What the.....?

LDWin: Link Discovery for Windows

2013-03-18T17:28:00.000Z

Brand New!!!

So you regularly use and enjoy using my WinCDP program. You wish it could also discover link information for devices connected to devices that support Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) as well as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)?

Well dear reader, you are in luck!

Hot off of the coding press is LDWin: Link Discovery for Windows:

LDWin supports the following methods of link discovery:

CDP - Cisco Discovery Protocol
LLDP- Link Layer Discovery Protocol

So what are you waiting for?

Check out LDWin's Github page for further information and full ReadMe.

- Chris

Cisco UCS: What The?

2013-02-22T12:50:00.000Z

A quick non-too-technical post detailing the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and how it works. No, I'm not affiliated with Cisco, I just work on UCS a lot!

What is a UCS?

Ok, well that's simple. It's a blade server system comprising of the following components:

The power of the UCS is that it uses service profiles.

What is a Service Profile?

OK,well that's simple enough too. A service profile tells the UCS that a particular blade has a particular configuration. Here is an example service profile:

As you can see, in my service profile above I have a server with two fibre cards (vHBAs) and two network cards (vNICs).

The USP (Unique Selling Point) of the UCS is that these service profiles are MOBILE
Yes, the service profiles can be moved from blade to blade.

Think about it. MYSERVER1 uses UCS chassis 1, blade 1. UCS chassis 1, blade 1 suffers a hardware issue and dies a death.

No problem. I can move and apply the service profile for MYSERVER1 to another physical blade (say UCS chassis 3, blade 2), boot it up and away we go, we are back in business - service resumed no screaming users. I can then get the faulty blade's hardware fixed in slow time.

How is This Possible?

If you look again at my service profile screen shot above again, you will see that the NICs and HBA's are all prefixed with ' v '.

This means that they are virtual.

Virtual Hardware (have you lost it Chris)?

Not quite. Bear with me.

Each UCS blade is fitted with a Virtual Interface card. One of these:

The power of this card is that it can be configured through software to present physical hardware to the blade. In my case, two fibre cards (vHBAs) and two network cards (vNICs). Clever a?

Mobile Ports

So looking deeper into the service profile for MYSERVER1, you will see that the Service Profile also includes the physical addressing of the vHBAs, their WWPNs (World Wide Port Names) and vNICs, their MAC Addresses (Media Access Control Addresses):

Also included in the Service Profile is MYSERVER1's UUID (Universally Unique Identifier):

Tying it All Together

So to recap, the WWPNs, MACs and UUID of MYSERVER1 are all held in a software (aka service) profile that is used to configure the hardware.

So assuming all my blades have the correct amounts of CPU and memory, I can then apply that service profile to any physical blade I like.

Nice!

From the comfort of my armchair in Cassa-Del-Chris, I have fixed a hardware issue and I have saved the day.

Boot Note

What about the local disks installed in MYSERVER1? Looking at this picture of a Cisco UCS blade it has local disks installed:

Yes, it does.

If you move your service profile to another blade, don't you have to also physically move the local disks too?

Yes you do. And that means a trip to the datacentre just to move two disks, and an extended outage as far as the users are concerned. NOT GOOD!!!

Back to MYSERVER1 and the simple answer is that I'm not using the local disks. I have no local disks installed in any of my blades.

MYSERVER1 boots via it's vHBA cards direct from the SAN (Storage Area Network). Therefore to recover service to the users, I don't need to visit the data centre to swap any physical hardware.

No need to move from my armchair in Cassa-Del-Chris. Another Beer anyone?

- Chris

Adding VLANs to Cisco Nexus 1000v

2012-11-08T12:25:00.000Z

Having scoured the internet and drawing a blank when looking for a simple process to follow when adding a VLAN and subsequent VMware VM access port group and to a Cisco Nexus 1000v switch, I ended up stitching together the Cisco commands after reading lots and lots of Cisco Nexus configuration guides.

The annoyance is that whilst you can monitor the configuration of your Nexus 1000v through VMware Virtual Center, you cannot configure it. All Nexus 1000v configuration must be done at the command line.

In this post I present to you the configuration commands I use when adding an additional VLAN to a Nexus 1000v switch.

First off - What is a Cisco Nexus 1000v?

Well if you have a spare 5 minutes and 17 seconds, have a watch of the following:

If not, put simply a Nexus 1000v replaces / augments a standard VMware distributed switch as shown below:

A single Nexus 1000v consists of a minimum of 2 modules:

VEM = Virtual Ethernet Module - Installed on the ESXi host itself
VSM = Virtual Supervisor Module - The 1000v management VM

Setting up a Nexus 1000v

Have a read of Kendrick Coleman's excellent guide here: Standing Up The Cisco Nexus 1000v In Less Than 10 Minutes

Of course, if you were setting your Nexus 1000v from scratch, you would know which VLANs to add 'right off the bat', so would have no need to add additional VLANs.

However as we all know change happens.

Adding VLANs to Cisco Nexus 1000v

Yes, I'm not a network administrator, however these commands work for me. They should work for you too.

Create a VLAN and name it correctly:

First step is to create a VLAN and give it a name. I like to name my VLANs in line with their VMware port group name. Here I'm creating VLAN 456 and calling it "VM_Prod_VL456":

     conf t
     vlan 456
     name VM_Prod_VL456
     end

Create a VMware Access Port Group and give it a friendly name

Next step is to create the VMware port group as it would appear in Virtual Center Networking. Here I'm calling my VMware port group "VM_Prod_VL456" and hooking it to my VLAN 456. I'm also going to give my "VM_Prod_VL456" port group 512 access ports to plug my VMs into:

     conf t
     port-profile type vethernet VM_Prod_VL456
     vmware port-group
     switchport mode access
     switchport access vlan 456
     vmware max-ports 512
     no shutdown
     state enabled
     end

Add VLAN to the trunk port group

Final step is to allow the newly crated VLAN 456 access to the rest of the network via the ESXi physical network cards. Sometimes referred to as the Nexus 1000v trunk ports. In my example, these ports are called "SYSTEM-UPLINK". I'm also going to save my configuration via "copy run start":

     conf t
     port-profile SYSTEM-UPLINK
     switchport trunk allowed vlan add 456
     end
     copy run start

Job done. Time to start creating some VM's and hooking them into my newly created "VM_Prod_VL456" port group.

