HP Superdome 2 Demo

Removing a Mount Point Disk from a Cluster Group

In this example, I have two resources in a cluster group, Resource A and Resource B. I establish dependencies between them so that Resource B is dependent on Resource B.

This means that when the group is brought online, Resource B will not be brought online until Resource A is online.

Here is what the dependency report looks like.

Now that these two resources are linked, you have to be careful when deleting these resources. If I were to delete Resource A from the group without first removing the dependency, BOTH resources will get removed.

At this point, a pop-up will appear warning that a removal of this resource could affect applications using this resource.

If you click ‘Yes’, both resources get removed.

Lesson learned. If the resource you are deleting is dependent on any other resources, remove the dependency first.

Now, we get to the main point of this post. The above process is fine for deleting resources from a cluster group unless the resource you are deleting is configured as a “Physical Disk’ resource, and it a mount point disk. The process differs slightly and you must follow this process or you could find yourself unintentionally moving every resource in the group into ‘Available Storage’.

First, lets cover proper way to remove a mount point disk from a cluster group. In this example, I have a plain File Server group with a Network Name, IP Address, File Server, and three disks. A root disk (Disk X:) and two mount points using folders on the root of X: called X:\MountPointA and X:\MountPointB.

Since I don’t have any shares located on X:\MountPointB, I want to remove that disk so I can use it in some other application. The FIRST thing I need to do is take the resource offline.

Then I can right-click the resource and click ‘Remove from GroupName’

When you remove a ‘Physical Disk’ resource from a cluster group, it doesn’t actually remove the cluster resource altogether, it moves the disk resource into the ‘Available Storage’ group.  This is so that you can reallocate the resource to another group if needed.

As you can see, the resource now shows in ‘Available Storage’

At this point, you can remove the mount point configuration, or change it to a lettered drive so you can use for some other application.

Now let’s go over what can happen if you don’t take the mount point offline before removing it. The main reason in going over this is to show you how to recover so that there’s no adverse impact to the Cluster.

In this example, I am removing the same resource from the File Server group following the same process above WITHOUT taking it offline first. First, I verified there were no dependencies on the ‘DiskX:\MountPointB’ resource.

Now here’s where it gets fun. After I attempted to remove the mount point, ALL of my resources disappear from the group. ??????

Time to panic? No, all is not lost. What happened is that because we had a mount point configured, and a mount point is not usable unless there’s a root disk, ALL of the resources moved to ‘Available Storage’ because the rest of the resources DO have dependencies.

It may appear all of the resources disappeared. Because in the UI, we only show ‘Physical Disk’ resources, if any other resources get put in that group, they don’t show up in the UI. However, if we run a command line to display all resources and their groups, we can see that the resources are still there.

To get the resources back into the right group, just move the disks back to the original File Server group. Right click the disk, More actions, and select Move this resource to another service or application. The same dependency tree will cause the resources to move back.

Now we have all our resources back and we can follow the correct process of taking the mount point disk offline BEFORE removing it.

 

Read Original Article:

Install .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows Server 2012 R2

During .NET 3.5 install on Windows 2012 R2 (or 2012) a stopper warning comes as below.

“Do you want to specify an alternate source path? One or more installation selections are missing source files…”

Solution:

From command prompt use below command:

#dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:E:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

Where E: is your Windows Installation Media drive letter.

 

VMware Update Manager Error while upgrading from Esxi 5.0 to ESXi5.5

Remediate task fails with error “Cannot execute upgrade script on host.”. This is an unidentified issue as of now and no KB article available. Workaround is manually disable HA agent on host and start remediate task again.

Disable HA agent manually using ssh session.

#cp /opt/vmware/uninstallers/VMware-fdm-uninstall.sh /tmp
#chmod +x /tmp/VMware-fdm-uninstall.sh
#/tmp/VMware-fdm-uninstall.sh

HP Virtual Connect - Supported Bonding Mode for Linux in a VC Environment

Information

Unsupported bonding modes in an HP Virtual Connect environment can produce packet loss and/or performance issues.

Details

HP Virtual Connect supports bonding modes 1, 5, or 6. VC does not support modes 0 (round robin) or 7 (switch assisted load balancing).

Mode 1 : Active/backup. Active-backup policy: Only one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The bond's MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch.

Mode 5 : Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support. The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each slave. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails, another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.

Mode 6 : Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation.

Ref:

Cluster resource keep timing out when try to bring it online

If the pending timeout time has been reached and the resource is still Online Pending the resource is treated as failed

timeout period can be increased and this may give enough time to bring resource online.

