VMware Workstation 6.5
Posted Thursday, 25 September 2008 by Misha Hanin

The Gold Standard for Desktop Virtualization Just Got Better

VMware® Workstation 6.5 provides the deepest OS support, best-in-class virtual machine architecture, the richest desktop user experience and an unmatched set of features to enhance productivity.

InfoWorld says that VMware Workstation 6.5 is “the gold standard for desktop virtualization…truly a world-class product and a pace-setter for the entire industry.”

VMware Workstation 6.5 is packed with new features, including:

  • “Unity” view provides a seamless desktop experience.
  • DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 2 graphics enable Windows 3D applications and games.
  • Easy Install simplifies the creation of Windows and Linux virtual machines.
  • Powerful Record and Replay for groundbreaking debugging capabilities.
Learn More Get details about all of the new features.
 

Moving a Windows Installation to Different Hardware
Posted Tuesday, 16 September 2008 by Misha Hanin
Time to time is necessary upgrade or change Server Hardware. In average, companies change hardware for servers every 3-5 years. Furthermore, yes, this time we could get problems with doing that. Move Installed Windows to the same the physical computer is not a big deal, but move Installed Windows to different physical computer sometimes is not so easy. Let see how to do this by using standard NTBACKUP.

In this article I’ll show you how to create a system state backup on one computer and restore it to a different physical computer.
 
Cheap (FREE) and Good SAN / iSCSI Storage - OpenFiler SAN Server
Posted Monday, 25 August 2008 by Misha Hanin

If you want to work / test / learn many of the VMware ESX Server advanced features, like VMotion, VMware High Availability (VMHA), and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), you should have SAN (Storage Area Network).

For my Home Lab I’m using OpenFiler. You can find a very good Step-By-Step tutorial about OpenFiler at well know Petri.co.il web site. Article by David Davis - “Use OpenFiler as your Free VMware ESX SAN Server

I just want to add one small part to this tutorial. I think it’s not the best idea to use IP address from DHCP on Server, a specially on SAN :). So, I’ve configured my SAN to use static IP. Here is how to do that:

Full story at source: http://app-v.ca/

 
Running ESX 3.5 and 3i Under VMWare Workstation 6.5
Posted Sunday, 24 August 2008 by Misha Hanin

As result of battle between Microsoft and VMWare (for place on Virtualization market), VMWare announced that a new VMWARE ESXi server became FREE.
This news generated a lot of interest and many people started to try install VMWARE ESXi on VMWARE Workstation, just to see it and learn.

By little Googling you will find a lot of sites, where explained how to run ESX 3.0 server on VMWARE Workstation 6.x, but you will see that this tricks is not working for ESX 3.5. Equally they are working, but you unable to start virtual machine inside ESX.

To make ESX 3.5 fully working on VMWare Workstation we need to do the following steps….

Full story at source: http://app-v.ca/

 
How to Sequence Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0
Posted Tuesday, 12 August 2008 by Misha Hanin

If you try to sequence Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 (I’ve tried to do this in SoftGrid 4.5 RC) you will get a error and inside error report you will find “Code: 0×0000000000000000” and a lot of other, not very usefull information about this error.

Full Story At Source, App-V.ca

 
Join App-V.ca
Posted Saturday, 09 August 2008 by Misha Hanin

Last week I launched a brand new website dedicated to Virtualization Technologies and related technologies like System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Windows Server 2008 Core Installation, VMWare and Microsoft Application Virtualization, formerly known as SoftGrid Application. The website's main-page contains news and blogposts that I collect from all over the Internet. I'm planing to implement there Download and Video sections where you will find related downloads and Videos.

This website called: App-V.ca

So if you are planning, piloting or deploying any Virtualization Technologies please join now!

Please join App-V.ca and ask to become news-poster. Contact me admin at admininfo.ca

And, PLEASE :) promote my new endeavor, App-V.ca  by spreading the word!

 
Script for Changing the Screen Resolution in Windows Server 2008 Server Core
Posted Tuesday, 22 July 2008 by Misha Hanin

I just finished with a script video_res.bat :). This scripts helps change the screen resolution in Windows Server 2008 Server Core. You can do this manually, but simple use Regedit, but you should know exactly what video driver is working right now in your system, my script does it for you, you just need to select the resolution and that it! Here is a content of video_res.bat:

@ECHO OFF
Rem ****************************************************************
Rem *                                                              *
Rem * Script to change display resolution in Windows 2008 Core     *
Rem *                                                              *
Rem * http://thesystemadministrator.com -  http://www.admininfo.ca *
Rem *                                                              *
Rem ****************************************************************

FOR /F "TOKENS=2 delims={}" %%a in ('"REG QUERY HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video /s /f VolatileSettings"') do set VIDEOCARD=%%a

@echo Please select display resolution:

@echo 1 - 640x480
@echo 2 - 800x600
@echo 3 - 1024x768
@echo 4 - 1280x720
@echo 5 - 1280x800
@echo 6 - 1280x1024
@echo 7 - 1440x900
@echo 8 - 1600x1200

SET /P VRES=To set display resolution to 1024x768 type 1 :

IF /i %VRES%==1 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 640 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 480 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==2 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 800 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 600 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==3 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1024 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 768 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==4 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1280 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 720 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==5 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1280 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 800 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==6 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1280 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1024 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==7 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1440 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 900 /f&goto :EOF
IF /i %VRES%==8 REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.XResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1600 /f&REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{%VIDEOCARD%}\0000 /v DefaultSettings.YResolution /t REG_DWORD /d 1200 /f&goto :EOF

Remember to Log Off and Log On again ;).

