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Creating an Activated Windows Server 2008 R2 VMware Template using Microsoft Sysprep

EDIT: 2011/04/14 – I’m working on another method of doing this since it appears that this only works sporadically or no longer works as written. I will update this post if I can figure out where the disconnect / issues are. I’ve been experimenting with creating a good Windows Server 2008 R2 template for VMware …

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Windows 7 – Initial Usage Review

Whenever Microsoft releases a new OS, I try to at least install it in a VM and poke around with it.  With Windows 7 however, I jumped, both feet in and installed it on my laptop and desktop.  The installation was quick and easy, on my desktop all the devices were recognized and on my …

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MOSS: An Unexpected Error Has Occurred

If you’ve worked with MOSS long enough, I’m sure you’ve seen this error.  The reasons that it occurs are numerous, and may even be blamed on poor error handling / reporting by the programmers. If you’ve come across this error, and turned <customErrors /> off in your MOSS site’s web.config and it still occurs, you …

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AntiVirus Blocking Woes for Infrastructure Changes

I’m not sure if I’m the only one out there that doesn’t know this, especially since I’m an app dev guy and not an infrastructure guy (though you may not be able to tell by my posts so far), but AntiVirus engines can really ruin your day when you’re attempting to troubleshoot things, or install …

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WP-Captcha Free Broke My Comments

Apologies to anyone that has tried to comment on my posts. I noticed some apache errors and decided to do some digging. In an effort to keep commenting as easy as possible but not wade through tons of spam, I was using a wordpress plug-in called WP-Captcha free. It appears that it was breaking the …

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Creating an Activated Windows Server 2008 R2 VMware Template using Microsoft SysprepWindows 7 – Initial Usage ReviewMOSS: An Unexpected Error Has OccurredAntiVirus Blocking Woes for Infrastructure ChangesWP-Captcha Free Broke My Comments

Nov 02 2009

Vyatta Firewall Basics and Configuration

Categories:

Infrastructure, Networking, Security

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November 2, 2009

For a post that is a little more advanced, try this one: Create a Router With Front Firewall Using Vyatta on VMware Workstation.

Otherwise… read on. :)

A few weeks ago, I installed Vyatta Open Source as a router internal to my network to see how it handled traffic between multiple subnets.  To put it plainly, it worked like a champ!  I put the router in place, assigned IP addresses to the NICs (network interface cards), and let the system do its thing.  It now connects traffic between my physical network, my production virtual network, and my virtual lab running on ESX 3.5.  I can easily manage most firewalls and routers that have a GUI but Vyatta presented a new challenge to me.  In the case of this system, for some tasks it’s a lot easier to use the command line interface (CLI).

So without further ado, here’s the basics of Vyatta’s firewall.

console001

Keep reading…

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/11/02/vyatta-firewall-basics-and-configuration/

Nov 01 2009

Get Windows 7 Working with your Terastation

Categories:

Infrastructure, Networking, Security, Storage, Windows

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November 1, 2009

Windows 7, along with Windows Vista, both have issues interacting with Buffalo Terastation and similar Buffalo products.  This is due to updated NTLM security settings in both Windows 7 and Vista.  The un-patched behavior is continued prompts to log in / authenticate to the NAS.

Buffalo has released a registry patch that allows Windows 7 and Vista to connect to their Terastation NAS products, by lowering the security level to Windows XP compatible NTLM security.  This is a downgrade, but I have thus far had no problem with it.  Check out the readme below that’s included in the download:

This registry patch files enables Windows(R) Vista(TM) PCs to
work with Buffalo NAS products.  This patch is installed
directly onto Windows Vista PCs.

WARNING:  This file is only for use on Vista PCs, it is NOT
required or supported on any other operating system.