Error code: 0x80071716

The call to the cluster resource dll timed out

Failover Cluster Manager > %Cluster% > Services and Applications > Select Cluster Service > Select Resource want to change > Properties > Policies Tab > Pending timeout 

P2V Windows Server 2003 OEM Version to VMware

Requirements:

A. A valid open Windows 2003 license [MS Volume License]

B. A valid W2k3 Volume License CD or ISO

Steps:

1. Use VMware converter to convert your server to a virtual machine.

2. Connect to converted VM

3. While still in the “Edit Settings” screen, go to the “Options” tab, then click on “Boot Options” and click the box to force you into the bios settings.

4. Open the console for the VM and start the machine

5. Boot to BIOS, make CD ROM is the first boot device.

6. Save settings and exit, Let it boot, press any key to boot from the CD

7. Choose “Install”, and then repair it.

8. Enter the CD Key in which you enter your Volume License key

9. Install VMware Tools.

10. Shutdown old server and change the address in Windows to that of the old server, test application.

Network adapter disappears from a Windows XP virtual machine

 

ESX/ESXi 4.x and later version included a feature called HotPlug. In some deployments virtual NICs can appear as removable devices on the System Tray in Windows guest operating systems. Problems can occur if you mistake this device for one that you can safely remove

Disable HotPlug capability using the vSphere Client:

1. Connect to the ESXi/ESX host or vCenter Server using the vSphere Client.
2. Power off the virtual machine.
3. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
4. Click the Options tab.
5. Click General > Configuration Parameters > Add Row.
6. Insert a new row with the name devices.hotplug and a value of false.
7. Power on the virtual machine.

To disable HotPlug capability by editing the .vmx file:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Access the ESXi/ESX service console using an SSH client.
3. Open the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) in a text editor. The default location is:
   /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/vm_name/vm_name.vmx
4. Add the line:
   devices.hotplug = "false"
   Note: This setting does not interfere with HotPlug CPU/memory.
5. Save and close the file.
6. Power on the virtual machine.

VMware Converter: Increase copy speed by disabling disabling SSL encryption

Locate the converter-worker.xml file. By default, it is located at:

• Windows 7 and 2008 Server – C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
• Windows Vista, XP and 2003 Server – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
• In older Windows versions – %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
• Take a backup of the converter-worker.xml file.
• Open the file in a text editor and locate the tag pair <useSsl></useSsl>. It is located inside the <nfc> tag and has a value of true.
• Change the value to false.
• Save and close the file.
• Restart the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Worker service on the machine.

SCVMM R2 converted to trail after installing SP1

After installing SP1 on SCVMM 2008 it converted to trail version.

1. Download the correct licensed version of VMM 2008 R2 SP1 from the above link.
2. Uninstall VMM 2008 R2 SP1 evaluation with retain database option
3. Start the install of the downloaded VMM 2008 R2 SP1 Licensed version and select the retained database.

Note: During reinstall you might get below error, when you click the drop down for the SQL Instance:

"No Sql Server instance is found on the specified server localhost. (ID:360)  verify that SQL 2005 is installed properly and the SLQ Server service is running"

To solve this issue uninstall the evaluation Admin Console and try to install again.

the dhcp/binl service on this workgroup server has encountered another server with ip address..

Windows Server 2008 R2 DHCP Standalone Server, configured for wireless clients in remote VLAN (different VLAN). When a new scope configured for DHCP VLAN (VLAN which DHCP server’s IP is)  in domain authorized DHCP server, standalone DHCP server detects this and stops working.

To get standalone DHCP server work, add this key in its registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\DHCPServer\Parameters
Name: DisableRogueDetection
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Migration of DHCP from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012

Export DHCP settings from Win 2003 Server

1. Open Command Prompt

a. #netsh

b. #DHCP

c. # server \\Name or IP Address

d. #export c:\w2k3DHCPdb all

Import DHCP server to Win 2012 Server

2. Select Command Prompt (Admin) to open the cmd prompt using elevated privileges.

3. Select Command Prompt (Admin) to open the cmd prompt using elevated privileges.

a. #netsh

b. #DHCP

c. #server \\Name or IP Address

d. #import c:\w2k3DHCPdb

4. Close the command prompt when completed.

5. Close the command prompt when completed.

6. Return to DHCP located in the Server Manager dashboard.

7. Right click the designated DHCP server in the services pane, then select Restart.

8. Disable and remove DHCP from the Windows 2003 server.

9. Authorize Windows Server 2012 DHCP server within your domain.

Linux /etc/fstab explanation

A simple /etc/fstab, using kernel name descriptors:

/etc/fstab

# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>             <dump> <pass>
/dev/sda1              /             ext4      defaults,noatime      0      1
/dev/sda2              none          swap      defaults              0      0
/dev/sda3              /home         ext4      defaults,noatime      0      2

Field definitions

The /etc/fstab file contains the following fields separated by a space or tab:

 <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>             <dump> <pass>

• <file system> - the partition or storage device to be mounted.
  
• <dir> - the mountpoint where <file system> is mounted to.
  