- Chris

BSOD Debugging Part 2: Debugging

2012-10-23T17:18:00.000+01:00

Check out BSOD Debugging: Part 1 if you missed it. OK, so you have your Windows debugging environment set up and you have a dump file to analyse. Lets get on with it!

Here I will show you how I use the debugger to get to the bottom of a BSOD issue I was having. Your BSOD issue(s) will be completely different, however the basics of using the Windows debugger and investigating the Windows debugger output will be the same.

Using Windows Debugging tools to find a BSOD root cause

Start up WinDbg, and choose File - Open Crash Dump...

Open your MEMORY.DMP file.
Wait whilst the the debugger to does it's thing:

If you have set up your debugging environment as described in part 1, you will be using the Microsoft symbols server. This is confirmed by the debugger when a debug is under way, as highlighted in the screenshot above.

Symbol search path is: SRV*c:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

OK so what can we see then?

Firstly the details of the BSOD, or BugCheck as the debugger calls it:

BugCheck 9F, {3, 84abc530, 82b65ae0, 86116de0}

OK, a STOP 9F... What is that?

Looking at this handy list of BSOD codes (pcsupport.about.com) a STOP 9F is described as follows:

STOP Error 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
STOP error 0x9F means that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state. STOP code 0x0000009F may also display "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" on the same STOP message.

So some sort of driver issue when the system is changing power state.

Next the debugger is suggesting that the BSOD was probably caused by ntkrpamp:

Probably caused by : ntkrpamp

OK, whats a ntkrpamp? Searching for ntkrpamp at processlibrary.com shows the following:

So ntkrpamp is the NT Kernel. That's not a driver! However it is the kernel's job to run drivers. We are going to need to do some further digging with the debugger.

Luckily, the debugger makes it easy for us. Simply click the blue text !analyze -v in the debugger results window to perform some further analysis.
Here is the output:

Right, now we are getting there.

FAULTING_MODULE: 93d04000 dne2000

and

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT

WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT that ties in with the BSOD being caused by a driver power state failure. However, what is this FAULTING_MODULE dne2000 ?

Lets click on the dne2000 link in the debugger window to find out:

Oh look. dne2000.sys, a driver located in C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS folder.

Wa-hey! Root cause found: The driver dne2000.sys is having issues, causing the BSOD.

Fixing the Root Cause

So we know that there is an issue with the driver dne2000.sys that is causing the Windows BSOD. Lets get Google (other search engines are available) to take the strain from here on in.

Something like dne2000.sys bsod should do us nicely.

The very first google search result points us to this discussion thread on MS Technet Forums Which in turn links us to this page discussing an available DNE update

Following the advice and completing the installation of the DNEUpdate and after a bit of extensive testing, my STOP 9F BSOD's are a thing of the past. Job done!

Conclusion

As I said at the top of the post, your BSOD may - probably will - be completely different to mine. However the basics of using the Windows debugger and investigating the Windows debugger output will be the same. The take away from this post is as follows:

How to use the Windows debugger to open a BSOD crash dump
How to find out more about the BSOD here
How to find out about Windows processes here
How to use the Windows debugger !analyze -v function to find out more about the BSOD crash dump
How to use other links offered by the Windows debugger to find out more, such as file names etc
Finally, once you have an idea of BSOD the root cause, use a search engine to investigate further. Chances are you are not the first person to suffer with the issue!

Happy debugging.

- Chris

BSOD Debugging Part 1: Setup

2012-10-16T17:59:00.000+01:00

By now I'm sure we are all familiar with the humble Windows 'Blue Screen Of Death' (BSOD), displayed when windows crashes. No? Strange as they do tend to pop up in the most unlikely places. Have a look at these examples (click for larger images):

Pic: Clefty

Pic: Steve Hoang

Pic: Ged Carroll

Absolutely anywhere!!!

So what can be done to get to the bottom of these BSOD's, how can Windows be fixed so as not to suffer another BSOD in the future? Simple. Use debugging tools for Windows. Here is how.

Capturing a Memory Dump File

First off, you are going to need to capture a memory dump file from the BSOD. A complete memory dump records all the contents of system memory when the system stops unexpectedly. A complete memory dump may contain data from processes that were running when the memory dump was collected. Here is how to configure Windows to dump it's memory to disk:

Windows 2000/2003/XP: Right-click the My Computer icon, click Properties and then click the Advanced tab. In the Startup and Recovery section, click the Settings... button.

Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8: Right-click the Computer icon, click Properties and then click the Advanced system settings link on the left pane. Click the Advanced tab and in the Startup and Recovery section, click the Settings... button.

From the drop-down menu in the Write debugging information section, you can select one of the following options:

Small memory dump – 64 KB in size, records the most important information about the problem

Kernel memory dump – A complete record of system memory; creates files at the size of the operating memory

Here is my setting:

All you need to do now is wait for your system to crash again!

OK, so you've created your MEMORY.DMP dump file. Now we need to examine it using the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows.

Installing Debugging Tools for Windows

First off, you do not need to install the debugging tools on the system that is having the BSOD problem. Use another system if possible. The system will need to have around 200Mb free disk space and be able to access the internet.

Microsoft, in their wisdom, have decided to bundle the debugging tools in with their Windows Software Development Kits (SDK). But have no fear, we don't have to download the whole SDK!