Compatibility:
This patch is only required when using one of the following
Buffalo NAS products:- LinkStation (HD-HLAN)
- Gigabit LinkStation (HG-HGLAN)
- LinkStation Home Server (HS-DGL)
- TeraStation (HD-DTGL/R5)
- TeraStation Home Server (HS-DTGL/R5)
- TeraStation Pro (TS-TGL/R5)

Instructions:
1)  Double click on the Buffalo_NAS_Vista_Support.reg file
2)  Press the ‘Yes’ button when prompted.
3)  Press the ‘OK’ button to exit the patch file.
4)  Restart your Vista computer.

SECURITY NOTICE:
Applying this patch lowers the NTLM authentication
level to be compatible with some of Buffalo’s NAS products.
This NTLM authentication level is equivalent to the level
used in Windows XP.

Keep reading…

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/11/01/get-windows-7-working-with-your-terastation/

Oct 26 2009

Vyatta Community Edition, Open Source Router

Categories:

Infrastructure, Networking, VMware

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October 26, 2009

I’ve been running multiple subnets in my lab, and been dealing with the pain of having to VPN into each separate subnet when needing to make a change, test something, or deploy something.  It’s been a learning experience and I’ve configured both OpenVPN and ISA Server 2006 VPN’s and successfully bounced around the various networks as necessary, but it’s been a real pain to have to VPN into one network, grab files, and then VPN into a different network to test and deploy those files, as an example.  So I began a hunt for an open source router that would give me more control than Untangle, which is an excellent open source routing and firewall tool.  Simply put, I wanted finer grained control than Untangle is designed to supply. As an example, I wanted to be able to filter network traffic based on mac addresses instead of IP addresses.

In my search, I came across Vyatta, which is an open source networking package that likes to compare itself to Cisco in functionality and control.  I decided to check out their site and found that they offer a free ‘Community Edition’.  I looked at the features of the community edition, then checked the VMware Appliances site and found that Vyatta has a pre-built VMware appliance.  NICE!  I filled out a short registration form, downloaded the appliance and all the documentation, which is thick to say the least, and fired up the appliance in VMware Workstation.

console001

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/26/vyatta-community-edition-open-source-router/

Oct 19 2009

VMware Workstation 7, Unity

Categories:

VMware, Windows

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October 19, 2009

XP VM Screenshot

For anyone that hasn’t downloaded the RC for VMware Workstation 7, you’ve got to give it a try, and since it’s free right now, you have no excuse.  Worst case scenario is you have to reinstall Workstation 6.  Like Nike, Just Do It!

Anyway, one of the coolest features in VMware Workstation 7 is Unity.  If you don’t know what that is, you can have a VM running in the background, but you’re able to access applications that are running on it without having to enter the VM itself.

Keep reading…

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/19/vmware-workstation-7-unity/

Oct 13 2009

Windows 7 – Initial Usage Review

Categories:

Infrastructure, Windows

by

October 13, 2009

beautyShot001

Whenever Microsoft releases a new OS, I try to at least install it in a VM and poke around with it.  With Windows 7 however, I jumped, both feet in and installed it on my laptop and desktop.  The installation was quick and easy, on my desktop all the devices were recognized and on my laptop, I only needed to download two or three things from Dell.  I still need one or two more for the laptop, but it seems to be functioning very well so far, and I’ve yet to figure out what the few devices that it didn’t recognize are.  Maybe my smartcard reader… ???

There are a few features that I want to touch on in this review that make this OS a significant step after the relative fiasco with Vista.  I wasn’t a Vista hater by any means, but the OS was pretty slow compared to XP, and the features it added tended to slow it down more.  I still think Vista is an OK operating system, but Windows 7 is kicking butt so far.

Keep reading. :)

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/13/windows-7-initial-usage-review/

Oct 10 2009

Add NAS folders to Windows 7 Libraries

Categories:

Infrastructure, Storage, Windows

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October 10, 2009

I found this entry in a forum: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4617-libraries-include-network-folder.html and wanted to keep easy access to the information.