• <type> - the file system type of the partition or storage device to be mounted. Many different file systems are supported: ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, reiserfs, xfs, jfs, smbfs, iso9660, vfat, ntfs, swap and auto. The auto type lets the mount command guess what type of file system is used. This is useful for optical media (CD/DVD).
  
• <options> - mount options of the filesystem to be used. Note that some mount options are filesystem specific. Some of the most common options are:

• auto - Mount automatically at boot, or when the command mount -a is issued.
  
• noauto - Mount only when you tell it to.
  
• exec - Allow execution of binaries on the filesystem.
  
• noexec - Disallow execution of binaries on the filesystem.
  
• ro - Mount the filesystem read-only.
  
• rw - Mount the filesystem read-write.
  
• user - Allow any user to mount the filesystem. This automatically implies noexec, nosuid, nodev, unless overridden.
  
• users - Allow any user in the users group to mount the filesystem.
  
• nouser - Allow only root to mount the filesystem.
  
• owner - Allow the owner of device to mount.
  
• sync - I/O should be done synchronously.
  
• async - I/O should be done asynchronously.
  
• dev - Interpret block special devices on the filesystem.
  
• nodev - Don't interpret block special devices on the filesystem.
  
• suid - Allow the operation of suid, and sgid bits. They are mostly used to allow users on a computer system to execute binary executables with temporarily elevated privileges in order to perform a specific task.
  
• nosuid - Block the operation of suid, and sgid bits.
  
• noatime - Don't update inode access times on the filesystem. Can help performance (see atime options).
  
• nodiratime - Do not update directory inode access times on the filesystem. Can help performance (see atime options).
  
• relatime - Update inode access times relative to modify or change time. Access time is only updated if the previous access time was earlier than the current modify or change time. (Similar to noatime, but doesn't break mutt or other applications that need to know if a file has been read since the last time it was modified.) Can help performance (see atime options).
  
• discard - Issue TRIM commands to the underlying block device when blocks are freed. Recommended to use if the filesystem is located on an SSD.
  
• flush - The vfat option to flush data more often, thus making copy dialogs or progress bars to stay up until all data is written.
  
• nofail - Mount device when present but ignore if absent. This prevents errors being reported at boot for removable media.
  
• defaults - the default mount options for the filesystem to be used. The default options for ext4 are: rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, async.

• <dump> - used by the dump utility to decide when to make a backup. Dump checks the entry and uses the number to decide if a file system should be backed up. Possible entries are 0 and 1. If 0, dump will ignore the file system; if 1, dump will make a backup. Most users will not have dump installed, so they should put 0 for the <dump> entry.

• <pass> - used by fsck to decide which order filesystems are to be checked. Possible entries are 0, 1 and 2. The root file system should have the highest priority 1 (unless its type is btrfs, in which case this field should be 0) - all other file systems you want to have checked should have a 2. File systems with a value 0 will not be checked by the fsck utility.

Ref:

Renaming .vmdk file using the virtual disk using the ESX/ESXi host console interface

1. Navigate to the virtual machine's directory using a command similar to:
   cd "/vmfs/volumes/Datastore Name/Directory Name/"
2. Obtain a listing of the files within a directory using the command:
   ls -l
   For example:
   total 320
-rw------- 1 root root        8684 Aug 30 10:53 examplevm.nvram
-rw------- 1 root root 21474836480 Aug 30 10:26 examplevm-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root         482 Aug 30 11:26 examplevm.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root           0 Aug 30 10:33 examplevm.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root        2724 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmx
-rw------- 1 root root         264 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmxf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       39168 Aug 30 10:53 vmware.log
3. Rename a virtual disk using a command similar to:
   vmkfstools -E OldName.vmdk NewName.vmdk
   For example:
   vmkfstools -E examplevm.vmdk examplevm-renamed.vmdk
   Note: Specify the descriptor file; the associated extent file is renamed in the process.
4. Validate the files were renamed by listing the files within the directory using the command:
   ls -l
   For example:
   total 320
-rw------- 1 root root        8684 Aug 30 10:53 examplevm.nvram
-rw------- 1 root root 21474836480 Aug 30 10:26 examplevm-renamed-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root         482 Aug 30 11:26 examplevm-renamed.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root           0 Aug 30 10:33 examplevm.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root        2724 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmx
-rw------- 1 root root         264 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmxf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       39168 Aug 30 10:53 vmware.log

Failure to install VMware Tools: Cannot find the answer BINDIR in the installer database (1013159)

A previous installation of VMware Tools has been detected.
The previous installation was made by the tar installer (version 4).
Keeping the tar4 installer database format.
You have a version of VMware Tools installed. Continuing this install will
first uninstall the currently installed version. Do you wish to continue?
(yes/no) [yes]

If you select yes, the following error message appears:

Error: Unable to find the binary installation directory (answer BINDIR)
in the installer database file "/etc/vmware-tools/locations".
Uninstall failed. Please correct the failure and re run the install.
Execution aborted.