But before we can get to the SDK, we first have to install MS .NET Framework 4.5. Grab the Web installer or Offline installer from here (Microsoft)

Once you have .NET 4.5 installed, you can go ahead and grab the Windows 8 SDK installer from here (Microsoft)

Launch the SDK installer, and choose "Install to this computer":

Choose whether to join CEIP:

Accept the license agreement. Now select ONLY "Debugging Tools for Windows" and click Install:

Once installation is complete, click Close to finish.

Using the Windows Debugging Tools

Windows Debugging tools will buried away in your start menu under "Windows Kits":

Don't worry if you only have X86 version installed. This version will debug 64bit crash dumps without issue. The program you are looking to run is WinDbg(x64) or WinDbg(x86)

Next you need to set the debugging symbol file path:

Whats a debugging symbol? Here you go (Wikipedia). We need to set the debugger to use Microsoft's very own symbols server and cache them locally in C:\Symbols. This is entered as follows:

The text entered is:

SRV*c:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

Click OK, then click File - Save Workspace to save. Open Windows explorer and create a new folder in the root of C:\ called Symbols:

That is it for this part folks.

You have your MEMORY.DMP dump file and you have setup your Windows debugging environment. Carry on to part 2: Debugging available here

- Chris

Clone Windows Installed Roles and Features

2012-10-10T17:39:00.000+01:00

Mmmm a Roll with a Ham Feature...

Quite often I'm asked to build servers that need to have identical configurations in terms of the Windows roles and features installed.

Firstly, What are server roles, role services, and features? Have a look at this article to understand roles and features and the difference between a Windows role and a Windows feature.

Export and Import of Windows Roles and Features

OK, so I've manually installed a selection of required roles and features on the first of my servers and that server is working perfectly. How can I export a list of roles and features installed on the working server so that I can build the second server?

Powershell to the rescue!
This is where the powershell Server Manager Module comes into it's own. It has three handy cmdlets, they are:

Add-WindowsFeature
Get-WindowsFeature
Remove-WindowsFeature

Lets look at the Server Manager Module in action:

PS> Import-Module Servermanager
PS> Get-Command -Module Servermanager

So if we list all installable modules:

PS> Get-WindowsFeature

Lots and lots! OK lets pair this down and see if we can list only those roles and feature installed. We use this command:
PS> Get-WindowsFeature | ? { $_.Installed }

Nice. Now we know which roles and features are installed. Handy for documentation or comparison.

HOW TO: Export Installed Roles and Features to File

Firstly you need to export that nice list obtained above into something structured that can be used by the other server to install the required roles and features. For this we use the Export-Clixml cmdlet. This will allow us to export the list of installed roles and features into an xml file. Here is the command with the xml creation:

PS> Get-WindowsFeature | ? { $_.Installed -AND $_.SubFeatures.Count -eq 0 } | Export-Clixml .\RnF.xml

The resulting xml file looks like this:

OK, lets copy this xml file over to our target server ready for the import.

HOW TO: Install Roles and Features from File

Dead simple, using the Import-Clixml cmdlet:

PS> Import-Module Servermanager
PS> Import-Clixml .\RnF.xml | Add-WindowsFeature

Quick check in Server Manager GUI:

Looks Good. Job done!

So there you have it then. Two commands, one piece of xml, two servers running the exact same set of roles and features.

- Chris

New Release: Cisco Discovery for Windows v1.3

2012-10-02T17:41:00.001+01:00

Yes, that is correct dear reader, your favorite cable tracing tool just got a version bump.

Whats new in this release? Here you go:

Release 1.3 - 02 Oct 2012

Move GUI elements around to better handle longer switch names
Saving CDP data will now also append to an existing file

The full change log is available here on github

Download the new v1.3 version here from github

New to CDP? Find out more here

- Chris

vSphere 5.1 Update to Build Number

2012-09-12T11:58:00.001+01:00

Once again, continuing series of VMware vSphere update to build number tracking.

As always, it's a simple bit of info, often hard to find.

ESXi 5.1:

ESXi 5.1 = Build 799733 - Released 10 September 2012

vCenter 5.1:

vCenter 5.1 = Build 799735 - Released 10 September 2012
vCenter 5.1b = Build 947939 - Release 20 December 2012

For previous versions, see these posts:

ESX / ESXi 3.5 : Here
ESX / ESXi 4.0 : Here
ESXi 4.1 : Here
vSphere 5.0 : Here

If you need the vSphere Client see Here

- Chris

What Do You Expect?

2012-06-18T23:38:00.000+01:00

Watch it. Do more. Get involved. I have.

- Chris

What The Blog Reader v0.7 (Beta 3)

2012-05-18T21:57:00.000+01:00

Yep all 'pimped out' and looking good in its new Android Ice Cream Sandwich compliant style, checkout beta 3 of What The.....? Blog Reader for android. Fully backwards compatible for those not yet running Google's latest version Android operating system.

For more detail, checkout WTB4A's very own page here

As usual, details as follows:

Change log: github

Latest installer (whatthe.apk 34kb): github

- Chris

Easy Bootable Antivirus CD/USB: UPDATED

2012-05-02T20:23:00.000+01:00

Weighing in at fourth place most popular post on this site is Easy Bootable Antivirus CD/USB written in April 2010, just over two years ago (yes, time does fly!)

Recap:
With the prevalence of Viruses / Rootkits / Spyware and all sorts of other malware these days, quite often I get asked to take a look at machines that are suspected of infestation with one or more of the above "nasties".

Quite often this comes about because the nasties have "grown resistant" to the antivirus tool being used - that is they do not clean as expected. Sometimes this can be because the nasty hooks itself deep into the operating system or it locks itself as in use and hence cannot be deleted.

