wi-fi security in 60 seconds - http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43797/108/

Looks like we really need that AirDefense system. Anyone have $30k-$60k?

["... As the market leader and innovator of 24x7 RF monitoring solutions, Motorola provides a complete suite of wireless security and operational support solutions to enable risk-free wireless LANs. ... "]
Source: Motorola, Enterprise Wireless LAN Security - http://www.airdefense.net/

Bestiest Freeiest Solution - E-mail me when diskspace get's low

I was just talking with my co-worker, Brian, and he asked "Is there any easier way to monitor free disk space on my (Windows) servers?"

I then thought of the bestiest, freeiest solution and I thought I would share...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324796
Configure an alert with Windows Performance Logs and Alerts, then have it set to run a program to e-mail you.

"...

1. Click Add to open the Add Counters dialog box.
2. Click Select counters from computer, and then select your computer in the list.
3. In the Performance object box, click LogicalDisk.
4. Click Select counters from list, and then click % Free Space.
5. Click Select interfaces from list, and then click the logical drive or volume that you want to monitor.
6. Click Add to add the counter, and then click Close.
7. In the Alert when the value is box, click Under, and then type the value that you want in the Limit box. For example, to trigger an alert message when disk space is under 1 megabyte (MB), type 1000.
8. Accept the default value of 5 seconds in the Sample data interval, or specify the value that you want. (I'd suggest every 5 to 10 minutes, but it's up to you and your needs)
9. Click Apply.
10. Click the Action tab, and then specify... (a script to e-mail you about the disk space; I'll get to this further on).
11. Click Apply.
12. Click the Schedule tab, and then specify the start and stop parameters for the scan ...
13. Click ok

..."

Make a script to e-mail you

If your using Windows 2003, you can easily right a .vbs script with Windows Script Hosting (WSH) language using CDO.Messages, but you're bumming if you try this on a 2008 server (or Vista). Then you should probably just go to Windows Powershell and write it with the system.net.mail.MailAddress class; your effort will pay off more better.

Conclusion

Freeiest, bestiest (blogged) solution :-)

Configured VMware VirtualCenter Management Server

I looked into our licensing and it turns out we had purchased VirtualCenter Server along with our ESX servers.

I set off to configure it by loading a Windows 2003 R2 server with SQL 2005. I then proceeded to install the management software.

You need to download the software from VMware and your licensing file.

After installing VirtualCenter, I attempted to add my ESX standalone host to the management server. I then got this error "There are not enough licenses installed to perform the operation".


I did some research and found out I needed to load my license file for my ESX servers in the VirtualCenter. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1005265

So, I loaded the licenses off my ESX server onto the Virtual Center, restarted the licensing server, but no dice. Same error "There are not enough licenses installed to perform the operation" occurred.

At this point I contacted VMware support. I got no where after a week, so I started looking at the problem more myself. I noticed license file and notice the site said "Single Host" next to the license model. I removed the active license, and reactivated it as Centralized, loaded it on my VirtualCenter, BOOM, Works!!!

Before: [Single Host License]


After: [Centerlized License]

Duck tape does fix everything

I saw this on my way to my car a few days ago and thought it was hilarious...

"Huge dent and falling off bumper? No problem. A few rolls of duck tape and were all good as new..."

Wall of H2O

This is the scariest thing I've ever seen in a server/switch room.

I was with my co-worker dropping off equipment for a upgrade planned for the next day when we stumbled apon this...

Needless to say, shortly after this picture the (55) 5 gallon water jugs were removed.

-Justin