Solution:  To solve this issue, remove the /etc/vmware-tools/locations file and reinstall VMware Tools.

LTO Program Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.lto.org/About/faq.html

Enable VNC on Oracle Linux

Change last line of /root/.vnc/xstartup file to “gnome-session &” and restart server

After restart type #vncserver

[root@oracleap1 ~]# cat /root/.vnc/xstartup
#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
gnome-session &

#if test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ; then
#       eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax .exit-with-session`
#       echo "D-BUS per-session daemon address is: \
#       $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"
#fi
gnome-session & 

Install HP SPP on Linux - HP Blade Server

Copy HP SPP ISO image to Linux using FTP

Mount ISO image  #mount -o loop -t iso9660 file_name.iso /mnt

Browse to /mnt/hp/swpackages and run “hpsum”

HP ProLiant G6/G7/Gen8 Servers - Network Configuration Utility is No Longer Available Within Microsoft Server 2012 Operating System

SYMPTOM:HP Network Configuration Utility (NCU) is no longer available for download for the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Operating System.

SYMPTOM:HP NCU cannot be installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2012.

CAUSE:Microsoft Windows Server 2012 has Network Teaming functionality build into the Operating System of Microsoft Server 2012 (all editions).

Complete Article:

Linux NIC Teaming (Bonding) Options Explained

mode=0 (balance-rr)
Round-robin policy: Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available slave through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
mode=1 (active-backup)
Active-backup policy: Only one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The bond's MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch. This mode provides fault tolerance. The primary option affects the behavior of this mode.
mode=2 (balance-xor)
XOR policy: Transmit based on [(source MAC address XOR'd with destination MAC address) modulo slave count]. This selects the same slave for each destination MAC address. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
mode=3 (broadcast)
Broadcast policy: transmits everything on all slave interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.
mode=4 (802.3ad)
IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slaves in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.

	Pre-requisites:
	1. Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving
	the speed and duplex of each slave.
	2. A switch that supports IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link
	aggregation.
	Most switches will require some type of configuration
	to enable 802.3ad mode.

mode=5 (balance-tlb)
Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support. The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each slave. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails, another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.

	Prerequisite:
	Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the
	speed of each slave.

mode=6 (balance-alb)
Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of the slaves in the bond such that different peers use different hardware addresses for the server.
The most used are the first four mode types...
Also you can use multiple bond interface but for that you must load the bonding module as many as you need.
Presuming that you want two bond interface you must configure the /etc/modules.conf as follow:

	alias bond0 bonding
	options bond0 -o bond0 mode=0 miimon=100
	alias bond1 bonding
	options bond1 -o bond1 mode=1 miimon=100

Notes:

• To restore your slaves MAC addresses, you need to detach them from the bond (`ifenslave -d bond0 eth0'). The bonding driver will then restore the MAC addresses that the slaves had before they were enslaved.
  
• The bond MAC address will be the taken from its first slave device.
  
• Promiscous mode: According to your bond type, when you put the bond interface in the promiscous mode it will propogates the setting to the slave devices as follow:
  
  
  
  • for mode=0,2,3 and 4 the promiscuous mode setting is propogated to all slaves.
    
  • for mode=1,5 and 6 the promiscuous mode setting is propogated only to the active slave.
    For balance-tlb mode the active slave is the slave currently receiving inbound traffic, for balance-alb mode the active slave is the slave used as a "primary." and for the active-backup, balance-tlb and balance-alb modes, when the active slave changes (e.g., due to a link failure), the promiscuous setting will be propogated to the new active slave.

Ref:

Hyper-V: Configure VLANs and VLAN Tagging

The most Generic model:  enable Trunking on the physical switch (specifying the VLAN IDs and native VLAN) and apply a VLAN ID in the settings of the virtual NIC of each VM that needs it and the VM is attached to the proper External Virtual Network.

Note:  Hyper-V Virtual Networks are "trunking mode" by default.

1. Configure the switch port as a trunk
2. Specify VLAN IDs / Tags and native VLAN
3. On Hyper-V create an External Virtual Network attached to the configured trunk port of the physical switch
4. Apply a VLAN ID / Tag to each VM in the settings of the virtual network adapter

The Network Teaming model:  NIC Teaming is involved (since Hyper-V does not support bonding) - you apply the VLAN tag to the Teaming virtual NIC and attach a virtual switch to this.