 
Compare Windows 2008 Server Core Installation Options
Posted Tuesday, 22 July 2008 by Misha Hanin

KEY:

= Not Available

= Partial/Limited

= Full

Server Role

Enterprise

Datacenter

Standard

Web

Itanium

Web Services (IIS)*

Partial/Limited
Partial/Limited
Partial/Limited
Partial/Limited
Not Available

Print Services

Available
Available
Available
Not Available
Not Available

Hyper-V

Available
Available
Available
Not Available
Not Available

Active Directory Domain Services

Available
Available
Available
Not Available
Not Available

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services

Available
Available
Available
Not Available
Not Available

DHCP Server

Available
Available
Available
Not Available
Not Available

DNS Server

Available
Available
Available
Not Available
Not Available

File Services

Available
Available
Limited
Not Available
*Not Available

*ASP.NET is not available with Server Core installation option in any edition

 
CoreConfigurator Tool Discontinued
Posted Saturday, 19 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
Guy Teverovsky, notice that CoreConfigurator Tool discontinued. He will not be developing the tool anymore and cannot support it.
 
Step-by-Step Installing Hyper-V on Server Core
Posted Friday, 18 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
  1. Enable CPU virtualisation assistance and DEP in the BIOS.
  2. Install Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 (Core Installation).
  3. Determine the NIC ID: netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces.
  4. Set the IP address for NIC, let say for NIC #2: netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”2″ source=static address=192.168.1.3 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.1.1.
  5. Set the DNS: netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=”2″ address=192.168.1.2 index=1.
  6. Rename server: netdom renamecomputer %computername% /NewName:HyperSvr1.
  7. Reboot for that to take effect: shutdown /r /t 0.
  8. Join it to domain: netdom join %computername% /domain:admininfo.local /userd:administrator /passwordd:*.
  9. Reboot for that to take effect: shutdown /r /t 0.
  10. Copy CoreConfigurator onto the Core server and configured any users, groups, enabled RDP, firewall settings, etc…
  11. Download and copy the Hyper-V update onto the server.
  12. Install the Hyper-V update: wusa.exe Windows6.0-KB950050-x64.msu.
  13. Install the Hyper-V role: start /w ocsetup.exe Microsoft-Hyper-V.
  14. Reboot.
  15. Download and install Remote Management for Windows Vista.
 
What to use, IDE or SCSI in Hyper-V?
Posted Friday, 18 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
I have seen blog posts saying that there is no support for SCSI in Hyper-V.  That's not exactly true :).  Microsoft said that you can use SCSI controllers for disks but not for your boot disk, the Boot disk must be on an IDE controller. But before making decision not to use SCSI controller, you should know that Hyper-V uses an emulated IDE controller.  This means there is a little bit of overhead in processing disk operations.  

For SCSI support, Hyper-V uses a SCSI controller that is not emulated.  Instead it uses the virtual machine bus which is much faster and requires less CPU overhead.  

As you probably know, the best practice is to separate your Data from your Operating System (OS).  I always install the operating system is on C: and store the data on D: drive.  In Hyper-V environment, C: will be a virtual disk on the IDE controller.  D: should be a virtual disk on a SCSI controller.  Just test this and you will see that it's a not so bad idea ;).
 
Run Windows Live software on 64bit Windows
Posted Monday, 14 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
At Jun, I’ve published article “Sorry, Windows Live programs cannot be installed on Windows Server 2008“. I want to show the other (pretty same) solution about how to get manage to use Windows Live software on64-bit OS. Here it is.
 
Migrating and Restructuring Active Directory Domains Using ADMT v3.1
Posted Monday, 14 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
Additional new guide release from Microsoft, ADMT v3.1. This guide assists Active Directory administrators in performing domain migration through the use of the Active Directory Migration Tool. Download it here.
 
Planning and Deploying Read-Only Domain Controllers
Posted Monday, 14 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
Few days ago Microsoft released doc file, that explains all about how to “Planning and Deploying Read-Only Domain Controllers“. A read-only domain controller (RODC) is a new type of domain controller in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. You can download this document HERE!
 
"Outlook Anywhere" and problems with IPv6 in Windows Server 2008
Posted Wednesday, 02 July 2008 by Misha Hanin
It's not a secret, that IPv6 has some "issues". When I've been in Seattle, at last MVP summit, a lot of IT professionals said that, and all of them recommended to disable IPv6 on Windows 2008 or / and Vista machines. Kevin Reeuwijk from "Innovative Technology Weblog" posted a very good article; Outlook Anywhere is ‘broken’ on IPv6 in Windows Server 2008.
So, if you run Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 and want to use Outlook Anywhere (aka RPC over HTTP) you probably get a problem. It would not work if the RPC-over-HTTP Proxy and the Exchange Mailbox installed on the same Windows 2008 Server.
To make the long story short, simply unselect IPv6 from the properties of your NIC AND (it's very important) make a changes to the HOSTS file. Simply open up your hosts file and make the following changes:
  • Comment out the line “:::1    localhost”
  • Add the following two lines:
         <IPv4 address>    <hostname of the computer>
         <IPv4 address>    <FQDN of the computer>

This will resolve all queries for your computer’s name to its IPv4 address, effectively disabling the use of IPv6 for self-communication. You can confirm that this works by doing a “telnet localhost 6004″.
 
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