As people begin to use Windows 7, Power Users and even regular users will eventually get around to wanting to expand their Windows 7 Libraries, which I think is an incredible feature, to include NAS locations.  Household NAS’s are now less than $200 for a terabyte, and home users and business users alike are going to be looking for this functionality.

Currently, Windows 7 does not support adding NAS locations to libraries.  I’m not sure why, but hopefully Microsoft deploys that functionality some time very soon.  Apparently, these locations break the Windows 7 backup functionality for that library.

Here’s the quick and dirty for the method I used.

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/10/add-nas-folders-to-windows-7-libraries/

Oct 06 2009

vSphere PowerCLI Commandlet Poster

Categories:

Infrastructure, PowerCLI, PowerShell, VMware

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October 6, 2009

Pablo Roesch, VMware, has put out a poster that their marketing department did, that has a listing of the PowerCLI commandlets.  This is a very useful tool for anyone working in PowerShell using the VMware Toolkit for Windows.

It’s originally posted in this forum a VMware forum: http://bit.ly/1602Au

I’ve placed a the file in my media library and linked to it from here, just in case it disappears. ;)

PowerCli Poster in PDF format.

Sample:
PowerCLI Poster

Thanks for the great poster VMware, and thanks for linking it Pablo!

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/06/vsphere-powercli-commandlet-poster/

Oct 05 2009

Get the vSphere Client Running on Windows 7

Categories:

Infrastructure, VMware, Windows

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October 5, 2009

I found an article in the VMware forums that had these steps so I decided to document them a little better and blog about it so that I have it.  Until VMware releases the officially supported Windows 7 version of the VI Client, I guess this hack will have to do.

Make sure you have the VI / vSphere Client installed.  The typical installation works just fine.  You can also download the files attached at the end of this post, to make the process a little easier.

When I tried to run the client without following these steps, I got an error, as I’m sure many others have, upon trying to log in to the server.

001

Error reads: Error parsing the server “[server]” “clients.xml” file. Login will continue, contact your system administrator.

After a little research, I came across this solution…

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/05/get-the-vsphere-client-running-on-windows-7/

Oct 04 2009

Use Console to Connect ESX to a NAS

Categories:

Infrastructure, Linux, Storage, VMware

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October 4, 2009

This is a quick note, mostly to help remind me and hopefully help someone else out.

You can use standard Linux commands to connect an ESX host to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device.  You can use a NAS to store things like ISO’s and backups.  I have many gig’s of ISO’s and I really don’t like them taking up valuable storage on my ESX host.  In production, they’d be taking up SAN space, so I offload them to a Buffalo Terastation, and use Linux commands to mount the Terastation so that ESX can utilize it.

After logging into the ESX console using the root account or a root privileged account, you can make a directory under vmimages.

mkdir /vmimages/ISO2

ISO2 is the directory that you are creating.  For me, ISO already points to a local directory on my server where I keep one or two ISO’s that I am continually using.  Then you can run the command:

mount –t smbfs //[nas]/[folder] /vmimages/ISO2

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/10/04/use-console-to-connect-esx-to-a-nas/

Sep 28 2009

MOSS: An Unexpected Error Has Occurred

Categories:

Active Directory, IIS, Infrastructure, Security, SharePoint, Windows

by

September 28, 2009

If you’ve worked with MOSS long enough, I’m sure you’ve seen this error.  The reasons that it occurs are numerous, and may even be blamed on poor error handling / reporting by the programmers.

If you’ve come across this error, and turned <customErrors /> off in your MOSS site’s web.config and it still occurs, you may have run into the issue that I did.

This can occur right after MOSS installation, or on a farm that has been up and running for some time, and this is something quick that you can check to make sure it’s not the reason, especially if your server is managed through AD or an admin that is really tight on server security.

My instance of this error was on a completely locked down Windows Server 2008 installation.  The cause was one setting that was applied through Active Directory (AD) Group Policy Objects (GPO), Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing.

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Permanent link to this article: http://d3planet.com/rtfb/2009/09/28/moss-an-unexpected-error-has-occurred/

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