1. Create a trunked port on your switch.
2. Create a team
3. Create several Team Virtual NICs in parent partition assigning different VLAN IDs to each virtual NIC
4. Create a Virtual Network from each of the Teaming Virtual NICs
5. Connect VMs to proper Virtual Networks
6. Don’t specify the VLAN ID field in VM properties
7. But in some cases (e.g. HP NCU) step 6 is exactly opposite. You must specify VLAN ID both on virtual NIC level (step 3) and each VM level (step 6)

SCVMM is involved – follow the Generic Model and be sure to set the “trunking” option on the Virtual Network settings in the SCVMM management console.

Note: SCVMM exposes the two different types of trunking options (the Hyper-V Manager GUI does not expose the access mode setting) - trunk mode and access mode.

How to Zone a Brocade SAN Switch

HBA - Host Bus Adapter, which in this case, refers to the Fibre Channel Card. In LAN networking, it’s analogous to an Ethernet card.
WWN - World Wide Name, a unique 8-byte number identifying the HBA. In Ethernet networking, it’s analogous to the MAC address.
FC Zone - Fibre Channel Zone, a partitioned subset of the fabric. Members of a zone are allowed to communicate with each other, but devices are not allowed to communicate across zones. An FC Zone is loosely analogous to a VLAN.

Plug in the FC Connector into an open port on the switch.

1. Login to the server and verify the HBA connection. It should see the switch but not the storage device.
2. Login to the Brocade Switch GUI interface. You’ll need Java enabled on your browser.
3. Check the Brocade Switch Port.
   1. On the visual depiction of the switch, click on the port where you plugged in the FC connector.
   2. The Port Administration Services screen should pop up. You’ll need to enable the pop-up.
   3. Verify that the Port Status is “Online”. Note the port number.
   4. Close the Port Administration Services screen.
4. Find the WWN of your new device
   1. Navigate back to the original GUI page.
   2. Select Zone Admin, an icon on the bottom left of the screen. It looks like two squares and a rectangle.
   3. Expand the Ports & Attaching Devices under the Member Selection List.
   4. Expand the appropriate port number. Note the attached WWN.
5. Create a new alias for this device
   1. Click New Alias button
   2. Follow menu instructions
6. Add the appropriate WWN to the alias
   1. Select your new device name from the Name drop down menu
   2. Expand the WWNs under Member Selection List
   3. Highlight the appropriate WWN
   4. Select Add Member
7. Add the alias to the appropriate zone
   1. Select the Zone tab
   2. Select the appropriate zone from the Name drop down menu
   3. Select the appropriate alias from the Member Selection List
   4. Click Add Member
8. Ensure that the zone is in Zone Config in the Zone Config tab
9. Save your changes by selecting ZoningActions -> Enable Config

Ref:

Using esxtop to identify VMware storage performance issues

Configuring monitoring using esxtop

To monitor storage performance per HBA:

1. Start esxtop by typing esxtop at the command line.
2. Press d to switch to disk view (HBA mode).
3. Press f to modify the fields that are displayed.
4. To view the entire Device name, press SHIFT + L and enter 36 in Change the name field size.
5. Press b, c, d, e, h, and j to toggle the fields and press Enter.
6. Press s, then 2 to alter the update time to every 2 seconds and press Enter.
7. See Analyzing esxtop columns for a description of relevant columns.

Note: The following options are only available in VMware ESX 3.5 and later.
To monitor storage performance on a per-LUN basis:

1. Start esxtop by typing esxtop from the command line.
2. Press u to switch to disk view (LUN mode).
3. Press f to modify the fields that are displayed.
4. Press b, c, f, and h to toggle the fields and press Enter.
5. Press s, then 2 to alter the update time to every 2 seconds and press Enter.
6. See Analyzing esxtop columns for a description of relevant columns.

To increase the width of the device field in esxtop to show the complete naa id:

1. Start esxtop by typing esxtop at the command line.
2. Press u to switch to the disk device display.
3. Press L to change the name field size.
   Note: Ensure to use uppercase L.
4. Enter the value 36 to display the complete naa identifier.

To monitor storage performance on a per-virtual machine basis:

1. Start esxtop by typing esxtop at the command line.
2. Type v to switch to disk view (virtual machine mode).
3. Press f to modify the fields that are displayed.
4. Press b, d, e, h, and j to toggle the fields and press Enter.
5. Press s, then 2 to alter the update time to every 2 seconds and press Enter.
6. See Analyzing esxtop columns for a description of relevant columns

Analyzing esxtop columns:

CMDS/s : This is the total amount of commands per second and includes IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) and other SCSI commands such as SCSI reservations, locks, vendor string requests, unit attention commands etc. being sent to or coming from the device or virtual machine being monitored.In most cases CMDS/s = IOPS unless there are a lot of metadata operations (such as SCSI reservations)

DAVG/cmd :This is the average response time in milliseconds per command being sent to the device

KAVG/cmd :This is the amount of time the command spends in the VMkernel

GAVG/cmd :This is the response time as it is perceived by the guest operating system. This number is calculated with the formula: DAVG + KAVG = GAVG