One way around this is to boot the computer from an alternative operating system located on a device such as a CD or USB pen drive. This will get around both issues, thus making the removal much easier.
/Recap

Many tools have come and gone over the last two years, however luckily for us an even easier CD/USB based anti-virus tool has been released. Surprisingly it's written by Microsoft.

Windows Defender Offline
Follows is the process to create and use a Windows Defender Offline (WDO) CD/USB.

Prerequisites:

Find out if the infected (or suspected infected) machine is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. See Is my PC running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows?
The infected (or suspected infected) machine must have a minimum of 512Mb memory
A blank CD, DVD, or USB flash drive(250Mb minimum)
500Mb free hard disk space to download to and create the CD/USB
Download the appropriate version of the WDO creation tool from here (download links are at the bottom of the page)

Prerequisites satisfied, lets get on an use the tool.

Process:
Launch the downloaded executable (mssstool32.exe or mssstool64.exe). You will be presented withe the following welcome page:

Click Next

Choose the media to create, CD or USB or create an ISO image file. I chose to create an ISO file to burn to CD later.

Choose the location of the ISO file

The tool will now download the required files from the Microsoft website. Remember that at this point the WDO creation tool is downloading the latest version of the WDO boot media and the very latest anti-virus definition files for use with WDO.

All done. Click finish.

I burnt my ISO image onto a CD using the excellent free ISO burning tool ImgBurn

Upon booting the infected (or suspected infected) machine from the WDO CD/USB, you are presented with the following:

The tool will boot into a quick scan. This will scan only areas of the computers hard disk that are known to potentially harbor nasties.

I chose to cancel the quick scan and run a full scan instead.

All being well you will / will not (depending whether you were expecting to) be notified with details of an infection and that WDO has cleaned the infection.... or infections plural!

Shut down, eject the CD / remove the USB, and boot back up as normal.

Final word:
As most nasties spread due to lack of security patching, upon first boot I would highly recommend a visit to Windows Update to install all missing security patches as soon as possible.

Perhaps even look at running Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus instead of whatever windows anti-virus application you were running.

Update:
If you find that your WDO CD/USB is not working as expected, have a look at this post over at Alex Verboon's blog: How to add drivers to the Windows Defender Offline Tool

- Chris

Fixing Remote Desktop Annoyances

2012-04-25T11:31:00.000+01:00

Please don't get me wrong, Microsoft Remote Desktop is a great tool for remote control / administration of Windows Servers and desktops.

However in later versions of the remote desktop client, a couple of 'features' have crept into the tool making it increasingly both annoying to use and slow to connect to remote desktops.

So, object of this post then is to look at the features that I find most annoying and perhaps more importantly, how to FIX THEM!

Firstly, is the ultra annoying prompt for credentials before attempting to connect, each and every time I connect to a remote desktop:

Having to enter the user name and password for the remote computer BEFORE the client will even try to connect is ultra annoying. Having to enter the same credentials each and every time I connect is a killer. 99.999% of the time I'm connecting to a computer on the local area network (or via VPN), so I'm not using a remote desktop gateway. Because I'm not using a gateway, we can switch this feature off.

Here is how:

Close all remote desktop connections and exit the remote desktop client.
Click Start, click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Open.
In the Files of type list, click All Files.
In the File name box enter Default.rdp (The full path to this file would be similar to the following: C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\Default.rdp)
A file similar to the following should open:

At the bottom of the Default.rdp file, add the following text:
enablecredsspsupport:i:0
Save the file, exit notepad and test remote desktop. You should no longer be prompted to enter credentials before connecting to remote desktops.

Next up is the also annoying remote identity pop up:

Not quite as annoying, but getting there... Here we go then:

Open your Default.rdp file again (as per steps 1-6 above)
Add the following to the bottom of Default.rdp:
authentication level:i:0
Save the file, exit notepad and test remote desktop. You should no longer be prompted confirm that you do indeed intend to connect.

As a freebie bonus, completing the above tweaks speed up the initial connection. That is you spend less time looking and waiting at:

and more time getting on with your remote desktop session. Bonus!

For further reading, have a look at Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941641: Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 prompts you for credentials before you establish a remote desktop connection

Job done. Remote desktop annoyances dealt with.

- Chris

vSphere 5.0 Update to Build Number

2012-04-11T10:24:00.001+01:00

Once again, continuing series of VMware vSphere update to build number tracking.

As always, it's a simple bit of info, often hard to find.

ESXi 5.0:

ESXi 5.0 = Build 469512 - Released 24 August 2011
ESXi 5.0 Update 1 = Build 623860 - Released 15 March 2012
ESXi 5.0 Update 2 = Build 914586 - Released 20 December 2012

vCenter 5.0:

vCenter 5.0 = Build 456005 - Released 24 August 2011
vCenter 5.0 Update 1 = Build 639890 - Released 15 March 2012
vCenter 5.0 Update 1b = Build 804276 - Released 16 August 2012
vCenter 5.0 Update 2 = Build 923238 - Released 20 December 2012

For previous versions, see these posts:

ESX / ESXi 3.5 : Here
ESX / ESXi 4.0 : Here
ESXi 4.1 : Here

If you need the vSphere Client see Here

- Chris

Cloud: What is it? Free Cloud?

2012-03-12T20:33:00.002Z

OK lets cut the jargon, the buzz words, the misconceptions, the downright rubbish. What is this 'cloud' all about? What exactly is cloud computing (to give it it's correct name) is and is available to me today - for free?

First, what is cloud computing? Finding the answer to this question is easier than you would have at first thought. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing in their publication SP 800-145 - A NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (Sept 2011), available here (PDF)

So using the NIST cloud definition document as a basis - specifically the three cloud service models - lets look at cloud and where we can use it for free.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s
applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

This is perhaps the easiest area to find free services. Free examples include:

Email = Gmail / Hotmail / Yahoo mail
Blogging = Blogger / Wordpress.com / Twitter
Image Hosting = flikr / Picasa / Imgur
Social Networking = facebook / Myspace

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.

