Samy's Blog... - Samy IT for all and even more...

HP Insight Manager Agent 8.6.0-11 Installer for VMware ESX

2010-12-22T12:08:00.000+01:00

During the upgrade campaign I'm working on; I've face an issue in updating the "HP Insight Manager Agent 8.6.0-11 Installer for VMware ESX". The system were always reply that some VM are still active and I can't do any upgrade...

After trying few time to enter and exit Maintenance mode, verifying twice that all VM's are really powered off; same issue; even after a reboot of the ESX hosts (I'm coming from the Windows world...)
I've just only remove all the VM's from the inventory of my VC, starting the .sh script provided by HP and then it WORKS...
You can also use the vmware-cmd command line to unregister your VM's from putty...

Ok keep on going now, 13 blades are still waiting for an esx installation...

NFS Hot Pursuit Stats

2010-12-06T21:57:00.000+01:00

So here are my stats on NFS 11...

Time : 337:37.12
Total distance : 937.4 Km
Max speed : 442.2 Km/h
Average speed : 183.3 Km/h
Max nitro duration : 1:03.41

Shit the game is finished...
Very nice game maybe a bit short...
My virtual prefered car is the Bugatti Eb 16.4 Veyron and will only remains virtual for ever due to the almost 2 millions € it will cost me...see full article on Wikipedia

WII...

2010-12-05T18:21:00.000+01:00

As a good geek I also have a WII console. Let's talk about my latest game test the Need for speed (11) Hot Pursuit...
This is really an interresting game in terms of driving sensations. All you have to learn is the drifting of your cars. There is a lots of cars presented in this game. I dont't know if the credits in game are either in € or $. Nervermind because what ever the curency it is I won't be able to afford most of these cars in real life.
I'm actually driving a Bugatti in the latest stages of the game and it's starting to be a bit tricky to beat opponents. Rest of the game is quit easy and can be overtaken with only few retries.
All the tracks are very nice to drive if you forget about all police cars you can cross. I've seen more police car in this game than in real life hopefuly because even if I always follow the advise given at game start saying to drive cool with ever my seat belt. I' be driving a bicycle since a long time...
Differences between all the cars are very easy to feel in race conditions and can be easily overpassed. This is really a nice game for Christmas and for those who loves driving with no limits...

Back to the future...

2010-12-04T22:53:00.000+01:00

Today let's talk about news. In fact I was thinking of the Usenet since 1979; I'd say back to my childhood, I was three at this time and very far from the man I'm now...
Younger than my son I do not know if I also wanted to be an astronaut but I doubt.
The oldest souvenir I have let's say in IT is my first console the Mattel Intellevision a christmas gift my parents have trained every nights before Christmas early in the 80's.
Typically this is thing I was able to dig from the past thanks to the usenet. I hope that I've grow old better than these games and my own console than can only be used for 4 or 5 minutes before overheating...
The whole world is under usenet including oldies...

My coming out...

2010-12-04T21:30:00.000+01:00

This week I've made my coming out...
I've quit Facebook and I think that I won't ever come back on the world's biggest social network.
I really don't understand why and how people are spending so much time on this web site. One of my colleague who was a former Facebook addict has telling me once that having such "activity" on Facebook is good for the productivity at work... Strange I'm still thinking about that...
Netherless I'm ready to start a new group "I've just done it..." but sorry not on Facebook.
But I'm saying that I've quit Facebook but in fact I've have only desactivated my account while I'ven't found how to really suppress it. So if someone know how to do it just post a msg...

Norton Antivirus Corporate Client & firewall

2010-10-21T15:37:00.003+02:00

If you want to activate a firewall on machine running a Norton Antivirus Corporate Client, you just need to drill only one hole in your firewall for the TCP port 2967. I've found several post saying that you have to open the UDP port 2967, but it does not work at all...maybe in an older version...

Here's a screen shot of a Windows XP Firewall

That's all...for testing if it's working or not just launch a manual scan on the selected station from the server management console.

Thanks to Diot® for the hint... ;-p

Removing Blogger banner...

2010-09-30T00:41:00.002+02:00

Edit your template in html. Copy this code :

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

And paste it above this line

/* Variable definitions

and that's it....

I'm not alone...

2010-06-14T22:29:00.000+02:00

Saturday June 6th at 00:30 AM, I've seen a meteor crushing in the sky from NE to SW...
It was very impressive and also short only a few seconds for traveling through the horizon. First of my life maybe that last...waiting for 2012...

PsExec StdOut

2010-06-08T23:48:00.003+02:00

A few days ago I've to write a small VBScript in association with PsExec for executing an ms-dos on a remote computer. No issues but...
After few unsuccessful tries; no way to get the StdOut I've start finding other reason than my poor programmer knowledges. So after few search on Google, I've discover that there is a known bug on PsExec versions prior to 1.98.
As ever and as recommended by software and hardware providers always update to the latest available version of code...
So here's the link to PSTools lastest version on Microsoft website. These tools are certainly the most useful toolbox for a Windows administrator. That might explain why Microsoft has acquire Sysinternal some times ago...

If it helps, here's the script which should works with PsExec v1.98. Provided as is...