If the response time increases to over 5000 ms (or 5 seconds), VMware ESX will time out the command and abort the operation. These events are logged; abort messages and other SCSI errors can be reviewed in the following logs:

• ESX 3.5 and 4.x – /var/log/vmkernel
• ESXi 3.5 and 4.x – /var/log/messages 
• ESXi 5.x - /var/log/vmkernel.log

Hyper-V Event Logs Explained

Hyper-V-Config

This log contains entries that pertain to the configuration files that describe individual virtual machines. These are the XML files whose names are globally unique identifiers. They can be found under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines or under VM-specific folders on a Cluster Shared Volume. The most common error is 4096, which indicates that Hyper-V is unable to locate an expected configuration file. It isn’t entirely unusual to encounter this error in normal operations, as utilities and operations may move the XML files in a fashion that isn’t entirely in sync with the Hyper-V services. It normally doesn’t require attention unless it is a persistent error.

Hyper-V-High-Availability

This section contains events related to the interaction of Failover Clustering with Hyper-V.  Most of the events here will be informational recording of actions that the Cluster service took on individual VMs. Errors should be very rare and are generally related to the same sort of synchronization issues that cause the Hyper-V-Config 4096 errors.

Hyper-V-Hypervisor

As the name implies, these events are related to the hypervisor itself. Most of the events will be related to the creation and destruction of partitions, which are the temporary container that hold running virtual machines. If there is any sort of problem with Hyper-V itself, especially issues that prevent the service from starting, this is where you’ll find out about it.

Hyper-V-Image-Management-Service

The related service is devoted to the handling of VHD files. If any operation involving a virtual hard drive fails, details are logged here.

Hyper-V-Integration

This log tracks events associated with the Integration Services that are installed into virtual machines. Most of the problems reported here can be corrected by re-installing or upgrading the Integration Services components.

Hyper-V-Network

The virtual switch(es) in your deployment will record events here. The first events will be the creation of the virtual networks themselves, as well as pairing of external networks to physical network cards. When a virtual network adapter is created or destroyed in a virtual machine, a matching virtual port is created on the virtual switch; the creation/destruction of those ports will be registered here.

Hyper-V-SynthNic

The synthetic network cards in virtual machines will log an event when they start (12582). Look here for clues as to why a network card won’t function, such as MAC collisions.

Hyper-V-SynthStor

Virtual storage controller drivers use this log for their events. The most common event is logged by virtual SCSI controllers as they start. The virtual IDE driver is emulated and not synthetic, so it initializes before the VM loads and will not log a matching event. If a drive cannot be attached to the virtual controller port as expected, it will be logged here.

Hyper-V-VMMs

The Virtual Machine Management Service generates these events. Problems with import and export actions will be logged here, as will AVHD merge operations. Host shutdown events will also be tracked in this log. It will also report when it cannot locate the files for a VM. As in other logs, these are likely to be cleaned up once a VM is completely removed.

Hyper-V-Worker

Hyper-V’s worker threads log these events. Normally, this is the busiest of all the logs, but most of them are trivial. If you’re curious how long that last Live Migration took, this is where you’ll find it. Emulated network and storage drivers (as opposed to the synthetic drivers) will create events here.

View Active Directory schema version

#"dsquery * cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=domainname,dc=local -scope base -attr objectVersion"

OR

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parame ters\SchemaVersion\Schema Version

13 = Windows 2000 Server

30 = Windows Server 2003

31 = Windows Server 2003 R2

44 = Windows Server 2008

47 = Windows Server 2008 R2

56 = Windows Server 2012

Reset the Windows 2003 Server DSRM Administrator Password

1. Click, Start, click Run, type ntdsutil, and then click OK.
2. At the Ntdsutil command prompt, type set dsrm password.
3. At the DSRM command prompt, type one of the following lines:
   • # reset password on server null.
   • Type new password
   • #q

VMware ESXXi 5.x error while adding Datastore : "HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastoreCreateOptions" for object "ha-datastoresystem" on ESX "xx.xx.xx.xx" failed

You need to run the following command for each disk that you’re having issues with (this overwrites the partition table with a standard msdos one which VMware can work with); NOTE: This will ERASE ALL DATA on the disk in question so be careful to select the right disks.

# partedUtil mklabel /dev/disks/<disk id> msdos

To get a list of your disks;

#ls /dev/disks

ESXi requires the Execute Disable/No Execute CPU feature to be enabled

During installation of ESXi 5.1 U 1 on HP DL360 G5, I  received a purple screen with above warning message

Solution: BIOS> Advanced Options > Processor Options > No-Execute Memory Protection>Enabled

Schedule hack for HP Data Protector

Because Data Protector, originally called HP OmniBack, was ported over from the UNIX platform it means that most of the configuration can be done by editing plain text files.  This includes the schedules, although the schedule text files can often get pretty messy once you've made a few changes.  Below are a few backup schedules that have had all the fat trimmed out and don't have anything you don't need in them.