A little harder to find. Free examples include:

Application hosting = Google apps
Build your own application = Yahoo pipes
ISPs (Some ISPs allow you run your own apps on their platforms as part of your internet subscription)
Predetermined application hosting = host1free.com

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Not easy to find - well for free at least! I couldn't find any free providers of IaaS, which kind of makes sense as I don't believe there are the alternative revenue streams available yet allow the provision of IaaS for free.

So all in all a very quick look into the cloud. Minus the garbage and the jargon. Not all that hard to comprehend now is it?

- Chris

ESXi Command Line Networking Configuration

2012-02-17T17:26:00.001Z

Ages and ages ago, I posted an article detailing ESX Command Line Networking Configuration, and at the bottom of the post I added the sign off "Next time.... ESXi." Well, finally here is said ESXi post: How to configure ESXi networking from the command line.

Why? Because there doesn’t appear to be any single place (that I can find at least) where all of the this is detailed. So hold onto you hats, again, here we go... Again!

Changing IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, Hostname and DNS Settings (All Versions)
Very simple. Use the console configuration tool:

OK, whilst strictly not "command line", why not use the built in configuration tool? It is far simpler!

Word of warning - Whilst not prompted for a reboot when changing the ESXi's Hostname, I would complete a reboot anyway. I and others have seen spurious issues later on through ESXi configuration when a post rename reboot has not been completed.

Linking and Unlinking Physical Network Cards to Virtual Switches and Network Card Teaming (All Versions)
Again sure you can do this through the console configuration tool for the service console / management vSwitch. However, what happens if you want to make changes on other vSwitches?

First lets look at how the vSwitch is configured post install. Screenshot from a VI Client:

If you were to view the same information at the service console command line we would use the following command to list the virtual switches configured:

esxcfg-vswitch -l

To connect a physical adaptor to a virtual switch, you need to Link it, using the following command:

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch0

Where vmnic1 is the physical network card being connected to the virtual switch vSwitch0.

To disconnect a physical adaptor to a virtual switch, you need to Unlink it, using the following command:

esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic1 vSwitch0

Where vmnic1 is the physical network card being disconnected from the virtual switch vSwitch0.

Basic network card teaming is achieved by having two or more physical adaptors connected to the same virtual switch. From the VI Client:

Which in turn looks like this from the console:

Further reading on Linking and Unlinking Physical Network Cards to Virtual Switches: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000258

NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing (ESXi 4.1 and Earlier)
First lets look at how the vSwitch load balancing configured post install. Screenshot from a VI Client:

Which in turn looks like this from the console:

To specify the NIC teaming load balancing policy on a vSwitch, run the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy --nicteaming-policy='[policy]' vSwitch0

Where [policy] is one of these NIC teaming policies:

loadbalance_srcid (Route based on the originating virtual switch port ID)
loadbalance_srcmac (Route based on source MAC hash)
loadbalance_ip (Route based on IP hash)
failover_explicit (Use explicit failover order)

For example, to set the NIC teaming policy to route based on IP hash, run the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy --nicteaming-policy='loadbalance_ip' vSwitch0

To confirm the setting, run the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/net/vswitch_info vSwitch0 | grep policy

When run on console:

NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing (ESXi 5.0 and Later)
To specify the NIC teaming load balancing policy on a vSwitch, run the command:

esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l [policy] -v vSwitch0

Where [policy] is one of these NIC teaming policies:

portid (Route based on the originating virtual switch port ID)
mac (Route based on source MAC hash)
iphash (Route based on IP hash)
explicit (Use explicit failover order)

For example, to set the NIC teaming policy to route based on originating switch port ID, run the command:

esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l portid -v vSwitch0

To confirm the setting, run the command:

esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover get -v vSwitch0

When run on console:

Further reading on NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011520

VLAN Tagging (All Versions)
Use the following command to assign a VLAN to a console port / port group

esxcfg-vswitch -v [VLANID] -p "Management Network" vSwitch0

Where [VLANID] is the VLAN number, "Management Network" is the console port / port group name and vSwitch0 is the virtual switch the console port / port group is connected to. A zero [VLANID] here specifies no VLAN.

Further reading on VLAN Tagging: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000258

Overview
In this post we looked at how to configure the following, all from the ESXi console, no VI client required!

Changing IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, Hostname and DNS Server Settings
Linking and Unlinking Physical Network Cards to Virtual Switches and Network Card Teaming
NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing
VLAN Tagging

- Chris

Chris' Better Jam Cams

2012-01-30T18:52:00.000Z

No one likes to get stuck in a traffic jam. Much less one that could be avoided. Even more annoying is the 'jam out of the blue' on what is usually a clear piece of road...

Short of pulling an 'Italian Job 1969' (original and best!!) and driving through shopping arcades, up on roofs, across weirs etc what can you do to avoid such jams?

Luckily we can spot traffic issues for ourselves from the comfort of our own homes using the excellent UK Highways Agency / BBC Jam Cameras site.

That said however, there is just one slight annoyance with this site; namely you can only view one camera at a time.

This is where Chris' Jam Cams page comes in! OH YES!

An all in one dashboard showing all the Jam Cams you are interested in, plus a frame detailing traffic conditions in your area. Whats more, you too can follow what I've done here and create your very own Jam Cams page. Dead easy.

So how is it done? It is really quite easy. What follows looks a minefield but it isn't all that complex. I promise.

The golden rule here is SIMPLICITY: I want to be able to do all of this using just one html file. Whilst I am positive that there are cleverer ways of achieving the same results, I'm purely after something dead simple to write, understand and maintain as and when required (in other words, please don't laugh at my html code!!)