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next
Dim WshShell, oExec, Cmmd, CptName, UsrName, UsrPWd, PsxCmmd, PsxReturn, PSPath
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

CptName = "ComputerName"
UsrName = "UserName"
UsrPWd = "Paswword"
PsxCmmd = "ipconfig /all" ' MS-Dos command-line example
PSPath = "C:\WINDOWS\PSTools\"

Cmmd = PSPath & "psexec.exe \\" & CptName & " -u " & UsrName & " -p " & UsrPWd & " " & PsxCmmd
Set oExec = WshShell.Exec(Cmmd)
Do While Not oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream
PsxReturn= oExec.StdOut.readall()
Loop
wScript.Echo "PSXReturn :" &PsxReturn

Tips & Tricks...

2010-06-04T13:47:00.000+02:00

One of my colleague ask me after being bored by the Windows "Sticky/Filter keys". How he can remove it...
So here a way to get ride of it...

Use regedit and delete the entire following folder :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility

and after a reboot, you will not be bored again...(normally)

VMware vSphere 4

2010-06-03T01:13:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago I've been sent by my company to classroom for following the course VMWare vSphere 4, Install, Configure and Manage. We are using VMWare since V2.5 in my client site, so after few years of intensive use (almost 100 ESX V3.5 and at least about 600 VMs), it was very interesting to focus on VMWare "how to" and best practices...
Now I've to make some home & work implementation in order to go for VCP 410.
Major improvements for me from previous version are :
- Virtual Distributed Switch which will radically improve and simplify the creation of "Standard switch" like but across a datacenter. Useful when you start having few ESX and you're providing new ones.
- Data Recovery is a fully integrated tool for VC 4. which allows to easily making backup and restoration in few clicks. Creating a VM is always an easy thing but having a strong solution for backup/restore management is a different question without a third party tool. But now it's over...
I hope to have more time in the future to deal with some information about vSphere and its everyday use; mostly after passing the VCP.

Introducing to the new SAMY.COM website...

2010-06-03T01:12:00.001+02:00

Hi,

Just a few words to explain the name of this web site "samy.com".
Samy is only a nickname given by my older sister regarding the "Mystery machine" cartoon. In France "Shaggy" is called "Samy" and Scooby-Doo is always saying "Uh-oh, Shaggy" "Ohooo Samy". As during my teenage hood I was saying this almost every two words...She calls me "Samy"
So here's the beginning of the explanation. In 1998, I've discovered that the domain name "samy.com" was not reserved anymore so since that time this little piece of Internet belongs to ME.

NTBackup + ASR + some Automation = Every Day Automatic DRP

2010-03-26T00:34:00.089+01:00

Disaster Recovery Plan, is not a complicated thing to do when money is falling out of the windows but in this time of cost reduction. As me you may not have enough money to buy expansive hot imaging software.
I've started using this kind of software since the launch of Powerquest V2i Protector V1.0 few years ago then we have follow the evolution to go under Symantec solutions. Needs are still present but money has gone with the sub primes...
So what is the backup solution embedded with XP & 2003, NTBackup and what is exactly ASR (Automated System Recovery). Is the all in one free* solution I'm looking for ??

Here's the constraints...
1° - NTBackup ASR command-line is not cleary documented. So as Google is my friend, I've finally succeded in finding the "/ASRBACKUP" switch.
2° - I don't have the 2000 Floppies requested to save all configuration files of all our servers and even if...
3° - Having more than 2 or 2000 servers leads you in trying to automate the all process(es)...
4° - I don't want to spend all my time in computer room as spring is coming...
5° - Some servers or workstations still have physical floppy drive but all machines...
6° - I need scripting or at least a batch file to make automated tasks.

Manual ASR & restoration have been very promising but floppy creation still remains my everest...

A few months ago, I've discovered VFD (Virtual Floppy Drive) that I use to make tests on floppies on my Dell SX270 which has only one docking bay.
A long time ago I've heard about devcon from Microsoft for managing devices.

But not cerebral links between this two tools until...

I've been working on this problem for a long time and this afternoon the light shine on me !!! hallelujah !!!

How to proceed :

- select your needed version of devcon and copy it to "%systemroot%\system32" or else where in the %path%.

- look for your floppy drive if it exist and disable it !

+ devcon findall *floppy*

+ devcon disable *floppy*

- unzip the file "vfd21-080206.zip" somewhere, ie "%systemroot%\system32\vfd21-080206".

- for help on Virtual Floppy Drive :\>vfd help.

- mount the virtual floppy drive.

+ vfd start

- mount a blank floppy disk in the virtal drive.

+ vfd open /force

So now you can start your ASR command-line.

+ ntbackup asrbackup /n "ASR-%computername%" /d "ASR-%computername%" /v:no /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j "ASRBackup" /f e:\ASR-%computername%.bkf

Wait until ASR completion, no interaction is required, ASR will goes on and will be automatically closed after completion.

Save the vitual floppy which now contains all the files needed in case of restoration.

+ vfd save e:\ASR-floppy.flp /over

Use the switch /over to overwrite existing image.

The extension ".flp" allows usage of winimage to open the floppy file for browsing.

Unmount the virtual floppy drive.

+ vfd stop /force

Enable back your physical floppy drive.

+ devcon enable *floppy*

Thats's all your ASR procedure is now fully automated and can be call through the windows scheduler in a single bacth file by a simple command like this :

set path=%path%;C:\WINDOWS\system32\vfd21-080206&&devcon disable *floppy*&&vfd start&&vfd open /force&&ntbackup asrbackup /n "ASR-%computername%" /d "ASR-%computername%" /v:no /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j "ASRBackup" /f e:\ASR-%computername%.bkf&&vfd save e:\ASR-floppy.flp /over&&vfd stop /force&&devcon enable *floppy*

-----------------------
*free : remember you have to own a genuine windows licence.