Reference on the location of file system backup schedule files:

Windows 2003 and earlier C:\Program Files\OmniBack\Config\Server\Schedules

Unix and Linux /etc/opt/omni/server/schedules

Windows 2008 and later C:\ProgramData\OmniBack\Config\Server\Schedules

In the schedules directory are simple ASCII files with names that correspond to scheduled backup specifications.  You can easy edit these files with Notepad or vi.  Be sure to close then reopen your DP GUI after manually editing a schedule file to eliminate the possibility of seeing or applying cached information.

First, create any old schedule for the job such as a full backup each Saturday.

# pwd/etc/opt/omni/server/schedules

# cat Test

-full
-every
        -day Sat
        -at 17:00

Now edit the schedule file and replace its contents with the following.

-full
        -day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
        -at 17:00

-full
-exclude
        -day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sun
        -at 17:00

This logic says literally, "Start the backup at 17:00 on the first seven days of each month UNLESS the weekday is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Sunday."  Note the conspicuous absence of Saturday in that exclude list.  Also, the mode (-full) and time (17:00) must agree throughout the file to make this magic work.  Adjust the times to the desired start time of your backup.  As Paul so aptly stated to me, "It will only run on the first Saturday of the month...until weeks get 8 days."

Paul's solution is eloquent both in its brevity and effectiveness.  What you see below is my attempt to achieve similar functionality with the difference being that we're aiming for the last Sunday of each month.  Having a variable number of days in each month added a little complexity.  Leap years really threw a wrench in the works.

-full
-every
        -day 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 -month May Jul Aug Oct Dec Jan Mar
        -at 21:00

-full
-every
        -day 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 -month Jun Sep Nov Apr
        -at 21:00

-full
-every
        -day 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -month Feb
        -at 21:00

-full
-exclude
        -day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        -at 21:00

Reference 1:

Reference 2:

FSRM: Failed to send the email alert.

Error

Windows Event Log:

A File Server Resource Manager Service email action could not be run.

Error-specific details:
Error: IFsrmEmailExternal::SendMail, 0x8004531c, Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.1 Client does not have permissions to send as this sender

We will need to provide send permissions to the computer running FSRM

Add-ADPermission -Identity "MailboxName" -User "DOMAIN\Computeraccount$" -ExtendedRights "Send-as”

Remove Search history from Windows Explorer

Delete entries in side below registry location.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WordWheelQuery

Creating virtual hard disks takes long time- Hyper V

If you have ever created a fixed-size virtual hard disk that was larger than, oh - 2GB, you probably noticed that it takes quite a while to create.  The reason why this takes so long is that when we create a new fixed-size virtual hard disk we take the time to explicitly zero-out all of the disk space that is being assigned to the new file.

Now - we could do this practically instantaneously by not zeroing out the data - but this has an interesting potential security problem.

Imagine the following situation:

• You have a virtual machine with a bunch of confidential data running on a central server (e.g. your company payroll).
• This virtual machine gets moved to a new physical server in response to increased work load.
• You create a new virtual machine which is given to someone on from the in-house dev team - but the virtual hard disk data was not zeroed out.
• Developer then runs data recovery tools on his new, blank virtual machine and is able to recover data from the old payroll server (yikes!)

You see - data is never actually deleted from a disk when a file is moved or deleted (it is just dereferenced) so to avoid the above scenario - we must take the time to "do the right thing" and zero out the VHD contents.

Link 1

Link 2

Use Robocopy for backup

robocopy <sourse> <destination> /e /mir /np /tee /mt:4 /log:backup_log.txt
robocopy <sourse> <destination> /e /mir /np /z /tee /mt /log+:backup_log.txt
pause

/e = copy all sub-folders, even empty ones
/mir = mirror (check the files in the destination, and only copy newer files)
/np = no progress counter
/log: = create a logfile
/log+: = This option ensures that the results of the 2nd and 3rd ROBOCOPY are appended to the log file created in the 1st ROBOCOPY line.
/tee = Output from ROBOCOPY written to both the log file and the cmd window.
/mt = ROBOCOPY also has the ability to perform faster multi-threaded copying by simply using the option /mt. I can choose the number of threads to use by specifying a number between 1 and 128 after the /mt option, or if I just specify /mt without a number then the it will use 8 threads by default. In the example below, I use 4 threads to copy to my USB drive, and 8 threads (no number) to copy to my network drive.
/z = This option implements a "retry" for the copying. If I were part way through the copying process, and I lost connection with the network, then ROBOCOPY would automatically restart the copying at the point of failure once the network connection was re-established.