Grab Your Copy
First step, grab a copy of Chris' Jam Cams from Github:

Chris' Jam Cams - Original. Should work in any browser on any platform
Chris' Jam Cams Mobile - Includes a couple of layout tweaks to make it easier for mobile viewing

Cut and paste a copy into a text editor of your choice. (Notepad on Windows is just fine).

Traffic Images
First step is to define your images. Dead simple, just make sure each image has a unique id. For example, I've used the motorway and junction number. You need one img statement per traffic image.

img border="0" height="261" width="320" src="#" id="M20J7" alt="M20 J7"

Now for the picture handling. Load up the BBC Travel News page and select the area you are interested in.

Next, click on the "Traffic Jam Cameras" button, just above the map.

Lastly find a motorway junction camera that you are interested in right-click the link and choose "Copy Link Location" (firefox) or "Copy Shortcut" (IE). Open a text editor (eg notepad) and paste the text in.

You should have a piece of text that looks something like this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/kent/trafficcameras/highwaysagency
/16588?epoch=1234567890&enabled=1&asset=16588.jpg

From this you are only interested in two pieces of information:

The region (kent in the example above)
The camera asset number (16588 in the example above)

Enter the region and camera asset number into the 'document.getElementById' statement towards the bottom of the Jam Cams html page (I suggest copying, pasting and editing the example given in the github file):

script type="text/javascript"
var d1 = new Date(); 
var eptime = parseInt(d1.getTime()/1000);

document.getElementById('M20J7').src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews
/kent/trafficcameras/highwaysagency/16588/image?epoch="+eptime+
"&enabled=1&cachebuster="+eptime;

document.write("Page Last Refreshed: "+d1);
/script

Lastly update the img id to match the id you chose earlier ('M20J7' in the example above).
Save your Jam Cams page and test.

Traffic News
The travel news is pulled from BBC mobile site using a simple iframe:

iframe height=750 width=600 align=right src="http://www.bbc.co.uk
/mobile/travelnews/search/process/page/1/filter/road/q/kent"

Replace 'Kent' in the src tag as required. (Suggest using the Traffic Images region found above)

Jam Cams Mobile
As mentioned above, this file is a slightly tweaked version of Chris Jam Cams.htm that hopefully renders slightly better on smaller screens. Update with your own Jam Cams in the same as the non-mobile version:

DO NOT USE THIS WHILST DRIVING!
(Goes without saying really)

Job done. I usually save the htm file on my desktop.

Jam Cam images copyright? OK:

Highways Agency Traffic Cameras Standard Terms and Conditions
Reproduction for Private Use
The traffic images are Crown Copyright protected and may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium as long as it is for non-commercial research, private study - subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context.

No problems there then.

As I say, The golden rule here is SIMPLICITY: all done using just one html file.

Enjoy.

- Chris

Access VM Consoles From Linux

2012-01-23T12:52:00.000Z

So you want to access the consoles of your VMware virtual machines, yet your chosen administration client is running Linux?

No problem.

Sure VMware provide the vSphere 5 Web Client, that can be used from a Linux client (or Mac or whatever) however to use this you have to install the vSphere 5 Web Client Server on your Virtual Center server in order to be able to use the client.

Not all vSphere implementations need or run a Virtual Center server - let alone a dedicated web client server.

Here is how is how to access your VMware VM consoles from a Linux client using the VMware Remote Console Plug-in application, and how to create a launcher so the application runs happily, even under Gnome 3.

In your home folder create a new folder called vmware and navigate to it:

mkdir ~/vmware
cd ~/vmware

Grab the VMware remote client from here: vmware-vmrc-linux-x86 (21.3Mb, from my dropbox account) [see below for alternatives] and download it into the vmware created above.
Extract the downloaded zip. Use the following command:

unzip vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.zip

Navigate to the plugins folder created by unziping the downloaded file:

cd plugins

Create and edit a new file called vmware-vmrc2. Use the following command:

gedit vmware-vmrc2

Paste the following into vmware-vmrc2 and change the $PATH_TO_VMRC variable (currently "/home/chris/vmware/plugins") so it points to the folder plugins you've extracted earlier:

#!/bin/bash

# Please define this variable with the path to the plugins folder
PATH_TO_VMRC="/home/chris/vmware/plugins"

export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes
cd $PATH_TO_VMRC
./vmware-vmrc > /dev/null 2>&1 &
cd - > /dev/null 2>&1

Change the text highlighted in blue to match the location of your vmware folder created in step 1.

Save and close the file and then change it to be executable:

sudo chmod +x vmware-vmrc2

Launch the VMware remote client using the following command:

./vmware-vmrc2

You should be presented with the following (after accepting any security prompts):

Enter the details of your VMware ESX / ESXi server and hit connect.

Job done!

I especially like the VM menu the client provides upon successful connection. Something like this:

Pick a VM and go for it:

Grab your own install
Alternatively if you do have access to a Virtual Center server, you can grab the file from "C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\tomcat\webapps\ui\plugin" Also available in this folder are 64bit Linux and Windows versions of the remote client.

The file linked to in the process above is a v3.0.0 build-418557 client with the extension renamed from .xpi to .zip to stop Firefox trying to install rather than download. As .xpi files are .zip files in disguise, the process above will remain the same.

If you don't have access to a Virtual Center server and you don't want to use the client linked to above, a third place to grab the client is here: https://github.com/vmware/rvc/downloads

Thanks should goto Joel Bastos for this workaround, originally posted here

- Chris

Disable IE Enhanced Security

2012-01-19T12:38:00.001Z

Another one to file in the "Yes, done that before, but I can't remember how" pile. Probably because it is so easy to do has some bearing on not being able to remember how... Anyway, here is how to disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (aka IE ESC) on Windows 2003 and 2008 Servers.

Yes I know, IE ESC is a security feature there to protect the user and it should never be disabled etc etc etc. However most of the time it is 'a right royal PITA'. So here goes then.

