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• VMworld TV Playlist

I just received my new Powershell book by Don Jones, powershellacademy.com is having Live Meetings this month of Nov.2011

You can get a copy of you book here
http://manning.com/jones/

During the 1st Live Meeting I found out that “Windows Server 8″ can run without a GUI and Powershell will play a big role on how to manage “Server 8″. The GUI will still be available but the goal is to remove it from the server OS.

There are multiple of Microsoft resolution options to try, which I will not cover because for the most part suck and can be a big risk since these solutions are “writing” to the disk and you might lose your data. (ex.) Last Known Good Configuration, bootcfg , chkdsk, Windows Repair Install and my favorite; Microsoft way to Convert Dynamic disk to Basic Disk: First Backup your data then reformat your disk as basic. (((SMH)))

I also tried connecting the dynamic disk my XP & Win7 PC and a Windows2003 server and in Disk Management right click the drive and select Import Foreign Disk, but this failed. I also tried using some “Live CD’s” like Knoppix or BartPE and they failed to read from the “Dynamic Disk”

TestDisk can backup up your data without touching/writing to the disk. TestDisk also gives you the option to fix a partition table and convert your “dynamic disk” to a “basic disk” and not destroy your data.

1. Connect your dynamic disk to your working PC/Server and make sure disk-management shows the drive. (It will probably show up as an “unknown” disk)
2. Download and TestDisk and launch “testdisk_win.exe” and Select Create
3. TestDisk will detect all drives on your PC, Select the dynamic disk and select Proceed.
4. Select Intel for PC
5. Now select Analyse
6. Select Backup to save a log file of your HDD partion
7. Finally press P to list your files and then press C to copy the folders your need to your PC. Make sure to be patient and give it time to copy.

ESX4 U1, From the VI Client I received this error,“Error during the configuration of the host: Failed to enable software iSCSi”

From a Putty session to the ESX host I ran  “esxcfg-swiscsi –e” to enable software iSCSI and it failed with this error:

“vmkload_mod: Cannot load module iscsi_vmk: Bad parameter Exec of command ‘/usr/sbin/vmkload_mod iscsi_vmk iscsi_max_lun_queue’ succeeded, but returned with non-zero status: 1”

Resolution:

1. Launch a SHH Putty session to your ESX host
2. Enter cmd, “vmkload_mod iscsi_vmk”  this will load the iscsi module file. You should see a return with, “Module iscsi_vmk loaded successfully”
3. Next run cmd “esxcfg-swiscsi –e” to enable software iSCSI.It  should say, “Enabling software iSCSI…”
4. Now run “esxcfg-swiscsi –q” and it should say “Software iSCSI is enabled”

If not, Enable iSCSI via from the VI Client GUI

• Click on the ESX host> Configuration>Storage Adapters>

• Select the iscsi adapter and click properties>

>Iscsi initiator dialog box will open > from the General Tab – Click Configure>

• Now check Enable.

Verify that the task completes under Recent Tasks.

Done!

Manual Install of ESX 4 Update 1

(Shut-down VM’s and Put the host in maintenance mode.)

Alert: (Verify you don’t have HP Insight Management Agents on ESX host)

1.  Download and Upload the “ESX-4.0.0-update01.zip” file to local storage of ESX host. Download link here ESX4-Update1

2.  SSH with the ESX host, Verify your ESX host has enough Local Storage, this update is 700MB+, enter the command “df –h” and it should show you your ESX partitions and free space. ( Remember to always partition your ESX host like Duncan.E recommends so your ESX host is scalable and you have room for updates and 3^rd party tools ect)

Once you verified your have enough storage. Create “update” folder in

/tmp directory (Ex.) “mkdir update”

3.  Copy the .zip file you uploaded to the Local ESX storage to the “update” folder we just made. (ex) “cp  path-of-update1.zip /tmp/update”

4.   Then run  ” esxupdate –bundle=ESX4-0.0-update01.zip update “

5.  Note your build # Install

6.  Reboot the host, and verify new build #.

7.  All Done

Sources:

KB Article: 1016070

Its an update for Win2003 and XP pro. You also need a computer running “GPMC” on a Win2008 server or a Vista PC.

This is great for VDI Image roll outs, having Shortcut setting managed in a GPO, makes managing desktops easy.

EXTRA TIP:

Also with “Group Policy Preferences”  it  allow you to create, update, replace, and delete objects you deploy to you Dekstops.

Links:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943729

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Group-Policy-Preferences-Get-Them-Running-Today.html

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Group-Policy-Preferences-Understanding-Implementing-Item-Level-Targeting.html

Note The scenario that is described in this article only applies to Outlook clients that connect to Exchange from inside the local network.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940726

• This is not a fix for External  Access of Autodiscovery

get-mailbox | where {$_.forwardingaddress -ne $null} | select name,forwardingaddress | export-csv c:\ForwardingAddress.csv

To find mailboxes that has the “Deliver message to both forwarding address and mailbox on your server”

get-mailbox | where {$_.DeliverToMailboxAndForward -eq $True} | select name,delivertomailboxandforward | export-csv c:\DeliverandForward.csv

Removing Duplicate Emails Entourage

Every single email was duplicated in the Inbox folder. I found a great script to remove all these duplicate emails.

“The neat thing about this script is that it stores archives of each message it removes from Entourage, and keeps a log of what it does. “

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DOWNLOAD the script here:

( Author: Jolly Roger,  the 3rd one from the list is the one you want)

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http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/duplicates.html