#################################################################################################
WARNIG : Use the /MIR option with caution - it has the ability to delete a file from both the source and destination under certain conditions. This typically occurs if a file/folder in the destination has been deleted, causing ROBOCOPY to mirror the source to the destination. The result is that the same files in the source folder are also deleted. To avoid this situation, never delete any files/folders from the destination - delete them from the source, and then run the backup to mirror the destination to the source.
#################################################################################################

For more details

Find hardware details in Linux

# dmidecode -t system

#dmidecode | egrep -i "product name|serial number"

HP 3PAR CLI command list

showalert        - show status of system alerts
showauthparam    - show authentication parameters
showbattery      - show battery status information
showblock        - show block mapping info for vvs, lds, pds
showcage         - show disk cage information
showcim          - show the CIM server information
showclienv       - show CLI environment parameters
showcpg          - show Common Provisioning Groups (CPGs)
showdate         - show date and time on all system nodes
showdomain       - show domains in the system
showdomainset    - show sets of domains in the system
showeeprom       - show node eeprom information
showeventlog     - show event logs
showfirmwaredb   - show current database of firmware levels
showhost         - show host and host path information
showhostset      - show sets of hosts in the system
showinventory    - show hardware inventory
showiscsisession - show iscsi sessions
showld           - show logical disks (LDs) in the system
showldch         - show LD to PD chunklet mapping
showldmap        - show LD to VV mapping
showlicense      - show installed license key
shownet          - show network configuration and status
shownode         - show node and its component information
shownodeenv      - show node environmental status (voltages,temperatures)
showpatch        - show what patches have been applied to the system
showpd           - show physical disks (PDs) in the system
showpdata        - show preserved data status
showpdch         - show status of selected chunklets of physical disks
showpdvv         - show PD to VV mapping
showport         - show Fibre Channel and iSCSI ports in the system
showportarp      - show ARP table for ports
showportdev      - show detailed information about devices on a Fibre Channel port
showportisns     - show iSNS host information for ports
showportlesb     - show Link Error Status Block information about devices on Fibre Channel port                         
showrcopy        - show remote copy configuration information
showrctransport  - show information about end-to-end transport for remote copy                         
showrsv          - show information about reservation and registration of VLUNs connected on a Fibre Channel port
showsched        - show scheduled tasks in the system
showsnmppw       - shows SNMP access passwords
showsnmpmgr      - show SNMP trap managers
showspace        - show estimated free space
showspare        - show information about spare and relocated chunklets
showsshkey       - show ssh public keys authorized by the current user
showsys          - show system information (system name, serial number etc.)
showsysmgr       - show system manager startup state
showtarget       - show unrecognized targets
showtask         - show information about tasks
showtemplate     - show templates
showtoc          - show system Table of Contents (TOC) summary
showtocgen       - show system Table of Contents (TOC) generation number
showuser         - show user accounts and SSH keys
showuseracl      - show user access control list
showuserconn     - show user connections
showversion      - show software versions
showvlun         - show virtual LUNs (VLUNs) in the system
showvv           - show virtual volumes (VVs) in the system
showvvmap        - show VV to LD mapping
showvvpd         - show VV distribution across PDs
showvvset        - show sets of VVs in the system
checkhealth        - perform checks to determine overall state of the system
checkpassword     - display authentication and authorization details
checkport         - perform loopback test on fc ports
checkpd           - perform surface scan or diagnostics on physical disks
checkld           - perform validity checks of data on logical disks
checkvv           - perform validity checks of virtual volume administrative information.

Windows Updates (WSUS) - Update Classifications.

• Critical updates:
  Broadly released fixes for specific problems addressing critical, non-security related bugs.
• Definition Updates:
  Updates to anti-malware or other definition files.
• Feature Packs:
  New product functionality usually included in the next full product release.
• Security Updates:
  Broadly released fixes for specific products, addressing security issues.
• Service Packs:
  Cumulative sets of all hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates created since the release of the product. Service packs might also contain a limited number of customer-requested design changes or features.
• Tools:
  Utilities or features that aid in accomplishing a task or set of tasks.
• Update Rollups:
  Cumulative sets of hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates packaged together for easy deployment. A rollup generally targets a specific area, such as security, or a specific component, such as Internet Information Services (IIS).
• Updates:
  Broadly released fixes for specific problems addressing non-critical, non-security related bugs.

Expand Windows 2003 VM’s (Hyper-V ) System Drive (C Drive)

1. Shutdown VM

2. Expand VHD file in VM’s properties (in Hyper-V)

3. Switch on VM and check drive expansion is reflecting in VM’s Disc Management

4. Switch of VM

5. Mount VM’s VHD file in Hyper-V host - Disk Management>Action>Attach VHD

6. Expand VHD using Hyper-V host’s Disc Management MMC

7. Make VHD offline and then unmounts VHD

8. Start VM, now drive must showing added space.