Windows 2003
Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components:

Disable or enable as you please.

Windows 2008 / Windows 2008R2
Run the following:

servermanager.msc

Check current status and / or make the required changes here:

On clicking Configure IE ESC:

Disable or enable as you please.

So there you have it. One less pain to deal with.

- Chris

Build it Again

2012-01-16T09:41:00.000Z

Lego.

Hate it when stepping barefoot on a stray piece left hanging around or love it for keeping the kids quiet for hours... and hours.

What other toy gives you the freedom to design and build absolutely anything your heart desires?

Car? No problem. Aeroplane? No problem. Rocket to the moon? No problem. Luna delta spaceship? Again, no problem.

Until a couple of years ago, a box of my childhood Lego resided in the attic, unplayed with but by no means forgotten. I prefer to think of it "on hiatus", to be played with again at some point in the future. That is until one day I retrieved it from the attic and introduced my youngest son to the world of Lego. Could he be trusted? Would it all disappear up the vacuum cleaner?

At the time I remember him almost saying, "hmm what is this pile of blocks for? Where do the batteries go? What you mean you have to build something?"

Of course after buying him some new sets and helping him build those he got the idea. The big box of Lego from the attic were suddenly additional cars / houses / spaceships / whatever just waiting to be built.

So here we are a couple of years later and he is well onto Lego Techninc, and we are both still having a great time our Lego building. For example, last weekend we spent just over 6 (yes SIX) hours* building this:

Here is it in full animated glory. Winch, motorised tilting / lowering flatbed and wheel lift:

During the build the question "Daddy do you still have the instructions for any of your Lego?" was asked. Unfortunately no I didn't... not any more. I used to have build instuctions for houses, cars, trucks and space Lego - lots of space Lego (very popular in the 1980's!)

I still have the parts, but the knowledge to rebuild has long since passed.

Of course, me being me; some days later being presented with a empty Google search box (other search engines are available) and having forgotten what I was originally going to look for, I punched in "Lego instructions". I was amazed when the results came back.

It turns out there are several simply excellent Lego instruction library sites out there, providing scanned instruction manuals for download. That was it. An hour spent in the quest to find all those long lost build instructions for as much of my Lego from the attic as I could.

By way of saying thank you to some of those library sites, here is a (by no means an exhaustive or ordered) list of the sites that have provided the Lego instructions from my childhood so that my sons may also enjoy building my Lego again:

Worldbricks.com - PDF downloadable instructions. Sometimes a bit slow, but well worth the wait.
Letsbuilditagain.com - Online instructions. Find your set and hit the blue arrow to view the instructions.
Brickfactory.info - Online instructions. More of a basic site, however still plenty there!
Brickset.com - No instructions, however good listing of newer sets, links to purchase sets on ebay and set barcodes (scan with Android barcode scanner to get best prices? ;))
Official Lego Site (direct link to instructions portal) - PDF downloadable instructions. Of course, no list would be complete without mentioning this site!
Official Lego Technic Site (direct link to instructions portal) - PDF downloadable instructions. As above, except for Lego Technic

If you don't own any Lego sets with perhaps some of the more specific pieces, then no need to worry. These sites are still a great source of inspiration. Look for the 1960 / 1970 / early 1980's instructions. Some, if not most, of the realy early sets are made up of the more standard square brick variety meaning that anyone should be able to build them using whatever parts they have.

That should keep your little ones quiet for a while. Perhaps you too. Welcome to the world of Lego.... again!

- Chris

*6 hours to build a flatbed truck? Have a look at the three instruction booklets for yourself!

Sky HD: Highlight HD Programmes

2012-01-11T00:05:00.001Z

So you have got a High Definition Television. You have also taken the plunge and gone for a Sky HD box (other HD solutions are available). You have even connected the two together using a propper HDMI cable and you have configured the two to use HD across the board.

So you sit down to watch some nice HD TV.

You spot your chosen TV channel's little 'HD' logo in the top corner, so you know that you are watching a HD channel.

Final question; how do you know that the TV programme you are watching on your nice HD setup was actually filmed in HD? Sure you could confirm by simply looking at the picture* but can you be 100% sure every time that the TV station isn't simply upscaling a standard definition programme?

If you are a Sky HD customer, then the fix is simple. Configure your HD box to highlight programmes originating in HD in the TV Guide, like this:

Here is how to configure your Sky HD box to do the same. All actions are done via the remote control.

1. Whilst watching Sky HD, press Services button:

2. Press Blue down navigation button, to highlight centre bar.

3. Press Blue right navigation button to scroll to the CUSTOMISE option:

4. Press Blue down navigation button, to select Highlight Programmes Originated in HD option.

5. Press Blue right navigation button to enable the option (set it to ON):

6. Press Green button to save changes.

7. Press Backup button to exit.

Job done. Now you know that you are watching HD!

*Re spotting a HD picture: Hmm OK, how do I put this politely?
Here goes: In my very limited experience, through a very small straw pole of asking friends etc, I have noticed that female of the human species rarely notices (or even cares?) that they are watching a TV show in HD.

Just stating what I have noticed, nothing more! Please don't shoot the messenger!

Perhaps this article from 2006 helps to redress the balance: Why Women Don't Care About HDTV?

- Chris

New and Improved What The Mark IV!

2012-01-09T09:21:00.001Z

Happy new year. No your eyes do no deceive you, it is all change on the only blog that counts (TM). Now it counts even more!!!

Hopefully you'll find the new site easier to navigate and find your favorite content.

As with all changes of this type, I'm sure are still some bugs to work out, so stay tuned and we will get this 'Cosworth powered Mini of a blog' up and running smoothly in no time.

Stay tuned and as always, have fun.

- Chris

Raspberry Pi - A £16 Linux PC!

2011-12-24T00:45:00.003Z

A credit card sized computer being developed by a UK based charitable foundation that is hoped will promote the education of computer science at school level and beyond.

The idea is simple - develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children.

That said, the computer can be used for many of the things that a desktop PC is, like spreadsheets, word-processing, games and high-definition video playback.

The name of this computer is the Raspberry PI:

OK, so what is the idea here? What are they trying to achieve? Games developer David Braben explains to BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones, holding an early alpha model, back in May 2011:

Here is a basic layout, detailing the features on board:

As can be seen from the above, the RasPi will be shipped in two variants:

Model A = 128MB RAM on board, no Ethernet = $25 / £16
Model B = 256MB RAM on board, 10/100 UTP Ethernet port = $35 / £22

So what do you get for your money? Well, quite a lot actually:

700MHz ARM11 Processor - The same processor as found in many mobile phones (including my ZTE Blade!)
1080p full HD video output - via HDMI connector
Composite connector - for direct connection to a TV
Dual USB2 ports - for keyboard, mouse, etc
SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot - for operating system etc etc

Talking of operating systems, it is envisaged that Debian Linux, Fedora Linux and ArchLinux will be supported from the start. Other Linux distributions maybe supported later.

So what does it run like? Have a watch for yourself:

Not to shabby at all!

As a father of an 11 year old son who is nuts on anything computer related (wonder where he gets that from? hehehe) I can certainly expect to see at least one of these winging their way to Kent!

What's even better is that there are already RasPi based coding tutorials on youtube, such as Liam Frasier's Raspberry Pi Tutorials channel.

So when is it going to be available? By the looks of it very soon. At the time of writing this (24 Dec 2011), the beta boards are currently undergoing testing and with all going well, the first first production run will be early in 2012.

Keep an eye on the Raspberry Pi Blog and on the official Raspberry PI Twitter feed for updates.

Excellent stuff!

- Chris

vSphere VM Clone Problems + Fixes

2011-12-19T13:31:00.000Z

Just recently a colleague of mine had some fun and games completing what should have been a simple clone of Windows 2008 R2 64bit VMware virtual machine.

We managed to get to the bottom of the issues and get the clones completed, so for future info and help of others here are the issues and resolutions to those issues encountered.

autochk program not found - skipping AUTOCHECK and STOP: c000021a BSOD

Clone VM created successfully, however upon first boot of the VM, the following were seen:

According to VMware KB Article 2004505 this is caused by the entry:

disk.EnableUUID = "TRUE"

in the source VM's virtual machine configuration (vmx) file. Download, edit and upload the vmx with the following setting:

disk.EnableUUID = "FALSE"

See the VMware KB article for further details around editing virtual machine vmx files.

Windows could not finish configuring the system...

Again, clone VM created successfully, however upon first boot of the VM, the following was seen:

According to the Microsoft KB Article KB981542 this issue occurs if the original operating system contains a registry key that is larger than 8 kilobytes (KB).

The resolution being to install a patch on the source VM.

Unfortunately the patch is not available on the MS website, however it is available here:

32bit Windows 2008R2 / Windows 7 = Windows6.1-KB981542-x86.msu
64bit Windows 2008R2 / Windows 7 = Windows6.1-KB981542-x64.msu

After overcoming both those issues, the VM clones completed and booted successfully and what should have been a quick and easy job was done.

Thanks should go to Alan for highlighting the issues and persevering with the fixes.... both of them!

- Chris

Find HBA WWNs from ESXi Console

2011-12-15T10:35:00.000Z

A question this comes up quite a bit: How can I find the World Wide Names (WWNs) of the fibre channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) my ESXi server from the console?

Sure you can use the VMware VI client to gather the required info, but what happens if you do not or have network connectivity to your ESXi yet?

The WWN information is very often needed to for the zoning configuration on the fibre channel switches to ensure that the ESXi server can only access the Storage Array Network (SAN) disks it is supposed to access.

Here is how to find the HBA WWNs:

First log on to your ESXi console:

Now select Troubleshooting Options:

Then select Enable Local Tech Support:

Now press ALT F1 to enter local ESXi console:

At the # prompt enter: cd /proc/scsi and ls to list the SCSI adaptors fitted in your ESXi:

You are looking for qlaxxxx for QLogic HBAs or lpfc for Emulex HBAs. As you can see from the screenshots, my ESXi has QLogic adapters fitted (qla2xxx).

Next, cd qla2xxx (or cd lpfc for emulex) and then list (ls) adaptors:

As you can see I have adaptors fitted at 5 and 6. Your numbers may (and quite likely will) be different. The last step is to list each of the adaptors found, using the cat x |more ("x" being one of the numbers listed) command:

You are looking for the Host Device Name and the SCSI Device Information:

OK. To get the full WWN address, simply note down the node and port hex ID's from the SCSI Device Information, and separate each pair with colons ":" to make your full HBA WWN. In my case, from the screenshots above, my HBA WWN would be:

WWN of vmhba2 = 20:00:00:1b:32:8a:f3:42 21:00:00:1b:32:8a:f3:42

Repeat for the last command (cat x |more) for all the other HBA's in your ESXi (so in my case I would run the command cat 6 |more to find the SCSI device information for my other HBA.

When finished type exit to return to the ESXi tech support console login and ALT F2 to switch back to the standard ESXi console.

Don't forget to login, select Troubleshooting Options and Disable Local Tech Support when completely finished!

- Chris

Beta 1 What The Android Released

2011-11-08T22:53:00.000Z

Yes that's right the What The.....? Android application has just gone Beta!

To mark this momentous occasion (remember developing in Java is completely new to me!), I have given the app it's very own page on this here blog. The page has the reasons for development, links to the change log, source code and (more importantly) the apk file itself.

Use the What The Android link in the links bar above or click here to have a look at the What The Android page.

If you fancy being an early adopter / beta tester, then feel free. Please post any feedback in comments below.

- Chris